What do you think?

I received this today:

Hello,
My children are coming for holiday at your location,and at the same
time i will be happy if you can help them with Piano lessons,however i
will be happy to have my twins daughters J** & T** 15 year old
to join you in your house or any location you pref are.
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 expense
for the lessons. I will want the tutor to hold for 3 Month which
consist of two hours a day, two times in a week for both of them if
possible.I have someone that will always drive them to your teaching
location for the lessons. I will like to know your total cost of
tutoring for 3 Month.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 is by
US cashier's check.
Regards and hope to hear from you soon.
Note: Reply to my private Email (Here, a different email address is provided, one which has a completely different name to that of the sender.)

Seems like spam to me. What do people think?

Bin it!

Stay well clear.

Yes, steer clear - unless you want to take the scammers for a ride!

I am sure there was a thread a few months ago about this very same e-mail scam.

Sounds fishy to me...

Wasn't there a similar post about somone receiving this mail before? It's certainly not the first time I've seen it mentioned in any case!

I'm puzzled, though - what's in it for the spammers?

The basic ruse is that they book a bunch of lessons, send you a (bogus) amount of money for too much, get you to send a refund - they cash your cheque and disappear.

Even if the money clears, then you might be looking at a money laundering scam. Getting money into and out of as many bank accounts as possible is one way of confusing the audit trails...

Twinkle,

This is so obviously a scam. No parent would send an email like this.

Starts "Hello"...willing to give kids without references or meeting you first...no name or tel. number..etc

If you want to know how to spot a scam attempt, I have a fantastic method that never fails. Send me your c.c. number and name, expiry date and the 3 digit no. on the back, and I'll show you how it works!

Steve

PS Also a p/copy of your passport, birth certificate and driving licence. Thanks!

It's here too -

http://beststudentviolins.com/FRAUDagainstMT.html
My children are coming to UK for holiday and at the same time you like them to get lesson in The Violin,however i will be happy to have my 16 and 18 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 neccessary 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 arrangment on when to begin lessons and payment (by US cashier's check).
Regards and hope to hear from you soon

DELETE!!!!

The email doesn't make sense - it's a con!

I get a few enquires to do with lessons and I always bin the ones that leave me feeling suspicious.

Thank you for making us aware of scams like this!

I ended up exchanging emails with someone who simply started off by asking if I taught piano. It then ended up with a very similar content. It felt too good to be true, and my other half did some checking on the internet, and the details just did not match up with what I was being told. It upset me for a while, and then I realised that the children just did not exist! It all depends on how they plan on 'paying' you for the exact performance of a scam. Money telegrams are untraceable, bank drafts instead of cheques. All of which will involve you losing money.

As the others posting above say, delete it, and don't let them draw you into an email exchange, it will take up too much time and energy. One poor person on a different forum ended up being threatened by email for not sending a refund and was a bit shaken by it.

Haha. Thanks for that! Made me chuckle!

I'm used to receiving SPAM. It's usually the same: how to enlarge my ... erm, or Viagra, or just ways to make money or confirm my bank details. But this one did get me for a couple of minutes. I did have to read twice. Then I was 99% certain it was SPAM but still not 100%. I was trying to work out what any criminal could possibly gain from this kind of contact. Even for money laundering, they'd be wasting the cash if they didn't have lessons. But I knew something was wrong so didn't reply.



Of course. It made sense after thinking about that.

It is worrying, though. These people are thinking of more and more ideas to trick us. And presumably, many people know even less that I do about this. I've forwarded the email to abuse@yahoo.com and to a government spam-tackling* site as recommended on this thread. I'd like to think it makes some kind of difference. Who knows?!


*

With the state of our current government and MPs, I wouldn't be surprised if the scam emails ARE from the government!!

Steve

Oooh controversial! Yes. They probably just have the aniti-spam email to avert suspicion.

Next thing you know we'll need special clearance in order to send emails (have YOU had your anti-spam check?) How many people do you think they could employ at the anti-spam bureau? (ASBeau)

Many a true word has been spoken in jest....

Anti_SPAM Bureau (ASBeau) I love it.... hahahaha

denmark

I received lots of emails last year offering silly discounts on cans of some type of pork meat, mostly badly written, but some of them sounded genuine.

Luckily I realised it was just spam.


Steve

I don't think we should allow fear of bureaucracy to hamper us.

