[CGUYS] Email Scam?
My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. david [Begin email] Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse From: Sarah Baptiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, March 17, 2008 6:29 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Good day to you out there. I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from you namely... Heading Home.jpg,Serenity.jpg,Spring Announcement.jpg Let me know their various prices.and how much discounts are you going to give?I will be happy to have these selected artworks hanged in our new ho me in South Africa. As well, I want you to take out the shipping cost.I have been in touch with a shipping firm that will be shipping other house decoratives. We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you with a Money Order or Cashier`s check in US funds that can be easily cashed at your local bank,please let me know on how to procced for the payment of the creative artworks. I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day. Best regards, Sarah Baptiste __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [End email] * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
I pick you because of your upstanding character, honetsy and very large instrumentality. It is well-known, even in my country, Flattery will get you nowhere. Hey, yo, hepty-doop! Is that lawyer talk? :-) * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
Or the famous wife whose husband has died of cancer and now she is suffering from testicular cancer. Stewart At 10:14 PM 3/20/2008, you wrote: I have two technical legal points to make about dealing with this scam: 1. If you are ambushed or blind-sided by the appearance of the cashier's check for MORE than the amount of the sale, that is, they led you to believe the check would be for $5,000 (or whatever the cost of the goods sold, for example), but when you open the envelope, the check is for $8,000, you may adopt the position, for at least as long as it takes to determine whether or not the instrument is valid, that it is a gift received in the mail. Had you received a $5,000 check, as you discussed, then that would not have been a gift when it arrived. But, since you never discussed the $8,000 check, use the USPS regs and statutes to call it a gift, because, absent a prior bona fide business relationship with a sender, anything you get in the mail that you didn't order or ask for is a gift. That absolves you of any duty to send anybody anything, on account of it. If the $8,000 check arrives, and is accompanied by a writing saying how the additional $3,000 is to be handled, then that might also make it not a gift, but you are then free to send the whole thing back to the sender and say that this additional transfer of funds wasn't part of the deal. Either of these actions by you (calling it a gift and doing nothing, or sending back the check with the overage amount) will reveal the true nature of whoever is on the other side. 2. A forged check is NOT subject to the collection and funds-availability of a genuinely-negotiable instrument. Just because YOUR bank puts eight grand into your account after 3 or 5 days, as the case may be, doesn't mean there is a way for a forger to know that. That is, if you deposit the check, and your bank pays it, but you tell the buyer that your bank is still holding it for collection (if you say something like, "The funds are still being held by my bank, because there is some question about the authority of the drawee bank [the bank on the face of the document; you could also use the term "payor bank"] to pay the instrument," that will be the absolute truth), only the honest buyer will have a bank to go to ask if that check has been paid or not. Therefore, repeated, and ostensibly-patient, inquiries by the buyer, over time, may be a signal to you that there is no bank on HIS end with whom he can check. Mutatis mutandis, if YOU were the buyer, and YOU sent someone a REAL cashier's check, and your seller kept telling you that his bank hadn't released the funds, yet, wouldn't YOU go, sooner rather than later, to YOUR bank and see if it had been presented through the clearinghouse? If he is a forger, you can even smoke him out by saying, "Why don't you go to, or call, YOUR bank, and see if they have been getting the inquiries from my bank, and then get back to me and tell me what they say. Better yet, get me a phone number of someone at your bank that the people at my bank can talk to. I think that's the best way to clear this up." 3. Is there anyone please,on the list thast will help me to move SIXTY-SIX TRILLION DOLLARS USD$ out of the country. My wife she was the queen ,and these was her monies, but she was assassinated dead, and now they want to kill me, too. And I am in hidding. I am prepared to pay a goodly portion of these money to whoever help me, TWENTY PERCENT (25%). I pick you because of your upstanding character, honetsy and very large instrumentality. It is well-known, even in my country, where I was the Minister of Accounting and Treasuries. If this noble entreaty appeal to you and you can be of your glorious and merciful assistance, then kindly to be sending me please your credit card and bank information right a way. Bob Hey, yo, hepty-doop! OK End -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1335 - Release Date: 3/19/2008 9:54 AM * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** * Rev. Stewart A. Marshall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Prince of Peace www.princeofpeaceozark.org Ozark, AL SL 82 * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
