Unfortunately for the thousands of hard-working artists hustling to make an income from their work, the art world is rife with scams. The good news is that the most prevalent scammers follow one of a few particular scripts or formulas, which you can easily protect yourself from once you learn how to recognize the signs.
Red Flag #1: Non-Traditional Forms of Payment
One of the most common forms of scam is the cashier’s check/money order overpayment scam. Hundreds of variants exist and are easy to find with a quick Google search. Essentially, the scammer will express interest in a piece of your art, and then offer to pay for it with a money order or cashier’s check. The really good ones will provide you with a convincing excuse for why they can’t pay with a more traditional method at the moment (i.e. I’m currently out of the country for work, I’m currently moving to a different country, I’m on a boat in international waters). They’ll then ask you send a chunk of that money on to a 3rd party (see below) such as their personal “shipping agent”. You’ll then get notified that the money sent to you was in fact stolen funds… and you’re now responsible for all of it.
In 2017 there are very few reasons why a legitimate collector cannot pay over the internet with a conventional credit card or with Paypal. If they seem to be legitimate but insist on using a non-traditional payment form, you can always offer to use an escrow service for everyone’s peace of mind.
The easiest way to avoid this one is to perform all transactions through a shopping cart interface on your website. If someone emails you asking to purchase a piece, kindly direct them to your online shop.
Red Flag #2: Asking You to Send Some Money to a 3rd Party
In conjunction with the offer to pay via cashier’s check or money order, a scammer will ask you to deposit the entirety of the check and then use a portion to pay their 3rd party shipping agent directly. Do not do this.
An easy way to avoid any confusion or potential for scamming is to state your shipping policies very clearly on your website. For example, you always ship via FedEx Ground, and the shipping cost is already clearly stated on the piece in question.
Red Flag #3: Suspicious Phrasing
Many email scams will read strangely, with odd and generic phrasing. Punctuation may show up in strange places. The email may open with a conversational apology for not replying to a fictional email from you like “Hi there, sorry for not getting back to you sooner. I am very interested in the piece.” It’s intriguing- perhaps you had an exchange with a potential collector a while back and forgot about it?- and so you open the email.
The phrasing will often be very vague and generalized, i.e. “I think your artworks are very amazing.” This is a pretty good indicator that they haven’t even seen your work and are not actually interested in it.
Scammers will sometimes ask you to send them images of your work and then tell them a price. This is all information that should be displayed clearly on your website, so the solution is simply to direct them to your online shop or gallery.
Red Flag #4: Asking for Personal Information
Goes without saying, always bears repeating. A request for personal information is always, always a giant red flag. Do not give away social security numbers, bank account information, or your personal address. It can be tempting to jump through whatever hoops requested of you in order to get a sale, especially if it’s an expensive piece. But once again- this is 2017. It is very, very easy to execute a secure transaction online without you ever having to provide your personal information to a potential collector.
What Can You Do About It?
Your best defense against scams is to use a solid shopping cart interface for all Internet transactions, refuse to accept non-traditional payment methods, and never, ever give away personal information on the Internet. Being scammed or even an unsuccessful attempt can feel incredibly frustrating and insulting, and it’s normal to want to somehow “get back” at the scammer. Some people satisfy this urge by engaging with the scammer in order to “waste their time”, but honestly this is just a waste of your own valuable time. Your best response is to ignore it and move on, or possibly submit a complaint to the FTC using the link below.
Resources
Stop Art Scams– a blog by artist Kathleen McMahon that catalogues common art scams.
FTC Complaint Assistant– submit a scam complaint to the FTC.
Better Business Bureau– tips on avoiding art scams
Do you find yourself a frequent recipient of art scam attempts? Do you notice common tactics? Please share your experiences in the comments.
Protecting yourself in the online world is so key! I like that you wrote an article about this because it’s easy to get sidetracked by the excitement of wanting to sell an art piece and overlook some of those red flags.
Great article!
I have a totally different art scam that they tried on me. My Instagram is a fitness account and I had an “artist” reach out to me and ask to use one of my pictures for a client’s piece they were working on, they even offered to pay me to use the picture.
I immediately got a red flag but played along, and they gave me details like the size of the drawing, which picture they were going to use and what medium they were going to use to create it. All of that sounded great, but then they said they would only be able to pay me through check, which I then knew for sure it was a scam.
I asked why they couldn’t use PayPal or something and they said there client just couldn’t do that, and that the entire check would go in my name, $3,000.00, and that I could keep $1,000.00 like LMAO , SURE 🤣
So at this point I was like, you know what, I’m just excited to see the piece so don’t worry about sending me money! And then they began insisting on paying me giving me some BS excuse that they needed to pay me for their protection so I couldn’t sue them for using my picture.
I called them out on being a scam, which obviously they denied, and I blocked them. The account was Tommy Artworks or Tommy_moore0 (that last one is a zero) on Instagram.
I got that same scam too. This happened over twitter.
Do art or photography ‘buy and sell’ websites actually work? I am a self taught professionally trained. I have sold several pieces of my art works and creative photography in the real world person to person. I get great feedback and make a little cash but I had joined several art and photography buy and sell groups online and had accounts from 2009 and never drew one nickel from sales except the one from my husbands purchase from smug mug. He was charged 90 dollars for 4 coasters and one mouse pad. I received 40 dollars from the sale on pay pal, but never sold anything else at all from smug mug art pal fine art America sacchi art shutterstock Shutterfly dreamstime big stock and several more not listed. I never sold anything else EVER, so is it all a scam?
Those sites don’t provide customers. They provide worldwide access to archival printing, framing, shipping, and best of all they securely handle the money.
