Dear colleagues,

This is a warning by the German Society of Plastic, Reconstructive and Aesthetic Surgeons about a new type of internet fraud particularly searching for plastic surgeons as victims.

The way they proceed:

Plastic surgeons receive an e-mail with a request for aesthetic surgery from patients from England, Scotland or the Arab World like e.g.:

Hello,
My name is……….. My wife wants to under go a surgical breast reduction. she is 26 of age.
She suddenly became uncomfortable considering the size and hence,wishes to go for an operation,although,she is not in danger medically, but I know this has been a source of emotional/psychological embarrassment for her as it shows no sign of reducing after we had spent so much time and money in gym.She is not always happy with it.
My wife and my personal assistance will be coming over for holidays on the 20th of June 2011.Could you please let me know the medical charges involved and also if you accept credit card payment. Your swift response shall be appreciated.

If the plastic surgeon responds, he/she receives a credit card number from which he/she should deduct amounts of e.g. 12.000 Euro. Part of the money should be sent to a travel agent by the plastic surgeon.

These credit card numbers most probably belong to cards that were stolen.

Obviously some of our colleagues already lost money by responding to this request.

It is disgusting how much time we have to spend to struggle with internet fraud!

Take care and all the best!

Marita Eisenmann-Klein 

General Secretary