Vaccinations for Overseas Ball Players

Before you travel overseas, it's always a good idea to check the "Traveler's Health" section of the Web Site for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.  You can access the site by clicking here.  You can then scroll down and select the country (or countries) that you will be visiting.  You can then scroll down to the section that's labeled "Vaccine-Preventable Diseases."  That section will tell you which vaccines the CDC recommends before traveling to the specific country.  For most western European countries the CDC generally recommends having the same vaccines that one should have here in the US (but that's not always the case, so it's a good idea to double check).  In addition to checking the CDC's site you should also consult with your physician to determine which vaccines and/or medications you might need for your trip overseas.

The State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program & Overseas Ball Players

I have recently started encouraging my clients to enroll in the US State Department's Smart Traveler Enrollment Program ("STEP").  Enrolling in the STEP program helps to ensure that a US Citizen traveling abroad will have access to assistance from US Embassies and Consulates (this is especially important in emergency situations). 

Enrollment is easy: just click here and you'll be directed to the STEP program enrollment page where you can create a new account and notify the State Department of the details of your trip.  You can then re-login and change any of your information if any of the details about your trip change.

Have a great trip!

DISCLAIMER: Use of any information from this site or any other web site referred to is for general information only and does not represent personal legal advice either express or implied. You are encouraged to seek professional legal advice for questions and assistance.

Beware of Fake Agents and Fake Teams!

UPDATE (8/20/2011):  The impostor has put up a new Facebook page (located here).  I informed Facebook and hopefully it will be removed like the last one. 

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UPDATE (8/17/2011):  The impostor Facebook page has been removed!  Thanks to everyone that reported it!

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UPDATE (8/7/2011): Help shut down the scammer's Facebook and Yahoo accounts! 

To report the fake profile to Facebook, click here and you'll be taken to the fake profile.  Below the list of friends on the left side of the page is a link to "Report/Block this Person".  A window will pop up where you can select "This profile is pretending to be someone or is fake".  Then select "Represents a Business or Organization" and click "Continue."  I reported the site as fake several days ago, but it's still up so hopefully if more users report it as fake it will be taken down.

To report the fake yahoo address click here.  Enter the yahoo ID "davidcollier_law" (don't forget to include the "_" before "law").  Under "What is the Violation" select "Fraud."  Then, copy and paste the headers (the "To:, From:, Subject:, etc.) and the contents of the email in the space provided (and any additional information you want to provide).

If you've been contacted by the scammer, you should also report them to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center by clicking here.

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UPDATE (8/4/2011): I just recieved an email from another player who was contacted by the scam agent through Facebook.  The Facebook page is located here.  A screenshot of the page is also stored here.

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Today I received an email from a player who was contacted by a fake agent pretending to be me.  The player was told that a team in Spain was interested in signing him and wanted to fly him over to Spain for a tryout.  Of course, buried in the email was a requirement that the player send the club (through the fake agent) $400.00 to cover some type of bogus insurance fee.  The email to the player was sent from the address davidcollier_law@yahoo.com (which looks like it could be my email address, but is not).  The player wisely looked up my profile on the FIBA website and noticed that the email address being used by the fake agent was not the email address listed on the site.  He contacted me through the listed email address to check that the offer was legitimate.  Fortunately, the player had not sent any money to the fake agent or the fake team.

As a general rule, if a team or agent ever asks for money up front from a player it is a scam.  These scams happen frequently so it's important to double-check any offers early in the process.  Often a scammer will string the player along for several days before asking for money.  They make the player do things like having pictures taken for "travel documents" or having copies of birth certificates or passports notarized.  They do all of these things to get the player to "buy into" into the opportunity with the fake team.  The scammers know that an emotionally invested player is more likely to pay their bogus fees.

If you are suspicious that you are not communicating with a bona fide agent, look that player-agent up in the FIBA agent's directory and contact that agent through the contact number or email address listed there.  You can access the directory by clicking here.  If you are suspicious of a team or coach, you should try to contact the team or coach through the information listed on the team's website.  Although some teams do not have contact information on their web sites, most do.  You can find links to team web sites on eurobasket.com.  Eurobasket also has a "Scams" forum where players, agents and teams can post information about various scams.

Be Careful!

New IRS Rule Requires Reporting of Foreign Bank Accounts (This affects overseas ball players!)

A new IRS rule that should be of interest to US professional athletes playing abroad came into effect today.  The new rule says that a US Citizen who has a foreign bank account that exceeds the equivalent of $10,000.00 (US) at any time during the 2010 calendar year must report that account to the IRS.  It doesn't matter if your average account balance was below $10,000.00.  If the account was ever above $10,000.00 then the rule applies to you.  The requirement also applies if you have multiple accounts and the combined total of the accounts is ever greater than $10,000.00 (in other words, you can't avoid the reporting requirement by maintaining multiple foreign accounts).  This requirement applies to all accounts - even those accounts that do not contain US dollars (you would simply convert the amount to dollars when making the calculation to determine if you have to report). 

The report is due by June 30th of every calendar year (it's an annual reporting requirement - so you'll do it every year that you have an account over $10,000.00).  If you think you may be affected by this requirement, it's important that you discuss it with your tax advisor.  You can get more information and links to the reporting form here.

DISCLAIMER: Use of any information from this site or any other web site referred to is for general information only and does not represent personal tax advice either express or implied. You are encouraged to seek professional tax advice for personal income tax questions and assistance.