A leading charity which offers music therapies to victims of Northern Ireland's Troubles has told how it was almost scammed out of cash by a fake offer of a baby grand piano.
Wave Trauma Centre, based in Belfast, works with families bereaved by the violence including the so-called Disappeared.
Now it is warning other charities to be on the lookout for the scam.
Wave uses music therapy as part of its support and counselling work.
It was contacted by email by "Margaret" who said she was reaching out on behalf of a friend "Gretchen" whose husband "Michael" had died.
Margaret said she followed Wave's work and Gretchen's wanted to gift the charity her husband's piano because she did not feel it was "right to sell it".
Photographs of the instrument were supplied.
The offer was gratefully accepted by Wave whose chief executive Sandra Peake explained how it would be used.
"Clients really benefit from availing of music," she said.
"We see how immensely beneficial it is in helping to destress, reprocess and develop new skills as well as having fun and making new connections."
The charity confirmed it would take the piano and was told it only had to pay for its delivery from a "temperature-controlled storage unit" in Belfast.
It even had contact with a storage company to confirm the location of the piano.
Gretchen was delighted Wave would accept the piano.
She said she was due to have surgery before moving to France and wanted to organise its transfer before she left.
She also said her only wish was to visit Wave and see the piano being played as part of its services.
However, when the payment request to cover the delivery costs arrived it came through an online banking app rather than an invoice.
Wave became suspicious and began making checks.
It discovered that the person requesting payment was based in Bulgaria and the haulage company they were planning to use was based in Oman and the Philippines.
"That was a long way away given the piano was in a temperature-controlled storage unit in Belfast," Sandra Peake said.
"And as we looked, it appeared the poor "Gretchen" seems to have been in other countries too, often by a different name but sharing the same sad story offering her husband's piano."
Ms Peake said Wave was fortunate that it discovered the scam before it sent any money, but they wanted to alert other charities.
"If you are a musical group beware - it's a scam the appears to have crossed the globe," she said.
