Scam Avoidance
RGT provides important advice to guitar teachers on how best to avoid common internet scams...
One of the problems of this wonderful modern age in which we live is the proliferation of spam emails flying around the internet. Amongst the large number of emails proclaiming miracle cures for certain (ahem) ‘gentlemens’ problems’, there are also plenty of scam messages written with the sole purpose of parting the unwary with large amounts of their hard-earned. Most are almost laughable – surely there aren’t really people who believe that they’ve won a lottery that they’ve never even bought a ticket for, or that by acting as an intermediary in a multi-million pound money transfer they’ll be able to earn thousands for themselves? However, there are a number of more plausible scams in existence that one has to know how to spot, especially if advertising services on the internet and giving out an email contact address.
Several
guitar tutors have been in
touch with RGT HQ saying that they
have been contacted by a prospective
student (or parent of a student)
from abroad, who is trying to arrange
an intensive course of lessons & wants
to pay in advance. This is the bait for
an extremely common, and
unfortunately believable, scam,
known as ‘advance fee fraud’ or ‘419’
fraud (named after the relevant
section of Nigerian criminal code)
which, if allowed to run its course,
will result in the following sequence
of events: the unwitting tutor
accepts the student and is sent a
cheque; this cheque will either be an
overpayment, or the lessons will be
suddenly cancelled before they are
due to begin – either way the tutor
will be asked to send the excess back
(usually by money transfer); once
having done so the tutor will find that
the original cheque had not actually
cleared in the first place, and he or
she will have lost any money
returned.
Banking Procedures
For various reasons a cheque that appears to have cleared after a few days may not actually have done so; the funds may have appeared in your account and your bank may let you spend it, but in fact it can be several weeks before the money is transferred between banks. It is in this interim period that the cheque will be cancelled by the conman.
Research
There are a number of ways in which you can prevent yourself falling foul of this and other internet fraud:
1) Be suspicious of any approaches for lessons that are ‘outside the norm’ - e.g. enquries from overseas.
2) Never give your bank details out online.
3) Be strict with yourself – don’t be tempted by offers that seem too good to be true. Beware of requests for intensive series of lessons, especially if they offer to pay in advance.
4) Research any suspicious emails before replying – check to see if they resemble known scams and avoid if they do.
There is plenty of information available on the web – for starters have a look at:
http://www.met.police.uk/fraudalert
http://www.getsafeonline.org
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud
The bottom line is – don’t lose sleep over this, most email requests are legitimate, and the internet remains an excellent way of advertising. If a scam email appears in your inbox just delete it without replying.
Please be aware that this is not a scam aimed only at music teachers, it is a widespread email scam, varied according to business-type, that is sent daily to numerous professionals, as well as to shops, hotels and many others.
