“ART product inquiry” — Don’t be Fooled by Email Art Scams!!!
The story goes like this:
Sometime last month I got an email from a potential client that he wanted to buy my art for his wife’s birthday. I was excited. But I find it a bit strange to get emails like this.
If someone comes to me, it has to be a follower on my social media (as I often post my art there) or can be a recommendation from a friend. If he doesn’t have a special connection to me, why does he have to buy my art? For an artist I’m definitely not bad (Proud) but I’m not famous either or that my pieces are oh-so-master piece. So it smells a bit fishy.
Over the years we’ve received so many spam emails selling pills, or a prince in a small African country needing money to get his people to save — we know it’s all BS. However, as I’m looking for freelance work or selling my art to help cover costs, I keep reading the email and see if it’s something doable.
One thing I want to jump in and say first — when people are not tight on cash, they usually don’t get fooled by this money scam scheme that easily. But when someone is looking for financial help/business opportunity, they are rather eager to get involved. Thus the more you need money, the more careful you have to be!
Let me show you what the email looks like:
My name is Jeff Robert 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, Jeff. ([email protected])
First of all, I hate people who can’t differentiate “YOU ARE/YOU’ARE” and “YOUR”.
Focus on the content: Seems reasonable — except for a few things, first the price. You want to pay me $9000 for these pieces? I may charge this price for a larger project involving illustration and design etc, not for an immediate sale with an existing piece. It would be too good to be true.
Second, a birthday gift for your wife costs $9,000 — it can be a luxury product — but if you pay that price for an artwork, the artwork has to be done by a famous artist and that she LOVES.
Still, the way he wrote me was too general, he doesn’t seem to know my art or me (what kind of art I make etc.)… and you don’t even live in the same country as me. What’s the connection here?
None.
I consider that to be scam.
I replied to him almost a month later which was a few days ago because I didn’t see his email at first:
Dear Jeff,
Thank you for your email. Sorry I’ve only seen it today as the email went to spam and I think it may be too late already.
But thank you for your interested. Please let me know if you still need something done in the future.
Thank you
Kylie
And yes, he got my answer, so he really should work on fooling me. But this scammer is too lazy… too lazy. He wrote me this:
Hello Kylie, Thanks for reaching out back to me. Kindly send me image of piece with their respective price that are available for immediate sale.
Looking forward to hearing from you, Jeff.
Well — aside from the fact that his English gets weird (and you’re from an English speaking country?) I would say it’s definitely a scam.
You can basically translate his e-mail into “Oh I don’t care what that is, just send me something quick”. — How about your wife’s birthday? no longer an issue. And the subject of the artwork? No, what if I gave you a piece of my bloody demon drawing for your non-existent wife? blah.
Of course I don’t write back e-mails anymore.
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Out of curiosity, I googled his message. There were many artists online who received the same message with the same wording. They often request shipping overseas and ask for personal information. One of the blogger said: “If the buyer is in a country far from you or needs to involve a carrier at all, be careful — this is an important red flag.”
They often ask for phone numbers, personal information, with funny spelling and grammatical mistake while responds (because no template to use) — you might think “who would be so dumb to give them that” but as we know many artists are good at making their art but not good at dealing with people or conscious enough. Also if it is a trusted client, exchanging the number is completely normal.