Scammed for Flute Lessons

First of all, let me thank those who started this site for us so we don't get scammed, as I almost did. One of my non-internet friends told me to look up this guy just to make sure that he was ligit. As it turned out he has done this to many other people. I had put a ad on Craigs List for Flute Lessons and got the responses that I've copied to ad here. Needless to say, I won't be taking him on as a student (LOL). I hope this guy is stopped. There is a Dr. Matthew Medley who is a dentist in WA and I wonder if he's aware that someone is using his name like this. If I were him I might try to sue for slander and anything else I could get out of him. I hope by me posting these emails that other people won't get scammed as I almost did. I'm not sure what I'm going to tell this guy yet but I'll think of something to tell him that I won't be able to teach his son or something to that fact, if I feel like being nice about it. If not, I'll tell him off somehow. Thank you for all those people who posted here about this guy too. Here's my emails with him:

Hello,

Greetings to you!. I want to know if you have available slots/times to accommodate my son for lesson 3 time a week. It will be useful if you could get back to me with your area of Expertize/Specialization.

Hope to hear from you soon so as to proceed with the arrangement.

Regards

Matthew

I responded:

Matthew,
I usually only see students once a week.  I expect them to practice 1/2 hour to an hour a day, depending on how long their lesson is.  The method I use is based on Trevor Wye's practice books.  How old is your son and is he a beginner or has he been playing for some time?  As to the time of day, I usually start lessons after school hours, so that would be approx. 3 PM to 7 PM.  I usually don't teach past 7 PM.  I look forward to hearing from you and hope we can work together.  Thank you for your response

His response:

Hi ,

Thanks for  getting back to me and for your commitment. Just to introduce myself to you. I am Mathew Medley, a practicing doctor in Dentistry. I was born and raised in Fresno,California, but am currently based in Manchester,United Kingdom with my wife and children where i work with a private hospital.

My Son will be coming for a Vacation in the States and I want him to be busy with something gainful and productive. Therefore, I just want to know if he can always come to you and teach him great things 3 times a week of 1hr lesson per day. If this is possible,I will want you to get back to me with the cost of  you teaching him for a month which can start as soon as he arrives..

He will be in the states very soon and will be coming to your Place for 1 hour either each morning,afternoon or evening depending on your availability. I do have someone that will always drive him down to your Place,I mean a Nanny or perhaps you can as well come to him.

My Son's name is Alex,he is 14 years old and just a beginner. I will want you to calculate 1 hour per day for Monday,Wednesday,Friday or you can as well set 3 days that suites your availability for a MONTH,and get back to me so that we can arrange the payment. Kindly get back to me with your charges for 3hrs a week for 1 month..

Thanks and waiting to hear from you soon.
Matthew

My response:

Hi Dr. Medley,
I would be glad to teach your son flute lessons.  I assume that he would be in the Jackson, Michigan area.  My schedule would allow me to see him three times a week for one month on Monday, Wednesday and Friday from 6 - 7 PM.  There might be an occasion where I might have to make alternate times due to other obligations but I would do my best to make this time available to him first.  My calculations indicate that at $30 per hour times 3 times a week for 4 weeks would be $360.  If for some reason we find that we can't meet for a total of 12 lessons I would refund your money for those lessons.  If for some reason we need to have add extra lessons, $30 per lesson would be added to the charge.  He will need to get some books for his lessons and I can let you know what those are.  I do have a studio policy and will forward that to you soon.  When would he be coming and ready to start lessons?  As time gets closer I will give you directions to my house.  I look forward to teaching Alex.  Also, whoever happens to bring him is welcome to come in and stay with us during the lessons for as long as they feel comfortable.  I find that most parents attend the first couple of lessons and then just drop off the students from there on.  But I always encourage the parents to attend the lessons as much as they and their students feel comfortable.  I hope this helps to clear up some things.  Please let me know what else you may need from me.  I look forward to meeting and teaching Alex.  Thank you.

