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Thread: Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

  1. #1
    Commercial Operator Nigel Toast's Avatar
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    Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

    I have been approached by email regarding private lessons for small groups from abroad, and after initially responding helpfully, have concluded that this is a scam.

    Internet research leads me to believe that the way it works is that the scammers are keen to book multiple lessons and maybe accomodation via you and pay as soon as you quote a price. The cashiers cheque (?) you receive can be banked, but is way higher amount than what you quoted.

    The scammer then seeks a refund of the accidentally overpaid amount.

    Later on the bank advises the cheque you received was bogus.

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    Registered User Feelingpink's Avatar
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    Re: Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

    Quote Originally Posted by Nigel Toast View Post
    I have been approached by email regarding private lessons for small groups from abroad, and after initially responding helpfully, have concluded that this is a scam.

    Internet research leads me to believe that the way it works is that the scammers are keen to book multiple lessons and maybe accomodation via you and pay as soon as you quote a price. The cashiers cheque (?) you receive can be banked, but is way higher amount than what you quoted.

    The scammer then seeks a refund of the accidentally overpaid amount.

    Later on the bank advises the cheque you received was bogus.
    That's a variation on one that wedding photographers have been receiving for years. The 'overpaid cheque' is supposed to be for paying other wedding suppliers and they expect the cash back. Two I've received have been really quite well put together - one even gave a real address for the ceremony - except I know the area they mentioned and there isn't a licensed venue there - and combined with the other language they used, it all smelt very fishy. Colleagues have gone along with the scam in the past as a kind of game and others have said not to mess with Nigerian scammers. The weird use of english is usually a give-away.

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    Commercial Operator Nigel Toast's Avatar
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    Re: Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

    I had been going along with the first one I received .... asked for a telephone number - that would match the Bayswater Road W2 address I had been given (LOL)..and got one back saying the there was a small problem with the landline and could i ring this number starting with 070 ...

    Some kind of a magic redirect number, I believe - god knows how much it would cost to ring!!

    Then I received another enquiry, this time regarding wedding dance choreography, and , blow me down, quoting the SAME 070 number!

    I found this 'scam baiting' site http://www.419eater.com/html/baiting.htm
    dedicated to wasting the scammers' time.

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    Commercial Operator Rocky's Avatar
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    Re: Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

    It's the same with people paying over the odds to buy 2nd hand cars too. What's extraordinary about it is that you can Bank the cheque and put a special clearance on it, but even if the bank clear it they still have the right to take the money back if it's a fraudulent cheque.

    Now you would think that the bank would check this out before clearing the money in your account - but they don't. So that's why the scam works, because most people wouldn't believe that the bank would clear the money in the first place.

    So you see how it works: you get a cheque which you know is over the amount you should actually receive - because the person sending it to you gives a reason for this. But you think if I clear it in my account what does it matter if I send a repayment back. So you write a cheque out, send it off and then the bank calls you a couple of weeks later and takes the money back they cleared from the first cheque leaving you out of pocket on the money you sent off as the partial repayment.

    It's really quite clever.

    Used to be that the bank could reclaim the money back from you up to a full month after it was cleared in your account, but that was changed recently to 7 days.

    As has been mentioned, the use of poor English and grammar is a give away and the other one is that they won't give a phone number and won't speak to you on the phone - they just keep sending emails.

    So be careful!

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    Registered User Twirly's Avatar
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    Re: Private Lessons Dance Teacher Scam - Beware!

    Simple rule for anything like this though - if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

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