Page 6 THE REVERE ADVOCATE – FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20, 2024 at LEGO® A Teacher Appreciation Month Discovery Center Boston Teachers get free admission to Boston’s top family attraction through Sept. 30 s the new school year begins, LEGO Discovery Center Boston is celebrating teachers with Teacher Appreciation Days. Running now through September 30, teachers can enjoy free admission to the attraction. Teachers are encouraged to bring their families and friends along for the fun at a discounted rate of 50% off tickets for up to six guests. The special promotion runs every day in the month of September, including weekends. All teachers must present a valid school I.D. or paystub upon arrival to gain entry. Teacher Appreciation Days tickets are limited and must be reserved online in advance. For more info, access “Attractions” at https://www.legodiscoverycenter.com/boston/ BBB Investigation: BBB tallies 4,000 investment scam reports, almost sixfold increase in losses I f you were offered the chance to triple an investment in two months, would you take it? It might be hard to say no, but it might really be too good to be true. Since 2020, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has received more than 4,000 reports from consumers about investment scams, many of which involved cryptocurrency or a new take on romance fraud. Reports to BBB show that Upcoming Melrose Arts & Crafts Society Meeting H appy fall, everybody! Melrose Arts & Crafts is back. Our fi rst meeting of the year will be on Monday, September 23. We’ll meet at 9:00 a.m. at First Baptist Church (561 Main St., Melrose). We will start off with The Teddy Bear Workshop. Those cute guys and gals are presewn. When we fi nish stuff - ing the teddy bears, they will be donated to MelroseWakefield Hospital’s Emergency Room and the Melrose Police and Fire Departments. After the workshop, we will have a short business meeting. Next, our fi rst Program of the year is our favorite Ice Cream Social. If you like to do quilling, knitting, crocheting or any other craft, Melrose Arts & Crafts Society is for you. If you aren’t from Melrose, don’t let that stop you from coming by and seeing what we do. In fact, we have members from 13 cities and towns around the area. If you would like more information, please call our new Membership Chair, Carol Butt, at 781-729-7527. We can’t wait for you to join us! investment scams often take the form of long-term confi - dence scams, where fraudsters pursue romantic and platonic relationships to gain the trust of their targets. That has caused losses to rise, with the median report increasing from $1,000 in 2021 to almost $6,000 this year. To help consumers and businesses understand investment scams, BBB’s International Investigations Initiative combed through thousands of reports to BBB Scam Tracker, talked with experts and investigated the newest trends to compile an investment scans study. The study combines consumer stories and examines how scammers convince their targets to hand over thousands of dollars. It also shows how a rise in organized crime based in southeast Asia has helped perpetuate this global scam. This in-depth study is intended to help consumers, businesses, news media, researchers and regulatory agencies understand: • How investment scams work and how to avoid them • What type of enforcement is helping curb the fraud • Red flags for consumers and businesses An increasingly common tactic is revealed by an experience of a man from California, who told BBB he was traveling through France when he matched on a dating app with a woman calling herself “Mei.” The two talked for months and even made video calls as they got to know one another. Eventually, she brought up cryptocurrency investing as a hobby of hers and convinced Darryl to join her. The two continued to chat on the phone for months, and he invested nearly $1,000. One day, when Darryl went to check the application he used for investing, it appeared to be down. When he contacted Mei, she rebuffed him and disappeared. In some cases, losses grow into devastating amounts. One woman in Connecticut reported to BBB about a cryptocurrency scam she encountered on social media. Unbeknownst to her, a friend’s social media account was hacked. The scammer, posing as the friend, said they ran an automated training bot — a program used to trade cryptocurrency automatically according to a user’s guidelines — with guaranteed returns. The account appeared to grow and grow, and eventually Jeanne wanted to withdraw some of it. The scammer, still posing as the friend, said they wanted a 20% commission, which Jeanne paid. Afterward, they disappeared, and Jeanne lost $84,000 in the process. Red fl ags: How to avoid cryptocurrency investment scams: • Deals involving littleknown cryptocurrencies • Requests to share your cryptocurrency wallet with someone you don’t trust completely • Strategies off ering guaranteed returns • An investment that takes little eff ort or time to pull off • Someone off ers their secret strategy or says not to research their claims • Too - good-to-be-true claims • A stranger suddenly wants to befriend you Where to report investment scams: • https://www.bbb.org/ or https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker • Federal Trade Commission at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or call 877-FTC-Help • Federal Bureau of Investigation at fbi.gov or call 202-324-3000 for general reports
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