His response:

Hello ,

Thank you for the email and really appreciate your consistency. Well Alex is still new to this so you just have to start with him okay and if there is any hand book needed for the lesson just let me know with the charges for it.

Am glad the way you have kept me posted on the lesson arrangements and more so I have accepted your offer because its fine by me. I have make contacts with my son concerning the arrangement of the tutoring which he told me its OK by him as well and that he will like to come as soon as possible for the lesson to commence. He is due to arrive in town on or before 10/13/2010.

So I want you to know that i am going to pay for a month lesson which is $360 like you said and i want you to know that my client who is in US will be sending you my salary payment. Also i want you to know that the rest of the money will be used to get accommodation beside your location and any other arrangement for the lesson.

So as soon as you get the check payment,you will cash it and deduct your cost of tutoring of the lesson for a month and send/forward the remaining balance to my Son's NANNY Via Money Gram .

Regarding this kindly get back to me with your full information to receive the check so that payment can be able to made out in time.

Your full name ........................................................
Your full address,apt # with zip code.................................
Your phone number for contact................................

I have instructed Alex to get some of his picture for me so i can mail them to you for recognition ok.

Thank you in the anticipation of your understanding and waiting to hear from you soon.

Regards
Matthew

My response:

Dear Dr. Medley,
Please find attached my studio policy that I give out to all my students.  I will have Alex sign it and whoever happens to bring him, if that's OK with you.  If all works out we can start lessons on Monday, October 18th from 6-7 PM.  If you look up on the internet you can get directions on the approximate place of my house.  However some more exact directions would be necessary, I'm sure.  I'll give them to you later.
As for his books, you can order them on line at http://www.fluteworld.com .  These are the books that I would recommend.  Prices are according to the book that I have so prices might not be exactly right.
Peters/Yoder - Master Theory Bk. 1 - $4.50
Wye - Beginning Practice Bk. 1 (w/ or w/o CD) - $13.95 or $19.95
Moyse - Forty Little Pieces - $10.95
If Alex is interested in any particular kind of music, he is most welcome to pick out another flute book of his choosing from the Jazz, Rock, Blues and Popular music section.  Prices will vary.  It would be easier for me to have you purchase these books ahead of time.  You can even have them sent to me at my address and I'll have them here for him when he arrives.  The only other thing he'll need is a school size notebook that I can write in to remind him what he needs to practice for the next lesson.  This is all in the Studio Policy that I've attached.  If you have trouble opening it, please let me know.  I don't remember if I asked this or not, but does Alex have any musical experience at all, either from school or piano lessons or anything like that?  It doesn't matter, I was just wondering.
I hope this answers most of your questions and please feel free to contact me if you have any more questions or concerns.  I look forward to seeing Alex and working with him.

His response:

Hi Marge,

Thanks for getting back to me with the payment information and am OK with the days/hours you schedule for the lesson. I will ask my Financial Associate to issue the payment and mail it to you and will get back to u with the tracking number so that u will know when you will be getting it. Alex will sign the studio policy on his first day of the lesson and the book charges/fee will be included with the payment which will be mailed to you.
As regards the payment,what i mean is that the check that will be send to you is for my salary payment. And as soon as you receive it ,you will deduct your money for the lesson and pass the remainder to the Nanny (via WESTERN UNION OR MONEY GRAM) which will be used to buy stuffs and get accommodation for my son. I hope you understand me better and i will be more than happy if you can assist me with this because i have had some bad experience/problem with Nanny in the past.

Alex should be in town as soon as possible and as soon as he is in town,i will let you know so the starting date can be schedule. I will also get back to you with the Nanny information to wire the funds as soon as you receive the check.

Thank you for your understanding.

Have a nice day and get back to me soon.


