Hi Everyone!

I got an email a couple of days ago asking me if I would teach a lady's two children beginner Piano. I asked her lots of questions about where she saw me advertised etc and she avoided all answers... I think this person is trying to defraud me, there is something really suspicious about her emails.

Have any of you received emails like this before? Does it look like a scam? I'm really nervous...... I haven't handed over any information to her. Can you please take the time and read this, tell me if I'm being silly! And note how she doesn't answer any of my questions and the way she wants to pay me....

*probably best to read from the bottom up!*


Dear Jeannette Mines,

Thank you so much for your comprehensive mail. I agreed with your times & cost,your total tution price is even lower than the price my assocaite collected from me not knowing that it is even cheaper and thanks to God that my children will be teaching by you... So,32 lessons for 2 students - totalling £800. I will want you to assure me that you are going to take proper care of teaching them because i have ready to pay all the expenses for the lessons.

I am paying through my assocaite please bear with me. I have contacted my assocaite that he should make all my money available in payment of the lesson given to him.He assured me he would make the payments by UK cheque available. I will instruct him to get the cheque across to you soon ... I will be expecting your email as soon as you receive the cheque and also i want you to give me your full name,full contact address and telephone number both home and office so that i can forward that to my assocaite to have the UK cheque send to you...And i want this transaction to be transparency and i will like you to be truthfull to me and i pray that we finish this transaction happily and travel my children to you location for the lessons....
I look forward to hear back from you.

Regards,
Naomi





Jeannette Mines wrote:
Hello Naomi,

Forgive the late reply to this email, I am away for the weekend. I have read your email and want to make sure that you are aware of what I offer.

Although I teach the Piano, I only teach to a certain level as it is not my first study instrument. Usually I pass the children I teach on to a teacher who has more experience of taking them to the higher grades. Although your children are older beginners, I would never usually run beginners lessons longer than half an hour or 45 minutes, purely because an hour is a very long time even for advanced pupils, and beginners will not be able to take things in properly. What I could do, is take them for half an hour each of Piano lessons and perhaps an hour of Music Theory tutoring afterwards if you wanted to give them 2 hours of music lessons? But having lessons for 2 hours a week twice a week seems a bit excessive from a teaching standpoint, you might actually find through no fault of their own that they learn more with shorter lessons, especially if they are on holiday (this should also prove that as a teacher, money is not my primary concern, only that I teach them properly and according to their ability). I would be more than happy to take Ahmed and Tamara for lessons as you requested but I ask that you think about the timings again before I do? It would save you much time and money in doing so and if I teach them, it has to be in a situation where they are happy.

I have some questions of my own that I hope you can answer for me before I agree to take on your pupils, particularly as I cannot meet them before hand for a first trial-run lesson.

1. Have they had any form of musical training before? Have they had music lessons at school? Can they read music?

2. If you want me to teach them the basics I can do so, but how will they practice during the week if they are on holiday, and do they intend to take up lessons again once they get home? Do they have access to a Piano or Keyboard?

3. My Piano is a digital Piano and not a grand Piano? It is just as good but aternatively I can travel to where they will be staying presuming they will have access to a Piano?

4. Where did you see me advertised?

5. How is their grasp of English? Where will they be travelling from and when will they be arriving? I ask because I want to be able to have as good a teaching relationship with them as possible and I think as much information I know about them in advance the better. I also hae to plan their lessons.

6. If you wanted me to buy books for them in advance I can do, but you would have to pay me if you wanted to keep the books, as all my students do.



Do let me know what you think?


Kind Regards,


Jeannette Mines



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Jeannette Mines,
it was good to read from you again and i'm very happy that you are available to give private lessons. My children are coming to UK for holiday and at the same time you like them to get lesson in The Piano,however i will be happy to have my 16 and 17 yrs old children,Ahmad & Tamara to join you in your private tuition.So my children's first language is English, best hobby is reading & study, they are enthusiastic,very patient and very good children.As a beginners,they are interested to learning the basics and i hope you can accept them as your student?.
I will like you to assure me that you are going to take proper care of teaching them as i'm ready to pay all their necessary expenses for the lessons. I will want the tutor to hold for 8 weeks which consist of two hours a day, two days in a week for both of them if possible.I have someone that will always drive them to your teaching location for the lesson. I will like to know your total cost of tutoring for 8 weeks.I want you to get back to me with above details. Please let me hear from you as soon as you receive this mail, so that we'll make an arrangement on when to begin lessons and payment (by UK cheque).
Regards and hope to hear from you soon.




Jeannette Mines wrote:
Hello Naomi

Thank you for contacting me about music lessons.

I currently offer tuition in the following areas, either for fun or for exam preperation:

Recorder;
Piano;
Keyboard;
Music Theory;
GCSE / A Level support.

I am based in South East London, in the area of Sydenham. I teach in SE London or Kent only; whereabouts are you based?

Jeannette Mines

Bargepole - DO NOT TOUCH WITH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yet another example of a quite common scam. They will give you a cheque for 'too much', you then send them a cheque for the difference, then their original cheque bounces.

