Scam websites

Even the best of us get scammed! 

These are all scam websites - they all look legit, and even have Paypal payment options, run on secure servers, etc. They have dozens of mirror websites essentially selling the same things. Beware of them - I have reported them to the FTC, to their host servers, and plan to report them to the MD Attorney General. 

horgadis.com - which says it is located at 1303 Lighthouse Pl Spc 1303, Michigan City, IN 46360 - check out what's really there on Google Maps! According to WHOIS, the site has been active since March - probably cashing in like crazy! They have dozens of mirror sites with different URLs! Some of the mirror fake sites are takesprint.com, infaithwetrust.com and many others. The Paypal email associated with these in Paypal is payment.orientcircle.club@gmail.com

Same for www.susushj.co - They are scams! Email associated with that one is marshallmoorehamba383@gmail.com 

Also beware of this art scammer:

Subject: Mail order From: "Mary Boom" babaolomo07@gmail.com -- 

Hello Sir/ma Am Mary boom i will like to place an order from your store, and be making payment with credit card details. can i go ahead and send you the List of items Interested in Ordering . Thanks Mary Boom 

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this art scammer!

From: alfayidgroup@gmail.com

Subject: INTERESTED IN YOUR ITEM

Reply-To: alfayidgroup@gmail.com

Hello, We have interest in purchasing your item and we sincerely hope to establish a long-term business relationship with your esteemed company, I will like to know if you sell in large quantities and if you accept bank transfer (wire transfer) as a mode of payment. Regards. Al-Fayid Al-Azeez ALFAYID GROUP OF COMPANIES IPIC Square, Muroor (4th) Road PO Box 107888, Abu Dhabi United Arab Emirates alfayidgroup@gmail.com

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

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant with this twist to the art scam:

Senior collins15 (seniorcollins15@gmail.com)

Greetings! 

My name is Senior collins 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,   

Senior.

Art Scam Alert

Beware of this rodent trying to scam artists:

James Thomas jgateventure00@gmail.com

Good day,

Trust that this email meets you well. 

Can you ship internationally. I also would like to confirm if payment can be made via MasterCard.

I hope to read back from you swiftly. 

Warm regard

James Thomas

Huge FB Art Scam Alert

Huge scam going around. They've been hitting DMV area artists on FB. 

They send a friend request from a fellow artist you know. Then they tell you that they just received a huge check from the Art & Humanities or Arts Endowment and that hey saw your name on thesame  list so you had better contact them.

Report them to FB immediately.

Dear Ebay: I told you so!

“Sir,” said the Ebay Support person on the phone, “We’re Ebay, and we’re pretty sure that no one can hack into our system.”

A few months ago, she was responding to my alarmed phone call, as I was pretty sure that someone was hacking into Ebay’s software and system to manipulate the online auction giant and further “hide” already hidden fake auctions designed as a smart phishing effort via Ebay’s apparent ironclad software.

As you may have read recently, a few days ago Ebay requested that all of its users change their passwords. This was as a result of a data breach in which “hackers figured out eBay employee credentials, which helped them gain access to the eBay database.”

Ebays admits now that “email addresses, phone numbers and other details were hacked.” 

But I have evidence from the recent past that hackers also potentially may have manipulated the Ebay auction software to use the auction site as a phishing vehicle.

This is how it all started, and here submitted for your consideration:

On January 27, 2014, I was sitting in Glen Echo while my son was in his music class. I was bored and surfing the net and logged onto Ebay. To my surprise I noticed almost a dozen messages in my Ebay inbox. I write “to my surprise,” because whenever I get an Ebay-generated message (either from Ebay or from an Ebay user sending the email from their Ebay account) I have a rule that automatically forwards it to my personal email account.

That’s exhibit (a) – There were multiple messages from Ebay users to my account, all dealing with the same 3-4 Ebay auctions and messages that were never forwarded to me. If I hadn’t logged onto my Ebay account, I would not have seen them... until it was too late! By the way, all auctions were about to end - they were seven day auctions and all were in day 5 or 6.

All the messages referred to the same assorted “auctions” that had been posted as if coming from my account. I have the word "auctions" in quotes because none of the auctions were mine, and also because all of them were cleverly designed to phish people out of their money. I quickly responded to all the emails warning the users that the auctions were a scam and had nothing to do with me.

