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The Club PUBlication  10/25/2021

10/25/2021

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SCAMS BLOOMING ON SOCIAL MEDIA SITES FRAUD
By SUSAN TOMPOR • Detroit Free Press

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“Don’t assume that a request on social media is legitimate, or that hyperlinks are accurate just because a friend posted it.” alert by the Federal Trade Commission

Just imagine scrolling Facebook one day and making the shocking discovery that your brother has cancer. He never mentioned a thing to you. But now he’s posting requests for donations to cover his medical costs? And this is how you find out? The sister picked up the phone and called her brother. Unfortunately, others just donated on the spot, no questions asked.

The thing is, the Troy, Mich., man isn’t battling cancer. But a scammer who set up the phony fundraiser had already accumulated $1,785 out of a $4,500 goal by the time the man discovered the fraud, according to a report with the Troy Police Department.

The man who reported the incident at the station told police Sept. 26 that he later learned that someone had gained access to his Facebook account, changed the password and set up an online fundraising campaign so the crooks could get money.

Sgt. Jason Clark, a spokesperson for the Troy Police Department, said Facebook unfortunately does not offer customer service via phone or provide anyone the opportunity to speak with someone.

“It is very difficult for a victim to recover a hacked account,” he said.  “We have reviewed past reports where victims make a hacked-account claim with Facebook and the page is deleted within 30 days,” Clark said.  The consumer then must create a completely new Facebook account. Consumers are advised to review their security user names and passwords on all social media and check their privacy setting. And, yes, alert friends and family when you spot something odd.

Amy Nofziger, AARP director of fraud victim support, said those who have been hacked need to contact the social media company where an account is being misrepresented or hacked and contact the local Police Department to make a report.
“Nothing gets the attention of some of these social media companies like a police report,” she said.

By filing a police report, she said, the victim also has proof in hand to say that a fraud was reported just in case someone accuses the victim of starting the fake fundraiser.
Nofziger said she hears of Facebook scams every single day.

It’s best to directly go to the person who appears to be needing money, perhaps to cover medical bills, and express your concern.  Ask what you can do to help that person.  If they say they don’t know what you are talking about, Nofziger said, you can inform your friend or family member that there’s a scammer out there.

Nofziger said if they are asked to give gift cards or send money via bitcoin, for example, such payment forms can be signs of a scam. 

Never give a stranger your bank account number and routing number.  Don’t let anyone rush you into contributing money because that’s another sign of a scam.  “Don’t assume that a request on social media is legitimate, or that hyperlinks are accurate just because a friend posted it,” according to an alert by the Federal Trade Commission.


Facebook did not respond to questions from the Detroit Free Press about the situation in Troy or its policies.  Facebook lists a form online on “How to report a personal fundraiser fraud on Facebook” and it offers a way online to “Report a suspicious fundraiser.”

Facebook also warns consumers about a form of donation scams where the con artists impersonate “famous religious figures, or by accounts pretending to be representatives from various charities or orphanages.”

We have all heard of romance scams, lottery scams and inheritance scams where crooks play with your emotions to make you think you have found the love of your life or hit the jackpot.

But impersonating your brother Joe to get dough? And making you fear that he’s in a battle for his life?  This, friends, hits a new low even among slimy scammers.

Early in the pandemic, many scammers would play up COVID-19 concerns, said Alex Hamerstone, director of advisory solutions for Cleveland-based TrustedSec.

Many of us, of course, are all too eager to help, especially when it comes to a beloved family member or friend. Yet, making an extra call can save you a great deal of heartache and money.


                                Tompor is the personal finance columnist for the Detroit Free Press.
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The Club PUBlication  10/18/2021

10/18/2021

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New tool to create community: a giant 3-D printer
In Mexico, the technology has turned out 200 homes.
By DEBRA KAMIN New York Times
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Pedro Garcia Hernandez
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A sleek, 500-square-foot building with two bedrooms, a finished kitchen and bath, and indoor plumbing made with an 11-foot-tall 3-D printer
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A finished kitchen , bath and living room.

Pedro Garcia Hernandez, 48, is a carpenter in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco, a rainforest-shrouded region where about half of the residents live in poverty.

He ekes out a living making about 2,500 pesos ($125.17) a month from a tiny workspace inside the home he shares with his wife, Patrona, and their daughter, Yareli. The home has dirt floors, and during Tabasco's long rainy season, it's prone to flooding. Dust from his construction projects coats nearly everything in the home.
But that will soon change.