There isn’t a gallery in the world that provides customers and salespeople, and no one knows where to find them once family and friends burn out on you.
Those that say they offer sales for you are lying.
Find your own customers whether it’s for your book or your art.
Take a course on meeting strangers and asking for what you want.
It is not all a scam, but you will do better if you find a way to stand out. I recommend you use only curated sites, and not the mega sites with hundreds of thousands of artists. Secondly, share your site when you get out in person and do shows and meet people. Driving art lovers to your page within an art website is important. There are sites that promote or feature artists, and even mail catalogs. Try artful home. Try Chairish.
I am a victim of an art scam that was pretty easy to spot. Here are the details:
I was notified via email by someone named Jessica Arnett who wanted to buy one of my photographs. She said that she noticed her husband really liked my work, and so she wanted to surprise him by buying one of my images for their anniversary. She said that her budget was between 50$-2000$ and that she could only pay via check.
Since I have hundreds of pictures to choose from, as well as multiple mediums and sizes, so I encouraged her to choose. She picked one of my pieces and gave me the dimensions and medium types, so I told her that she would need to send me the check before I sent her the picture.
She gave me a long explanation about how she was moving to Canada and that she was sailing in the North Atlantic Ocean and didn’t have access to cash, so could I cash her check and send the remaining amount to her shipping agent? I told her, “Sure” and gave her my address.
I immediately told my wife about this, and we both agreed that this was NOT a legitimate purchase and that I would not send any money or give any personal information.
When I didn’t hear back from her for a few weeks, I thought this was the end of the scam, but today I got a check in the mail for $3,400.
I’m thinking of taking this to the local police and filing a report. I also have a text with a name, routing and account numbers for where to wire the excess funds.
Now I am getting emails written in poor English asking me to respond to her emails to confirm that the check was received. As of now, I haven’t responded.
Bottom line: Trust your gut when something doesn’t feel right. Not being able to pay or not wanting to pay via credit card should be a huge red flag, and whenever you get awkward phrases that don’t sound like the way people say things in English, you should know that you are being scammed.
I think I just got the same scammer but different name. Was the husband looking at your work on her laptop? Annoying. I just told her I didn’t accept checks because of all of the internets scams.
This is an incredibly common scam.
I actually just got a note from this exact person, but I get multiples of this exact same scam every year, different people, different names
Same here. Last time it was Ralph Rayner this time Jessica Arnett. Any way to make this sad person stop?
Indeed! I just had want-a-be scammer on 3 of my art pieces online with all the excuses I just read here …. Sad Sad Sad world we live in, when someone has to sink low to scam someone….
Hello Taylor, Marilee, artist friends everywhere,
I wanted to share my recent experience with a similar (or maybe the same) scammer. I’m a painter working and showing in small galleries in Winston-Salem, NC. I’m posting here the entire second email from “Russell Gray” (the third email read “Why the sudden silence from you?”). The scammer’s email is long, but I hope it helps fellow artists ID a scam. I only sent the person four jpeg images w/dimensions and prices; when I received the following, I sadly learned it was a fake buyer. This type of scam may involve money laundering as well.
“Thanks for the response. Having carefully looked through the pictures of your work you send to me and i have chosen the photo I attached to you . Am presently working on my relocation to Philippines soon, thus, am doing all i could to make this event quite a memorable one.
In regards to payment, my reason for choosing check as a means of payment is owing to the fact that my husband handles the family bank cards and paypal/Venmo transactions etc.So am choosing check to keep this a complete surprise as intended. Consequently, I would authorize a check to you for the payment of the chosen piece of work as soon as i have your full name and contact address (preferably for FedEx delivery no P.O box). As soon as you receive the check and it clears your bank, I will have my personal shipping agent (who is also moving my other properties) contact you to arrange shipping/pick up of the piece from you. This is to avoid my husband receiving it if been directly shipped to my address which would ruin the surprise for the wedding anniversary.
I will be looking forward to receiving your phone number, full name and physical address the check should be issued to, in your email.”
So be careful out there and good luck selling your art!
I got the exact response back. I ignored it after this for 1 day and he emailed back asking for a response. I think I might just block or ignore it. I knew something was wrong, that gut feeling so I started to look it up. I am glad that I found this article. This confirms my thought.
Thank you so much for posting this! I got the same thing! My red flag went up as soon as I read it. It’s an anniversary surprise for the wife, she handles all the bank cards, moving to the Philippines soon, personal shipping agent… I replied to his first email but with all this other info. It still seemed odd. I have not sent him any of my personal info. My father taught me well! Some people suck, especially to get an emerging artist semi-excited at a big sale. Thank you for watching out for other artists!
Referring to my previous comment: This sly guy is named “Richmond Patrick of Houston, TX” Beware fellow artists!
I received a request to purchase art and the buyer said they wanted to pay by check. It smelled fishy so I googled it and found this article. Reporting here for others’ visibility.
I got the exact same message via DM on instagram from someone saying their name was Charlotte. Username @w_charl40
“In regards to payment, my reason for choosing check as a means of payment is owing to the fact that my husband handles the family bank cards and paypal/Venmo transactions etc.So am choosing check to keep this a complete surprise as intended. ”
Additionally they said “You don’t have to ship the art work to me if you ship it to me my husband will come across it and the surprise will get ruined once the check clears in your account my shipping agent that’s handling my other properties will come for the pick up”
ya, ok….shady. I am blocking them.
Wow, I was starting to get suspicious about this email, then he offered me double my asking price, and gave me this line:
“please Note you don’t have to ship the artwork to me if you ship it my wife would come across it and the surprise will get ruined once the check clears in your account my shipping agent that’s handling my other properties will come for the pick up.”
