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Dear fellow piano teachers,

I have been contacted by Belgium parents wanting lessons for their son, who is staying in this country on his own.The situation involved the 'parent' sending a cheque payable for a larger amount (eg., the lessons would cost Ł500 but a cheque is sent to the sum of Ł5000, asking the teacher to send back the balance of Ł4500) - this could be money laundering, or it could be a cheque that bounced. Please just ignore the email or make sure you find out more about them.

This is an email of what I received, which I didn't think much of it until I received the wrong amount of money in cheque and a parent constantly ringing me to transfer the rest back to them through Western Union (this require handliung cash!)

Dear Sir/Ma,

I am pleased to contact you, My name is Nara Garfield, from Belgium. I saw your
Biography as Piano Teacher (pianist), hence, my purpose of contacting you.

I just mail to confirm if my 14yrs old son (Paul) can join you in your tutor so
that you can help me teach him how to play the Piano. I so much would love his
dreams to come true as a very good player and I am ready to support him both
morally and financially.

I will want you to give me the price of the tutor for 6 months as I will want
the tutor to hold 3 times in a week and last for 1 hour daily. Note that my son
once had a tutor in January who lost his wife in a car accident and decided to
stop teaching inorder to take proper care of his family.

Additionally, please give me your address or the address of where you normally
teach your students, so that I can have idea of where the lessons will be taking
place, as we are presently out of UK, but arrangement have been concluded for
Paul to come to UK.

Awaiting your swift response

Best Regards

Nara

I too received an identical letter from "Nara Garfield", with a similar request to transfer the extra money through Western Union! Trading Standards advised me to ignore any further communication and HSBC bank have asked me to take the cheque into my local branch. My local newspaper is doing a story on the scam in order to warn people of it.

I'm glad someone is doing something too. I've notified whoever might be at risk and newspaper is probably the quickest method. I hope you don't mind me asking you which part of the county you are from so I don't repeat telling the same story to the same local paper? Thanks

I live in Northumberland. The paper running the story is the Northumberland Gazette - they contacted the Northumberland County Council who were aware of at least one similar scam which involved someone trying to sell their car on the internet. Unfortunately they were taken in by the scam and consequently lost lots of money. So you can never be too careful...!

This is a much bigger problem than the UK. I am in Seattle, WA and it just happened to me.

Luckily I got suspicious and searched her name online before cashing the check.

here is the last email from "nara garfield"...........


Thank you for your email and am pleased that you have got my payment. I tried to talk to you on phone yesterday, but there was storm here so the line was bad, Paul was the one that wanted to speak with you that time. Paul is ready to leave Belgium, but I just realised now that my wife sent you more money, the money that is meant for Paul's travel expenses, so this is what you are going to do, deduct the cost of the lesson for 6 months and send the remainder to the Travel Agency that is arranging Paul's travel. You will send the money to them via Western Union money transfer, just deduct the commission of Western Union and send the remainder.

Here is the Travel Agency officer's details to forward the payment to:

First Name: PARKIN
Other Names: ANTHONY WILLIAMS
Address: Van Bommen Straat 45,
Brugge 8020, Belgium

Kindly send to me the following transfer confirmation details after you might have sent the money via Western Union money transfer:

1. Sender's Name and address
2. Transfer Confirmation Number (MTCN)
3. Total Amount Sent (Both in Dollar Rate & Euro)

Paul will be on his way immediately you send the fund to the travel agency, so kindly have this done tomorrow so that he can leave here tomorrow evening at the latest and start the lesson with you appropriately.

Thanks for your co-operation, while awaiting your response.

sincerely,

Edward Garfield

I read a similar scam - maybe on this forum - about someone selling a piano (on e-bay I think) who was contacted, sent a cheque for overpayment as was asked for the etra money to be "returned". Apparently it's often tried on naive ebay sellers.

Beware!