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stouffville suntribune thursday dec 11 2003 5 santa lira tables a surprised margaret fitzpatrickhad santa claus sit on her knee when he visited the annual ballantrae seniors dinner and christmas party nov 28 around 100 seniors enjoyed dinner and entertainment at the event hosted by the ballantrae and district lions club the ballantrae guides helped out at the event held at the ballantrae community centre nosyrbscamnewto staff photohannelore volpe- stouffir illes finest students show their fine art please join us at the latcham gallery for the opening event sunday december 14th 100300 pm exhibition continues until january 4 2004 the gallerywill be dosed on1hemkmngaysthursdec25 fridec2ndec28thursjan1 this exhibition has been generously sponsored by bill houston ford ltd and giles chevrolet oldsmobile awards have been provided by the whrtdiurchstouffville lions oub the latcham gallery 6240 main street stouffville ontario 905 6408954 by hannelore volpe staff writer a scam may have made its way into stouffville just in time for the holiday season a stouffville resident recently found a christmas card inside his toront star ask- ing for funds to be sent to the nosyrb pund in lieu of a christmas gift for his newspa per carrier weekold newspaper the newspaper that landed at the end of the residents driveway last thursday was more than a week old although the carriers cor rect name was used on the card the message asking for funds was scrawled in an ama- teurish fashibri the message added both visa and mastercard were acceptable and contained a phone number there was no response when- the stouffville sun- tribune tried to contact the phone number the resident actually called his carrier and the carrier gave us a call said york region police const carline young morris greener the toronto stars circulation man ager for the greater toronto area said he had not heard about the problem or any sim ilar incidents and is looking into the matter r residents who find this type of message with their newspa per should call york region police at 9058811221 ext 7500 h we will try to track down who sent it const young saidi people should be particu larly alert to scams during the christmas season when many are in a giving mood a person who is retired or elderly seems to be taken in by- frauds more easily const young explained and a lot of people dont report these things credit card numbers should be closely guarded and given out only to reputable compa nies warned york region police spokesperson const steve morrell credit card fraud happens very frequently he added at certain times of the year such as christmas people phone to solicit funds for bogus companies ask for charity number always ask for an organiza tions registered charity num ber and a callback number that can be verified const morrell advised if anyone has concerns about a companys legitimacy they should call the police anyone knocking on doors for donations or to make a sale should be asked for proper identification first he said and dont give your credit card number to make a donation