The incorrect grammar and misspellings would be enough to make me suspicious. If he does decide to respond, I'd ask for the money order up front, cash it and then send the artwork (plus shipping to Dallas or wherever). It is also offensive, imo as someone who represented artists over the years. Art can be bargained, but would you bargain your dinner at a restaurant or your new suit at the department store? /gayley knight David Turk wrote: My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. david [Begin email] Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse From: Sarah Baptiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, March 17, 2008 6:29 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Good day to you out there. I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from you namely... Heading Home.jpg,Serenity.jpg,Spring Announcement.jpg Let me know their various prices.and how much discounts are you going to give?I will be happy to have these selected artworks hanged in our new ho me in South Africa. As well, I want you to take out the shipping cost.I have been in touch with a shipping firm that will be shipping other house decoratives. We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you with a Money Order or Cashier`s check in US funds that can be easily cashed at your local bank,please let me know on how to procced for the payment of the creative artworks. I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day. Best regards, Sarah Baptiste _ * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
does not sound to me like a person with English as a first language. maybe a Nigerian who has moved to SA. for the past 20 years, my company sold and shipped to many foreign countries. stuff was a bit bulky, so we frequently shipped to freight forwarders in miami, nj, texas, etc. cash equivalent up front, including S&H. issue what is called a pro forma invoice in the trade. the prices are not listed on this website. most art sites also have a full disclosure of T&C. person wants a discount on 3 pieces? if scherer cannot sell the stuff, just throw it away, do not add the embarrassment of paying S&H charges to ship to another planet. we got to the place that we did not offer free samples to any new customers. At 08:14 AM 3/20/2008, you wrote: >scherercreations.com * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
The bad grammar points I agree with. The Gallery page has the artist's phone number. Ask them to call you. I doubt they will. Worst case, take the offered cashiers check. Charles On Mar 20, 2008, at 8:14 AM, David Turk wrote: My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. david [Begin email] Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse From: Sarah Baptiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, March 17, 2008 6:29 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Good day to you out there. I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from you namely... Heading Home.jpg,Serenity.jpg,Spring Announcement.jpg Let me know their various prices.and how much discounts are you going to give?I will be happy to have these selected artworks hanged in our new ho me in South Africa. As well, I want you to take out the shipping cost.I have been in touch with a shipping firm that will be shipping other house decoratives. We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you with a Money Order or Cashier`s check in US funds that can be easily cashed at your local bank,please let me know on how to procced for the payment of the creative artworks. I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day. Best regards, Sarah Baptiste __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com [End email] ** *** ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http:// www.cguys.org/ ** ** *** * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
Looks like the cashier's check scam. See Snopes on this: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/cashier.asp -SAM -- Quoting David Turk <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. david [Begin email] Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse From: Sarah Baptiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Mon, March 17, 2008 6:29 pm To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Good day to you out there. I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from you namely... Heading Home.jpg,Serenity.jpg,Spring Announcement.jpg Let me know their various prices.and how much discounts are you going to give?I will be happy to have these selected artworks hanged in our new ho me in South Africa. As well, I want you to take out the shipping cost.I have been in touch with a shipping firm that will be shipping other house decoratives. We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you with a Money Order or Cashier`s check in US funds that can be easily cashed at your local bank,please let me know on how to procced for the payment of the creative artworks. I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
Just the format and phrasing raises a host of red flags. It uses very generic wording that can apply to any targeted recipient. The placement of the images of interest looks like a mail merge of some kind. It just smells of an automated bulk email - not something who wants to decorate an apartment is likely to draft. I'd expect something much more personal, with details of how "she" came across your work, etc. Also, mail orders and cashiers checks are easy to counterfeit. Dan * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
there are a lot of counterfit cashiers checks out there. if a bad one comes from out of the country, the bank has about a year or so to cancel funds in your account. wire transfer should be clean. At 09:46 AM 3/20/2008, you wrote: >The bad grammar points I agree with. The Gallery page has the >artist's phone number. Ask them to call you. I doubt they will. >Worst case, take the offered cashiers check. > >Charles > > >On Mar 20, 2008, at 8:14 AM, David Turk wrote: >>My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He >>received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this >>is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several >>aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, >>asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's >>thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather >>than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. >> >>david >> >>[Begin