Models from Abroad Strike Again!

In my experience, which does not include losing thousands of dollars like other MTs around the U.S. but right up to that “point of no return,” the following email has not the scent of an Italian model, but rather that of a rat.

I have 8 unique attempts at fraud in my file - unique in their origin, but very common in their M.O. The following email is another attempt. Some key elements of this type of email fraud that I’ve found evident in every fraudulent email are:

• Non-Domestic - best characterized by the email domain that is not .com, .net, .us, .biz, .info, .org, .gov (or other “dot” that you recognize more often), and also characterized by the broken English writing & unofficial “official” statements [like the "confidentiality" statement at the end of this email],
• Model - the model him/herself or their agent (friend, manager, travel agent) is not necessarily a model, but is someone travelling from abroad to Nevada,
• “U.S.” is where they are traveling to - a specific address is never stated as to where they will be staying so you can go to them to do your massage, and they most likely will agree to come to you,
• Referral - they will mention that they got your name from someone else that knows of you, but your name will never be used in the email (unless you give it to them),
• Introduction & Correspondence emails are different - the introduction email is a template filled in with basic information they have about the state you’re in; the city and your name remain unknown and unacknowledged by the writer (unless you give it to them).

Here’s the Email:

From: marcetocca@tiscali.it [mailto:marcetocca@tiscali.it]
Sent: Wednesday, November 05, 2008 1:04 PM
Subject: Massage Inquiry

Hello,
How are you today? My name is Mrs Marcella Fedelle, i live and work here in italy, i am 36yrs old. I have been doing massage since 1989. I do a deep relaxation massage in which the muscles relax without pain, I also do energy massage that helps people feel great when I am done. I am certified to do pregnancy massage .I have lots of happy clients here in italy , I have a client Miss Alessandra Amato A Model here in italy ,She will be coming to the U.S in three weeks time for a modeling job and she will be residing in Nevada temporarily until the neccesary arrangement for her job has been made before she leaves,she will be needing massage therapy 1hr session three times a week for one month

Miss Amato asked me to come with her to the US but i told her i would not be able to go with her to the US as i have a course i will be going for in a week time and the course will last for three months.So i promised to help her get a good practitioner in your Area.

I have been looking for a massage therapist for over two weeks till i met an old friend Mrs Jessica Claire at the Cosmetic Surgery And Beauty Conference that was held over the weekend in Milano. I spoke with her about my client and was referred to you. She gave me your referral.

Pls tell me a little more about yourself,how long have you been a massage therapist?and would you be able to provide her massage therapy?

I will also need you to get back to me with the amount you charge per session and also let me know if she can pay you via Us Certified Cashiers Check

Pls send your reply to my personal email address ( __________@yahoo.it ) because i do check it frequently.

Thank you very much and do have a nice day..

Marcella Fedelle
Via Cusani, 26

20123 Milano ,
Italy

———————————–CONFIDENTIALITY NOTICE:——————————————————The information contained in this email is privileged and confidential, and is intended only for the use of the individual or entity named above. If you are not the intended recipient, you are notified that any disclosure,copying,distribution, electronic storage or use of this communication is prohibited. If you receive this communication in error, please notify us immediately by email, attaching the original message, and delete the original message from your computer and any network to which your

Telefona e naviga senza limiti con Tiscali Voce 8 Mega a soli € 15 al mese per i primi 12 mesi. In seguito paghi € 29,90 al mese. Attiva entro il 6/11/08!

_______________________________________________________________

The idea and the M.O. is for you to agree to perform a series of massages, “costing” them $500+, usually in the thousands. You will give them a bill prior to meeting them, and they agree to send you a certified or cashier’s check. You get the check, never performing the services, and they ask you to deposit it, because… due to the mistaken travel arrangements with the agent, you’ve been overpaid through the check that has been cut and it on its way to you. They want you to deposit the check and send the difference to someone else. To incent you, you can keep a couple hundred “extra” (in addition to your bill) for your trouble.

Unfortunately, the official-looking check you deposited 30 days ago will be returned to your bank and you will owe the bank the amount of money for which the fraudulent check was written. You will have written a “good” check and mailed it to the travel agent for the thousands in difference on the “official” check, that same check will have cleared your account, and you will have never seen your “client” because they postponed their trip. You will probably never get to do your massage with them.

Ways to say no:

1. “no.”
2. “no, thank you.”
3. “I’m sorry: I don’t take checks.”
4. “I’m sorry: I don’t take checks from people I’ve just met and/or that don’t have a NV ID/DL.”

