Piano e-mail scam!!!

[Sam CA]

So just like everybody else I get spam from "rich Africans" who want to transfer millions of $ for a small processing fee and so on and so forth. Though Yesterday I received a very personalized and generous offer. Apparently it's an old and successful scam that I had never received before. So 'Chris' said:

 

"Hello,

 

I have a Baby grand piano to give away to someone that can cherish and take good care of it Please let me know if you would be interested or refer someone to me." (2 piano pictures in a house were attached)

 

Just because it was a piano related scam I decided to play along and asked for his location.

 

 

"Hello Sam,

 

It is a Yamaha Baby Grand (model is DGB1CD). used to be owned and played by my wife who is now deceased. It was last tuned December of last year before she passed on. I'm moving my properties to California and I don't think my wife will be happy if I sold this piano, at the same time I'm settling to a home of lesser space, so I'm hoping to give it out to someone who is a passionate lover of the instrument. I wasn't going to leave it alone in an empty house.

 

It's currently in storage in TN with the movers I employed to move my properties from my house. If you really don't mind making new arrangements with the movers, I can attempt to get in touch with them to reroute it. This should not attract too many charges since the distance can be recovered within a day. I'm sorry for the inconvenience, but do let me know if you wish that I talk to the movers. Just so you know, I am not giving out a scrap or a waste. It"s in excellent shape."

 

 

He then provided a phone number for the piano mover. I didn't call but later on he said the price would be $450 payable through some type of cash apps. I knew he was copying/pasting so to make it harder for him I asked some random short questions. He had to actually type in a brand new long response every time. I could tell he was using Google Translator for all these new responses. After torturing him with stupid questions for a while, he received one last e-mail from me that's too graphic to post.

 

Afterwards I googled his original e-mail, and found out many keyboard and piano forum users have received this e-mail. There's multiple threads about this on Piano World forum. Apparently people actually fall for this, but why?

[Baggypants]

Greed.

[MathOfInsects]

There's a piano-lesson scam that isn't too dissimilar. I've never followed it through far enough to figure out the angle, but I think it's one of those "overpaid by mistake" scams where you send back the "extra" money they sent and then the payment bounces.

 

I can completely understand why scammers would target us; musicians are traditionally so flush with cash.

[Song80s]

isn't everyone with an expensive keyboard/piano comfortably wealthy by now ?

 

heck, after years of practice, it should have paid off

 

if not, too much money is over -rated.

 

Time is a bigger priority.

 

[El Lobo]

I haven't heard of that one but it's similar to others I have seen before. "Send me the money and I'll tell the movers to send the piano to your house."

 

And yeah, the one about pay in advance for music lessons for my niece/nephew/dog targets music teachers. "I'll send you a check for $10,000 for a years' worth of lessons and you send me back the overpayment of $5000." It takes weeks for the bank to tell you the check is no good ... after the money order for $5000 you sent has been cashed.

[stillearning]

If you haven"t seen this before, it"s a brilliantly funny way to mess with an email scammer.

[video:youtube]

[Mighty Motif Max]

Love that guy.

[TyPie]

This scam has been going around under different scenarios.

 

A friend of my wife was recently looking for a relatively rare (and very expensive) breed of dog. She located one out-of-state in a Craigslist ad, I believe. On contacting the 'seller', she got the same set of instructions, to contact specified "middle man" that will ship the dog for............ you guessed it............. $450.00.

 

Beware! Whatever your wants and interests may be, there is a scammer in the shadows.

[stillearning]

This scam has been going around under different scenarios...

 

Beware! Whatever your wants and interests may be, there is a scammer in the shadows.

 

Yep. Last year I was looking for a decent used backhoe. Found one on CL that looked new and underpriced. Told me he was in the service, was being sent overseas, needed to sell right away, and wanted to ship it 1000 miles, needed shipping money up front. I played along for a bit, then told him to f*** off. Scum.

[Tom Williams]

Fun fact -- when the yamaha piano scam appeared near me, I fell for it. He (the purported widower) said he lived in Davis. I believed it, because Davis WV is a nearby high-end tourist housing area. I figured I could get it for my local high school. He texted "I can help you arrange shipping."

 

I responded "I live in Philippi, and can borrow a truck to go pick it up." At this point, I had erroneously called his bluff. Suddenly he was claiming to live in Davis, California -- despite the listing showing up on a WV Craig's List -- and it also turns out that there is a Los Angeles area called "Philippi." When I clarified the WV location and said that Davis CA was a little too far for me to drive with a borrowed truck, he disappeared.

 

It was months later that I found out that it was a textbook fraud.

[jazzpiano88]

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[jesilv]

Thanks so much for the "scam piano" post. I just got the same email nearly 2 years later. Almost identical word-for-word. Really appreciate the heads-up.