Reported scams:
Con artists are constantly coming up with new ways to scam people into providing them with personal information and obtaining money from them. Unfortunately, mental health professionals are not immune to these scams. Our efforts to prevent scammers from contacting members through our site are very effective. However, we have received reports of a small number of malicious contacts that mention GoodTherapy.org. A description of such a scam is below. Please read it carefully in order to help protect yourself.

If you receive a text message stating that someone will be visiting the U.S. from another country and claiming to have acquired your contact information from GoodTherapy.org, please be cautious. This likely will be followed up with a request to send payment in advance in the form of a cashier’s check. The next step in this scam likely would lead to you receiving a cashier’s check in the mail made out for too much money. A request would then be made for a refund of the overpayment amount to be sent to a third party. The cashier’s check will later bounce, and you will be responsible for the amount of the check. We recommend that you do not correspond with and do not agree to accept payment from people in the situation described above.

Example text messages:

  • "I'll need your services when I arrive in the US and want to make arrangements ahead of time."
  • Hello, i got your number from goodtherapy.org. My name is _____ ______, married with 2 wonderful kids. Your professional service will be highly needed. You can get back to me directly via (_______@_____.com). Thanks and have a very good day."

If you suspect that a potential client contact might be a scam attempt, it can’t hurt to do a web search for phrases from the message in question. Additionally, here are some resources that may be helpful in determining whether and how to respond to such a contact:

http://www.scambusters.org/
http://www.scamvictimsunited.com/index.htm
http://www.snopes.com/fraud/fraud.asp