The fake auctions had been created without my knowledge and had also somehow circumvented the Ebay notification system that sent an email to my account each time that a real auction lot is created under my account.

That’s exhibit (b) – Someone was able to create an Ebay listing under my account and at the same time prevented the Ebay software from notifying me that a new lot had been created.

The fake listings offered tech goods at ridiculous prices, such as Apple MacBook Pro Retina 15.4" GeForce, or a new Samsung 65" 3D Smart TV.

The hacker had cleverly inserted his email address (4iph55@gmail.com) into the image of the item being offered, highlighted it in yellow, and requested that interested bidders contact him directly prior to bidding. The incoming emails that were in my Ebay inbox (but not being forwarded to my regular email) were from interested bidders wanting to know why they needed to contact the person offering the lots. From reading the threads it was easy to see why…

The phishing scam artist was asking interested parties to wire him money directly, instead of bidding through the Ebay system. When users balked at this, and instead bid the “normal” way via the Ebay lot, he was then able to generate a fake Ebay email from checkout@ebayprotection.com to every single bidder, announcing to the victim that they had won the auction and requesting payment. He also offered next day UPS shipping at no additional cost.

Pretty cool uh? Dude is able to ship a 65" flat screen TV via next day UPS at no additional cost!

I immediately reported the fake auctions to Ebay, and they immediately cancelled them. Subsequently, throughout all this process, I was reporting all of these issues to Ebay via email, and receiving canned email responses from them. I then tried several times to report the issue via telephone, but each time I was assured by the Ebay telephone operator that there was no way that what I was describing could actually have taken place. They told me to change my password (Nevermind that I use really hard passwords: 16-20 mixed characters, and change them several times a year), but refused the logic of the events, or could not explain the technical reasons why these lots had all been posted without generating emails to me, or how the emails to my Ebay account had not been forwarded to me, and even more important --- and the key evidence of hacking into Ebay’s software: why these listings were not visible as my listings in MyEbay!

Exhibit (c) – The hacker was able to create listings using my account and yet they were not listed in MyEbay as my listings.

Working with some of the Ebay users who were nearly scammed, I was also able to piece together the identity of the scammer.

Name: Victor Stan Cornel
Email: 4iph55@gmail.com
Address : Al Solidarnisci Nr. 118/2 00-140 Warsaw Poland.
Bank Name : Millenium Bank
Bank Address : ul.Stanislawa Zaryna 2A 02-593 Warszawa Poland.
IBAN : PL 16 1160 2201 0000 0002 4729 3383
SWIFT : BIGBPLW

I passed all this information to Ebay, who ignored it… at least as far as I know, since I never received a response from them. I also contacted Millenium Bank in Poland and advised them of the issue. They promptly replied to me and passed that they were sending my email to the “right unit of our bank” and advised me to “report it to law enforcement bodies.” And thus I reported the whole event to Interpol, since this phishing mutant apparently lives (or at least has a bank account in Poland). I also tried a dozen ways to report to Google that a phishing scheme was being run from a Gmail account; not sure if I was successful.

Every single thing that I’ve written here has been exhaustively reported to Ebay. When the first telephone operator dismissed me, I called back, got a different operator and reported it all over again from scratch. When that also failed, I did it a third time.

After that I gave up.

And then a few days ago I read about the Ebay system breach. It apparently happened a while back, but Ebay just confirmed it.

Do you think these that two issues are related?

Super Art Scam Alert!

It first came to my attention yesterday when DMV artists Viktor Epkuk, and then Anna U. Davis both posted on Facebook that their artwork had been illegally appropriated and was being displayed for sale on an online website titled wallpart dot com - Warning - do not go there: there have been reports that the site itself may have malware and can infect your computer just by visiting it.

The list of DMV artists whose work is offered for sale (as "prints") on this site grew; Sean Hennesey, Erin Antognoli, John M. Adams, and others... and someone noted that:

my flickr stream is on there. This is the weirdest site, it seems to pull images automatically without any sort of human intervention - there are stock images there with huge watermarks, google images, images from ebay, images from wikipedia, images where the "title" is actually the copyright and credit, it's a random assortment, and my favorite part is the "we respect copyright, if you see your stuff just email us these 50 things and we'll take it down. Maybe. If we believe you.

