WARNING:Check this out? Is it a SCAM or what?

[The Forge]

I got an e-mail from a 'bestofpatrick@hotmail.com', asking to buy one of my sculptures that is shown on ArtID. The e-mail contained questions and request that reminded me of those money scams. The buyer wanted me to give him my e-mail address for paypal and wanted to have his own shipping company pick up the work. Then he would pay me the full amount for the sculpture plus the shipping and 'I' would have to pay the shipping company the rest. What a crock. I have forwarded the e-mail to ArtID. I just cannot take this request as real.

[Giotto]

You might want to try online escrow...this company uses paypal

https://www.escrow.com/support/faq/i...sp?sid=1&qid=1

G

[Andrew Werby]

It is a scam. Don't let your hopefulness overcome your common sense. They don't want your art, they want the money you're supposed to send to their "shipper". Their cashier's check is bogus, but you won't find that out until it's too late. The money you send them, on the other hand, would be real, and unrecoverable. These creeps have been targeting artists for a few years now, since we're often so desperate to sell something that we disregard warning signs that would alert most other businesspeople.

Andrew Werby
www.computersculpture.com

[The Forge]

Don't worry. As soon as I read the first line, I knew this was a SCAM. It starts-Complements of the Season!!! and sounded just like ever other money scamming e-mail that I get every day. This is the first time that I have seen this one.

[obseq]

Always run e-mail addresses like that, at a minimum, through a few search engines to see what comes up...
Seems that this e-mail address was used to contact others in a similar capacity.

[desertrock]

Originally Posted by The Forge

I got an e-mail from asking to buy one of my sculptures that is shown on ArtID.

This is off topic, but I was wondering if you have had success selling work using Artid. I'm using Sculpturecollector.com right now.
Thanks,

Mark

[Giotto]

Has Sculpturecollector.com worked for you ? I am interested in your experiences.

G

[desertrock]

Originally Posted by Giotto

Has Sculpturecollector.com worked for you ? I am interested in your experiences.

G

I've been on it for about 6 months with no inquiries or sales.

Mark

[The Forge]

I have just started using ArtID. I have tried others; but, I have not found any site that does help make sales.

[Mack]

If it is possible, find a gallery to show your work where people can see it it in the round...walk around it... see its depth, see its height, its color...maybe even pick it up and feel the weight of it...you can pay someone to put a picture of it online but who's going to risk spending that much money on a one dimensional view? Sculpture, more than painting, needs to be 'sold'. It's not as easy to sell as painting, it takes expertise and if you're lucky you can find a gallery that knows how to sell your work. It's rarely that someone walks into a gallery and says:"I'll take that"...it unfortunately almost never happens, and I would guess much, much less online.

[evaldart]

The art can be trained to sell itself...has always worked for me. The internet can be a decent bit of support and info...but I have only sold ONE thing ever to someone randomly surfing for art to buy...and it was a small painting. Sculpture's gotta GRAB its lookers...quite physically, in the REAL world.

[Giotto]

Hi Everyone...well it's happening again, this morning I received the following email below. I googled the words in the email and came up with this:

http://www.scambook.com/report/view/...-on-09-05-2011

Cheers,
G

Thanks for the message, I am very happy to know that the item is available for
sale. i must tell you that i browse through the net and i saw your artwork
now, (Defeat and Aphrodite's Tears) and i am very much interested
in the immediate
purchase because i need it for our new apartment.I will like to to buy
it before someone else requested for it and i will be paying you
securely with a Bank cheque which will be payable to your name and i
will wait till it clears your bank before the pick up,You don't have
to worry about shipment, my shipper will handle it. This is because i
will be traveling out of the country any
moment from now for a business proposal. So get back to me with the information
needed to send you the payment I:E

Full Name
Standard Address
CELL NUMBER
Total cost
So that i can proceed with the payment arrangement, consider it sold
get back to me with the details,i will await your message...

thanks & regards

[Mack]

I think that even if you cash a check before sending the work out, and the check bounces later at the 'client's' end, your bank will come after you for the money..is that right?

