International Art Scammers Want You!
I was approached this past week with something that looked great at first but turned out to be a major scam with the potential to take advantage of many artists. Thankfully my brother who is a photographer knew all about this and warned me before things progressed too far – but other artists need to be aware. It goes like this:
A man emailed me, (the letters always seem to open with “Good Day” and then they introduce themselves) and said he had seen my art and was interested in purchasing a particular piece, if it is still available. He said he is relocating to the UK for business immediately (creating a sense of urgency for speedy service), and that he has his own shipper ready to take care of that end of things for him including insurance.
I initially assumed this was legitimate, and wrote back to tell him that the piece was available either as an original or a giclee, and described pricing and all other pertinant info. He informed me that he would like the giclee, to consider it purchased, and that he would be sending out a cashiers check immediately with an overdraft that would cover my piece as well as the shipper.
I was instructed to deposit the check, and then pay the shipper for him at that time. I wrote back to say that I preferred that he send two checks, and I would be happy to give one to the shipper upon pickup, and that I would need a receipt for the shipping so I know the total and the company info. He replied that he was sending only one check as this was easier for him and that I should just pay the shipper out of that.
Red flags for me:
With each email I asked politely for his contact info and address so I could keep it for my records, and also I inquired how he found my site. He never gave me this info. Finally he gave me an address in North Carolina (hm…he is instantly relocating to the UK so this is useless).
Also, who would tell a business person how to conduct their business? If I ask for two checks that should be no big deal, as it is still only one trip to the bank. Also, why can’t his own shipper just bill him?
I asked him if his shipper would be handling the packing, and said that I assume he is familiar with handling artwork, that I would not be responsible for the safe delivery of my piece once it left my studio, and to please confirm that he understood this. He never responded to this.
Well…thank God my brother warned me about this as he had seen the scam before. Here is how it works:
The assumption is that you will receive the check, deposit it and send out the goods and pay from your account to the “shipper” who will leave with your money and art. The check will ultimately never clear, or bounce or something and you are out the money and art. (I have shipped art from LA to DC and it was $500. for one large canvas…imagine the cost to the UK!)
Well, I have run a business for too long, and was not planning to process any order or release any goods until the check cleared in my account, but I still felt that this might come back to bite me.
Finally, I emailed the man back, saying that I was not comfortable with the arrangement, and that he would need to send two checks or pay the shipper directly or I would not proceed. He wrote me back that it was too late…he had already sent the check and so we would need to proceed as planned. He also said (I guess because he knew I was suspicious) that he heard about me through “a friend” (hm…what friend?? This did not do the trick).
My final email stated that I would simply send the check back to the address he gave me in North Carolina when I received it, and that I was sorry for any inconvenience. I have not heard back.
It seems that there are many variations on this scam, but all have a similar phrasing and all involve an overdraft of some sort to be paid to a third party from the person targeted.
My brother now responds to these saying he does not do bookings by email, and to call his studio to make arrangements (which seems to end it right there).
So – be careful. There are many scams targeted at parting enthusiastic artists from their art and their cash. Don’t let your excitement over a potential sale overshadow your common sense!
Editor’s Note: Guest Author, Tanya Mikaela is an award-winning artist from Southern California. She was recently showcased in our Featured Artist section.
Popularity: 19% [?]
I was approached by a similar scam. It was from a “Doctor” who’s son was graduating from law school. His son was opening a law office and he wanted to buy 4 originals as a gift for his son to decorate his office. I thought wow perfect. As the process continued he then asked me since I live in the US to purchase a couple of laptops, since it was more in his country, for the business and he would give me a credit card number, which I could add 10% on for my trouble. I would charge him the cost of the laptops and the art and I could ship them all together. That is when I started to think it was a scam.
When he gave me a credit card, I entered the info and it was declined. I got another number from him and the second was declined. I told him I could just charge for the art, but he never responded after that. Go figure.
It is actually very useful to publish online the original email text that you received. I received in the past couple of emails like that, one for art scam, and one for job-search scam. The first thing I did was copy key phrases from the email and Google it. I immediately found sites that published the original text of a scam email, and it was identical!
