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.
Punctuation may show up in strange places. Many email scams will read strangely, with odd and generic phrasing. For example, you always ship via FedEx Ground, and the shipping cost is already clearly stated on the piece in question. Do not do this.Īn easy way to avoid any confusion or potential for scamming is to state your shipping policies very clearly on your website.
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. Red Flag #2: Asking You to Send Some Money to a 3rd Party If someone emails you asking to purchase a piece, kindly direct them to your online shop. The easiest way to avoid this one is to perform all transactions through a shopping cart interface on your website. 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. In 2017 there are very few reasons why a legitimate collector cannot pay over the internet with a conventional credit card or with Paypal. 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. They’ll then ask you send a chunk of that money on to a 3rd party (see below) such as their personal “shipping agent”. 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). 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. 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. Hundreds of variants exist and are easy to find with a quick Google search. One of the most common forms of scam is the cashier’s check/money order overpayment scam. Red Flag #1: Non-Traditional Forms of Payment 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. Unfortunately for the thousands of hard-working artists hustling to make an income from their work, the art world is rife with scams.
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