Hey Twinkle, I think the whole point is they don't have the lessons, and they demand refunds or overpay, you send back the overpayment and their payment turns out to be ephemeral! Love the ASBeau! Will pass that one on, via email to as many people as can think of by email . . . maybe not!!

Loving the spam puns... spuns?

Yep - here's my latest one, arrived this afternoon ...

Hello,
Good day to you over there,i am Qudux Sebastine I need
a tutor for my child base on your advert ,i got your advert while
surfing through the internet and i really want my child to be taught
by you.Kelvin is 18 year old and easily catch up.Although,i understand
you are Uk but I've arranged with my cousin living in over there
that my child is coming to stay with him from the Norway for his
period of tutoring and he had agreed with me. I want you to get back
to me with following details:
1)your present residence address and tel #
2)total cost of tutoring for 2 months (1 hour per day 3 days /week)
3)your years of teaching experience.
4)Specialized area of your teaching.
Payment via cashier's cheque,looking
forward to hearing from you soonest.

I don't think so !!

Nor do I.
When I enquired for lessons my e-mail was clear, polite and correctly spelt etc...

This e-mail is none of those things.

I've been getting about one of these a week again after a lull for a few months. Block 'em!

I've never had one. What am I doing wrong??

I haven't had one of those in ages - but yesterday I had seven - yes, seven - calls on my mobile phone from a mobile number in Nigeria. They start +234 and then all Nigeria mobile numbers start with 80. I answered two of these before I realised, but there's no-one on the line. I've reported it to Vodafone who tried the number, but it is a number allegedly out of use, so they have put a note on my file and if there is any suspicious activity they will credit me. My husband also tried the number from our landline and got the out-of-use message.

Kelvin

The original eMail is so obviously a scam of some kind - and this sort of thing has been going on for so long now - that it surprises me anyone still has the remotest suspicion that this sort of eMail could possible be genuine.

Put yourself in the position of a genuine enquirer. You would write something like:

"I am visiting Britain with my two children for a few months and would like them to continue piano lessons while they are away from home. Would you be interested in taking them? Please contact me to discuss it."


not the overly detailed twaddle that fills these convoluted frauds.

I think I could really do with a 90 minute lesson each week as there's just so much stuff I want to go through but I think my teacher might think I'm weird for asking for more than an hour!

Not till the last sentence?

So the first sentence didn't ring any alarm bells? 14 years old????

I don't think they're getting trickier to spot at all.

They are actually pretty ###### easy to spot!!!



Steve

Actually that doesn't read anything like any of the scams I've received.

Unusual maybe, particularly the last bit. But not immediately suspicious. The style is completely different.

I know quite a few people who started singing lessons at that age or older.

Because kids today are very streetwise and know exactly what's going on. If really genuine, they will give you an email, Facebook, skype, msn, phone number etc to contact and will understand that you have to go via their parents.





Can you imagine a teenager writing this?


Steve

Me too. I had an enquiry by email from a 14 year old. I never discuss fees, lessons, etc., by email as I need to first enquire about their requirements - am I the right singing teacher for them - do they have any experience - do they play an instrument - do they read music - what do they enjoy singing - etc. Throughout all this you get to talk and get a feeling of whether you might get on, whether they appear serious, or just want to audition for the next X Factor.
Anyway, the 14 year old did ring up and was quite surprised when I asked to talk to Mum, who had told her to organise everything herself. The first sentence is pretty much like my (genuine) enquiry.

You say these things like they're mutually exclusive!

I must admit I've never been spammed like this before so at first I was a bit bewildered, but now I'm absolutely clear that it's spam and would recognise one if it appeared again. It is obvious, but only when you know that there are people who do this kind of thing. I thought all spam was completely impersonal....

To be honest, I've only ever had one internet enquiry anyway. Most people phone me to start lessons.

Well - if you've had the amount of X Factor wannabies that I have had, who can't sing in tune and leave pronto when they find out that singing actually in volves WORK... "I know I can sing, I have a great voice, I just want some help with my breathing!"

I used to get mostly phone calls, too, but this last year a good 50% of enquiries have come in via email. Times, they are a-changing!

I've had a couple of emails from prospective pupils contacting me through reputable websites. I just email back and ask them to contact me over the phone. Usually there is no more contact!!

A good proportion of my enquiries come by e-mail - and have done so for a few years now.

More are genuine than are not.