In a matter of months, Hernandez and his family are moving to a new home on the outskirts of Nacajuca, Mexico: a sleek, 500-square-foot building with two bedrooms, a finished kitchen and bath, and indoor plumbing. What's most unusual about the home is that it was made with an 11-foot-tall 3-D printer.

A manufacturing process that builds objects layer by layer from a digital file, 3-D printing is set for explosive growth. Nearly any object can be printed in 3-D; in construction, it uses concrete, foam and polymers to produce full-scale buildings. Now, the era of the 3D-printed community has arrived.

Hernandez's home is one of 500 being built by New Story, a San Francisco nonprofit organization focused on providing housing solutions to communities in extreme poverty, in partnership with Eachale, a social housing production company in Mexico, and Icon, a construction technology company in Austin, Texas.

When New Story broke ground on the village in 2019, it was called the world's first community of 3D-printed homes.  Two years later, 200 homes are either under construction or have been completed, 10 of which were printed on site.  Plans for roads, a soccer field, a school, a market and a library are in the works.

Single-family homes are a good testing ground for the durability of 3D-printed construction because they are small and offer a repetitive design process without much height, said Henry D'Esposito, who leads construction research at JLL, a commercial real estate firm. They can also be constructed to tolerate natural disasters: Nacajuca sits in a seismic zone, and the homes there have already withstood a magnitude 7.4 earthquake.

The technology is promising . In March, Palari Homes and construction company Mighty Buildings announced a $15 million planned community of more than a dozen 3D-printed homes in Rancho Mirage, Calif. The community has a waiting list of more than 1,000.

In Nacajuca, building a home with Icon's Vulcan II printer looks much like a massive soft-serve ice cream cone: Layers of lavacrete, the company's proprietary concrete mix, are poured one after another in long swirls. The printer is controlled by a tablet or smartphone, requires as few as three workers and can complete a home in less than 24 hours.

"We know that being able to build more quickly, without sacrificing quality, is something that we have to make huge leaps on if we're going to even make a dent on the issue of housing in our lifetime," said Brett Hagler, New Story's CEO and one of four founders.

The organization was started in 2015, shortly after Hagler took a trip to Haiti and saw families still living in tents years after the 2010 earthquake there. Across the globe, 1.6 billion people live with inadequate housing, according to Habitat for Humanity.

Speed is only one factor in building a village. New Story has teamed up with local officials in Tabasco to bring sewage services, electricity and water to the community.

Eachale, which has been operating in Mexico for 24 years, helped New Story select residents for the new homes based on need. It decided to sign the titles of each home not to a whole family but to the woman of the house.

"It's to protect the family," said Francesco Piazzesi, Eachale's CEO. "A man will sell a house if they need to.  A woman will do whatever she needs to do to save the house for her children and her family."

When Icon was founded, its biggest hurdle was convincing skeptics, said Jason Ballard, one of Icon's founders and its CEO.
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"I had builders and developers explaining to me how it's not possible to get concrete to do that, even as I walked them up to our 3D-printed house," he said. "Now our biggest challenge is we've just got to make more printers."
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The Club PUBlication  10/11/2021

10/11/2021

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​2,700-year-old toilet excavated in Jerusalem was ‘pretty comfortable’
By JACLYN PEISER Washington Post

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Overlooking a sea of Jerusalem's stone buildings and King Solomon's First Temple, a wealthy man from the 7th century B.C. built himself a palace where he could appreciate what is still recognized as one of the best views of the ancient city. Perhaps a man of royal blood or political power, he probably broadcast his affluence by hosting dignitaries and displaying intricate pottery and stone architecture, experts said.

He also appreciated a rare luxury — a toilet. The rectangular-shaped limestone commode is about 2,700 years old, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.

Archaeologists discovered it as part of an excavation of the palace at Armon Hanatziv in southern Jerusalem.

"It's very rare," Yaakov Billig, the archaeologist from the Antiquities Authority who oversaw the excavation, said.   "So this guy was well off."

Archaeologists are frequently excavating areas of Israel. The findings are a tourist draw, and many of the antiques are sent to museums or studied by experts.

The project, which started two years ago, was financed by the City of David Foundation, a nonprofit focused on preserving the ancient area.

