Caution: Yoga Email Scam
by Jan Bernstein

There is an email scam involving fraudulent cashier’s checks and I would like to get the word out to as many Yoga teachers as possible.

I received an email that said a woman wanted to purchase private lessons for her daughter who had been greatly helped by yoga after the death of her father and she would be traveling from Europe to Denver and would like to study with me while in Denver. She calculated the amount herself based on the hourly rate I quoted her increasing the number of hours to a significant amount and proceeded to tell me in subsequent emails that a check had been sent to me but her accountant made a mistake and had the check made out for a larger amount ($6500) – the Yoga plus the girl’s travel money. So the woman asked me to return the excess funds via Western Union to her as soon as I received the check. I received the check in a greeting card envelop rather than a business envelop and there was no note and no return address.

The whole think seemed suspicious from the beginning and when I brought the check to my bank and asked them to verify its authenticity they confirmed that it was a fraud. The banker even pulled up a web site describing the scam: http://www.umcu.org/fintoos/scam802.htm

I urge you to warn the other YTOC members of this scam.

Namaste,
Jan Bernstein