It’s frickkin’ verbatim aside from swapping husband for wife.
Thank you for sharing! I just received an email yesterday from John Emerson in Texas. He gave me this exact scenario, wanting to buy something for his wife for their anniversary. So far I haven’t sent him any examples. I think I will write back and see what he says about Paypal.
Funny John Emerson just emailed me yesterday….ugh!
Just got an email from Jessica Arnett wanting to buy a painting. I knew it was a scam but was googling this type of thing just to refresh my memory and low and behold found your comment with the exact same name. I think I’ll send them the link to this article.
Thanks so much for this post. I just received the exact email. My instincts were screaming but I really wanted to believe him. This is so helpful
This scam just happened to my husband! We were skeptical at first bc of the payment by check… and the fact the said person (John Emerson from Midland, TX) was soon moving to the Philippines to work on an oil rig. He wanted the pieces to surprise his wife for their anniversary. She handles the finances, so he didn’t want to use CC. He also picked the priciest pieces… all at once! All adding up to $10,000! Super tempting, yes, but a scam nonetheless. This article saved us a lot of problems to be sure!
Hey Nicole,
John Emerson Just emailed me today LOL. His budget must have been more than he told you cause he said his budget for MY work was $3,000 to $5,000….?He must have not checked my website I’ve never sold any pottery for $3000-$5000 BUT for that much what’s on there at present he could have all of it as broke as I am ? I hate scammers ,liars and thieves!Beware !!
I have received the same email from this “loving husband” John Emerson from Midland, TX… I suspected because he never told me any series or titles of my work and that he wanted to pay by check. * WARNING *
John Emerson
I leave the email here so that it appears in the google results.
Thank you for adding the name and city, I was able to confirm precisely by your answer
Just got the same kind of email – though after 2 emails they haven’t said anything about payment – just before I went to send a reply I put his email in google and ALL these pages came up with the same templates and listed them as art scams. Had no idea how they worked so this totally helped! The take away though, I think I’m going to start charging more for my pieces 🙂 haha
This blog really helped me only I wish I had searched for the Art Scam before. I was contacted by Mr. Roch Middleton from Madison,WI following exact same story :
/*
In regards to payment, my reason for choosing check as a means of payment is owing to the fact that my wife handles the family bank cards and paypal/Venmo transactions etc.So am choosing check to keep this a complete surprise as intended. Consequently, I would authorize a check to you for the payment of the chosen piece of work as soon as i have your full name and contact address (preferably for FedEx delivery no P.O box). As soon as you receive the check and it clears your bank, I will have my personal shipping agent (who is also moving my other properties) contact you to arrange shipping/pick up of the piece from you. This is to avoid my wife receiving it if been directly shipped to my address which would ruin the surprise for the wedding anniversary.
I will be looking forward to receiving your phone number, full name and physical address the check should be issued to, in your email.”
Had no idea how they worked so this totally helped!
I just got an email from Roch Middelton same guy from Madison Wisconsin. Is he a scammer?
I got a mail from this Roch Middelton guy. Won’t even answer. Just delete these people and block them. He wants artwork for his wife’s anniversary. This always their story. Just delete these people.
Me too! Got an e-mail from Roch Middelton (rochmiddelton@gmail.com), pasted below. He sayed he could only pay with check. As dodgy as dodgy can be. And guys, try searching @RochMiddelton in Instagram: a true joke.
“ Hello, I was looking for photograph online and i found yours while searching. I will like to purchase some of your photograph for my wife as a surprise gift for our 10th anniversary. Please kindly send pics and prices of some of your different photos which are ready for immediate sale within price range $2500—3000 I hope to hear a lot more about any available piece in your inventory ready for immediate sale.
Thanks and best regards
Roch.”
He actually provided the fedex tracking number(roch middleton) , although I didn’t received the check because of this pendamic situation, he said he has sent another check because Its already been so late.
Hey I just went thru the whole process with him and actually got a check… should I try to cash it with a second hand check casher like money tree? Please get back to me
Or did he actually pay you?
WOW! I received the same email word-for-word! The only difference is the person’s name (Steven Hearon// stevenhearon065@gmail.com). I tried finding out more about this “customer”, and searched his name to try to find any social media about him. Couldn’t find anything, and then I found this thread. Boy am I glad I proceeded w/caution.
An artist friend of mine received the following message from stevenhearon065@gmail.com this morning (thank you Gregory S for including the e-mail address in your post because it helped me locate this blog and therefore confirm my suspicions about the sender — beware of e-mails from “Steven Hearon”):
“My name is Steven Hearon from Conway, Arkansas . I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $5000.
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.
Best regards,
Steven.
I am an Australian based Landscape photographer and I just got one these emails this morning.
It is from the same person/s and used the same email address, contents of the email are word for word!
Sounded suspicious straight off the bat, grammar is a bit of a giveaway, as well as not mentioning size of print/s required or which image/s he/she was wanting to purchase.
But the kicker was the would I accept payment by check statement, never!
Looks like he/she is having no luck milking artists in the US or Canada so they are reaching further abroad in an effort to rip us off!
Regards from down under,
Darren
I just for that very same email ! Seems to be a straight scam ! Exact word for word
I received same email today. In this one he is offering me the check which will be sent to my bank to be cleared and have someone pick up the paintings via FedX.
To glad I pulled this up! Thank you all for sharing.
THIS IS LITERALLY WORD FOR WORD! I recently got an email like this and I’m like is this too good to be true? Someone wants to buy my high priced artwork?? Thanks for everyone who posted here because it saved me a lot of headache. God Bless <3
The same here. I received it yesterday:
Nachrichtendetails:
Name: Steven Hearon
E-Mail-Adresse: stevenhearon065@gmail.com
Betreff: ART product inquiry
Nachricht: My name is Steven Hearon from Conway, Arkansas . I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $5000. 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. Best regards, Steven.
