Baby Grand Scam Alert

I opened up the editor@curryrivel.org.uk mailbox this morning and found a scam alert.

Now, what's so unusual about that, you might ask. Indeed, just like your personal account, one of the first things to do is delete all the wonderful offers made to Curry Rivel Online; business cards, help pushing Curry Rivel Online to the top of the Google search list, speciality papers and, randomly, cork yoga mats – and all from implausible email addresses, usually an unintelligible string of assorted characters. Always a give away!

In this instance, Mr Purves of Wiltown, if you are reading this, thank you for the warning.

Here is the scam Mr Purves warned of.

The "Free Baby Grand Piano"

"We have discovered that the baby grand piano advertised in the Curry Rivel news is a scam . The persons behind it , thought to be in India, will ask for a large fee to transport the piano which will never arrive. Search on line for baby grand piano scam will confirm this. There are even fake websites for the courier companies who the victim will be asked to make arrangements through. To avoid loss to our community members I wonder if we can circulate a warning not to respond to this advertisement and to be on one's guard for other similar offers requesting payments (such as a nice car I once saw advertised at a very reasonable price in Gibraltar . Could I just forward the cost of ferrying it back to the UK?) . Interestingly this exact (Yamaha baby Grand) scam was highlighted in yesterday's issue (1st of April , how appropriate!) of the Daily Telegraph in the Katy Morley column."

Such an add did indeed appear in the March edition of CRN. Fortunately it didn't give any contact details so one can only hope that no-one in Curry Rivel has suffered a loss. It is however a useful reminder to be on our guard and always verify the authenticity of any offer before handing over the dosh.

If it looks too good to be true, then I guess it probably is.