[evaldart]

It doesnt take much information these days for a scammer to fill in the blanks. I get these all the time; I am fully aware that they are ALL junk...I delete them immediately. If people really want to buy your work it will happen in a totally different manner.

[tonofelephant]

Recently had one of these scammers. He actually had an address that appeared real in London. Got on Google Maps, went down to street level & found that the address was possible but to get the sculpture in would have required a serious moving crew - it would have been a 6 man moving crew for a 500 lb sculpture. Pointed that out to the email scammer. Also asked him if it was going on to the 3rd floor (it was a 3 floor flat). Didn't hear back from him.

Another was way easier to spot. It was going to a Nordic country. The address was in the middle of a square which the scammer said was a private residence. This was before the camp-in Occupy movement.

Carl

[Art-Deco]

I have a somewhat similar sounding thing today, a canadian sent me an email thru my web site contact, as you have to enter a password to do so, it was not a robot.

I don't ship out of the USA for several reasons, but he was asking if I would be able to somehow ship 1-2 pieces to him, a supposed marketing director in Vancouver.

First thing I did was google his yahoo.com email address, came up totally blank, then I googled his name which I wont mention but is the same as the name of a Large city in Texas, and the city and zip he signed off with, again, totally blank, zippo, nothing, not what I would expect from a supposed marketing director.

Here's part of the text;

Creative Director of a mid-sized marketing consultancy here in Vancouver (Canada) and I know good work when I see it. Looking at your online presence . . . I see it.

The city;

Vancouver BC Canada V5E 4B2

Just too flattering, too enthusiastic sounding, and nothing at all comes up in google are the red flags.

Part of the reason I dont ship out of the USA is this which I sent him;

I've had people over in the UK wanting to purchase one of my large Art Deco panels, but the shipping cost estimate was $600 to ship UPS a $179 item, due to the over 70# weight, wood crate and general high international shipping cost to begin with.
No one is going to spend $600 to ship a $179 item, and then accept the risk that if it's damaged in transit there's no refund or replacement- insurance most likely will not cover damage in the end because they can get out paying for damaged fragile items very easy by stating it's "shock merchandise" and not covered, or claim the packing was insufficient (because customs didn't pack it back the way *I* packed it) The insurance may cover the item but not the $600 shipping cost, or the $600 shipping cost of the replacement.

So if anyone got a similar sounding message of late, it might indicate a scam here.

[Harry McDaniel]

I received this email yesterday:

Hello,
I am emailing to inquire about availability of artwork for sale in your inventory and if you are able to process Visa and Master Card Number/Expiry date/Cvv as payment. Let me know so that i can communicate with you on the artworks that interest me,you can also indicate to me which of the arts are sold and which are available on your website. my address is 22 Great Marlborough Street, Roseau Commonwealth of Dominica 17675
I will be looking forward to reading from you.
Best
Sussan

I was pretty sure it was a scam, but I was still curious, so I searched for the address and found this page:

http://richpowellart.wordpress.com/2...g-the-scammer/

It is a REALLY funny account of artist Rich Powell's response to this scam. I laughed until I cried.

[GlennT]

Good link Harry, that's the way to handle these things!

Another popular scam is when someone's email or facebook page has been hacked, and you get a message from some friend saying they were mugged and robbed in London, blah, blah,blah, woeful story, etc. etc., please help.

The first time this happened I thought it was for real, since it came from a friends facebook messages before I knew of such things being hacked. I engaged in some back and forth email, until something did not seem right, so I emailed a question, "Where did we last meet?", which would have been easy, since it was only once in the last year. The reply was, " I can't believe you are asking me this!" And the scammer's hopes evaporated swiftly from there.

I probably should have emailed him, " How many fingers am I holding up?"*


*answer: one, and I'll let you guess which one.

[tonofelephant]

Harry, love the link. Glenn - I believe you gave the approriate salute.