If you coach independently or run a fencing club, read this before you respond to your next new client inquiry.
In the past week alone, I received three of these. Coaches I know personally have gotten them too. A scam that’s been circulating in the broader fitness and tutoring community has found its way into the fencing world, and it’s convincing enough that it deserves a detailed breakdown.
Here’s exactly how it works…and how to protect yourself.
How the Scam Works
Step 1: A Normal-Looking Inquiry
You receive an email from a parent asking about private fencing lessons for their child. The message is polite and enthusiastic. They mention their kid is interested in getting serious about the sport. Nothing about it raises a flag — it looks like any other new client inquiry you’ve received dozens of times.
Step 2: The Overpayment Offer
When you respond with your rates, they come back with something like:
“We’d like to prepay for a block of lessons. In fact, we can send you a larger check to cover additional expenses — equipment rental, club fees, whatever else comes up.”
The check they send is large. Significantly larger than what you quoted. They may explain the excess as covering their driver’s travel expenses, or a travel stipend for their child, or simply frame it as easier to send one big payment. The amount often runs anywhere from a few hundred to several thousand dollars over your actual fee.
Step 3: The Check Clears — Or Appears To
You deposit the check. After a day or two, your bank shows the funds as available. You can see the balance. This is the moment the scam is designed around: available funds are not the same as cleared funds. Banks are legally required to make deposits available within 1–5 business days, but a check can still bounce for weeks afterward once the bank fully processes it against the issuing account.
Step 4: The Ask
Now that you believe the money is in your account, they contact you again:
“My child is coming to your club with our driver. Could you pay the driver directly for transportation costs? You can just use the money from the check we sent and keep the rest for lessons.”
They’ll ask you to pay via Cash App, Venmo, Zelle, or another peer-to-peer payment app. The amount might be $200, $500, or more.
You send it. Feels fine! After all, you “have the money.”
Step 5: The Check Bounces
Days later, sometimes up to two or three weeks later, your bank reverses the deposit. The check was fraudulent. You’re now out whatever you sent to the “driver,” and your bank may charge you an additional returned-check fee. The scammer is long gone. The money sent via Cash App is unrecoverable.
Red Flags to Watch For
These are the warning signs, roughly in order of when they appear:
- They volunteer to overpay. Legitimate clients don’t offer to pay more than you asked. Any unsolicited overpayment should immediately put you on alert.
- They want to use a check for a large upfront amount. Personal or business checks from strangers are a classic fraud vehicle. The delay between apparent availability and actual clearing is exactly what the scam exploits.
- A third party appears. Real families scheduling lessons don’t have drivers who need to be paid separately by the coach. The introduction of a driver, courier, or assistant who needs payment from you is the pivot point of the scam.
- They ask you to pay via Cash App, Zelle, or Venmo. These apps transfer money instantly and irreversibly. Scammers rely on this. Once that money leaves your account, there is virtually no way to get it back.
- The communication is slightly off. Grammar may be unusual. They may avoid phone calls and stick strictly to email. They may not know basic fencing terminology when pressed, or be vague about where they heard about you.
- Urgency or awkward timing. They want to schedule quickly, the child is “visiting from out of town,” or there’s some logistical reason why everything needs to happen fast.
How to Protect Yourself
1. Never send money back from a check you just received.
This is the cardinal rule. Under no circumstances should you forward any portion of a deposited check to a third party, regardless of how available the funds appear. If a new client’s first transaction involves them sending you money and you sending money back, stop immediately. If the check is worth more than the service you offer, this is likely too good to be true.
2. Wait for full clearance before acting on deposited funds.
Ask your bank explicitly: “Has this check fully cleared against the issuing account?” Available balance and cleared balance are different things. A check can take 2–3 weeks to fully process through the banking system, especially for larger amounts or out-of-state checks.
3. Use bank transfers or verified payment apps for receiving payment.
Accept Zelle, Venmo, or Square from clients: these pull from real accounts. Receiving a paper check from a stranger you’ve never met in person is high-risk.
4. Insist on an in-person or video call introduction.
Ask to jump on a quick call or video chat before accepting any payment. Scammers almost always avoid live conversation. A genuine parent enrolling their kid in fencing will have no objection to a five-minute phone call.
5. Search the inquiry email address or phone number.
Copy the email address or number and paste it into Google. Scam operations often reuse contact information, and there’s a reasonable chance someone has flagged it on a scam-reporting site.
6. Trust your gut on the offer structure.
If the payment arrangement sounds complicated for what should be a simple transaction, it’s because it is. Lessons are simple: client pays coach, coach teaches. Any deviation from that — prepaid excess funds, third-party payments, drivers, reimbursements — is a reason to pause.
7. Investigate.
One of the emails I got had a profile pic. I did a reverse image search on Google, and the pic this fraudster used returned the sensei of a Philadelphia based martial arts dojo that didn’t match the name of the email sender. When I put their email address into Google, nothing came up (not necessarily dispositive of being a scammer but can be a datapoint). Ask to FaceTime or have a phone call.
What To Do If You’ve Already Been Hit
If you’ve already deposited a check and sent money before discovering the fraud:
- Contact your bank immediately. Explain the situation and ask about fraud protection options. They may be able to place a hold on the check reversal while you file a report, though recovery is not guaranteed.
- File a report with the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. This doesn’t guarantee recovery but creates a record and contributes to enforcement efforts.
- Report to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) at ic3.gov if any part of the scheme occurred online (email, etc.).
- Contact Cash App, Venmo, or Zelle support immediately to report the transaction as fraud. While peer-to-peer payments are rarely reversible, filing a report creates a paper trail and may help if the scammer has a pattern of activity.
- Warn others. Post in your regional fencing Facebook group, mention it at your next coaches’ meeting, forward this post. The more coaches who recognize this pattern, the fewer who fall for it.
The Bottom Line
This scam works because fencing coaches are small business owners who want new clients, and because the early stages of the approach look completely legitimate. It exploits the delay in check clearing that most people don’t fully understand, and it weaponizes payment apps that are specifically designed to move money fast and with finality.
The whole operation costs the scammer a few minutes and a fraudulent check. It can cost you hundreds or thousands of dollars and the headache of dealing with your bank.
Protect yourself, share this with other coaches in your network, and when in doubt: no legitimate new client will ever need you to send money on their behalf.
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