WEEK OF MAY 1, 2025
VOLUME 80 | ISSUE 28
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RIVERDALE STUDENTS SHINE AT ART SHOW State sees
4th measles case of 2025 Denver adult identified with disease in April BY JOHN DALEY CPR NEWS
well-established attempts at tech-enabled financial crimes currently underway in the U.S. Scammers often pose as trusted corporations, government departments or as someone a victim knows. Many companies that have been spoofed, like Norton, put out warnings about these scams. They also use heightened emotional responses and a sense of urgency to get you to transfer money or release personal details, cybersecurity experts say. “Now I look back on it, I’m like, ‘how was I so stupid to say stay on the line that long?’” Hall said. “But then I look at this girl I know, and they managed to get her to go all the way.”
Denver has a second case of measles. It’s the fourth recorded in the state this year and a number not seen in Colorado since at least 2014. It comes as the number of measles cases in the U.S. is rising sharply. The new case is in an adult — a household contact of the first Denver case identified earlier this month. The health departments of the city and the state say there’s no risk of exposure to the general public because the person has been in public health quarantine during their infectious period. Measles can be severe but is preventable. Two doses of the MMR vaccine are about 97 percent effective in preventing measles, according to a press release Wednesday from the Denver Department of Public Health & Environment. “The MMR vaccine is safe and highly effective, providing long-lasting protection,” the release said. This latest case comes as numbers in Colorado climb, mirroring a national spike. The latest case is now the fourth confirmed in Colorado in just the last three weeks. Four cases are double the most for the state recorded in a single year; two cases were reported in 2016, according to the state health department’s website. In no other year in the last decade has the state recorded more than 2 cases. For six of those years, there were zero cases. Colorado recorded its first case of 2025 in an adult in Pueblo County on March 31. A second case was confirmed in Denver in an infant about a week later. Both were unvaccinated. The third case was in Archuleta County, in south-central Colorado, in an adult with an unknown vaccination history.
SEE SCAMMERS, P4
SEE MEASLES, P5
Paris Sanchez, 11th grade at Riverdale Ridge High School, took home Superintendent Choice “Best in Show” April 19. Students from Thornton’s Riverdale Ridge High School shined at a District 27J art show. See the story and more photos on page 15. BELEN WARD
With AI on hand, financial scammers on the rise BY PAIGE GROSS COLORADO NEWSLINE
It started with a seemingly routine reminder for Nancy Hall to update her Norton antivirus software. The 69-year-old Philadelphia resident sat down at her laptop to file her taxes recently and was prompted to call a number that was said to be the software company’s customer support. She had been hacked, the message said. “It said, ‘you must call Microsoft right away, or else, you’re in danger of losing everything,’” Hall said. A man on the line claimed to be in talks with her bank, saying hackers managed to download child pornography to her computer and transfer $18,000
to Russian accounts overnight. He told Hall he was transferring her to the fraud department at her bank, where she spoke to someone who knew details about her local branch. After verifying personal details, that person asked her to come in to make a cash withdrawal that she could then use to purchase cryptocurrency at a specific ATM. The pair told her she was at threat of being arrested by Homeland Security for what was found on her laptop unless she obliged. After a few stressful hours of trying to sort out the situation, something clicked, Hall said — a friend was scammed out of $800,000 in retirement savings last year after being persuaded to purchase cryptocurrency in
VOICES: PAGE 8 | CULTURE: PAGE 10 | CALENDAR: PAGE 13
an emergency. Hall hung up the phone, then blocked the number when it continually called her back. Financial crimes, or scams like these, have always been around, experts say. But the rise of artificial intelligence, access to sensitive information on the dark web, and a lack of federal oversight for these crimes means it’s never been easier to be a scammer, security experts say. “AI has made these things so believable,” said Melissa O’Leary, a Portland, Mainebased partner and chief strategy officer at cybersecurity firm Fortalice Solutions. “Sometimes you can’t tell, ‘is this legitimate or not?’” Hall’s experience mirrors many of the thousands of
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