Indeed, although I respect if they wish to audition (it's not for me to decide). I am just quite honest about whether I think they are good enough or not - what they make of it is their own decision Having said that, talent doesn't mean much anyway - I sadly don't have any JEdwards

I have refused to train the dog however - got a phone-call from ITV last week, and they were seriously searching for someone to tell a certain lady (I remember her from the auditions) that dogs can't sing. Am I a vet or what? I was very bemused though that they are obviously still doing something with this lady - nothing as entertaining as making complete a*** of people, isn't it?
Well, there goes my chance of a TV career

Back on topic: I get most enquiries via e-mail these days, and I honestly never had a problem with it. It is the preferred way of comunication for many people these days, and I don't think there's anything wrong with it. 95% of enquiries are genuine, the fake ones are quite easy to spot, and I would be careful to judge people as not being genuine just because their spelling is a bit off etc.

I probably scared away a genuine enquiry this morning though (or maybe not), and that was a phonecall. I was pestered by the Google people for the last couple of weeks as well, and they always start to talk to you as if they are enquiring as a student. 'Do you still teach?' 'Are you still taking on new students?' At some point, they start asking you very strange questions, and it turns out they just want to sell.

When someone started like that today and there was obvious noise in the background (sounded very call-centre-ish), I answered 'No, I don't take on new students' and slammed down the phone. Poor soul if she was genuine (which I don't think), but I was really fed up - there goes my reputation, moody old cow

To cut a long story short: I have to admit that I usually only make good experiences with e-mail-enquiries. Not all turn into business, but that's quite normal. I had some very odd phone enquiries in the past however, people only wanting to know prices, even literally giving you abuse because they think you should only be charging £5, competitors testing the waters etc.

I'm fine with mails

You can avoid wasting time by immediately asking:

a. Why are you asking? Do you want lessons?

Then if they don't come to the point quickly:

b. Are you trying to sell me something?

I have to apologise to David for appearing so incredulous over his description of the emails.

In Italy, I'm pretty sure that, although there's nothing like CRB checks etc, absolutely nobody would talk about lessons to anybody under 16 -18!! They would immediately ask to speak to the parents.

Though this is less to do with child protection than the fact that they want to get paid!


Steve

This is my latest -- received this morning

Hello,
Good day to you over there i need a good teacher for my son kerry for the month of NOV/DEC i got your advert while surfing through the internet that you are teacher and i really want my child to be taught by you Kerry is 10 years old and easily catch up.

Do you avalible for that 2 month? I want your to teach him 3 times in a week, Kindly get back to me with your hourly rate and total cost for 1 month so that we can move on lesson timetable

Thanks and waiting to read from you.
kamal

Some of the phrases are standard, but it is a bit more concise than many I've received.

What is this "easily catch up" business? I wish some of mine would catch up. Or even catch on - that would be good!

I have hear of some people replying to these sort of SPAM emails and actually turning it round- saying things like, I need a photo of you for my records and an address of where to send my invoices and back details. The photo and details then get sent to the police.

I was also told of some specific cases where the people at this end (so fed up of spam/scam email) sent back a request saying "I need you to prove you are real so write 'I am an idiot' on your forehead, stand on one leg, hold a banana, photo it and send it to me. I will then know you are geuine and not a scam artist". Apparently there is now a website dedicated to this sort of spam/scam backlash!! Quite sad that some people are so desperate for money though!

well, since you mention it ...

Hello,
Here's the one I got today! Feeling quite proud that I've been added to their list given that I've only been teaching for a couple of months!!! 


   I'm Tim Gate from Paris,France.during my search for a Piano lesson that would always take my
son (David) and I found your advert..Your advert looks great and it is very okay to me since you
specialize in the area i am seeking for him.

My Son would be coming to Country (your city) Before the end of this month for a period of time and
with his friend for 4 Months.he is just a beginner i want you to help me teach lesson during his stay.

So, kindly let me know your charges cost per week's ,in order for me to arrange for his payment
before he travels down to your side.

I have also made preparation for his personal equipment he will be using privately at home after the
lesson during his stay. Please Advise back on; (1). your charges per 1 hour twice a week for 4
Months? (2).The Day and time you will be available to teach him During the week? (3).Tuition
address?

I will be looking forward to read from you soonest.
Best Regards,
Tim Gate

Glad that this post was here on the forum to confirm my suspicions (Tim Gate is not the most French of names though... )

Oh Catey, welcome to the club Now you could always string the little so and so along for a bit, just to test their technique! It can be quite educational! Sorry, but I need to go away and oink, fortunately no one seems able to catch the dreaded swine flu lurgy across the internet ether!