Billig, who has worked as an archaeologist for the Israel Antiquity Authority for about 34 years, and his team found the toilet toward the end of their dig in March. The block is over 1.12 feet wide and nearly 14 inches high, he said, and there is a hole in the center.
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"It was pretty comfortable," Billig said. Below it was a septic tank, an even rarer feature. The archaeologist said that among the handful of ancient toilets found in Jerusalem, only one other had that feature.
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The Club PUBlication  10/04/2021

10/4/2021

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​How to care for your trees' lives and limbs — and your own wallet
You don't need to be an expert to spot problems in trees, but sometimes an expert can help. 

By Kevin Brasler, Twin Cities Consumers’ Checkbook
 OCTOBER 2, 2021 — 8:00AM

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Tree-trimming prices can vary widely and there are many considerations when hiring a tree service firm. File photo of a tree-trimming operation in St. Paul.
Though they appear healthy most of the time, on occasion your trees might become shady characters, done in — and perhaps ultimately brought down — by disease or damage or both. To keep your trees healthy or to get rid of dying ones, you may want the benefit of professional advice, skill and labor.

To help you find this help, nonprofit consumer group Twin Cities Consumers' Checkbook and Checkbook.org has surveyed its members, Consumer Reports subscribers, and other randomly selected consumers about their experiences with area tree care services.

Until Nov. 5, Checkbook is offering free access to its ratings of tree care services to Star Tribune readers via Checkbook.org/StarTribune/trees.

You don't have to be an expert to spot many potential tree problems. Examine your trees several times a year for the following:
  • Discolored leaves and thinning in the tree's crown;
  • Roots pulled loose from the ground and fungal growths on roots and main trunk;
  • Dead and fallen branches more than two inches in diameter;
  • Deep vertical cracks on opposite sides of the main trunk;
  • Sawdust on the trunk from wood-boring insects;
  • A trunk that noticeably leans in one direction and a branch canopy that is not roughly balanced; and
  • Other unusual deformations and deposits on leaves, limbs or bark.

Other reasons for tree work include eliminating the risk to your house, or to electrical or other utility wires from rubbing limbs or precarious overhanging limbs; letting light and breezes more readily reach your house, garden or lawn; and protecting foundations and drainage systems from invading roots.
In many cases, the problem and the solution will be obvious — removing specific limbs, for example. But sometimes it's difficult to diagnose and treat trees.

At those times, you need expert advice. But don't assume that all estimators from tree care companies can determine what's wrong and prescribe the correct treatment.

Checkbook's evaluation of local tree care services found big company-to-company differences in the quality of advice and work performed. Although several area companies rate quite high for the quality of their work, the news is not all good.

In addition to complaints of lousy customer service by companies that rate poorly, customers often complained of being overcharged, getting poor results, and having their property damaged by careless, untrained workers.
If you need tree care work, the best strategy is to get more than one opinion. Invite representatives of several companies to your home to offer estimates. Ask them to explain what they plan to do and why.

Along with several opinions, you'll get comparative pricing. Checkbook's undercover shoppers found big differences in prices for tree care work.

For example, to remove a 32-foot oak tree, including removal of all wood and debris and grinding the stump, companies quoted Checkbook's undercover shoppers prices ranging from $1,675 to $4,250.

To remove a 60-foot river birch, grind the stump and remove all debris, quotes ranged from $1,400 to $3,225.

Typically, you don't have to be home when bidders are looking at the job — but do include a thorough description of the work in a written contract that specifies who cleans up afterward, hauls away debris and wood, and removes the stump. What is not specified in writing is very unlikely to get done.

If a job can wait, consider having the work done in winter, when companies are less busy and there is less debris to haul away.

Check whether a company's liability insurance and worker's compensation insurance are currently in effect. Ask to see certificates of insurance and call the company's insurance carrier to verify.

This is a serious concern because high-powered equipment, heavy branches and trunks, lofty heights and proximity to power lines make tree work dangerous. Ask about the company's payment policy to see how much of the total cost is payable upon completion of the job or later. Paying after the work is completed gives you leverage to ensure that work is carried out properly and on time.

If you need expert advice and help caring for your trees, rather than simply removing goners, look for certification by the American Society of Consulting Arborists (www.asca-consultants.org) or the International Society of Arboriculture (www.isa-arbor.com). Certification by either organization indicates the arborist has a degree in arboriculture, several years of experience and passed a difficult exam.

Twin Cities Consumers' Checkbook magazine and Checkbook.org is a nonprofit organization with a mission to help consumers get the best service and lowest prices.

Postscript . . . Although "Checkbook.org." may not be active in your area,  this article should be helpful guidance regarding what to do in the event you need a large tree trimmed or removed. 
(Harv)

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