I got the same one from Steven!! 🤦🏻♀️🤯
I got the same exact email ! Glad to have found this thread.
me too just on my website tonight, sneaky crap. Really bugs me that they spend the time to try harassing people for info or money.
My name is Steven Hearon from Conway, Arkansas . I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. I must admit your doing quite an impressive job. You are undoubtedly good at what you do.
I got the same email from John Emerson. It was in my junk box and I was sure about that it was a scam but i wanted to put the full email here in case if anyone else google his name and find this post. I am not sure what these people wants from artists!
Hello there,
I hope my email finds you well and I hope you and your loved ones are safe. I’m John Emerson from Texas, recently I’ve been on the lookout for some artworks as regards our upcoming wedding anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which I found quite impressive and intriguing, I must admit you’re doing quite an impressive job and you are undoubtedly good at what you do. 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 me 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 is in the range of $1,000 to $5,000. 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 like to know if you accept check as means of payment and wait till it clears your bank before pickup is scheduled. Thanks.
Best regards,
John
I got two from John Emerson, one yesterday and one this morning. Same text about anniversary, sending check etc.
I’m wondering how we all got the same thing. I do have a website. It’s hosted by foliolink. Do any of you use that host? Otherwise, I occasionally put pics up on social media but not in quite a while. Trying to find the common thread here.
Just got a call from an old friend, a Brazilian artist living in Lisbon, Portugal. He called us asking about an email he received and thought that the English in the email was awkward, especially for a self-described American from Madison, Wisconsin. The man wanted to buy art for his wife for their anniversary and pay by check. His name: Roch Middleton. SCAMMER!!!
Please be aware: Avoid sending your home address to these scammers, if you have any suspicions. They will then have both your email and street address and possibly other personal info they can then sell. I believe this is part of the scam- to sell your personal info in addition to stealing your money. I had the same thing today – from Jessica Arnett, sent to me via both text and email. An anniversary surprise for her husband who had been viewing my work on her laptop and in love with one “piece of work” of mine. And of course, she wondered if I would accept a check as “mode of payment”. I courteously referred her to my online gallery and advised that she can pay from her bank account via PayPal if credit card is not an option. Sadly, that didn’t work for her, haha big surprise. Unfortunately, this scam must work with some people or the scammers would not continue with the same process. It’s important to keep spreading the word, it’s sad to think of artists losing their hard earned money.
Wow, thank you guys. I nearly was trapped aswell. Thanks to you guys. You almost had me going for the crooks, too. Luckily, now it was only nerve-wracking.
“Sounds good In regards to payment, my reason for choosing check as a means of payment is owing to the fact that my husband handles the family bank cards and paypal/Venmo transactions,So am choosing check to keep this a complete surprise as intended”
I cant say it to 100%. Because there’s no evidence. But it is 1 to 1 the same text structure.
So, i will block and forget this Account.
Hi
I have been approached by Hansford and Sons emerging artist platform and wondered if anyone could shed some light on whether this is a scam or not.
They are asking for 29 gbp annual payment to add me to their platform and would take 20% commission, they cover cost of shipping but not packaging and pay me once the buyer receives the Artwork. I have only found a couple of comments some say they’re great others say they are not getting paid without a lot of hounding for payment.
I feel like this is one of those cases where if it seems to good to be true it probably is?
Thanks a lot in advance if anyone can share their experiences
I have the same question! They approached me on Instagram.
Emerging artist platform are scammers. I dont know if I am allowed to link to other websites where there are plenty of artists who have fallen victim of them, including me, and write about it. Despite me changing credit card etc they still managed to get around the bank system to steal even more money from me. Stay away from Emerging Artist Platform! They seem nice and all but if you do your research in the internet you will find artists writing about the scam. That is why their Facebook page is down since artists they scammed write in reviews. And that is why they only have an Instagram page because on there artist cannot write reviews.
Apparently some fellow artists must have fallen for this ruse, or they would have changed it up. I received an email exactly like the ones described and it was over 2 years ago.
But a few days ago I received one from a Mya Jacob from McKinney TX wanting to purchase 2 pieces (even included actual pictures of the pieces she wanted) and asked for my address and phone number so that her husband could send a check. I directed her to my Etsy shop and told her she could make a secure purchase there.
Never heard back 🙂
I’ve been scammed from McKinney TX by “Ann Jacobs.” She emailed photos of my work from my website. Check is actually on the way (didn’t give “her” my real address). The address”she” gave me is on the market. Shall I just put “return to sender?”
Another Art Scam to report via Instagram, Darla. The cell phone is from a 346.760.1052 number. Claiming to purchase a surprise art piece for her husband’s 40th birthday, she would be paying with a Cashier’s check and arranging shipping with her own shipper. She will trust me to deliver the remaining funds to her shipper. Received a check with an overpayment of $1,743 to the third party shipper. I instantly thought, I’m not cashing this. This person is clearly crazy and in this case a scammer. This “Darla” also recently canceled her Instagram account.
So sad that awful people take advantage of starving artist. I will most likely frame this fake check as a reminder to be more vigilant about art transactions online. Be safe!
hello all you artists…and actually…hello as well to all you shameless scammers who try to fish amongst us for illicit gains. i received a carbon-copy email using the tired old approach mentioned so many times in this forum. it was my first experience with it so it took three exchanges before the warning signals took over. i cut “Mr. Robert Sylvester” off before any damage was done. may all artist do the same!
here is the email he sent that stirred my suspicions. look familiar?
