Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this asswipe trying to rip off artists! If you wanna know how the scam works, do a search in this blog (box to the upper left) and search for "Art Scam" in quotes... or click here... and scroll around until you (a) see all other scammers and (b) see explanations on how the scam works...

From: Jackson Banks jacksonbanks247@gmail.com
Date: April 9, 2018
Subject: Mermaids Lace Triptych - (left panel)

Hello There,
          My name is Jackson Banks from New Jersey. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work. I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too,  You are doing a great job. I would like to purchase one of the Sea Foam Series "Mermaids Lace Triptych - (left panel)", as a surprise to my wife on our anniversary. Also, let me know if you accept Check as mode of Payment.

Thanks and best regards
Jackson.

Art Scam Alert!

Avoid this mutant trying to rip off artists! Pass this post to fellow artists - and if you want to know how the scam works, go the blog search box on the upper left and type in "art scam" in quotes and it will describe the different variants of this scam.

From: Thomasfred50005000@gmail.com

Good Day Im Thomas Fred From NC. I observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of art work, I'm also impressed to have seen your different piece of works too, : ) You are doing an amazing job.I would like to receive more information about your piece of artwork and what inspires you. I am very much interested in buying a piece of art ,to surprise my wife. Kindly reply for the immediate art work for purchase ?? (Thomasfred50005000@gmail.com) Best Regards Thomas

Art Scam Alert!

They just keep on coming!!! Do not respond to this asswipe trying to rip off artists!

If you wanna know how the scam works, do a search in this blog (box to the upper left) and search for "Art Scam" in quotes... or click here... and scroll around until you (a) see all other scammers and (b) see explanations on how the scam works...

From: thomasfred500500@mechengr.com

Good Day Im Thomas Fred From NC. I observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of art work, I'm also impressed to have seen your different piece of works too, : ) You are doing an amazing job.I would like to receive more information about your piece of artwork and what inspires you. I am very much interested in buying a piece of art ,to surprise my wife. Kindly reply for the immediate art work for purchase ?? (Thomasfred5050@gmail.com) Best Regards Thomas

Nigerian Art Scam

In the past I have discussed a little bit about the very convincing Internet scam that seems to address a lot of art from artists and art galleries. A few years ago (when this scam was very new) we came really close to losing a lot of money, but luckily (and only after we really pressed our bank for assistance) did we avoid it.

We still get 2-3 emails a week from the scammers.

Can You Picture That (which is a new DC Blog and has been added to the Blogroll) has a good tutorial of how the scam works.

All gallerists and artists should definately review this posting.

Visit Can You Picture That often!

Second Art Scam Alert of the day!

Artist Carla Goldberg in NY got this scam email yesterday:

From: Mark Griffin markgoodlife1@aol.com
Subject: art

Greetings,



Happy New Year! I would like to make a purchase to Europe. I will be making payment by means of my credit card. I will like to know if there is any special discount. Lastly regarding shipment, my picker will come for the pickup after payment.

May I proceed with my order?  Mark Griffin

See the earlier alert here.

The scam works like this.

Art Scam

I've got another art scam email to share:

From: Samuel Matinez (s.martinez212@gmail.com)
Sent: Wed 8/04/10 4:12 PM
--
Hi Dear,
My name is Samuel Martinez, i will like to order for some piece of your work from your studio as gift for my parent are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so i will be glad to have your reply as soon as possible, i will be glad if you can send me your website address to choose or send me four of your product via email that is available for me to choose.

Waiting to read from you today.so that we can make some progress.

I will be waiting to read from you at you convinet time.

thanks

Samuel Martinez.

This asshole can't even spell his fake name right (Matinez). But as it is the tradition in my dealings with these scam emails, I always send them a hook back. Here's my response:

Dear Samuel,

Thank you for your order and interest. I am very pleased with your interest and desire to own some of my artwork. As you probably already know, recently I've sold a lot of work thanks to all that great publicity that I received! I've never had so much money in the bank in my life before. It is so odd to struggle in making good art for so long, and then suddenly a break happens and people are buying my artwork from all over. Last month alone I deposited over $750,000 in my bank account from art sales. There's well over a million dollars in there now!

I am very picky as to who owns my artwork. Before I sell it to you, I need to know a few things about you. Also, I will need an international money order as payment or I can send you all my bank account details and you can transfer the funds. I will ship the artwork as soon as I receive an International Money Order.

But before that can even be a conversation I need to make sure that my precious, beloved artwork will be loved and in the collection of a deserving collector. Therefore, I need to know a little more about you. Where do you live and what do you do for a living? (Warning: if you are a Kosher or Halal butcher, I will refuse to sell you my art). Also, if you are married, I need to know if you have children. If you do, you must promise in writing that you will protect my artwork from possible damage from the rugrats.

I am also picky as to where you will hang the work. Please send me JPG (not TIFF) images of your walls in your house so that I can select the spot where you'd hang the work.

Please forgive me for being so picky, but my artwork is very important to me, and I know that it will give you years and years of visual pleasure. We can work together to make sure that it works out well.

