MILWAUKEE (CBS 58) -- If your church needs a new piano and is shopping around online, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) has a warning about scammers.
The bureau has gotten a half dozen communications from churches about sketchy offers of "free pianos."
According to a BBB spokesperson, the Wisconsin churches get a message -- unsolicited -- from someone claiming to have a piano that they want to donate, and they ask the churches to apply if they're interested. The BBB believes these are "advance pay" scams, where they ask for pre-payment for something that's promised but never materializes.
"You're going to be asked to pay for the movers, the shipping costs if that's the case, insurance possibly," said Lisa Schiller with the BBB. "You may also be possibly asked to pay for piano tuning and other fees in any untraceable method the perpetrator is asking for."
Lisa Schiller with the BBB says any church that gets a message like this should delete it without responding and contact the BBB's scam tracker HERE.