Corporal Kevin Charles, Drumheller RCMP.

Scammers have found another way to draw locals into telephones scams by spoofing local numbers.
    Residents have been reporting they are receiving recorded telephone messages. What makes these more recent calls more sinister, is that they are often coming from a local phone number.
    Corporal Kevin Charles of the Drumheller RCMP acknowledges that these calls are coming in. The local phone number makes the call more attractive for residents to answer, rather than just letting them ring.
    “That is all through computers. A person can be overseas somewhere and over the internet use different software and make any number show up on a caller ID,” said Charles. “That is one of the ways they are getting around it.”
    Before this, he says with these calls, scammers would simply start dialing sequential numbers until a person would answer. They quickly realized that the caller ID would display a foreign number. The new software shows a random local number.
    “Often if you try to call that number back, it is not even in service,” he said.
    The federal government has added mechanisms such as The national Do Not Call List and its antifraud centre to help residents navigate the world of telephone scams. These numbers are virtually impossible to trace and therefore cannot be registered on a Do Not Call List.
    While number spoofing does not always indicate a scam, it should certainly be a red flag.
    “We are not saying if you don’t recognize the number, don’t answer it, but do be aware that just because it is a local number it could still be a scam,” he said.
    The bottom line he says is to make sure that if you pick up one of these calls, never share personal information on a phone.
    “If you answer the phone and it is someone you don’t recognize, if it sounds suspicious, hang up,” he said.

Gospel Hall on 3 Avenue and 8 Street West across from Drumheller’s McConkey Park was built in the 1920s, and is in the initial stages of its application to the town’s Heritage Committee to seek designation as a Municipal Historic Resource.

The old Gospel Hall built in the 1920s, and situated on Drumheller’s 3 Avenue and 8 Street West across from McConkey Park, is starting the process to seek historical designation.
    “We’re looking into how it can fit in with the program,” said Mike Todor, Board Member of Drumheller’s Heritage Committee, noting the hall’s application to the committee is in its initial stages.
    Gospel Hall was home to the Full Gospel Assembly, which served the African-Canadian population present in Drumheller in the 1920s that had fled persecution in the U.S.
    Gospel Hall will be the third building seeking historical designation under the Town of Drumheller’s Heritage Building Bylaw.
    Council adopted the heritage bylaw in August of 2014, that designated the East Coulee School Museum the Town’s first municipal historic resource.
    Elim Pentecostal Tabernacle made their application to the Heritage Committee for the old Central School in September.

Elim Pentecostal Tabernacle, owners of the Old Central School, filed their initial application with Drumheller’s Heritage Committee in September 2014.

    Both the museum and old school now have to get property assessments performed, Todor said, for the province, and once that assessment is completed, the properties will be included in the provincial heritage program and be eligible for provincial funding.
    Todor said it is quite a lengthy process for a municipal property to get the point to receive provincial funding.
    Drumheller’s Heritage Committee has started with 50 properties in its catalogue for potential historic designation in the Town.