“Thanks for the message, I must tell you I intend to give my wife a
surprise with the immediate purchase of the piece. Also If you’d like
to know, I’m relocating to Ukraine soon and our wedding anniversary is
fast approaching. So I’m trying to gather some good stuff to make this
event a surprise one. I am buying this image (East Gloucester) for
$4,000 as a gifts to her.I’m okay with the price, I think it’s worth
it anyway, so I’ll be sending a check.
As regarding shipping, you don’t have to worry about that in order not
to leave any clue to my wife for the surprise. as soon as you receive
and cash the check, my shipping agent (who is also moving my personal
effect) will contact you to arrange pick-up.
PS: In the meantime, kindly get back to me with your full name (you
want the check payable to) cell phone no. and contact address
(preferably for Usps ,fedEx not P.O box) where a check can be mailed
to, so I can get the check prepared and have it mailed out to you
right away.
Regards, ”
End Of Story
Same deal with “Lia Greg” in Lubbock, TX. Scam
I was nearly taken by this scam from a Lisa Jeff on Instagram. It was for her husband’s birthday and a lot of the text matches these other emails exactly. Thank you so much for this post and everyone’s comments. It’s still happening!
I had a guy named “David” contact me saying he saw my art on Instagram and wanted to purchase some of it for his wife’s birthday.
Then he just got weird with all sorts of instructions, etc. He went quiet for a while until one day a USPS special envelope arrived. In it was a $1200 cashiers check.
I then began immediately to get messages with instructions on what he wanted me to do. I took the check to my bank and let them look it over. They said it was fraudulent.
I think these con people were counting on me to send them money and ship the art before the check bounced. This person was a loudmouth, but I went back and told them I wasn’t sending them anything until the check cleared. They simply said OK and was then gone.
I think greed and ego made me listen to some of the garbage he was spewing. Thankfully common sense helped me shut the scam down.
Hey friends,
Just wanted to let anyone here know (or others searching) that I received an email from an “Amanda Watson” saying that she’d send a cashier’s check. Then, she said, “How are you doing today? I would like to circle back regarding the art piece, and see when it would be here like how many days? I have just been informed the check was made out to you and it would be a couple days to arrive.. There’s however a mix up here as it appears the check was mistaken overpaid for $950.. I understand the additional amount on the check would have been made out separately to my cousin for the other purchases that we need. I hope you can understand and will be able to refund the balance when the check clears. I’ll just have to provide the address to send everything and the extra money once the check clears. Please let me know how you would like to handle things. Thank you so much!”
I unfortunately already sent the art, but didn’t pay out. Just wanted to let others know. This individual has been doing this for at least a year based on my research, and seems to be operating in PA.
I am an artist and I get one of these scammer emails at least once a year. I enjoy messing with them by enticing them with a hefty price then and wasting their time as much as possible. Sometimes I ask a bunch of questions that they have to answer for a “survey” I’m doing for my art or something that requires them to do some research: “Before the purchase of my artwork, please fill out this quick, fun survey! I require that everyone who buys my work must answer each of these questions in complete sentences. If you do not answer these questions, I’m afraid I will be unable to sell you my art as it is an essential part of my “artistic process”.
1. Why did you choose this particular piece?
2. What about this artwork appeals to you and why?
3. Who is your favorite living American artist and why?
4. In your opinion, what is “art”?
5. How has art impacted your life in a meaningful way?
And then once they answer, I ask them to expand more…etc. and then I tell them that their answers aren’t good enough and that they don’t seem worthy of purchasing my art😆
Yes, same scammer, Robert Sylvester. Artists Beware! This is his exact email:
“Good Day to you, I am Rob from Ohio, am very much interested in the purchase your Art piece for Anniversary to surprise my wife Thanks.
I look forward to reading from you Asap
Regards”
I was immediately suspicious and asked which painting he was interested in, his response:
“Thanks for the message, however, I would greatly appreciate if you
could possibly recommend a few completed original piece within my
budget $2000- $5000 ready for immediate sale… Just need something
within that price range for a surprise to my wife (can tell she likes
your work). I would appreciate if you can figure out a piece of work
that would serve that purpose. Kindly email images and prices of any
available works in that range. Thanks and blessing Sylvester”
Obviously a scammer, I blocked him:)
My name is Susan Elizy from Chicago IL. I have been on the lookout for some Artworks lately in regards to I and my husband’s anniversary, which is just around the corner.
With that being said, I would like to purchase a surprise gift to my husband in honor of our upcoming wedding anniversary.
Scammer be careful with this person susanelizy@gmail.com“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 is within the price range of $500 to $6,000.
I look forward to reading from you in a view to knowing more about your pieces of inventory.”
Wow! Thank you for posting this!! I just got an email from Steven Hearon from Conway, Arkansas and Googled his name (because the email was not from a normal person looking for art.. follow your gut artists!) and it brought me to your article.
Hi All…appreciate this post for confirmation of what looked like a scam…I am posting this to add to the list of what looks like the same scam. Here’s an actual copy of the submission form from my website:
“Name: Steven Hearon
Email: stevenhearon065@gmail.com
Subject: ART product inquiry
Message: My name is Steven Hearon from Conway, Arkansas . I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $5000.
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.
Best regards,
Steven”
I just got this same message from Steven Hearon today! Literally word for word.
I wish I could find out how my email address got onto this person’s radar. I don’t really advertise it anywhere — it’s 90% internally-facing for the small business I design for. I don’t share it on social media, or with many people in general. After 3 years, I’ve never had any spam or attempted scams. Until today. So how did they find me?
