It’s tough sometimes being in a business that requires having to do marketing, because it renders you a target for all kinds of spam calls and scams. I’m writing out a description of a scam which several people have tried on me over the years, with variations. Partly my goal is to warn other people like me that these things may happen. Another part of me is hoping that future scammers who come across my website will be less likely to bother me, because I am never going to send them any money. I have a long standing policy of boycotting anyone who cold-calls me.
The way this one starts is with an e-mail:
Hello, my name is Emily ***. I’d like to schedule appointments for my daughters. Could you please let me know your available dates and times? Thank you!
Best regards,
Emily
Plausible, so I respond:
Thanks for writing, Emily,
I see patients from 10 AM to 4 PM Monday through Friday. The easiest way to see my schedule is to look at my website at http://www.kao-acupuncture.com . You can book online through the website, or you can e-mail, text or call me. (713-487-9921)
This week, I have quite a bit of availability, I think because people are trying to get in a last bit of travel before school starts again.
Please let me know if you have any questions or need further assistance.
– Edmund Kao, L.Ac.
Next e-mail:
Thank you for getting back to me. I thought about calling to discuss this, but I want you to know that I’m currently in a private medical center, recovering from lung cancer. Unfortunately, I can’t make any calls right now since I’m on full bed rest. I’d appreciate it if we could communicate here. I’d like to schedule sessions for my five daughters, who are currently on vacation, as a surprise gift for their return. Since I want to keep it a surprise, I’m making the arrangements on their behalf. They do not have insurance, and I will be covering the cost of their sessions.
I would really appreciate your help in booking these appointments, as I’m not very tech-savvy. I’d like the sessions to begin on August 27th or 28th, preferably at 11 AM. Please let me know if those dates and times are available. My daughters are between the ages of 18 and 26.
Additionally, kindly provide me with the total cost for ten sessions (two sessions per daughter)
I look forward to your response.
Implausible, so it’s likely a scam. Why? She has made an excuse for not being willing to speak on the phone. She promising a large amount of business. She wants to gift acupuncture as a surprise. She has five daughters, which may be an attempt to appeal to masculine weaknesses. Also, her daughters are traveling on vacation for a month, while their mother is recovering from cancer?
I’m willing to play a little longer because it’s not obvious what the catch is yet. A previous encounter with a scammer ended when he 1) refused to speak on the phone or delegate speaking on the phone to another capable party and 2) suggested that I pay a driver $1000 up front (because the driver refuses to take credit cards) to get all of the clients to my clinic, at which point they would pay me back by credit card. (Joke’s on him. For $1000 extra, I will do a house call. And take a credit card.) My next response:
Scheduling should be no problem.
I don’t take insurance, so it would be payment up front (mail me a check, Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle) or at the time of treatment (cash, check, credit card). Initial treatments are $80, and followups are $50, so the total would be $650.
Perhaps the best way to do this would be to set up a phone call. I understand that you may have difficulty talking on the phone, but perhaps you could arrange for one of the nurses or other staff at your clinic to call me, and then he or she can act as an intermediary. He or she could be in your room at a time when you feel up to communicating, and we can discuss on speaker phone or video chat while you are there to listen and indicate approval or disapproval.
The other option to consider is that for an additional travel charge, I would be willing to make a house call to do all five treatments in a row. That way, they would not be all stuck in the waiting room for so long. If you would like this option, I would need your address, so I can determine the travel charge for the house call. As a baseline, I would charge xxx for up to a 30 minute drive from my clinic, which is near I-610 North Loop and Ella Blvd. Longer distances would naturally cost more.
Next e-mail from scammer:
Hi Edmund,
Thank you so much for the detailed message and for offering flexible options — I truly appreciate that.
The $650 total for the initial treatments sounds good. I’d prefer to pay by check, so please let me know the name to make it payable to and the mailing address.
While I truly appreciate your offer to do a house call, I’d prefer to have the sessions held at your clinic. If possible, I’d love to schedule all five treatments back-to-back to make coordination easier.
Here are the details for each person:
- C*** *** – Born on April xx, 2006 (18 years old)
- E*** *** – Born on September xx, 2004 (20 years old)
- M** *** – Born on November xx, 2002 (22 years old)
- K*** *** – Born on February xx, 1998 (26 years old)
- C*** *** – Born on January xx, 2000 (24 years old)
Thanks again for your time and thoughtful care — I’m looking forward to getting this scheduled.
Best regards,
Truly implausible, but with several nice touches. The names (including the name of the writer) are all so generic that it would be impossible to look up any of them. Some of the older daughters have different last names, implying marriage. No new identifying information has been given – no other form of contact besides e-mail, which can be easily faked from some other country where US financial laws will not allow me to get any money back.
The FCC has a very nice website offering information on a variety of scams, including fake check fraud. (https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/how-spot-avoid-report-fake-check-scams)
In general, the approach is to send me a check (possibly stolen from an unsuspecting US tourist while overseas). I deposit the check, and my bank makes the funds available within 2-3 days. Then, the bank starts checking to see if the check is fraudulent, which can take several weeks. This seems backwards, but the law is such that the banks have to take this kind of risk, otherwise, the banking system would be paralyzed by funds being held in limbo for long periods. During that time, the scammer says she needs a refund, but now, suddenly, she’s much more tech savvy and willing to take payment in the form of a Venmo, Zelle, wire transfer, ACH transfer or cryptocurrency. The idea is to get me to send her money via a reliable platform. They run with the money, and I am out $650 as soon as the bank figures out it’s a bad check several weeks later.
My final response, designed to end the interaction:
Please make the check out to:
Edmund Kao, L.Ac.
1415 N Loop W
Ste 300-23
Houston, TX 77008
I have blocked off a set of five appointments starting at 11 AM on August 27.
I will also need a cell phone number for at least the first one of your daughters who will arrive that day. I find this is essential because my clinic is in a building that is kind of complicated, and patients often get lost when arriving for a first visit. I frequently have to call them to direct them the last few turns to the clinic.
Since this process for scheduling and payment is a bit irregular, I also feel that it is wise to ask for certain safeguards to protect against the possibility of check fraud. Since it may take several weeks for my bank to detect if a check is fraudulent, I will be unable to process any refund for at least 90 days after I deposit it, or use the funds you are sending for anything other than in-person acupuncture treatment at my clinic, at the time already specified. This way, my only risk is a lost day of work.
I hope you understand me being cautious.
Additionally, if the check does not arrive within 10 days of the treatment date, I will have to cancel your appointments and allow my existing patients to schedule during that time.
Please let me know if you think these terms are acceptable, and if so, feel free to send payment when you are ready.
No further e-mail from scammer. If she had sent a check, I might have looked up the person with the phone number and address listed on the check. I could call or write a letter to that person “verifying receipt of a check for $650 for acupuncture treatment.” This would have been a polite way to continue the process of making sure that I’m not blocking off a large chunk of my schedule for no reason, which is the only form of financial risk to me. It would also be a way of notifying the real person (from whom the checks were stolen) that their identity is still being used for fraudulent purposes.
It’s really a pity that such people are out there. They wouldn’t be doing it unless it was successful and they ripped off some poor person at least some of the time. However, it’s also important to remember that the person typing the e-mail may be a victim themselves. Human trafficking of fluent English speakers does happen, in which that person is basically held prisoner and forced to write e-mails like this to make money for much, much worse people – actual evil people. And that is the part that makes me saddest about this kind of thing. I really hope that person is able to get out someday and get back to living their own life.
Kao Acupuncture 