Scam Pages

I've posted here various exchanges with scammers who target guitar teachers. I figured out the scam during my first episode with "Williams Nojeto". I decided to put my exchanges with him on masterguitar.com because I thought it was interesting reading. I immediately began to receive mail from guitar teachers who had been targeted and were googling "Nojeto" or "guitar teacher scam" and the like. I quickly realized that not only was I helping other teachers who were targets but that my "scam page" was kind of a guerrilla marketing technique because other teachers were finding my website while searching for information on guitar teacher scams.

After a couple more episodes I began to string along every scammer who contacted me. I would play their game until I received a check (bogus of course). I have quite a collection!

I then create a new page in the Scam Section and copy-and-paste the email exchanges with my own pithy comments scattered throughout. The following links are organized by the scammer's supposed name and are in chronological order, that is, the order in which I received them. I have since figured out that many times the scammer uses the name of a real person. For instance, there really is a Dr Christopher Gentle who lives and works in London. For all I know a scammer could be using my name somewhere - or yours. That way when a potential victim googles the scammer's name a real person shows up on the net. The checks also appear to be drawn on real businesses and banks. Several times I've googled the business the check supposedly comes from and it is a real business. In one episode I actually called the business on the check and they confirmed it was a forgery. They said it had been going on for over a year (see Frank Stancy). Mr. Stancy kept up the charade for a while, became profane, threatened to turn my name over to his "barrister" for stealing his money, spoiling his reputation and tarnishing the image of his family, and so on. It's quite entertaining.

I played one scam out for as long as the scammer was willing to go. I kept making up reasons why I couldn't cash his check and kept asking him questions. He had to keep making up reasons why he wasn't here. It got way past the point of ridiculous - his son in Africa was shot in the leg and the surgeon was demanding $2,000.00 before he would operate! I couldn't believe how long he kept at it. (See Michael Scott)

Several times I had the same scammer try to scam me more than once. Every Craigslist ad triggers a round of scam attempts. A couple of times I played out the second scam just to see how long it would take the guy to figure out that he'd already sent me a check. (Example: Mathew Medley) One of those repeat reverse scams actually netted me a second check from the same guy! (See Jide Samuel)

Another episode had the guy sending me a check the third time around! (See Calvin Garcia)

I had one guy ask me to send his worthless check back to him! (See Serigo Viviani)

Not every reverse scam results in a check. There are probably several reasons for this. It might be that I'm dealing with someone that I've already gotten a check from only he's using a different name now and recognizes me. Sometimes I might ask a question that makes the scam too much trouble to pursue. Maybe there's a blacklist of people like me circulating among scammers! I've run into quite a few people who have been doing more-or-less the same thing as me, so what I'm doing can't be all that unusual from the scammer's point of view. Anyway, there are some reverse scams here that just fizzled out or came to an unexplained, abrupt halt. That's the way it goes, it's a percentages game - on both sides.

At one point I was contacted by a teacher in South Carolina who had been dealing with scammers in the same way as me, albeit a little more brutally than myself. I liked his comments. However, based on his experience of almost blowing a legitimate situation, I have decided to remain polite for the most part.

I no longer post every scam that comes my way. I've put up several Craigslist ads and I usually get 3 or 4 (or more) scams with every posting. What's here should be enough to reveal the formula these guys use. I'll add a new one every once in a while. Craigslist has an information page on common scams that's pretty good: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams

Williams Nojeto is the first episode wherein I figured it out. Nancy Williams and Kevin Luciano were not played out to conclusion. The "scam-baiting" begins in earnest with Christopher Gentle.