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NEEDHAM – Police in several Massachusetts communities are warning about a threatening scam where some victims have lost thousands of dollars.
Investigators say in the scam, crooks send people an email with a picture of their house, address, phone number and a threatening message, demanding money.
Scammers sent Kristen Ward the unsettling email last week.
“I really felt terrified, like here’s a picture of my home, my cellphone and my first name and the person keeps addressing me by my first name, like do I have a stalker? Is someone watching me?” said Ward.
The scammers claimed to have compromising videos and pictures they got remotely, then they demanded her to pay up $2,000 through a crypto currency QR code, or they’d send the so-called videos to all her contacts.
It clicked to Ward it was a scam, plus the scammers used an older picture of her house before it was painted.
“I’m a mom in my 40s with three middle schoolers so I knew that I didn’t have any footage to share that’s all that exciting to my contacts other than reading a good book ha-ha,” said Ward.
So far police say the scam complaints have been coming from Needham, Foxboro, Marion, Sandwich, and Sharon.
Police and veteran cyber security experts say the scammers are likely overseas, using information that’s already out there so it’s smart to stay on top of your privacy settings.
“They’re trying to scare you into thinking they know all sorts of stuff about you but instead they’re using publicly available information, like pictures of your home from Google Street View or maybe one of your passwords in the past was breached,” said Justin Armstrong president of Armstrong Risk Management. “The recommendation is to ignore, don’t reply, don’t send them money it’s just a scam.”
As a previous scam victim, Kristen wanted to share the word before more people fall victim.
“I fell for a more elaborate scam a number of years ago and it feels awful and personal, and people work hard for their money, and this is no different than breaking into someone’s home and stealing wads of cash,” said Ward. “It just happens to be over email.”
Experts say you can report this scam and others to the FBI at the Internet Crime Center.
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MASSACHUSETTS — Welcome to Patch’s weekly round up of food and restaurant news in Massachusetts, where we review openings, closings and more in the state’s dining scene.
This week, Patch editor Scott Souza put together our seasonal list of the best places to pick apples in Massachusetts. (Patch editor Montana Samuels also put together our primer on fall foliage, because ’tis the season.)
Plus, we learned that a fourth pizza delivery driver was the victim of an armed robbery in Worcester, the latest in a string of robberies targeting delivery drivers in the city.
Local News
A bankruptcy judge approved the sale of six Steward Health Care hospitals Wednesday to three different buyers for $343 million, multiple outlets reported.
Judge Christopher Lopez approved the sale of St. Anne’s Hospital in Fall River and Morton Hospital in Taunton to Lifespan Health System for $175 million, The Boston Globe reported.
“We’ve got multiple declarations showing that the debtors just don’t have the funding, the cash, to continue to fund operations here,” Lopez said at a hearing Wednesday, the Boston Herald reported. “There are real people in these hospitals right now.”
Plans are in the works for Boston Medical Center to purchase St. Elizabeth’s Medical Center in Brighton and Good Samaritan Medical Center in Brockton, the state announced last week. Lawrence General Hospital will acquire Holy Family Hospital’s Methuen and Haverhill locations.
The Herald said BMC might pay as much as $140 million, while Lawrence will pay $28 million.
Healey announced last week that the administration is beginning the process to take St. Elizabeth’s through eminent domain to help transition it to BMC.
“We’ve said from the start that our focus was on protecting access to care, jobs and the stability of our health care system – and getting Steward out of Massachusetts,” Healey said in a statement.
Steward filed for bankruptcy protection in May. The hospital group said they planned to sell all of their hospitals while promising to keep the group’s eight Massachusetts hospitals up and running. Dallas-based Steward operates more than 30 hospitals across the country.
Since then, the hospital giant closed Carney Hospital in Dorchester and Nashoba Valley Medical Center in Ayer last week as Steward scrambled to find buyers for its hospitals and physician group.
Steward CEO Ralph de la Torre is refusing to testify before a Senate committee investigating the company’s bankruptcy due to a federal order prohibiting any discussions amid ongoing reorganization. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren said Thursday he’s skirting accountability.
“He is in hiding because he does not want to answer to the American people or Congress or the patients and workers of Massachusetts for what he has done,” said Markey, speaking at a press conference Thursday. “He wants to hide from the accountability of what the last five months have exposed.”
Tim Foley, the executive vice president of 1199SEIU United Healthcare Workers, thanked Healey in a statement for “preserving these six hospitals.”
“With Steward finally on its way out of Massachusetts, the critical work of transitioning the hospitals to their new owners can begin,” Foley said. “Healthcare workers are the heart and soul of our hospitals, and Steward workers stuck around through months of uncertainty because of our strong commitment to our patients.”
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