But I do use this email address for work-related logins. So I wonder… could we all have been a part of an art/design website data leak? Sometimes companies get hacked and the user info (like email addresses) gets leaked online. I could totally imagine someone finding a list of artists from an art-based website and just sending out this message in bulk to all of the e-mail addresses associated with it.
Unfortunately, as fake and suspicious as this email reads, I can totally imagine a small % of recipients falling for the scam. A frustrating thought. But I’m thankful for this article! Hopefully this discussion helps prevent additional people from falling victim to “Steven”, or whatever alias gets used next.
I received the same email today. Basically word for word except the mail came from Alex Costa and offered $1000-$8000
This is what it looks like as of 11/6/2021
I hope they get food poisoning from their favorite food, barely survive, and can never bring themselves to go near it again.
Name
Grayson Benjamin
Email
graysonbenjamin41@gmail.com
Message
My name is Grayson Benjamin from Washington DC.I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $6000.
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.
Best regards,
Benjamin.
Device
mobile
Language
en-US
Submitted from
Contact
Reply to this email to respond.
This is so funny. I just received this scam email this morning (12/8/2021) but this time his name is Hans Christensen from Sicklerville, NJ. which is the same email posted by Andrew Rose. The version I received is pasted below.
Christensen Hans
Hello….. I did found you with my laptop through the Google internet search
Which is about artworks.. and lately in regards to my wife birthday which is just around the corner. I was lucky to get your contact thru, some of your works which I think is Absolutely the right choice.. so perfect, and great. just like I have always wanted and I am so excited to reach you … I would be so excited to get your response as soon as you can . And I’m Hans Christensen by name ,,, I’m also from Sicklerville New Jersey
With what I just explained , I want you to know that I have decided to purchase a surprise gift for my wife. Just like I have been planning as a suprise in honor of her upcoming Birthday. It would be of help if you could send me more links, and pictures of your works, with their current asking prices and sizes, which are ready for immediate (or close to immediate) sales. My budget for this is within the price range of $700 to $10,000.
My plan for the payment is also through check.. I mean any method of the payment like personal check ,or cashier check … just let me know if the check works for you
Kindly get back to me as soon as you can
Hi community,
Be careful with the following email address: susanelizy@gmail.com with name Susan Elizabeth.
she tried to scam me with the usual comment that she is looking for an artwork for her and her husband’s wedding anniversary and she would pay with cashing check only.
This is happening so often, so sad… Keep it up art community
I received the same email but the name is Mark Richards from Chicago. My answer was as follow:
Hello Mark. I understand you completely and also ( maybe destiny brought us together!!!) I dont use other form of payments! Only cashier checks because in this day and age I only trust banks and checks. So I called my agent ( he also manages my other art ventures ) and he is going to manage this sale. The the art piece of your choosing it’s more expensive because it’s an original design that we use for a line of t shirts that it’s famous around the world and it’s beyond 6000 euros of your budget + plus manager commission . But to me is really important my relationship with my fans and your story it’s compelling to me because I love my wife also and I am close to my anniversary too!! ( WTF !!!). so I’m going to sell this original to you signed and dedicated.
My terms of payment are of course your cashier check of 6000 euros. But when I receive the money and it’s cleared by the bank I going to re send this money to my manager and he is going to deposit the money on a cayman trust divided on 7 seven company’s offshores. That check it’s going on vacay brother! Them we wait 4 days and them I re send you the money back to you with interest and tax free. And then and only then you could send me the check again ( long story short … it’s the only way to do it on Spain ( the king of Spain do this every day )Of course I will give you the art piece and all this payment movements are not going to impact on your anniversary . but first we have to pay the commission and also your shipping manager so that money ( 750 euros aprox ) you could send me by western union to withdraw on site. and I going to tell Armand to call your guy and pay him the advance and Armand fee also and then let’s leave the big boys to do all the arrangements. Send me his info ASAP. So if you accept let’s do it… Monday it’s ok? I’m on ibiza this weekend for my anniversary ( I bought her some Dr martens shoes so it’s under budget on my side this time!!! ) lets do the western union advance for our representatives ( go to western union and contact me there ) and on a couple of days an original artwork of me it’s going to be the talk of the town on Chicago and your wife it’s going to be so happy that it’s going to give you the BJ of your life.
I forwarding this email to Armand and Yuri ( my Russian Cayman offshore manager that work the money around for the tax rebate ).
Have a cool 2022.
Fede.
PS: please the western union deposit Monday past 12 am ( hangover from Ibiza).
Xoxo .
I have had two attempts with this scam in my email in box (see below). I copied this thread from the AbundantArtist.com in my email reply to the feckless thieves!
Thank you Abundant Artist!
Marlene
Good morning
__________________________
Thanks for the response. Having carefully looked through the pictures of your beautiful works. I’ve decided to make a collection of both piece (attached). It’s so lovely and I’m positive my wife will love it.
I’m presently leaving for work to Philippines soon, thus, am doing all i could to make this event quite a memorable one.
In regards to payment, my reason for choosing check as a means of payment is knowing to the fact that my wife handles the family bank cards and paypal transactions. So i’m choosing check to keep this a complete surprise as intended.
Consequently, I would authorize a check to you for the payment of the chosen piece of work as soon as i have your full name and contact address.
As soon as you receive the check and it clears your bank, I will have my personal shipping agent (who is also moving my other properties) contact you to arrange shipping/pick up of the piece from you.
This is to avoid my wife receiving it if been directly shipped to my address which would ruin the surprise for the wedding anniversary. I will be looking forward to receiving your phone number, full name and physical address the check should be issued to, in your email.
Warm regards
Phil
This is the email scam I received today – 25/03/2022
“My name is Alex Costa from Hoboken,New Jersey. I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $8000.