To read more about this method of email fraud, visit Wikipedia’s page that describes this and most types of fraud: Advanced Fee Fraud

To understand what the Federal Trade Commission is doing about email scams or to report an attempt, please visit their website.

HIPAA On the Horizon

Client safety and confidentiality the intent of HIPAA - improves alternative health care industry

If you’ve ever thought twice about filling out a health questionnaire that your massage or bodywork practitioner has asked you to complete, you are not alone. It is within the scope of a Practitioner to ask questions about your health in order to provide you with the best service possible – safeguarding your state of health, knowing and practicing the contraindications for you and the bodywork you are receiving, and preventing any complications in providing that service. With rising fraud crimes and use of electronic filing systems, it is a valid concern of the Client and Practitioner that information can be misplaced, mishandled, and miscommunicated.

In 2003, the healthcare industry adopted a government standard for getting and keeping your personal health information for purposes of practicing medicine and filing insurance claims. It is named HIPAA: the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. HIPAA has three major purposes:

1. To protect and enhance the rights of consumers by providing them access to their health information and controlling the inappropriate use of that information;
2. To improve the quality of healthcare in the United States by restoring trust in the healthcare system among consumers, healthcare professionals and the multitude of organizations and individuals committed to the delivery of care; and
3. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of healthcare delivery by creating a national framework for health privacy protection that builds on efforts by states, health systems, individual organizations and individuals.

Bodyworkers and Clients alike will be satisfied to know that the HIPAA law in place today protects the Protected Health Information (PHI) of the Client in every aspect of the healthcare information-gathering process when insurance claims are filed with companies such as BlueCross and BlueShield.

At this time, compliance is not mandatory for Bodyworkers in the industry of Alternative Healthcare (unless the information is used in an insurance claim situation), but many Information Technology systems are developing in order to accommodate the eventual governmental requirement. If you didn’t know already, currently it is industry-standard to get a written release form from the Client in order for the Practitioner to give or receive health record information from the Client’s doctor.

Look in the near future for your practitioner to have HIPAA information and compliant forms with his or her intake form to assure you that your information is handled with the level of concern and confidentiality it deserves.

National Certification Board Unveils Employer “Center of Excellence” Program

I got the email today, probably along with many certificants who are on the NCBTMB’s e-mailing list! I’d heard from the NCBTMB rep at the IECSC expo back in July (some fun pics!) that they were going to start this program for massage businesses that employ Nationally-Certified MTs, and I was very excited!

The Center of Excellence that the NCB proposes building is a marketing tool that can put a massage business in the lime light of the NCB’s efforts to promote massage therapy businesses that employ ONLY Nationally-Certified massage therapists and bodyworkers.

The NCB is not advertising a cost for this program, at least through the media I’ve received, so I am interested to find out what cost there is/will be. After contacting them, I think the NCB will lay it on whoever’s interested enough to contact them.

There are pros and cons to this method, but I think the aim for the NCB is to encourage certification processes continue at a rate where jurisdictions rely on the NCE as a benchmark for competency while rewarding the employers and businesses that utilize these same certificants with advertising from an established authority.

No matter your opinions or experience with the NCB (and I have heard varied and sundry accounts!), the aim is to enhance the marketability of a practitioner up to this point, and with the new program, to promote businesses that utilize certified MTs to provide services from that business utilization.

I definitely think that for the new/renewal rates that the NCB charges that this is a step in Certificants and the public getting to see the real value of being NCB-certified!

For more information about these credentials, contact the NCB through their website for more information- and post what you find out so we can get the WHOLE picture as it develops!

Leave a comment about what you see the PROS and CONS to be!

Distance Education: Pro or Con?

