> Report online scams.

Advertising Company Takes Money, Doesn’t Deliver
9/21/2009
Alert Regarding Nationwide Advertising (aka Coast to Coast Advertising)

Associated Bodywork & Massage Professionals (ABMP) members have reported entering into a contract with the company calling itself Nationwide Advertising (aka Coast to Coast Advertising). This company purportedly disappears at times and reappears under a different company name. This company has taken our members’ money but has not provided the advertising that was contracted for. The company sells printed ads on restaurant placemats and phone book covers and appears to have a policy that it will charge yearly for the ads even if a yearly renewal was not agreed upon. In some cases the ads are never printed.

We advise ABMP members to check out any complaints that may be on file regarding a company that you are considering for advertising contracts or for other business relationships. Watch your credit card accounts for any unauthorized charges, and take steps to report these unauthorized charges to your credit card company as soon as possible. Go online and Google the company’s name, or contact your local chamber of commerce to research for any reported complaints.

Internet Scams Target Massage Therapists
Massage therapists are now on the receiving end of a variation of an online con. Here’s how it works: An out-of-town “client” contacts a practitioner via e-mail wanting to schedule appointments for a time in the future when he/she will be visiting the area. The appointments and times are scheduled. Shortly thereafter, the practitioner receives a cashier’s check for these services, but it’s generally for much more than the originally agreed upon price. The alleged client or a secretary of the client contacts the therapist, explains the mistake, and asks the therapist to deposit the check and simply refund the balance. The check appears to clear and the practitioner sends the overage back to the client only to learn two weeks later that the check was a fraud. Now the practitioner is out whatever the overage was.

If this has happened to you, visit the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) website, www.ftc.gov/ftc/consumer.htm, and click “File a Complaint” to fill out the form. You can also forward the offending e-mails to spam@uce.gov. In addition you can file a complaint at the Internet Crime Complaint Center’s website, http://www.ic3.gov/.

Using caution and common sense will help you avoid the pitfalls of Internet scams. For more information on Internet scams, visit www.ftc.gov/spam/ or www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp.

Member Example
June 12, 2009: An ABMP member reported receiving the following e-mail:

Subject: I NEED A MASSAGE THERAPIST
Date: Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:11:28 -0700
From: Tom Richardson
–
Hello Therapist,
My name is Tom Richardson, am 42yrs married with two loving kids. I worked as International and Public relation officer for Dubai Petroleum company I will be coming over to your state on a meeting with some of our business associates. I will like to know if you can render me your massage services for the period of my stay. I want a “Body Deep Tissue” I will be coming over for the meeting on the 25th of June 2009 and will likely be staying over for 6 days, meaning that you will be rendering your services for 6 days. I will like my massage session to start by 11:30am to 12:30 before commencement of my meetings and daily. Further more, I want to inform you that I will be lodging in one of the hotels in the city, I can have my driver bring me over to your massage center daily to make it easier for the both of us, I will like to know if there is a very good hotel close to you where I can lodge so I could come over myself. Let me know if this is ok by you so that we can make a final arrangements and you can have me fixed in your schedule for this date.

Secondly let me know if you’ll accept check as mode of payment

P-s: Let me know the total cost of your massage services for 6 days/one hour daily.

Thanks you very much and I await to hear back from you on a timely fashion.

Best Regards.
Mr. Tom Richardson