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.
Best regards,
Alex.”
I know this is an old thread, but I received this same scam from “Henry McNeil” from NY this week- in March of 2022- I’m so grateful for this site-thx for helping artists!
I had a scammer send me a picture of a little girl asking if I could paint it for her (the little girl’s) birthday. They would pay by check and wanted me to deposit this check using a photo image, using the check deposit service of whichever bank I use. The 3 yr old’s account manager will help me do it. Hmm…
However I am also surprised how many artists that I see on a few Art groups and association’s Facebook feeds that still are thinking these might be legit, even after so many scream it’s a scam. I think everyone needs to know that even though these Johns, Davids, Anns, Darlas, Robert and so on, are not actual scammers, just names used by the real scammers, which operate in groups/companies and are in the business (which is huge) of scamming people which ever way they can. These names used by the scammers are not important, just the methods are. In time I imagine all of our names will get used for some nefarious scam one day or another.
This man is a scammer!
stevegholston88@gmail.com
He said he is looking for art for his wife’s anniversary. I have received this same scam email so many times over the past 7 years.
This is the SCAM email! It makes me furious.
Greetings. I am Steve. My wife used my PC and was going through your work and I can tell she likes it. So I looked through, copied your email and decided to get one of your pieces for our anniversary. I must admit you’re 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. I would appreciate it if you can figure out a piece of work that would serve that purpose. Well It could be any color, but medium size or large, figurative, abstract, landscape or seascape preferably. However, I would greatly appreciate it if you could possibly recommend a few completed pieces within my budget $500.00 – $5000.00 ready for immediate sale. Just need something within that price range for a surprise for my wife. Kindly send me images and prices of any available works in that range.
I look forward to reading from you in order to know more about your pieces of inventory. As a matter of importance, I would also like to know if you accept a check as a means of payment.
Regards.
I just got this one today- My name is Ashley Jackson from Washington DC.I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $9000.
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.
Best regards,
Jackson.
This is the email I received last month:
My name is Turner Martin from Conway, Arkansas. I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $9000.
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.
Best regards,
Turner.
I thought it was real but told him to go to the website where he could use his credit card. I obviously never heard back. This morning I received a similar email from ‘Craig Walter’s’ with a similar story and asking about a check option. That’s when the red flag went up. I’m grateful to be able to read about other peoples’ experiences and warnings. Thanks
They are also using the name Scott Wilfrey (from Texas—but no specific town) and the email address:
scott.wilfrey1@gmail.com
They should probably revisit the wording of their emails— the ones I received were almost exactly word-for-word.
Thank you to everyone for reporting this as a scam. Good to know my instincts were working.
I have received the same scam at least 5 times. The first person introduced himself as Alex, then signed his email Andrew! See below. And three people looked forward to *reading* from me.
Others have been slightly shorter than text below, but always wife’s anniversary, wanting to use a check, compliments for my work, with dubious grammar, diction, and capitalization.
Email addresses of scammers:
alexcamerion@gmail.com –Alex, or maybe it’s Andrew? from DC
pasmith080@gmail.com — Paul Smith from Dallas
robertsylvester3019@gmail.com — Rob from Ohio (others have reported same address ending with different numerals)
robbinsrichard8000@gmail.com — Robbins from Columbus.
Text of the first received:
My Name is Alex from Washington DC. I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $500 to $5000.
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,
Andrew
Yep, here we go again. This is getting so old.
Nathan Eddie
8:24 PM (1 hour ago)
to me
My name is Nathan Eddie from Richmond Indiana. I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to our wedding anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on to some of your works which I found quite impressive and intriguing. I must admit you’re 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 work, with their respective prices and sizes, which are ready for immediate (or close to immediate) sales. My budget for this is within the price range of $1000 to $30,000.
I look forward to reading from you in order to know more about your pieces of inventory. As a matter of importance, I would also like to know if you accept checks as a means of payment.
Best Regards,
Nathan….
My response:
Dear Nathan,
Dear dear Nathan.
Oh dear
dear
Nathan
lol
Hello F,
Am excited to visit your website viewing your beautiful artworks you
made, I am really amazed with your artwork and how amazing they are.
I’m interested in purchasing the artworks below. Could you please
provide more information about the price and the availability?
1. Title 1
2. Title 2
3. Title 3
4. Title 4
5. Title 5
6. Title 6
I will be expecting your response.
Wishing you a happy and healthy day ahead from the coronavirus.
John Zurier
johnzurier1@gmail.com
—
I was a bit suspicious but nonetheless replied. His answer was:
—
Hello F,
Thank you for your reply with more information and price of the artworks. I want you to know that I am a painter artist.
I am truly interested in purchasing, I want you to know that I am purchasing the paintings for a Wedding Anniversary and it really needs to be at my destination as quickly as possible because the date is around the corner.
I am purchasing this for family purposes, most importantly for my (Wife) . I know she will definitely like it because she likes Art & Sculpture and this is the time to fulfill my promise to her during the anniversary ceremony.
Below are the ones I choose to purchase
1. Title 1
2. Title 2
3. Title 3
4. Title 4
5. Title 5
6. Title 6
Concerning the payment, the payment I am 100% sure about is to pay into your bank account for the total amount, based on the advice given from the bank because it’s more safe and secure for security reasons.
It will be better to discuss more about the payment and shipping arrangement on skype either verbally or typing due to the urgency of the anniversary, if possible it will be better to view the artworks on skype video today for assurance purposes.
Location address of delivering is below.
1876 San Pedro Ave,
Berkeley, CA 94707
USA
My skype name is live:.cid.f2018c8353f4e46f or Google meet / Zoom. I am available throughout today on skype to discuss and conclude.
