Scams Targeting Music Teachers

The most common scam targeting music teachers in the recent past involves stolen or worthless traveller's cheques.

Summary of how it works

A parent enquires about lessons for their child who will be temporarily living in the teacher's town/city. The child will only be around for a few months and will be chaperoned by a driver or carer. They require multiple lessons per week and ask for the teacher's hourly rate.

Keep in mind that all of these characters (parent, child, driver) are fake.

The following is a typical timeline:

1. Scammer requests quote
2. Teacher provides quote
3. Scammer calculates cost of multiple lessons/week for 3 months and requests confirmation
4. Excited teacher agrees
5. Scammer sends payment by post in the form of a travellers cheque
6. Scammer contacts teacher explaining that sent payment is greater than quoted amount and requests excess to be paid to 'chaperone'
7. Excited teacher receives cheque in post and obliges, paying excess amount by Western Union or other non-refundable method
8. Deflated teacher discovers that travellers cheque is stolen, and they are now left out of pocket

The scammer can get very demanding (even threatening) when requesting the excess to be paid to the chaperone. This is the key to the scam. If the teacher doesn't cooperate, it has been a waste of their time and effort.

If the teacher indicates that they know the entire enquiry is a scam, the scammer usually stops persisting.