May Allah, Yaweh, Buddha, Christ and Crom bless your home and may the bluebird of happiness fly all over the house of Martinez

your friend The Lennymeister....

PS - Can I call you Sammy?

Scam Alert

Recently received a scam phone call from a heavily accented dude calling from the "Windows Security Center" -- this is a classic cold call scam -- the phone that showed up as coming from was (325) 477-7355.

New Art Scam

This is a scam... posted exactly as received, with all the grammar errors which usually characterize this sort of scam...

From: kevinstokes12345@rocketmail.com
Date: Mon, Nov 17, 2008 at 10:59 AM
Subject: Artists File Online: Your artworks
To:

**This following message was sent to you by a person who found your artwork on Artists Space's Artists File Online website. www.artistsspace.org/artistsfile Please report any problems or concerns regarding this email to artfile@artistsspace.org

My name is kevin, I am an individual art agent and interior decorator from Glasgow, scotland. I got an order for the supply of some artworks from a group of client, and when i came across your portfolio on your site, while searching for good artworks, I found some of them to interest me and fit what i am looking for, and I intend to market these items to my client and also negotiate a price that will include your price (i.e your selling price) and a mark-up as a profit for my effort.
Payment will be made directly to you at the price i am selling and i will expect you to ship after payment clears and send me my commission /margin afterwards.
My client prefers to make payment using a credit card as this is much easier and cost effective for an international transaction thus will provide you directly their credit card for payment.
Please let me know if you do commission work and if you accept master card payment after which I will let you know the items we are interested in, and we can proceed with the order.
I am looking forward to a long term working relationship beyond this order.I am sorry I do not have a website yet but it should be ready soon however you can always contact me if you have any question and I would get back to you as soon as possible.
Hope to hear from you soon.
Best Regards.
kevin Stokes
kevinstokes12345@rocketmail.com

Delete this email if you get it or email Kevin back and tell him to go fuck himself.

Art Scam Alert!

Do not respond to this dweeb trying to rip off artists - if you want to know how the scam works, then search for "art scam" in the search box of this blog...

From: Edward Dwight dwightedward47@gmail.com

-- 

Greetings!

My name is Edward Dwight from Houston Texas I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too.You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you. I am very much interested in the purchase of your pieces to surprise my wife. Kindly confirm the availability of beautiful pieces for immediate sales.

Thanks and best regards

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant!!!! Rip off! Also, everytime that I post one of these, I get a dozen emails from artists and gallerists asking me how the scam works - and the occasional sad one of an artist/dealer getting ripped off... See answer at bottom:

Subject:   artwork is needed From:   "John Scotfield" johnscotfield2004@gmail.com Date:   Tue, August 9, 2016 7:07 am

Greetings! My name is john Scotfield from SC. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, : ) You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you. I am very much interested in the purchase of the piece (in subject field above) to surprise my wife. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate sales. Thanks and best regards, john.

The scam works like this:

• They pay you with a Bank draft and/or an International Money Order/Postal Money Order... sometimes stolen credit card numbers - note I said the plural form
• Your bank accepts the deposit and even clears it 3 days later... then about a month later they get a note from the other bank, post office, whatever saying that they've discovered that the draft was a fake.
• Then your bank takes the money out of your account.
• Meanwhile, you've already shipped the artwork out (usually to a foreign country, to which - of course - they've offered to pay shipping; the most ambitious and "local" rip off mutants have you ship to a US address, and once you provide a tracking number, they "wait" for FEDEX or UPS and pretend to be the homeowner as soon as FEDEX drives up and sign for the pacakge - but these "local" mutants are rare - the vast majority has the work shipped overseas.

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this rip off artist... if you want to know how the scam works... use the search box to the left and search for "art scam."

From: thomasfred500500@engineer.com

Top of the Morning to you, I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes some of your art piece, I must also say you are doing a great job. I would like to know what inspired that work. I am very much interested in the purchase to surprise my wife. Kindly confirm the availability for immediate art work for sales.(Thomasfred500500@gmail.com) Regards Thomas

Also this one:

 From: online-oceanengineer@tfred.com

 Good Day Im Thomas Fred From NC. I observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of art work, I'm also impressed to have seen your different piece of works too, : ) You are doing an amazing job.I would like to receive more information about your piece of artwork and what inspires you. I am very much interested in buying a piece of art ,to surprise my wife. Kindly reply for the immediate art work for purchase ?? (Thomasfred5050@gmail.com) Best Regards Thomas

Double Art Scam Alert!

Stay away from these rip off artists!. If you want to know how the scam works, then type "art scam" in quotes in the blog search box...

