Possible scam?

[Jeff Bollbach]

Hey all-
Just got this in my mail today and it has an odor. I've noticed that scam mails are becoming more and more sophisticated and this one is a new one on me. Bear in mind that i do not teach nor have ever taught bass lessons.----
Dear Jeff ,

I am pleased to contact you,My name is Sander Wright, from Belgium.I saw your Biography as Bass Teacher (bassist) , hence, my purpose of contacting you.

I just mail to confirm if my 14yrs old son (Paul) can join you in your tutor so that you can help me teach him how to play the Bass. I so much would love his dreams to come true as a very good player and I am ready to support him both morally and financially.

I will want you to give me the price of the tutor for 6 months as I will want the tutor to hold 3 times in a week and last for 1 hour daily. Note that my son once had a tutor in January who lost his wife in a car accident and decided to stop teaching inorder to take proper care of his family.

Additionally, please give me your address or the address of where you normally teach your students, so that I can have idea of where the lessons will be taking place, as we are presently out of US, but arrangement have been concluded for Paul to come to US.

Awaiting your swift response

Best Regards

Sander

[mje]

Boy, that does have a smell to it... and this post from the UK confirms that it's the same old forward-the-difference bogus check scam:

--

Some tutors have received bogus e-mails asking for large blocks of private tuition. The e-mail asks if they can pay up front for these lessons and send you a cheque before the tuition starts.

The fraud works like this:

You pay in the cheque and the money appears in your account. You are then asked for some cash back.

You feel confident as you can see the money in your account and give the cash back.

The banks eventually realise it is a fraudulent cheque you have accepted (this can take up to a month and the money can even appear on your bank statement).

The bank then takes the money back out of your account at a later date. You end up out of pocket

This is what you should do if you receive a cheque:

Put the cheque and envelope in a big envelope so the police can finger print it.
Call your local Police Station, they are aware of this fraud.

The typical e-mail is something like this:

Hello, My name is CYNTHIA MARY,

I just mail to confirm if my 16year old son can join you in your GCSE (English) tutorial. His first language is English and he is a very good boy. I want you to know that Formally my son has a teacher sometimes February but the Teacher lost his Wife, and he decided to quit teaching to take proper care of his Family, after we might have paid him for 6months. After all said and done, he has agreed to make the cheque payment to any teacher that will want to handle our son for the tutor. The tutor is very essential in my sons life and his best hobby is football and reading. I will like you to assure me that you are going to take proper care of my son as I'm ready to pay all his necessary Expenses. I will want the tutor to hold 4 times in a week. So kindly give me the price of the tutor for 2 month...

[Jeff Bollbach]

So I should play along and try to sting these guys? What concerns me is that they know something about me and I have been at least somewhat personally targeted. I am not a bass teacher but I am involved in the bass world. Or are they looking at a directory like the ISB and just sending to everyone in the hopes of a score?

[Ed Fuqua]

You could just give me the money and I'll make sure they get it...

JEFE, who knows how they got yer e-dress. Could be ISB, could be this board, could be yer website, could be a million other places. I get crap like this through my address at the daygig alla time, some of it I can tell that they just pulled it outa somebody else's address book...

[FredH]

For about a 6 month period I was getting these wacky email requests. I erased most of them but for some reason I kept these. I wish I kept them all because some of them were even funnier. But since I changed my main email address they have mostly dropped off.

From : George Tarango <tarango_1970@yahoo.com>

Hello,
I am George Tarango,i will be needing your services (Jazz Band) stated above for my wedding ceremony which will be taking place in the USA. i will like to know how much your service charges cost and also if you will be able to travel from your location to somewhere in Temple Hills,MD.for the ceremony.please i will be waiting to read from you as soon as possible to be able to comence with the preparations.

Regards. Tarango..................
__________________________________________________

From: tomi smith

Goodday.
My name is Sharon Blair.I ll be pleased if you ll honour my inviatation to
play your music on my friends birthday party in San Diego, CA usa on
this date 30th october 2005. I m making this arrangement as a surprise package for her birthday. I ll want you to give me your bill as soon as possble so as to arrange
payment as soon as i can because i ll arrive at the venue on same day of the event and i ll want you to be there on time because event's start from 1pm to 6 pm on same day. i hope to read from you as soon as possible.

Regards
SHARON BLAIR
__________________________________________________

From : Ezekiel Benedict <bo_lingo1@yahoo.com>

Hello,
I am Ezekiel Benedict,i will be needing your services (Jazz Band.)stated above for my wedding ceremony which will be taking place in the USA. i will like to know how much your service charges cost and also if you will be able to travel from your location to somewhere in Maryland for the ceremony.please i will be waiting to read from you as soon as possible to be able to comence with the preparations.

Regards, Ezekiel
__________________________________________________

[Marcus Johnson]

Ever seen this? A bit different, but not by much. Set aside some time to read the archives;

www.419eater.com

[Freddels]

Many of these are from people trying to scam a way into the country.
If you don't normally give lessons then this person hasn't done their homework and is probably not for real.

my .02

[tww001]

Something like this happend to my dad. He, my brother, and a I have a trio (dad on sax, bro on guitar, and myself). He got an e-mail for a wedding gig in Annapolis, MD. The guy screwed up though, and didn't send us his fraud check until after we had driven to Annapolis to an address that doesn't exist. We were really upset about wasting our evening and turning down an offer for a legit gig. However, we got a good laugh when we realized that the guy wasn't a very good con-man (having not gotten the check in the mail on time). The check had been re-routed through some odd place like Berma.

[djcruse]

You could also just delete the email and move on.

[shwashwa]

i'd tell him sure, i'll teach your kid. i accept cash or u.s. postal money order, and i charge $300 per hour. how many hours would you like to pay for in advance? that will let you know if he's legit. he'll probably stop writing if he's a fake. if he wants to pay by check tell him there's a 6 month wait for the check to clear, then he's good to go.