Tips to ferret out scammers

DEAR HELOISE » First, let me thank you for all the scam alerts you’ve sent out to the public in your column. You have saved me and countless others from losing their life savings to scammers.

There are ways people can protect themselves from scammers who try to take advantage of trusting individuals. There are precautions to take, and here are a few of them:

• As we have all been warned, never give out any personal or financial information over the phone to people who call, text or email you.

• Never let anyone force you into making a quick financial decision. Scammers love to use phrases such as “one time offer,” “exclusive offer” or any language that makes it seem as though you need to act right then. Hang up the phone.

• Change your passwords at least every three or four months. Bothersome as it may be, it can save you from fraud. Never tell anyone what your passwords are.

• Never pay any bill with gift cards or cryptocurrency. • If someone calls and says they are collecting for a charity, tell them that you do not take solicitations by phone and hang up. Most are scams.

• Ignore calls, text messages and emails about odd activity on your account from a bank or corporation. Instead, call that corporation or bank directly and ask to talk to someone in the fraud prevention department.

Remember, people have lost their life savings to scammers, and their money was never returned. Don’t become a victim of a scammer’s greed.

— James H., Fairfax,

Virginia

DEAR HELOISE » I am a nurse who specializes in nutritional health, and

I’m seeing some alarming trends among teenage girls. There’s nothing new about anorexia, but in our clinic we’re getting teen girls who are taking this to extremes. The drive to be thin in all too many cases has young women starving themselves. A growing girl needs to eat healthy food. She can’t skip breakfast and lunch and then have only a salad for dinner.

Parents need to keep an eye on their children to make certain they don’t fall for the “thin bodies are the only acceptable bodies” thinking.

— California Nurse, Los

Angeles

DEAR CALIFORNIA NURSE » I agree. We must learn to accept ourselves, love the skin we’re in and never let social pressure dictate how we look. While being overweight is not healthy, so is being too thin.

DEAR HELOISE » Please tell your readers that when women get new high heel shoes to do two things before wearing them outside. First, take sandpaper and wipe it across the bottom a few times to scuff the under-side of their shoe. Next, have a shoe repairman replace those plastic tips on your shoe heel with rubber ones. This way you’re far less likely to fall.

— Paul F., Las Vegas

ACROSS

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Setting for “A Few Good Men,” informally

Hang (around with)

Frustrated outburst

Nubian Museum locale

“Gotcha,” in a groovier era

Start to a logical conclusion

That’s the spirit!

Revealed all

Tiny seeds of green fruits, technically

Expert problem solver

Sign of fall

Like refrigerators at night, sometimes

Key element of opera seria

Subjects of Monet paintings “in Venice” and “at Lavacourt”

SeaWorld roller coaster ride

___ bar

“Shameless” airer, for short

This isn’t what it looks like!

Jenny, for one

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DOWN

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Really, really fancy

In and of itself

Boost someone’s signal, in a way

In and of itself?

Go back to see again, maybe

Hardly worth mentioning

Biggest stars

A bunch of crock?

Raw footage?

Off the chain, say

Ammonia has one

___ brilliant (diamond cut)

Musical based on a comic strip

Mint

Letters on some foundations

Grand

___ order

Ending with freak or fool

Safety net?

GranTurismo maker

At the ready

Insta post

Levine of pop music

Pacific Coast capital

Love of lucre

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35 5.5-point type size

Refined

“Puh-lease!”

Actress Tracee ___ Ross

Woos with words

Nuclear unit nickname

Where lavalava skirts are worn

Shooting game

Wanted one

Easily had

Pique

Gives some stress

Fatal attraction?

Popular leafy perennial

Former center of Los Angeles

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Like Los

Angeles’s Griffith Observatory

Increment on a scale

Stage support

Number 1, with “the”

Was fueled by

Escape

Black ___

Toddler’s eruption

Makes purr, maybe

Speak sharply

2003 film in which the title character exclaims “Son of a nutcracker!”

Mononymous singer of “Alive,” 2015

Sushi fish that’s not served raw

Answers to yesterday’s puzzle