Spring is here, Summer approaching,...its martial arts scam season!

 

I forgot that I had this post in drafts, so I'm publishing it late.
--------

Had a funny thing happen today. I received another potential scam email. 😆

What made my red-flag ears go up, is the randomness of the message. Normally, when prospective clients first contacts me, they do so by filling out the contact form on my website. Most don't contact me directly at my email address unless they get the email address from a friend who already attends my school, or from a parent of a child that attends my school. I get these types of emails a lot mainly during the summer.....many of them chargeback scams.  Funny that my teacher-colleague, Kathy Long, got the same message the same day, asking about tennis lessons, then the scammer just cut and pasted the text into an email to me. 😂

The scammers usually have 3 or more kids, they want private lessons, and the "parent" cannot speak on the phone or meet on video call due to being deaf, being in the hospital, etc etc. They offer to prepay for the lessons plus 300 to 500 extra, but then just before the transaction clears, they ask that when the children arrive at the stated first appointment (usually "driven to the venue by a hired driver") that they 

be given the cash that was included in the "extra" money that was charged to the card. So, that means you would have given the kids cash (for their "daily expenses") but the card is either bogus or stolen and the charge never goes through. You're out a bunch of cash and the kids never show up. 

Luckily, I was warned about this type of scam well before I started getting the scam emails. Sadly though, some martial arts school have fallen victim to this scam.

Watch out for these scams!