Just delete the email and do NOT contact them again.

Cease correspondance immediately! The usual thing is that you would get a cheque for much more than your fees, and you would be expected to write another for the rest to a third party. Their cheque would bounce.
It's a well-known scam.

From other posts I've read on here, I'd say it's rather suspicious - sounds as if it could be setting the scene for the cheque-issued-for-more-than-the-lessons thing, in which you're asked to re-imburse the difference - and I'm not sure I'd be wanting to give out personal details in that situation. Plus the questions you have asked haven't been answered.

My advice: steer clear.

Fake.

As a sometimes EFL teacher I can tell you how that letter was put together and what gives it away as not being a letter from a parent, but I'm not going to make life easier for scammers.

You can tell from the wording ie





Blah blah blah. And if a genuine enquiry was worded like that, what would it say about someone you wish to pay you promptly, encourage kids to practise, sort exam issues etc. There are numerous thread about scam emails for lessons. Try a search.

Usually if asked by email I would ask for their phone number so I could phone them, and take it from there. Their number may give a clue to where they live (local, fairly local, otherwise why ask for lessons), and you can talk to them and listen for signs of suspicion. Look for what they do tell you, who recommended you to them, etc. Genuine enquiries are usually obvious. That one isn't.

Concur absolutely.

Yes, I agree - this seems to have all the hallmarks.

Delete and block.

Question is, why would anyone write a cheque for the difference without waiting for the initial cheque to clear?

Perhaps there's somebody else who knows more about this than I do, but I discovered a few years ago that even when a cheque had "cleared", the bank could still reclaim the money from you under certain circumstances. I can't remember what the circumstances were, and things may have changed since then, but I remember being quite taken aback that even when a cheque had "cleared", it didn't necessarily mean that your money was safe

I'm sure I've read/heard the same.

^ My dad said the same thing when I led on a guy wanting to buy my old french horn. The usual stuff about wanting to see pictures of it, get my address, name etc then send me a huge cheque then send him the difference. I was never going to post him the horn anyway but led him on for fun. The Bankers draft did indeed come and looked genuine which is why it would initially clear in the bank here, but by the time it went over to their account in africa of china or wherever, a couple of weeks later, the cheque would then bounce, by this time you will have already seen the money in your account and sent the difference.

I read this on a site where the same man had tried to buy a saddle and the woman had already sold it so just led him on for fun. When the cheque came, she told him that the saddle had by then sold to someone else. She then offered to tear up the cheque and not cash it. He told her instead to cash it and take 10% for her troubles and write another cheque to him! He made up some stupid story about needing the money for his brother who had 13 children and his wife had been in a car accident or something - Do these people think we are stupid?!

Ha ha ha ha!!! That's soo funny! I would do that myself if I had more guts...

Honestly everyone, thank you so much for your help on this. It's so hard being a new teacher and knowing which communications are genuine or something altogether different. Her first email was normal enough I thought but something just didn't ring true. It was only when she didn't answer my questions and said the £800 thing that it really started ringing alarm bells. But I just thought, 'who in their right mind would scam a teacher?' But I've deleted and blocked her now, it teaches me to be so trusting. Where do these people get the nerve???!!

I know - I always have to resist posting back something along the lines of

"you must think I was born yesterday"

It's better not to reply though, if you are fairly certain it's a scam, because in some cases if they find the email address is "live" they will keep pestering you.

There are some good stories to be found, of people who've scammed the scammers (not music-teacher related as far as I remember) - one or two make hilarious reading.

But keep in mind their warning - these people can be dangerous and better not to get involved.

These people are in Nigeria. It's basically a sort of cartel raising money for drug running; they use teenage boys to write these emails and they send out thousands a day. Maybe one in a thousand will bite and that's how they make their money.

You did the right thing by blocking and deleting and don't berate yourself for being fooled - we all mulled it over the first time we got one.

Oh I didn't know that!

My friend got caught out big time with a scam like this. Sadly, she fell for it, and had two substantial cheques which both bounced. As a result, the bank closed her bank account and she had to go through the rigmarole of finding another one, with all the hassle that goes with it.

As someone said, they are operating from Nigeria.

DO NOT have anything else to do with it!!!!!

I got one recently, but realised it was fake because they were asking for an instrument I don't offer, an hour-long lesson every other day (without asking when I am free) and didn't bother to ask anything about where I live, my qualifications or experience. I don't even know how they knew I was a music teacher, but perhaps everyone whose email begins with "musiclady" gets one...

If anyone would like a good laugh at the scammers' expense, do a google on "order of the red-breast" and read the story - but PROMISE you will never get involved with these people !

I, in my naivety, didn't even realise this was "going on". On behalf of myself and many others, thankyou Aspiring M T for bringing this to our attention: Forewarned is forearmed.

Here is a link to a scam-baiting site - they also tell you how to spot scams Some of the stories make good reading! But they are dangerous, so best not to get involved.

yes - you'll probably find the one that I mentioned !

The one maggie mentioned is here. Amusing if slightly sick reading - do not try this at home!

I remember reading that one. It's long but worth reading