Those scammers never stop. Here’s the latest to land in my email (on April Fool’s Day, no less) from a “bettsmith026@yahoo.com”:
Hello,
I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artwork from you.I will purchase the following(Lynx Study 8 x 6-$750,Companions #1 6 x 8-$750).let me know their various prices and how much discounts you are willing to give?
I will be happy to have these selected artworks hanged in our new home in London.As well,I want you to exclude the shipping cost.I will arrange for the shipment.We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you with a certified cashiers check or a personal check which can be easliy cashed in your local banks around you,please let me know on how to procced for the payment of the creative artworks.
Have a wonderful day.Regards,
Betty.
As always, there are a number of warning signs:
- Rife with poor grammar and misspellings
- Errors of logic - like listing the prices with the pieces and then asking what the prices were (this has happened in every scam email I’ve received)
- Asking to exclude shipping cost
- Paying with a cashiers check or personal check (both of which can take a long time to clear for certain).
Don’t bother replying to these sorts of scam emails. Post them here so we can all learn from them.
Entries (RSS)
April 6th, 2009 at 1:14 pm
Julie, I did a trace route on the email address - it went through no less than NINE internet service providers to get to you - some overseas - some California.
April 6th, 2009 at 1:22 pm
Based on the grammar in these scam emails, they almost always seem to come from some overseas operator…
April 6th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
I received one a few months ago. This man said that he found my artwork on EBSQ and he wanted to purchase a piece for his wife, so I asked which piece (stupid me) and he told me which one he wanted and asked how much was it. I told him the price and then his last email he said that he wanted his delivery person to pick it up and to email back a location where I could meet his Delivery Driver, then he wanted all this information Address, phone, name, etc, etc.
Pretty scary huh!!
So he was deleted and blocked!!
I guess I’m too trusting and think everyone is like me, HONEST. Like you said Julie there a lot of bad apples in this world!!
April 6th, 2009 at 2:06 pm
[…] Julie T. Chapman - ArtBlog placed an interesting blog post on â […]
April 6th, 2009 at 8:22 pm
English as she is spoken…on Mars, perhaps? Oh, wait, Nigeria? Can I have a new home in London too?
April 7th, 2009 at 7:01 am
…yeah, where I can have “artworks hanged” too?? Angie, I’ve gotten the emails from Some Ripoff Operator in the past, asking me to just choose a piece for his wife’s birthday. I’ve never yet met a real art buyer who would do that - for all the collectors I know, art is a very personal and exciting purchase that requires their full involvement.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:07 am
I agree that most of these are undoubtedly scams (I’ve gotten some myself and deleted them without further ado)
But it is also POSSIBLE that someone could find an artist’s site on the internet and be genuinely interested in buying one or more of their paintings.
As julie and others indicate, the warning signs of scams are often (but not always) fairly obvious.
but even that’s not a sure fire method of weeding out the good from the bad, since even “offers’ that use the best of grammar and sound very polished can also be scams, of course.
I’d have to say it’s like everything else: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
Julie-
I went back to recent enteries on your blog, On Dec. 23rd 2008 you received
an almost identically verbatim email. My guess it’s the exact same person(s)
that sent the above email. Check out the similarities, hopefully you
can pass this along or list it on the report that someone mentioned listing
Marsh/Gervis on I believe from yesterday. That website also shares info
with the FBI. Hopefully you try to block them as well.
April 7th, 2009 at 7:09 pm
Julie
Here is that gov. website
http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
I would share these emails with them. I am sure they have dealt with them
or have info or complaints on them the more info the better to catch them
as well.
Doug
April 8th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Doug - AWESOME!! thank you for providing that link here. I filed a complaint. Dummy me, I never realized there was a clearinghouse agency / website for dealing with cyber crime like this.
April 15th, 2009 at 8:07 am
Just wanted to let you know I’ve been following all your talk on Gervais and bookmarked the Fed’s link (I especially liked that one). This has been helpful.
Thank You
Lee
April 23rd, 2010 at 9:04 am
Dear Julie -
I received an email from this same Betty Smith, almost identical to yours. A new twist, though:
Dear Len,
Hope this message finds you well.I will like to have your phone number so that i can discuss about some commissions with you on phone.More so,i spoke with my husband about the check he sent and he advised me the USPS has misplaced the check on there way to deliver the check to your address.He also told me some hours ago that his on his to mail another payment to you .Please kindly bear with me.I don’t want to miss the lovely Scarlet Tanagers,Deco Moth PPQ.As soon as he has mailed the payment today,i will inform you as soon as possible.Don’t forget to send me your phone number.Am wishing you the best of today.
Warmest regards,
Betty.
Why would she want my phone #?
Thank you for posting the warning.
Len
July 15th, 2010 at 12:51 pm
Hello, merci pour ces prévenances à l’arnaque !
J’ai reçu le même message, exactement identique.
Seul le nom change.
Avec pour adresse mail :
- aidendamian@gmail.com
Merci à vous !
July 26th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Julie,
I received a version of this scam email today. I searched online for information about this & found your blog.
Thanks for posting this - you’ve kept me from wasting my time on a scammer.
Also, thanks to Doug for posting the .gov link.
I’ve book-marked your blog!
Lori M.