 Viktor Epkuk went into research mode and notes that:

For other artists whose works are caught up in this theft scheme and for those looking for cheap art posters. DO NOT FALL FOR IT. 

Wallpart is an elaborate scam site created more to steal your data than art.
Graphic Artist Guild released the warning below in 2015. "It now appears the Wallpart is actually an elaborate phfishing scheme, devised to trick visitors into entering in their personal data. Comic artist John Ponikvar summarized his findings on his blog, Peter & Company. The site features a prominent “Report Violation” link, which appears to collect the personal data from anyone filling out the form. As Ponikvar reported, the Report Violation form “…is actually the main purpose for the site’s existence – they completely anticipate artists being upset about their work supposedly being sold, so they developed a system to exploit those who complain.” Additionally, the site‘s source code is larded with malware and malicious code; one of our board members reported that her personal computer was hijacked by the website as she was looking into the site’s functionality."

Read that report here. 

What to do? First, do not fill out - or even visit the website - but if you have, and your work is there, then report the violation to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center here. 

There have already been complaints and Hyperallergenic reports that:

Artists and photographers are up in arms over a website that is selling cheap posters and prints of their work, without their knowledge or permission. Called the Poster Shop and located at Wallpart.com, the site is tied to an incomplete address in Sydney, Australia, its phone number follows a British format, its packages ship from China, and according to Kotaku the domain was registered by a man named Sergo Zuikov, who lives in Moscow. It has been the subject of many articles and forum discussions warning artists and would-be buyers of its shady ways, and a petition calling for the site to be shut down has garnered over 62,000 signatures.

 See and sign the petition here.

Trapping the scammer

Yesterday I posted the art scam email that I received (it's also at the bottom of the email trail below); here's my initial response - let's see if we can scam him into wasting some of his time:

Dear Johnson,

Thank you so much for your inquiry. Were you referred to me by Mr. Saatchi? Your name sounds familiar, perhaps we met at his party in Cannes last year? Were you the guy who fell in the pool? No... that was Johnston, not Johnson.

Anyway, I would love to place some of my artwork in your collection, and will ship it to you provided that you can pay me with a money order. As soon as I have the money order in my hand, I will ship all the artwork to you... the same day that the money order arrives.

Before that, I would like to ask you one question, as I am very particular as to whom I sell my artwork: Are you descended from the Scottish Johnsons or the English Johnsons? I'm a little leery of selling art to sassenachs, you know...

But wait... is Johnson your first name? I think so now... that would make Taylor your last name, and that sounds English... are you of English descent?

Please let me know... Here's Tae Us – Wha's Like Us – Damn Few And They're A' Deid

Cheers,

The Lenster....

-----------------------------------------------------------------

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.

Scam Artist

Beware of this email address: 4iph55@gmail.com

I tried several ways to report this to Google, but unable to figure out a simple, frigging way to say to them: someone is running a scam out of this email.

Art Scam Alert

Beware of this mutant who is currently trying to scam artists and galleries:

From: Gregory Butler <gregbutlergroups.llc@gmail.com> To: Sent: Tuesday, July 23, 2013 10:17 AM

Hi, 

My name is Greg, I recently visited your website and found your Work of arts to be appealing. I am very impressed with it and would be interested in purchasing it for my new apartment I am moving into this month. Please do provide me with the price and details if it is available.

 

Greg

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this mutant trying to rip off artists!

From: Kenneth Freeman <supplyshop51@gmail.com>

Subject: Mail Inquiry....

Date: March 8, 2017 at 8:30:12 AM EST

Hello,

My name Ken owner of KEN SHOP PLACE we hear about you through the internet and am very interested in some of your products. I have a shop in the Fiji Islands in this case are you authorized to ship out worldwide or accept private pick up by a freight forwarder.

Do you have a minimum order?
Do you accept credit card for prepayment on your terminal machine manually?
A price list if possible?

I await the requested information so that i can proceed with the ordering.

Respectfully,
Kenneth Freeman

KEN SHOP PLACE
768 Avon Place
Suva
Fiji Islands
679 937 3421

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

Art Scam Alert!

Beware of this asswipe trying to rip off artists:

From: erin winam (erinwinam@gmail.com)

 Hello, How are you doing today? I would like to purchase something nice for my wife as our wedding anniversary approaches, please kindly forward the artworks you have available for purchase within this price range ($350-$600).Thank you

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

How does the email art scam work?