Matthew

My response:

Hi Dr. Medley,
I understand much better now.  This is all new to me so I'm learning.  I think what I will do is open an separate account just for you and take out the money as needed for the lessons.  That way we can both keep track of the money being used and how much is going in and out instead of using cash.  That will protect both you and me.  I can cashiers checks that your nanny can take to any bank and cash or even some stores will cash the checks also.  This might be a bit of inconvenience but that way we can keep better track of the monies in and out.  I hope this works for you.  I just want to protect all parties involved when it comes to money.  I take it that you would rather have me order the books needed for Alex and I can do that.  I'll have him come to his first lesson and have come copies to start with and then order the books.  They usually come to me within 2-3 days so he will still have many things to practice and play until the books come.  Actually, maybe it's better this way because I can get to know him a little better and maybe change my mind about a book or two.  I look forward to hearing from you and seeing your son.  Thank you

Welcome here mayflower8890

You should considder yourself lucky with such a friend. This is a very common fake check scam, where the scammer send the fake check, asks you to cash it right away, and send the surplus back to him via western union or money gram. When you would do that, you would be sending your own money, as the check will bounce later. It will take a while before the check is processed, and by that time your money is gone. Because the scammer is using WU or MG, he can stay anonymus and can not be traced. It's very likely the scammer lives in Africa, where it's sometimes easy to collect money from WU or MG without proper ID.

Could you also post the scammer's email address, and if possible the full header of one of his emails? If you don't know how to get the headers, just ask.

Here's one of the emails he sent me that had his email address and a header too. I hope this is what you wanted. Thanks.


From: "Matthew Medley" <[email protected]>
Sent: Saturday, October 9, 2010 5:17:45 AM
Subject: GREAT TO READ FROM YOU

Is there anyway to report this guy to the police or something to get this guy to stop? Also, I did happen to find an actual "Dr. Matthew Medley" is really is a dentist in WA. I wonder if this could be him or if it's not, does the realy Dr. Medley know that this guy is using his name? Just some thoughts. Also, any good ideas to get rid of this guy so that I don't get hurt? Thanks.

The scammer is probably working out of a West African internet cafe, and effectively beyond the reach of your local police. Suing him is out of the question for the same reason.

The short answer mayflower8890 about what you can do to stop him, is very little.

Even on the rare occasions we have uncovered the real identity of scammers, they are usually located in parts of the world where law enforcement isn't very effective, and even when we locate ones in the West it is very difficult to prove a connection between the person and his scams. It's happened, but it's rare. I managed it once by devious means but they were able to buy themselves out of trouble.

You aren't at any personal risk yourself as they are only interested in money. Sometimes they will make threats about sending the FBI round to your house, but that only exposes them as clueless idiots.

The best tactic is to ignore the scammer completely.

Not only is this guy a scammer, I tried to get rid of him telling him that I was very sick and couldn't teach his son lessons. He still insisted on sending me this "check" anyway. I told him that I would only accept a money order or a certified bank check. With todays technology anyone can print up just about anything. I called the bank to see if the check was real. The lady asked me what the name was on the check. I told her it was Thomas Milner. She immediately said that it was a fraudulant check. I knew it would be even before I called. Now, how to I get rid of this guy without having to change my email address? I can block him I guess. I wish there was some way to stop this guy but unless you've got the money to persue him there's not much anyone can do but just double and triple check anything you might buy on the internet, even if it's services. I hope that my me posting this that it helps someone else from getting scammed.

Just tell him that the bank told you the check is fake, and that if he contacts you again you will forward everything to the police and the FBI. Then if he contacts you again, ignore him and don't respond at all.

He will drop you once he realizes there is no way he is going to get any money from you.

Also, please be aware that some of these scammers do fake certified checks and money orders--so even those forms of payment are not necessarily safe.

Since she received the money, they will come after her for repayment. She will be liable for the face value of the check along with fees.

No. The check was fake therefore it's just like a plain piece of paper or even fake cash. It's not real.