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Hi everyone, my name is David Stanley, and I run 3dprintedbagpipes.com. I received an email from a "17 year old son of a single mother" who told me his name is "Deonte". Now normally I can spot a scam a mile away - typical robot text-to-voice from "Amazon Customer Service about a $1599 charge to my credit card... blah, blah, blah" and then you get transferred to a guywho claims his name is Charles, oddly enough always from a TextNow or GoogleVoice telephone number.... Rrrrrriiiiight.... Anyway, this was a new one to me, the kid said he played the clarinet, his grandad played the bagpipes and he is desperate for a set. He never asked how to go about learning, he just asked me for a set of pipes to "Evaluate and Test". But he had no idea how to play the bagpipes. Oddly enough, I mentioned it in passing to one of customers, and he gave me details about this kid's story that I hadn't even mentioned yet...
Has anyone had any contact with this kid? If it is a kid? Anyway, I offered to cut him a deal, and would give him a practice chanter and tutor book and when he learned the massed bands tunes I would print him a set. He didn't seem terribly interested in that, telling me that he learns everything by ear. I explained the learning process with the Pipes, and he said he'd be fine leaning by ear.
I guess the point of all of this is 1. Has anyone received some sort of request like this? And 2. Have the overseas scammers made me too paranoid? And finally, if you don't know how to play the pipes, but want to learn, wouldn't you ask about how to learn, rather than just ask for a set of pipes, much less from a complete stranger to whom you have never been introduced?
Oh, and "Deonte" used absolutely NO punctuation whatsoever in his email. Nothing. Not a single period, comma, or anything. I thought that was odd as well.
Cheers to all, and Happy Piping!!!
Dave Stanley
Great Sound. Great Price. Made in the USA.
Has anyone had any contact with this kid? If it is a kid? Anyway, I offered to cut him a deal, and would give him a practice chanter and tutor book and when he learned the massed bands tunes I would print him a set. He didn't seem terribly interested in that, telling me that he learns everything by ear. I explained the learning process with the Pipes, and he said he'd be fine leaning by ear.
I guess the point of all of this is 1. Has anyone received some sort of request like this? And 2. Have the overseas scammers made me too paranoid? And finally, if you don't know how to play the pipes, but want to learn, wouldn't you ask about how to learn, rather than just ask for a set of pipes, much less from a complete stranger to whom you have never been introduced?
Oh, and "Deonte" used absolutely NO punctuation whatsoever in his email. Nothing. Not a single period, comma, or anything. I thought that was odd as well.
Cheers to all, and Happy Piping!!!
Dave Stanley
Great Sound. Great Price. Made in the USA.
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