Every time that I out an art scammer, I get some emails from artists asking "how does the scam work?"

All the details here.

Art Scam Alert!

This is a scam - avoid dealing with this moron:

From: Robert Hallins <sgtrobhallins@hotmail.com>

Date: September 18, 2012 12:35:33 AM EDT

On Sep 17, 2012, at 1:28 AM, Robert Hallins wrote:

-- 

Hi there,

My name is Robert,im from hawaii,was browsing through the internet and my eyes caught this particular work("The Life Force Rests in the Liver",),will like to have it for my new apartment probably this month.please let me know if the piece is available and if yes let me have the detailed price and more information about it. i will be waiting to read from you.Regards.

Art Scam Alert!

Still this guy tries to rip off artists! Be aware! This is a scam!

From:    thomasfred50005000@Oengineer.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

 Beware of this asswipe trying to scam artists:

From: James Reginald jreginald570@gmail.com

Subject: ART INQUIRY

 Hello Lennox!

How are you doing? I am James Reginald from Medford, OR. I have been on the lookout for artworks in regards to my wife's and my wedding anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on to some of your works which I find quite impressive and intriguing. I must admit you are doing quite an amazing job. You are undoubtedly good at what you do.

That being said, I would like to purchase one or two of your works as a surprise gift to my wife. It would be of great help if you could send me pictures of your piece of work, with their respective prices and sizes, ready for immediate (or close to immediate) sales. My budget for this is within the price range of $1000 to $5000.

I look forward to reading from you in view to knowing more about your piece of inventory. As a matter of importance, I would also like to know if you accept checks as a means of payment?

Best Regards.

Art Scam Alert!

This walking cockroach is trying to scam artists - Beware!

From:     Lindsey Supply Co. (contact@connectagri.com)
Sent:    Mon 5/05/14 11:37 AM
To:    lennycampello@hotmail.com

Good day,
  I want to place an order in your store/Gallery/Company and i will like to
 know if you ship to Singapore and my payment will be remitted via Credit
 Card Issued in United States.

 please let me know if you can assist me with the order,and please do not
 forget to include your website in your reply.Your quick response will be
 highly appreciated,I will be very glad if you treat this email with good
 concern.

 Regards,
Lindsey Supply Co.
 Shun Li Industrial Complex,
 603 Sims Drive, #03-10,
 Singapore 387384

Art Scam Alert!!!!

Beware of this rip off artist trying to scam artists!

From:   "Elaine Spencer" jbeautyatop@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

Elaine Spencer

New Art Scam

If you get the below email, ignore it. It is a new art scam:

Subject: Artworks..‏
From: Janet Karloff (jan_kar001@yahoo.com)
Sent: Tue 11/25/08 1:58 PM
To: lenny@lennycampello.com

Hi, Hope this message finds you well. I saw these creatives works on your web site and i will like you to get back with more details if they are still available for purchase. "Iranian Campaign" and "Expeditionary Service Test" I will appreciate an urgent reply. Best Regards,

Janet.

Like I have done in the past with other scammers, I will try to hook "Jane Karloff" into wasting time and effort with me...

Art Scam Alert!

Art Scam Alert!!!

From: Roger Gordon rogerphantom090@gmail.com

Date: August 12, 2019 at 7:08:44 AM EDT

Subject: ARTWORK IS NEEDED.

 Hello,  

         I am Gordon from Richmond Indiana. thoughts of the best anniversary gift of the century to my wife has been roaming my mind for a while now. i figured out later that my wife spends noticeable time on viewing artworks from your page on my laptop and i can easily guess she likes your work, which i found quite impressive and intriguing too. I must admit your doing quite an impressive job. You are undoubtedly good at what you do. 

      With that being said, I would like to purchase some of your works as a surprise gift to my wife in honor of our upcoming wedding anniversary. It would be of help if you could send some pictures of your piece of works, with their respective prices and sizes, which are ready for immediate (or close to immediate) sales. My budget for this should be anything that falls under $8000, and if i have to pay more, there should be a reason in terms of worth and value. Your works are impeccable anyways.  .

      I look forward to reading from you in a view to knowing more about your pieces of inventory. As a matter of importance, I would also like to know if you accept check as a means of payment

Regards,

   Gordon.