Dear Music Teacher:
If you have a studio policy or other information online about your teaching, please be aware that there are a lot of con artists online, internationally, who target music teachers with emails. Some originate in the United States, but most are from Ghana or Nigeria (even if the ISP reveals that their service is in Europe). While there are rare occasions when a genuine inquiry is being made by a professional in the US who's first language is not English, the majority of these are attempts to cheat the teacher with bad or stolen checks, or more seriously, requests for your banking information so they can "deposit funds."
You probably have received or will receive an email something like this very typical one:
This is Jessica Lauren.I am from the United Kingdom,my son will be coming for an holiday in the United State,and i wont want him to be less busy,so i just want to know maybe you can always come and teach him great things on BRAZILIAN Lessons every afternoon.If this is possible,i will want you to get back to me with the cost of your teach ing for two weeks in November (1st-14th).Looking forward to read from you.
Please be apprised that this sort of thing is a scam. If you accept a check, you will find that the account has no funds or the check is stolen. The fraudster will request a refund, and hopes that you will send this before discovering the check is worthless. If you're naive enough to give them your bank information "to transfer funds," they will clean you out. One should never answer those emails: many of those people are hardened criminals, and there have been reports of people being killed from meeting such individuals, in person. Do not, in other words, attempt to take the law into your own hands, or catch these people on your own.
REPORTING FRAUD
- Get the Full Header. In Yahoo mail Classic, this link is at the bottom right of the email, under the row of buttons;
- Copy the header by dragging your mouse over it, and hitting Control/C;
- Hit Forward, and paste (Control/V) the header into the top of the email and then forward it to any of the following emails, as appropriate:
spam@uce.gov -- for all scams: This is a service associated with http://www.ftc.gov/spam/
spoof@paypal.com -- PayPal scams
spam@craigslist.org -- CraigsList scams
You should also CC ("carbon copy") the email service they use, e.g.: abuse@yahoo.com or abuse@gmail.com or abuse@hotmail.com In other words, abuse @ __whatever the email service is, will be followed up by that service. They very frequently close the account, and may even check the IP number.
If you have a statcounter (I use the excellent one at http://www.statcounter.com/ which is free), you can get the IP number of the offending visitor to your studio policy or resume, and you can block that IP at your file manager.
|
• Catalog
• Library
• About