In the field of Massage Therapy, and in Nevada to be more specific, the Nevada State Board of Massage Therapists require 12 Continuing Education (CE) hours in our field (approved by the Board) in order to remain licensed as a Massage Therapist. This coincides with the 4-year goal of the National Certification Board of Therapeutic Massage & Bodywork’s (NCBTMB) requirement of 48 CE hours for recertification. On November 16th, 2007, the NCBTMB began accepting Distance Education (DE) courses as a viable component of the professional training required to be an NCBTMB Certificant (Nationally Certified). Face-to-Face (F2F) courses have been the mainstay in the field of Massage Therapy and the frequency and availability of DE courses is steadily rising. F2F & DE courses make CE hours (credits) available to NCBTMB Certificant when the certificant completes the number of hours of training required for each course category: F2F courses offer live instruction with hands-on opportunities for training, practice, and evaluation; DE courses can be only by long distance (never interacting with the instructor, mostly internet-based) or a combination of long distance and face-to-face instruction (mostly in the testing phase of completion).
I speak from a practicing MT, educator, and MT educator’s point of view: I think in the long run that DE (Distance Education) courses do a disservice to the industry. The quality of the nature of massage therapy declines as DE courses are more and more the choice of practitioners that do not make the time to fulfill a standard of service: hands on learning.
I think making time to “be” a professional is critical in delivering the service that our clients expect from a certificant. “Hands On” is the nature of our profession. Just as we do not expect surgeons (a “hands on” profession) to learn by distance and then practice on their patients, we also cannot expect our instructors or MTs to not have hands on experience when teaching us a modality over distance or performing a massage - we expect the best and most value for our money and the credentialing agency that establishes their expertise should also. Do our clients expect us to never have practiced on a body (for taking DE courses) when we charge the rates we charge? I think one answer is they expect us to be proficient - hands on learning facilitates that key element in claiming we are practicing within our scope and have been critiqued and guided by our live instructor(s).
On the other hand, without some DE opportunities, many MTs would not otherwise be able to get the education they need to keep the credentials they need in this industry or want and have decided are the best fit for advertising and affiliating their professional image with excellence. I understand the need for convenience, inexpensive, and accessible CE opportunities.
Right now, a certificant can submit all DE credits for renewal of their NCTM or NCTMB accreditation. I believe that a percentage of DE credits of the whole 48 should be accepted as viable learning and practice tools for recertification purposes. MTs need to establish a commitment to the “best” care for our clients by integrating hands-on training in our careers. Our professional relationship with the NCB is a choice in many cases, sometimes it is a requirement of the local jurisdiction - some state licensing boards require CEs (of any approved type, DE or F2F) and the level of proficiency of their licensees is the state board’s responsibility. I think the NCB sets a standard for the industry and would hope that states and local jurisdictions would follow suit.

will the Clark County Public Hearing matter anyway?

So, since the letter from Clark County Business License was sent to massage therapy business owners in the County in February, the Public Hearing regarding the proposed Ordinance 1713-07 has been postponed twice - now, it’s scheduled for May 21st, 9am, at the Clark County Government Center on Grand Central Pkwy in Las Vegas.

The only thing I’ve seen is that steam is building on the MT (specifically, Independents) side, and I’ve seen a few interested and opinionated Establishments get involved, too.  I am really anxious to appear, speak, and see who else is appearing to fight this attempted blow of oppression on an industry that is slowly tearing itself away from being associated with prostitution in this Valley.

But:  Will this steam be productive?  Has the Commission been “advised” already as to the potential and expected turnout from business owners that received the proposterous letter suggesting that massage therapy “crime” has increased and they need a way to keep it under control?

Will they realize (or have they realized) that this poor attempt to micro-manage massage therapy business owners to take the fall for an obviously non-oppressed prostitution industry is too feeble?

Why have they continued to put off a confrontation and a business owner’s right to voice their opinions about laws that they see as serving the safety of the public [Clark County]?

I think it is because there is no value in the proposal - they are attempting to levy power that constitutionally is reserved for the massage therapy business owners to do business according to the needs of their clients in a 24-hour, transient town.

Licensing is a recording and taxing method, not a “moral” issue, for which they’ve not proven there has been unruly law-breaking going on by massage therapists.  Only unrestrained prostitution is the concern, and the fact that the crime rate has gone up only shows that Metro is performing their duty according to the current law.

Since the Nevada State Board of Massage Therapists was created and made law in 2006 (grandfathering for currently-licensed MTs until July 1, 2007), the Board has shouldered the responsibility of verifying the professional credentials and legitimacy of MTs practicing everywhere in the state of Nevada - even Clark County.  The County no longer has to prove that an MT passes a Federal background check (for civil or criminal charges or convictions) or that an MT is qualified to do the work they advertise, based on industry-established norms.

Why make us pay?  Why continue with this proposal?  Why not support the District Attorney when prosecuting solicitation endictments?

I guess they’d have to triple the size of County Jail to incarcerate the convicted prostitutes, which would have more than the “none” (cited) fiscal impact that passing this Ordinance would have on massage therapy business owners.

 

SEE OTHER MASSAGE THERAPIST’S OPINIONS AT:  http://massage.meetup.com/251