Don’t get caught in the trap!
There have been reports this week that the email scammers are busy targeting Osteopaths! I’ve been following this discussion in the Facebook group ‘UK Osteopathic Opportunities’ and felt it was important to share to a wider audience. These people will systematically target groups of therapists so it’s good to be aware what the email scammers are up to.
Some emails are coming from Canada and Dubai but there may be other places too. Basically the email scammers are trying to get you to accept up front payment for 24 sessions – like any of you would even think that is appropriate! I guess their ignorance of Osteopathic treatment doesn’t help them in this case.
The scam works by attempting to pay you up front for the treatments and then demanding that you give them a refund. Apparently, by the time you find out that their cheque has bounced, it’s too late!
Email scammers and their tricks!
I had a similar kind of situation with my son Max recently. He was trying to sell his tiny African hedgehog on Gumtree. He’s finishing Uni and is thinking of travelling. He ended up involved in a long and complicated set of emails which began well enough, wanting to know that the little hog was healthy etc and saying it was for her children in South London. Eventually, there were demands to send it via a courier which needed to be paid up front before being shipped abroad to Australia!!
But Max was busy with lectures and course work and got totally bamboozled until he was utterly discombobulated! Thankfully, he handed it over to me to sort out on his behalf as these communications were stressing him to the point of screaming!
Very quickly I smelled a rat! I guess I was lucky to be (older and wiser!) at arms length from the ‘transaction’ so I advised him to block all contact from them. Ultimately, it was the greed of the brassic Uni student which clouded his usually good judgment.
Lessons learnt!
So my best advice if you receive scammers’ emails is to block them so that they can no longer contact you.
~ I have just heard from an Osteopath who was about to agree to a booking for 12 sessions each from a couple supposedly arriving from Canada until he read this blog! So be doubly aware!