From: Patricia Williams -  lbrookes9797@gmail.com

Good Day,

How is work and family? I picked interest in your artwork and decided

to write you. I will like to know if your artwork can be purchased and

shipped internationally?. I can email the artwork of interest and

payment will be completed in full once you confirm my purchase order

with a quotation. Kindly let me know when you are in office and ready

to take my artwork order also let me know if you accept either Visa

Card / Master Card or PayPal for payment

Best Regards

Patricia Williams 

And also this one: 

From: Barbara Cummins  - czalett@gmail.com

Subject: Art Purchase

Reply-To: brc779@outlook.com

Good Day,

How is work and family? I picked interest in your artwork and decided

to write you. I will like to know if your artwork can be purchased and

shipped internationally?. I can email the artwork of interest and

payment will be completed in full once you confirm my purchase order

with a quotation. Kindly let me know when you are in office and ready

to take my artwork order also let me know if you accept either Visa

Card / Master Card or PayPal for payment

Best Regards

Barbara Cummins

Australian John: Art Scammer

Remember this art scam?

Now a "John" from Australia is doing the same scam... be careful if you get an email trying to buy artwork.

The address in the scam email is:

128 Salmon Street
Port Melbourne, Melbourne 3207
Australia
Phone: 61 2 9498 6830

Art Scam

Some artists in the DMV and Baltimore area are being seduced by this scam email; make sure you ignore it:

From: Nelson Bateman
Date: March 20, 2011 8:13:24 AM EDT
To: undisclosed-recipients: ;
Subject: Interested in your work

Hi
The images in your website is so fascinating and so vivacious looking at each piece of work make me know you added so much dedication in making each work come out to life but unfortunately i lost the weblink but i was able to save your email address am writing you because i need your help to get back to your website so that i can be able to see more of your work and purchase some for my apartment. I reside in Queensland Australia hope to read from you soon.
Regards
Nelson

For a link explaining how the scam works, click here.

Art scam...

For artists and galleries who have online websites where your work can be ordered: Beware of a scam that has been going on for a while, in which you'll get an email from someone wanting to order your art and they will pay you with a credit card.

The scam artists usually want the work shipped to Nigeria (have also seen it from Indonesia) and you to also charge the shipping fees and custom duties to the credit card).

The cards, of course, are stolen, but will show up OK for a day or two after you receive their email order.

To try to defeat international credit card orders scams, you should ask them to fax you or email you a JPG of the front and back of their card showing their true name. Then check with your bank.

Pilfered from ArtsJournal: A Chicago art dealer has been charged with attempting to sell fake Picassos in Milwaukee.

I don't know of any DC area art dealer selling fake Picassos, but there are many, many "galleries" that do have a Picasso scam going on - not just in our area, but since many of these "galleries" are actually chain or franchise stores passing as art galleries, the scam goes on all over the country.

You know the type of "gallery" that I am talking about: They sell a lot of "pretty" decorative art, loads of gyclees on canvas by mass production, decorative artists with European-sounding names and "art" by famous people who are not artists or art by Hollywood actors. You can find these "galleries" in expensive rent areas (where a reputable gallery couldn't afford a space) such as M Street in Georgetown, most of La Jolla in California, in malls, and around Bethesda.

The scam is probably not illegal, but it is certainly unethical.

Here's how it works:

Many of Picasso's etching plates are apparently owned by some of his children, and they continue to use the plates to print their father's work ad nauseum. Then, the Picasso offspring sign the work with their last name, which conveniently is also "Picasso."

The sales pitch for the print then describes it as "this is a Picasso etching made from the original plate and it is signed."

They never (unless one asks) tell you that the Picasso signature that you see on the piece is NOT Pablo Picasso's signature but a Picasso son or daughter's signature (which of course now looks a lot like their father's)

So hapless buyers think that they are buying a print signed by the world's greatest artist, when in fact they are acquiring a print from his plate, but signed by one of his children.

Not illegal perhaps - but unethical.

Scam art email

My response will be posted tomorrow... meanwhile, this is an art scam email:

From: johnsontay88@hotmail.com
Subject: Art Order
Date: Fri, 24 Jun 2011 15:08:49 +0100

Hi Dear,

My name is Johnson Taylor, i will like to order for some piece of your work from your studio as gift for my parent are celebrating their wedding anniversary, so i will be glad to have your reply as soon as possible, i will be glad if you can send me your website address to choose or send me four of your artworks via email that is available for me to choose.

Waiting to read from you today.so that we can make some progress.

I will be waiting to read from you at you convinet time.

Best Regards,

Johnson.

Art Scam Alert!

Ignore this mutant trying to rip off artists:

Van: Sally Riding [riding_sally@yahoo.com]

Onderwerp: artgallery

Greetings! My name is Rise dully from United Kingdom. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work. I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too,You are doing a great job. I would like to purchase some of your artwork available at range of €100 to €5,000 can you list some of the items available now? and ready for sale as a surprise to my wife on our anniversary. Also, my method of payment is by Bank Check as mode of Payment. Thanks and best regards.

This is how the scam works and how to protect yourself... 

Art Scam Alert!!!

This scam alert came from a mutant con artist attempting to rip off artists - the email is revd.henry@gmail.com: 

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this rip off art scammer:

From:   "Dave Gordon"

Hello,
I would like to make an order for some works.
Do you ship internationally?
Let me know if payment is accepted by Master card or Visa card.

Regards,
Dave Gordon

 The scam works like this.