I received this email today and am wondering where the catch could be, or if there is one? What does anybody else think? It sounds too good to be true, and you know the old maxim..

(Marketing message removed by ABRSM staff - to avoid giving the sender any more free publicity!)

I'd just bin anything unsolicited like that whether by email or snail mail.

Can't say that I have heard of this chap. He could be offering some useful products.
However why has he put ABRSM after his name implying that he has been approved in some way by the Board - maybe ABRSM has a view?

First catch - asking for credit card details. It could be anyone, seeking to defraud you by targeting a list of email addresses of known music folk. It's targeted spam, but still spam....

Second catch - legality of the contents....

Did you try googling the name to see if anything came up about him - it does sound a bit weird to me alright

Also no telephone no. given so you cannot ring it to check

It stinks for all sorts of reasons - I'd avoid it like the plague ....

I bought a DVD of pdf files of a few hundred classic works for flute - some duets, most with piano. I got it from eBay Canada and paid about £9, I think. Good sightreading practice & no need to print them out.

A fairly quick look on google didn't find anything about this guy - as far as I could see.

I would delete it straight away

same words i was about to say!!!

Yep I thought it was probably a scam. And no doubt you can't even get to look at it without giving your credit card details.

I'm deleting and blocking him.

Violinia

I've received the same email in the past, but with different names, although I think the address was the same. It seems a bit dodgy to me & the use of ABRSM after his name seems like a deliberate attempt to fool people into thinking he has some kind of approval from the Board.

I'd agree - avoid greatly. I hope the Mods pick this up as one has to question him using ABRSM after his name.

Sheesh. The number of Nigerian princes and Chinese manufacturers of air-conditioning units that have told me THAT.

Actually I've now had a scout around and found the same ad on a couple of websites. I'm going to buck the trend here and say I think he probably is OK, but having said that I wouldn't recommend giving credit card details to any unknown business - no way!!! Why doesn't he just stick to selling it on Ebay?

Yes the AB should look into this because he's using their name for credibility and that's a no-no.

Violinia

Violinia

Thanks for flagging this up. I would like to publicly stress that the Associated Board has not got links with this person, nor do we endorse in any way the products that he is selling.

Violinia - please can you forward me a copy of this email or PM that was sent to you? I'd also be interested to see the links that you refer to on other websites.

The Associated Board does not pass on contact information of our customers to third parties, so I would urge extreme caution if anyone contacts you (purportedly) on behalf of the Associated Board to try to sell you products and services.

If you are at all unsure of this, or any other unsolicited marketing messages that you receive via these discussion forums, please alert me or another member of Associated Board staff.

Many thanks

Christine

EXACTLY!
just after reading that ONE line I thought: DODGY DODGY DODGY!!! and did not wish to read any further!

I'd have deleted him too! Sounds like the sales we get at work form Indian call centres lol! I remember one guy calling me madam. He didn't know what had hit him when I yelled at him to never call again ang most definately not to call me Madam Did he think I was running a house of illr repute!!

... But they do say "don't knock it till you've tried it", and I distinctly remember one (very respectable ) member of this forum saying it was her ambition to run such an establishment

Actually I could try it, there are two unlet flats at work, they each have two bedrooms and a lounge. Do you think it would be difficult to organise? I could always make them cups of tea whilst they are waiting.

Know any one who might be intrested in being employed by a Madam?

A good way to raise some capital for an oboe!

Er - I think skylark might be referring to Madam Cyrilla (didn't know I came over as respectable - yuk!!).

I did put an "unsure" smilie after respectable

Oh, that's all right then!