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Fraud Alert – “Thomas Bale, Montreal” Scam!

(The
last email alert of this nature was from Frank Bale of Ireland – he indicates
he is visiting our country with colleagues!!!)

The
recent email indicates that the sender wants to book appointments for a group
of individuals who will be in Manitoba May 20 – June 13. Then he will
offer  to pay for them in advance – using a credit card transaction. The
fraud story starts here.

The
massage therapist is unaware that the transaction begins with the use of a
stolen credit card number. Many stolen cards are still useable even several
days after the theft.

This
‘scam’ has been tried in different forms before throughout North America. Do
not respond to the email.

The
‘fraud’ gets serious when he asks the clinic/therapist to begin
the credit card process electronically and uses the stolen card
for payment and then shortly after cancels and asks for a refund. Usually
the credit is requested in the form of a ‘cash’ like process – money order or
Western Union etc. The scammer will sometimes offer a ‘tip’ if you use this
method. The intent is to get some form of cash etc. The credit card holder
looses and so does the clinic.

Sometimes
the scammer will set up an overpayment scenario and will ask for the difference
back. The difference is the ‘scam’ and the clinic is out of pocket for that
amount. Again, a cash form of refund is requested. Previous ‘scams’ have
included postal money orders and certified cheques used in a similar manner.

The MTAM
has advised the Canadian Antifraud Centre operated by the Federal Government of
this latest scam. This is a world-wide scam and other massage therapists have
been caught in this web.

If you
receive an email like this please forward it to info@antifraudcentre.ca
and add "#746374 plus  Attention Lucia" – to the email subject
line so that they can track this particular fraud. This agency is also
interested in tracking any credit card information anyone may have encountered
in such transactions.

Visit
this websites below to see the scam from a USA perspective.

http://massagepracticebuilder.com/massage-therapists-beware-email-scams/

http://www.abmp.com/news/e-mail-scams-continue-to-target-massage-therapists/