kmichelles.com Blog

Email Art Scams

The Email Art Scam Experience
When I published my artist website nearly a year ago, I had no idea I would be the target of a scammer. Sure, I have recieved a common scam email before, the kind most people are aware of, but I really did not know that they were now targeting artists, and posing as interested buyers.
As an artist, if you are selling your art on the internet, you should be very cautious in reguards to this. Safe methods of payment from a potential purchaser would be Western Union, Paypal (they screen their applicants), or a bank wire. Credit cards could potentially be stolen cards, in which you would recieve a charge back, possibly months later. If you recieve a money order or cashiers check be sure to call the issuing bank to verify whether or not it is valid, and payable directly to you. You may also find it useful to ask your bank to “express verify” it for you, or put a hold on it. If you cash it, it may clear, but it could be weeks before they figure out it is counterfeit, and you will be out the money. In my case, the potential purchaser has offered to send a certified US money order. Here is a copy of the email:

Name = Michael Jones
Email = zezebabs_1@yahoo.com
Painting = list in mail
Comments = Good day to you
I visited your site and i saw these fascinating artworks and i
found some interest in :-

1. ( The Feeling of Lost” acrylic & oil on stretched canvas )
2. ( “Enlighten” acrylic on stretched canvas )
3. ( “Leaning Trees” acrylic on stretched canvas )
So , i will like to buy them for our new house in Belgium.

I must say you really doing a great job ,i have already contacted a
shipping company that will be shipping them along with our other house
decorations.Our shipping company will Pick-Up these items once i pay you .

I will be paying you with a Certified US Money Order which is easily
cashed at your bank,Please let me know your mind about this sales and
tell the the price for each ? I will be looking forward to your
response on how to proceed.

Regards,
Michael Jones
subject = Painting
REMOTE_HOST: 196.1.178.84

 

Ya know, this email seemed harmless, afterall the person was not offering to pay by credit card like most of these scams you hear about. But I, being very curiouse about the potential purchaser, decided to look up the IP address. They did not offer information as to where they were located in their email, so I had to investigate.
I looked up their IP on http://www.dnsstuff.com/ , this is where I found that they were in Lagos Nigeria, a well known area for scammers.
I emailed them back and told them to go ahead and send me the money. I’ve decided to play along, waist their time, and let them think they’re that smart, for a little while.
This is their email back to me with some headers:
xxx@xxx.com via 68.142.224.170; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:58:00 -0700
X-Originating-IP:
[68.142.201.194]
Return-Path:

Authentication-Results:
mta109.biz.mail.re2.yahoo.com from=yahoo.com; domainkeys=pass (ok)
Received:
from [209.159.170.66] by web31714.mail.mud.yahoo.com via HTTP; Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:58:00 PDT
Date:
Fri, 2 Sep 2005 07:58:00 -0700 (PDT)
From:
“Michael Jones” Add to Address BookYahoo! DomainKeys has confirmed that this message was sent by yahoo.com. Learn more
Subject:
Re: art inquiry
To:
“Karen Smith”
In-Reply-To:
<20050902143116.32731.qmail@web201.biz.mail.re2.yahoo.com>

Dear Karen Smith ,

I am Glad to hear from you. You will receive the money order in us dollars soon. So, our shipper will pick-up the artworks from you once you confirm the payment.

so let me have your phone number ?

Regards,
Michael Jones

I certainly did not give him my phone number.
This time I ran the IP address in the email headers and it showed as coming from the US. This was very troubling to me since I would’ve never known if it weren’t for my web form. I’m not quite sure how they did this.
I searched the web for the email address but found nothing. Then I searched the web for the first IP address, the one in my web form, and found other postings of emails from scammers in Nigeria with the same IP address.
I also have a great statcounter for the pages of my website. When I took a closer look at this visitor to my website, they had no traceable IP logged (most of my visitors do), and I noticed that the path they took through my website was very unusual for a purchaser- they went from my homepage straight to my contact page without viewing my available art page first.

I have decided to string this guy along for a while. Now I will just post our emails back and forth as they come. This should be interesting.

Date: Tue, 13 Sep 2005

Dear Karen Smith , This is to let you know i just got confirmation from my debtor that you will be receiving the money orders via fedex this morning around 10:30 am .The fedex tracking number is # xxxxxxxxx. Let me know how much extactly he sent to you once you receive the money orders today . waiting to hear from you.

Regards,Michael Jones
(note: He wasn’t lying about this part, Fedex delivered right on time - he actually waisted some money on overnight shipping. Four counterfeit US postal service money orders. They might fool someone, but I’ve dealt with so many money orders, I can so tell they are fake.)
Thu, 15 Sep 2005

Dear Karen Smith, You told me you check your email all day and you havent reply to my last two email… You have recieved the money order and nothing was here from you… why ? Take all the money order to bank to have them cashed . My debtor told me the money order is more than the amount i want to pay you so let me know how many peices of $850 money order you got ? waiting to hear from you asap.

Regards,Michael Jones

 

Thu, 15 Sep 2005

Hi Mike, sorry it took me so long to write you back I had to stay over my girlfriends house for a few nights. Why did your debtor send me so much money? I told you it would only be $500. They sent me four Postal Money Orders for $850 each. I will go to the bank in the morning. Is this supposed to be a donation or something? I have been really broke lately. My husband was layed off from his job back in Feb. so hes been unemployed ever since, and I have just been trying to make ends meet by selling my paintings. When will your shipping company be ready for the paintings?

Karen
Thu, 15 Sep 2005

well its not a donation ..take the money orders to bank so cash out and deduct your $500 then have the rest sent to my shipper information via :-

send the money via western union money transfer to :-

Jozef Clement
Melpomenestraat 8
B-1080 Brussels
Belgium

The painting would be pick-up soon..i will contact my shipper to contact you to make arrangement..

waiting to hear from you..

Regards,

Michael Jones
Thu, 15 Sep 2005

Hey, lose the tone. You know, I sell art, I don’t just run around with large Postal Money Orders that need to be cashed for other people, on demand. Why don’t you give me your phone number, and your shippers phone number so I can contact both of you.
Karen
Thu, 15 Sep 2005

My debtor thought am buying many painting that’s why he sent all the money order ..Kindly help cash all out and let me have a phone number i will call you at ?

waiting to hear fromy you

Michael
Tue, 20 Sep 2005

why havent you send the money to my shipper ?