Greetings guitar fans,

Welcome to this month’s newsletter. Read below for a recap of our last meeting and upcoming guitar-related events, as well as a harrowing tail of deceit and detective work!

The Monthly Meeting

We had a large crowd and a lot of seasonal music in the air on Thursday.

PROGRAM

Arturo Ville – White Christmas, Jingle Bells, Silver Bells, Santa Claus is Coming to Town, Feliz Navidad

Arturo’s students from Grants Pass High School – God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen, Silent Night, Deck the Halls

~ Short break ~

Steve & Marge Bismarck – Waltz of the Flowers (Tchaikovsky), I’ll Be Home for Christmas, Silent Night

Preston Allin – Two original compositions

John Swinnerton – Staffordshire (original)

Richard McGrath – Dust in the Wind (Kerry Livgren), Silent Night

Brian Parris – Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood (The Animals), Silver Lining (David Gray), When I Call Your Name (Vince Gill)

~ Intermission ~

Mary La & Grant Ruiz (LaRui Duo) – Carol of the Bells, Feliz Navidad

Grant Ruiz & Dan Fellman (Canto Sol) – Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire, Christmas Time is Here, Let it Snow

Announcements

Grant will play solo guitar at Trium Wines in Talent this Friday, December 20 from 5 to 7pm.

Dan and Grant (Canto Sol) will play at the Medford Armory Christmas Faire (1701 S. Pacific Hwy.) on December 20 from 11am to 1pm, and at Liquid Lounge in Ashland on Friday, January 10 from 7 to 9pm. They’ll have copies of their new, eponymous CD with them for sale.

May you all have a wonderful New Year with lots of great guitar music.

Membership news

We’re close to reaching our fundraising goal. Please keep an eye out for a special message with one more chance to make a tax deductible donation by the end of the year. Or you can donate right here!

During the meeting, paid members voted on changing the Articles of Incorporation per a previous email sent to them by the board of directors. With 27 members present, 26 voted “yay”, 0 voted “nay”, with one abstention. With this vote, the motion to change the articles was passed.

A cautionary tale and PSA

A person who went by the name Tommy Groddard recently emailed Grant, asking Grant to play for his wedding at his house in Ashland. The request included the amount of time to be spent playing but nothing about music selection, which was odd. The client never responded to Grant’s request to talk on the phone for clarification. Grant quickly became suspicious for these reasons, and the fact that he could find no record of a Tommy Groddard in Ashland.

A couple of emails were exchanged confirming the date, location, and fee. The final message from the suspicious person said that a friend of theirs who was traveling had issued Grant a check that accidentally included the wedding photographer’s fee as well. The person asked that Grant pay the photographer after cashing the check without mentioning the photographer’s name or contact information. The English was a little dodgy in this last email as well.

Grant recognized this as a common scam strategy know as “overpayment.” In these cases, victims cash the check, pay the third party the difference, and then the original check bounces, leaving the victim poorer by the difference, and sometimes having to pay a fee for the bounced check as well.

Grant looked up the name Groddard – no such surname exists. (It’s very similar to Goddard, which does exist.) Grant looked up the owner of the gig location – Grant had been there once and met the people who actually live there, whom he notified. Grant examined the email thread more carefully – the emails were being sent from 9 time zones ahead.

Grant blocked the scammer’s email address. The scammer then texted Grant from an Alabama phone number asking if he had received the check (nothing about the wedding itself). Grant blocked the number.

The evening before the supposed wedding date, Grant received an official looking cashier’s check (pictured above) from a mail express delivery business in Santa Barbara, CA. There was no note with the check. Grant called the credit union in Iowa the next day. They confirmed that no such check number had ever been issued. At the credit union’s request, Grant sent them a scan of the check that actually managed to pick up the world “VOID” hidden in the background pattern (pictured below). It turns out that scams involving fraudulent cashier’s checks are quite common.

This scam may have been coordinated from at least two locations (overseas and Santa Barbara). Grant assumes that the scammer(s) found him online, either by his website or Facebook profile. Grant intends to report this incident to several agencies.

You’ve probably heard of such scams before. Hopefully you’ve never been a victim of one. If you ever suspect you’re being targeted, please stay suspicious and vigilant! The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the AARP Fraud Watch Network, the Better Business Bureau, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), and IdentityTheft.gov all provide information on recognizing common scams and reporting fraudulent activity.