If you don’t have a skype name kindly go to http://www.skype.com and register with skype then download it is safe and secure, please fix a time to skype today
—
We skyped, well, sort of. No live video call, just an anonymous chat, which I found odd. He then wrote the following:
—
Below are the details of the art transport company that I discussed with concerning the pickup and quick delivery with insurance for safe delivery
Name: Chase Courier Logistics
Email address: chasecourierlogistics@protonmail.com
Phone: 609-739-7505
Due to the date of the anniversary and urgent delivery is required please contact the company now through the email address above and start arrangement of the pickup/packaging with Chase couriers logistics and pay the shipping cost directly to the company.
I need to know the shipping charges with the insurance plus packaging for safety delivery and I will add the cost together with the paintings amount quoted and pay it all together into your bank account details given.
—
This sent off my alarm bell. I SHOULD PAY SHIPPING COSTS? IN ADVANCE?? TO SOME PROTONMAILADDRESSPHANTASYCOMPANY???
Neverever.
—
Such a shame
Omg, my grandmother just got the exact email, same Skype call with no video…they almost fell right into this scam.. thanks for sharing this. Other wise I wouldn’t have known this!
Thank you very much. I had the same message and was happy but the second message was exactly the same as yours. A crazy story.
Has anyone else got enquiries for commissions on Instagram? They are so lazy, they just approach any artist account and don’t even bother to follow or like any post.
Look out for these accounts: @joeneuman___ @luixrodriguezval
This scammer @kathe_rinejane22 wants to buy your art as nfts using scam website platinumbullnfts.
Save your money and block these accounts!
I have received a demand from somebody who has never followed or liked me on instagram, with the same “hi, love your art, do you sell it?”. They sent me a couple screenshots from my Insta. I didn’t have that object anymore but I said I could make a new one based on this model.
Along the way they gave me a couple sweet comments about how nice I was because I cared to explain things about my art and guarantee the quality etc.
Their Instagram account is private, there are some pics, followers and followed accounts. They started to follow me only a couple days after our dialog began. They watched stories but never liked.
They wanted a commission, they said yes very quickly to any pricing, I had to insist to get the details (it’s a commission right?) because I felt like they were not even reading my questions. I asked for a money transfer thru a super simple system that everybody uses here (even people who went bankrupt and don’t have a credit card anymore). No, it is not possible: according to them, there have been issues with an account and problems with money transfer, I can’t even reproduce exact wording, it was not easy to follow.
Ah and the checks, the person doesn’t have the possibility to send a check for a sum less than *more than two times of discussed price* but it’s not a problem, I would only have to send them back the difference or make more artwork to make up for this difference. And the check, it’s so easy to transfer it to my bank without a printed version! (Here I received a long instruction how to do so. Weird enough because the person never wrote more than a couple lines of text to me before.)
I finally got the pics of a cheque for approximately the sum we discussed, with a very small, basically negligeable but inexplicable overpay that the person has never commented on. The info has been filled on the computer with a background filling of the text (so I suspect it shaded some other info). The IG nickname (!) of the sender was filled in the same way and not printed on the cheque. It was still a human name, but…just a name, standalone. And the signature did not match with their name, it has never been seen anywhere on the dialog.
Finally, I checked the address of the bank, and found out that this branch has moved from the indicated address several years ago. Maybe it can happen, a branch moves but the person has the same void cheque for years… but it has not been the only weirdness in this communication so I paused.
Checked the address they gave me to calculate the shipping cost, and BOOM, it doesn’t really exist. Very close to a real one, but nope.
And yes, they started getting pushy pretty quickly and it escalated.
(Especially when I got adamant that I didn’t need them to send me two times the price).
They seem to get mad at me now.
So, I started googling because I have already worked with cheques but never in such a manner… Anyway, if it is a scam, it is executed in a pretty convincing way, and if it isn’t, I feel sorry for this person with all their difficult financial relationships with the bank. Thought that I’d better share this experience.
P.S. I got a site that is very clearly indicated in my art account. I checked the stats and I’ve seen no visits whatsoever from the region they claim to be. It might be just a tiny detail but it is still very strange, to rush to buy something rather expensive from someone across the land without even checking out the site first.
Yup. Received the same email this morning. This was my response lol….
———————————————————-
Hi, Alex.
I’m super eager to do this. But, first, explain this….
https://theabundantartist.com/protect-art-business-scams/
Just got the same message on Instagram. Same wording, same everything. They’re not even that creative! Her account is kerris919.
received today from my personal CONTACT form from my website
Name
Grayson Benjamin
eMail
graysonbenjamin41@gmail.com
Message
My name is Grayson Benjamin from Washington DC.I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife’s anniversary which is just around the corner. I stormed on some of your works which i found quite impressive and intriguing. 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 is within the price range of $1000 to $7000.
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.
Best regards,
Grayson.
Legal advice
Yes
my answer
I do not accept checks, my work is only sold in art galleries.
https://www.singulart.com
you can buy in this gallery, for example
I do not expect a reply
If there is…I will comment on it
thanks for this post
My artist wife just received the same email, however Steven, Rich, John, etc is now going by Irene Clayton. Beware!
Wow, I was so impressed to read this article. Thank you! I have had several attempts in different forms. It always starts with the follow you and then shortly after with a message “ is your art for sale and I love your art piece”. I have added no NFT to my word list in Instagram. However, I believe that they are onto this the scammers so from now on I always just direct them to my website and block them but it’s quite constant these days and I’m not sure how else to handle it as I report it to Instagram and I believe that’s all I can do. If anyone else in this feed has had any luck with Instagram reporting of these scammers, it would be great to know!