Montreal doctors' breakthrough discovery about causes of cerebral palsy giving hope
A breakthrough discovery made by doctors at the Montreal Children's Hospital about the causes of cerebral palsy is giving new hope to one West Island family.
A former police officer is urging Canadians to be vigilant this holiday season when buying gift cards on display at retail stores, after almost falling victim to a scam involving tampered gift cards --- twice.
In late October, Toronto-based fitness and public safety influencer Nichelle Laus tried to buy a $50 Winners gift card at her local Shoppers Drug Mart. But when the cashier scanned the barcode on the gift card, it showed up on the system as an Esso gas gift card.
"The cashier --- she did a really good job," Laus told CTVNews.ca over the phone on Wednesday. "She told me about the scam and she was feeling the back of it and she goes, 'Look, this one is fake.' I said, 'No way!'"
Upon closer inspection of the card, Laus noticed that the texture of the barcode appeared raised. It turned out that there was a fake barcode in the form of a sticker covering the gift card's real barcode. The fake barcode corresponded to an Esso gift card, and if the transaction had gone through, Laus would've paid money to load a scammer's Esso card and been left with an empty Winners card.
"You can see it's a white sticker. It looks like it was almost like laser printed. Like, it's really good quality. It's cut so precisely that you can literally lay it over the original barcode on top and you wouldn't even notice the difference, unless you really look at it and unless you really feel it," she explained.
After this experience, Laus said, she began the practice of running her fingers over the barcode whenever she's buying a gift card at a retailer in order to make sure there are no stickers on the card. And this weekend, she encountered yet another tampered-with gift card at a different Shoppers Drug Mart location.
"I was buying a PlayStation card for my boys' friend's birthday party. And the first one I picked up, I did the same thing. I felt the back and sure enough, it was fake," she said.
This time, the fake barcode on the $100 PlayStation card showed up as an LCBO card.
"If I didn't notice and if the cashier didn't notice, I'm literally loading (a scammer's) LCBO card … and then I walk away and my card is literally a dud," she said.
Laus' videos explaining how she almost fell victim to these scams have been widely circulated on TikTok and Instagram. One of her TikTok videos about the scam had over two million views while her most recent video on Instagram garnered nearly one million views as of Wednesday evening.
Shoppers Drug Mart parent Loblaw told CTVNews.ca in a statement the company recognizes gift card fraud "as a problem impacting the retail sector in general" and said it's doing what it can to fight tampering of gift cards in its stores.
"Our store’s teams are trained to recognize tampering, as well as other fraudulent situations involving the purchase of gift cards and do their best to intercept cards that may be fraudulent before they are purchased," Loblaw said.
To avoid purchasing a gift card that has been tampered with, Laus suggests buying digital gift cards or buying a gift card directly from the store that the gift card is for, rather than buying from a retailer. But if you have to buy a gift card at a retailer, Laus said, it's imperative to feel the barcode to make sure there's no tampering and to check what shows up at the cash register after the card is scanned.
"Take that extra minute to not only feel the barcode on the back, try and lift it up," she said. "If it's an actual sticker, you'll lift that sticker up and notice that that sticker doesn't match the number underneath."
A breakthrough discovery made by doctors at the Montreal Children's Hospital about the causes of cerebral palsy is giving new hope to one West Island family.
Warnings of up to 60 millimetres of rain and other alerts have been issued for seven Canadian provinces and one territory ahead of the Easter weekend.
An Ontario man who built a garage on his property has been locked in a battle with his electricity provider for a year and half over a severed power line.
Austin Hunter Turner died in 2017, on a night that his mother has rewound and replayed again and again, trying to make sense of what happened.
Not getting enough sleep may cause you to feel five to 10 years older than you really are, according to two new studies.
The Upper Ottawa Valley Detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police says one person is facing multiple charges after a traffic complaint on Highway 17 in Head Clara Maria Township.
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
The estate of minimalist contemporary artist Donald Judd filed a lawsuit against Kardashian this week, claiming the fashion and beauty mogul promoted 'cheap knockoffs' of his furniture designs.
The spring allergy season has started early in many parts of Canada, with high levels of pollen in some cities already. Experts weigh in on which areas have it worse so far this season.
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
A Toronto restaurant introduced a surprising new rule that reduced the cost of a meal and raised the salaries of staff.
B.C. conservation officers recently seized a nine-foot-long Burmese python from a home in Chilliwack.
A New Brunswicker will go to bed Thursday night much richer than he was Wednesday after collecting on a winning lottery ticket he let sit on his bedroom dresser for nearly a year.
The Ontario government is introducing changes to auto-insurance, but some experts say the move is ill-advised.
Newfoundland’s unique version of the Pine Marten has grown out of its threatened designation.
A Toronto man is out $12,000 after falling victim to a deepfake cryptocurrency scam that appeared to involve Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
It started small with a little pop tab collection to simply raise some money for charity and help someone — but it didn’t take long for word to get out that 10-year-old Jace Weber from Mildmay, Ont. was quickly building up a large supply of aluminum pop tabs.
There’s a group of people in Saskatoon that proudly call themselves dumpster divers, and they’re turning the city’s trash into treasure.