If there are new scamers over there, I know they do create new texts, but this is really like spam. They try with the same text to as many fish they can caught in their nets.
Can you upload that original email text?
Thanks
Moshe
This sort of thing makes me a little glad that so far, I mostly work in small amounts, and I generally take payments only through PayPal, which I am pretty sure verifies account holders before you ever encounter them.
I did have a question, though. I’ve gotten a few e-mails for sites called things like “FineArtAmerica.com”, etc, who usually claim to have seen my work and offer me a place to sell prints on their site. These also seem like, if not direct scams, often a way to waste your time, as they don’t really seem to have paid much attention to the artists. (I do children’s illustration, not really fine art.) What has been your experience with those kinds of e-mails or sites?
We have battled the phishing scams for several years in our free online community ArtistSites.org. Even with all of the “red flags” artists often get excited at the prospect of a sale that they let all common sense go out the door. We have posted a page on ArtistSites.org that provides examples of the emails and solicitations that we see coming through. http://artistsites.org/art-scam-alerts.php Hopefully this will help other artists identify potential scams before falling victim.
This comment is from Pamela Dunmire. Somehow her comment landed on another post so I am reposting it here…
The same thing happened to me last year. This man contacted me via e-mail, stating he had a store in Finland and wanted two of my paintings for his store, he wanted to use his own shipper. I tried to research his store, but could not find such a place in Helsinki, nor could I find anything on his shipper. Immediate Red Flag so I e-mailed back and told him that I would only ship UPS or Fed Ex. He came back and insisted on his shipper and that he would send me a check. I wrote back that I was on to his scam and never heard from him again.
I just read this article today … and what do you know? I received a scam email the same day! Here is a copy of the scam email:
Hello,
I need to know if your products are available in stock for immediate order,so can you reconfirm your website,so i can review again with the products interested in,and do let me know if there will be any special pricing i need to know about.
Lastly regarding payment I will be sending you my credit card for the full payment charges for my order,do you accept Visa or Master?
I hope to hear from you as soon as possible so we can proceed with the Order.
Regards.
(Persons name goes here) .
We were approached with an email yesterday inquiring about a piece of art. When I responded, I received this reply:
“Good to hear back from you. Yes,i will like to proceed with the purchase.I know that it would add a lot of colors to our wall.
I am presently away in London for my twin sister’s wedding even though it comes at a time when we are preparing for a big move and also expecting a baby but my presence here means so much to her.I Would also like to have my baby girl here and i am buying this artwork for her.
Meanwhile,i will like you to forward your address and phone number so i can inform my husband still shuttling between our home in Alabama and Cape Town, South Africa on where to forward the payment.He has just been transferred to head the Mechanical section of their head Office in Cape town.
I can also forward your contact info to the local cartage company that will be moving all our house decors so they can get in touch with you to arrange shipping details. They can arrange pick up via UPS pick up of the artwork from your studio.
I will look forward to hearing from you so i can know how best to proceed. Cheers.”
It sounded suspicious and I remembered this article. I googled the whole text content and, sure enough, it is one of the scams! Thanks for the alert Tanya!
Daniel.
lol, i got the same one as Daniel did. Here it is (from Linda Coey , lincoey01@yahoo.com):
Please let me have your address,phone number and the name that would be written on the certified check so that I can inform my husband that is still shuttling between our home in Alabama and Cape Town, South Africa on whom to make the payment payable to.He has just been transferred to head the Mechanical section of their head Office in Cape town.He would be quite busy though,but I know he would find a time to send your payment asap.He loves artworks too.
About the shipping arrangement?I would forward your contact info to the local cartage company that is moving all our properties from Alabama to S.Africa,so that they would get in touch with you to arrange shipping details.They will arrange pick up of the artwork via UPS from your studio.They are handling all our movement arrangement and we would not like to move in pieces.
I hope you understand the arrangement?please fell free to ask further questions.I saw your works while searching for artwork that would be used to beautify our new wall and your work caught my attention.I cant wait to have it on the wall!!!
I will look forward to hearing from you so I can know how best to proceed.
Cheers.
Best Regards,
Linda.