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Guitar Teachers and Online Sellers - Watch Out For This Scam!!!

Before I get into details here, I just want to say that I do not buy into all of the internet and email scare stories/ internet folklore. I would not be posting this if it were not real.

I personally (not someone I know or heard about) receceived this email this morning in response to a teaching ad I posted online this past week:

Good day to you over there Pual......i am Dr. Daniel, I need a tutor for myson Tom for the month of Spt.he was bron 12th january 1993, i got your advert while surfing through the internet and i really want my child to be taught by you.Tom is 14 year old and easily catch up.easy going his neat boy and gentle and intellingent,he loves education and atlethics. Although,i understand you are in U.S but i've arranged with my Nanny ASSOCAITE which will take good care of him for his period of tutoring and he has agreed with me,Kindly get back to me with requirement information ASAP...... You can contact me on mail box regards as this processing.

1.YOUR CHARGE FOR AN HOUR....
2.TOTAL CHARGES FOR 1 MONTH THAT HE
WILL BE TAUGHT 3 TIMES PER WEEK..
3.FULL NAME AND ADDRESS WITH ZIP CODE....
4.YOUR PHONE NUMBER...
Don't hesitate to e-mail with your total charges.

Regards

Dr. Daniel

I simply responded with my normal questions that I send to anyone who inquires by email along with my teaching policy. I also sent him my telephone number to call me to flesh out the details.

Of course I was skeptical of all of this for the following reasons:
1. A 14 year old being sent overseas for a month of guitar lesson during the school year?
2. Yes, I am great teacher (and humble and good looking too :D ), but I don't have a large school or other reason why this person should feel the need to pay all of the expenses to send his son overseas to me for lessons.
3. If he had said that his son was an exchange student or something of that nature and he was trying to set something up here ahead of time, then his story would have been more believable. I have gotten a few students from the web, but they were always in my local area.

I was thinking that if this were legit this guy would have no problem calling me to flesh out the details. My number is unlisted and he shouldn't be able to find out much more about me based on that anyway. I planned to ask him the above questions during our conversation. Also, phone calls are traceable. If he were running a scam he may not be willing to actually call me.

The only thing I couldn't figure out was how they could rip me off. So I did a little research - Google here I come! I found this on another guitar teacher's website. I was going to post it in this thread, but it would have been way too long.

If you don't want to read all of it I'll just explain it.

Here's the gist of what they do.
1. They send you a money order or check for an amount substantially above the cost of the lessons.
2. They then ask you to send a Western Union moneygram to them for the amount they overpaid using the excuse that the child will use this money to get to the states. They recommend which Western Unions you can use (for your convenience) since they know where you live.
3. The check bounces several days later and you are out the amount you sent to them.

So I figured this would be valuable since a lot of the teachers in here have websites and advertise their teaching on various sites. Always use your head. Don't be blinded by dollar signs; think and do research when something seems strange.

I'm wondering if there is something that I can do to help authorities catch this scumbag?

Be careful!

Paul Tauterouff
http://paultauterouff.com

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