Hey JPF friends.
I posted this in the Songwriter Forum, but thought I'd put here, too.
Sharing a Scam Alert with you! BEWARE of scammer looking for songwriter to write a song for his son's birthday.
I was contacted, "do you write originals" in a instagram message. I worked on a song but when we got to time to pay I recognized the scam and called him out, but not before I wrote a song ... I never sent the song.
DON'T GET CAUGHT!!
Joanne
https://www.newschannel5.com/news/l...L1AD_JOaSuX718d-7z4fFv1oXDClhI86Gwf_7KHM

Scammers are the lowest form of life. They have no conscience, they would scam their own mother out of her last dollar. They don't have to see the face of pain that they cause and they could care less. They are forever scheming and coming up with plans to cheat. Beware, if something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. They like to play on the weakest of society and those desperate for money.

Right??
In this case it didn't start out "to good to be true." $300/ work for hire to write a special song seemed like a reasonable I could handle. However, I will say even at that I felt suspicious from the start. I worked many years in retail loss prevention, my gut instinct is still working ..LOL. I proceeded carefully while getting the job done. I had no intentions for sending the song before I was paid and made that known. Someone sent me the attached article after I told my experience. It was exactly what happened in my case.
I actually was familiar with this scam tactic so when I saw his dilemma I knew immediately my concerns had been valided.
But, those of who have been doing this for a long time know about the SHARKS circling excited new songwriters. It IS sad, most of us don't have that extra money to lose.
Agreed, "lowlife".

""They agreed he would pay $500 for the song, $200 upfront and the rest once the song was completed. The person sends her a check to her email that she transferred to her bank account. She later received another message from the same man saying claiming his "bank manager" accidentally sent her $2,000.""

So..how does it happen that she doesnt check and clear her account before sending anything?

I'd tell them "thanks for the tip".

John

Always make sure your bank 'clears' the check before you start spending the money. I even waited for my own paycheck to clear when I deposited it.

My sister got a check in the mail for no damned reason. She took it to her bank. They told her it was a scam.
Have you ever in your life gotten free money? Nobody gives away money.
Someone hit the lottery for a billion dollars! How much did the lottery operator take in and keep? And how much did they give the 'Government' of the state where they operated, as a 'bribe' to 'legalize' the lottery? Your local school system got $100,000 dollars from the lottery. Sounds like a lot. But how much did they keep, profits from 'legally' preying on our desperation and desire to win big money?

My 95 year old mother wins a million dollars and a new Mercedes a couple times a week. All she has to do is have $300 at the door on Tuesday when they show up with her money and the car on a flatbed truck.
"I don't have $300," she tells them.
"How much DO you have?" they ask.
And they want her to renew her car warranty ten times a week. She doesn't have a car.
They warn her someone charged $299 on her credit card. She doesn't have a credit card.
They then say, "Oh. It was a check."
"Well, which is it?" she asks. "My nonexistent credit card or a check?"

This young lady on the TV news has to accept her shame at her naivete', but her bank should have been more of a firewall. They should have been consulted, her fault, about whether the check had cleared. Had the full amount truly been transferred into her account? If 'Yes', then return the excess, perhaps minus the remainder of the bill, the other $300, to expedite things and make sure that guy's incompetent bank didn't screw it up again. Five days later, the check bounced. Five days was likely not a hardship for the sender or the receiver to wait, had this been a legitimate situation.

The manager of a take-home restaurant told of a guy coming in, ordering a meal for one, paying with a ten dollar bill. In the middle of her giving him his change he asked for some different way of paying so he could get some specific change for another purpose of his own. In the confusion she ended up giving him more than he had given her. She said the swinging door back into the kitchen literally hit her in the backside as she realized what had just happened. Out in the parking lot there was no one to be seen.

If you pull off a scam like that once or twice a day, or the songwriting scam once a week, once a month, you supplement your income substantially. Money motive. Prisons are full of pretty smart people who thought they could get away with it, and even smart ones and pretty dumb ones who committed their crimes under the influence of alcohol and other drugs. It's a social situation to avoid.

And of course, to be aware that all those people in prison used to be out here, smiling across the counter, 'smiling' on the internet, seeming like nice people, when they're actually Predators, practicing Predatory Capitalism. It's worked for them in the past, so they're doing it again. En garde, people!

Lol

At the very least, I'd say..."We are checking with our accounts receivable department and will call you back and let you know when the issue is resolved. And while I have you on the phone, what is the weather like in Romania this time of year?"

If someone is that gullible, it is going to be hard to offer them any advice that will protect them. The problem is that they want it to be true...and that desire precludes critical thought. And will the next time too.

Exactly!
To logical thinking minds and/or maybe those who have been bitten by sharks before the alarm bells go off immediately.
When it comes to my songs and my money I am very skeptical and ensure all i's are dotted and t's are crossed before that final step of passing on the song.
Let's be honest, the story was pretty crazy ... How would the accountant accidently write a $300 check out for $2000? Maybe, $3000 would have "appeared" a slip of the finger possibility, maybe, Crazy #1,.
(Personally, i was officially out at this point)
What I was told next was that this error locked his account for a month and another check could not written. Crazy statement #2!
When he suggested I send $1700 back to him... I laughed out loud at my end that he would think me that stupid. Crazy statement #3. .... I told him No, he disappeared.

Another songwriter shared the article with me, I was surprised to see it was not a one-off scam attempt and ever more surprised, sadly so, that someone fell for it. That is too bad.