email] >>Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse >>From: Sarah Baptiste <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >>Date: Mon, March 17, 2008 6:29 pm >>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >>Good day to you out there. >> >>I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet >>search,I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from >>you namely... >> >>Heading Home.jpg,Serenity.jpg,Spring Announcement.jpg >> >>Let me know their various prices.and how much discounts are you >>going to give?I will be happy to have these selected artworks >>hanged in our new ho me in South Africa. As well, I want you to >>take out the shipping cost.I have been in touch with a shipping >>firm that will be shipping other house decoratives. >> >>We are travelling from our Dallas home to our new apartment as soon >>as possible.On Paying for the artworks,I will be glad to pay you >>with a Money Order or Cashier`s check in US funds that can be >>easily cashed at your local bank,please let me know on how to >>procced for the payment of the creative artworks. >> >>I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day. >> >>Best regards, >>Sarah Baptiste >>__ >>Do You Yahoo!? >>Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around >>http://mail.yahoo.com >> >>[End email] >> >> >>** *** >>** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, >>privacy ** >>** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http:// www.cguys.org/ ** >>** *** > > >* >** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** >** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** >* * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
>Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse The subject line starts with "[SPAM]." If you look at the email's headers (which you did not provide us) you will probably find some lines that begin with "X-Spam" that have a score from your ISP's spam filters. When that score is high enough many ISP's will add "[SPAM]" to the subject line. This would suggest that you buyer is bulk mailing these offers to buy. This is a tough decision. If you want to sell art via a website you have to be ready to fill orders that come via Internet. Yet you don't want to get scammed and orders that come via Internet always seem suspicious. So insist on payment in advance using a means that is not reversable, like money order or moneygram and redeem it for cash. Do not cash it at your bank. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
>It is also offensive, imo as someone who represented artists over >the years. Art can be bargained, but would you bargain your dinner >at a restaurant or your new suit at the department store? Depends on which country I was in. In some countries everything is negotiable. In the US most things are negotiable, but sellers try to convince us that they are not. If you know someone in the restaurant business you will definitely see them negotiating with other restauranteurs. Same if you know somebody in the clothng business. Many times I have told a salesperson "I see you have a sale, but it is not exactly what I need" and have been told "no problem." * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
One correction. There are bogus money orders out there. DO TAKE IT to the bank. They can check their sources and see if it is bogus. Cashiers checks can be bogus and can also be cancelled. Stewart At 03:26 PM 3/20/2008, you wrote: >Subject: [SPAM] Artworks purcahse The subject line starts with "[SPAM]." If you look at the email's headers (which you did not provide us) you will probably find some lines that begin with "X-Spam" that have a score from your ISP's spam filters. When that score is high enough many ISP's will add "[SPAM]" to the subject line. This would suggest that you buyer is bulk mailing these offers to buy. This is a tough decision. If you want to sell art via a website you have to be ready to fill orders that come via Internet. Yet you don't want to get scammed and orders that come via Internet always seem suspicious. So insist on payment in advance using a means that is not reversable, like money order or moneygram and redeem it for cash. Do not cash it at your bank. * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** * Rev. Stewart A. Marshall mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Prince of Peace Ozark, AL SL 82 * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
On Mar 20, 2008, at 8:14 AM, David Turk wrote: My partner has a website advertising his artwork for sale. He received this email Monday. We're trying to ascertain whether this is a real person, & if the offer is legit. There are several aspects that make it sound questionable (moving to South Africa, asking for discounts, taking out the shipping costs). He's thinking of offering limited edition prints of the artwork, rather than the artwork itself. Any thoughts would be appreciated. I am quite positive that it is a scam. I work in an art gallery/ picture framing establishment, and we were hit with a similar e-mail scam involving the shipping of artwork. I protested against cooperating with the sender of the e-mail, but a couple of others at the gallery played along because they saw dollar signs. After they spent a lot of time sending e-mail back and forth to the sender, they finally discovered what I had told them all along, that it was a scam. Eventually it was found out that this type of scam is common, with a few twists added here and there to make them appear to be different in nature. Steve * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
Re: [CGUYS] Email Scam?
I have two technical legal points to make about dealing with this scam: 1. If you are ambushed or blind-sided by the appearance of the cashier's check for MORE than the amount of the sale, that is, they led you to believe the check would be for $5,000 (or whatever the cost of the goods sold, for example), but when you open the envelope, the check is for $8,000, you may adopt the position, for at least as long as it takes to determine whether or not the instrument is valid, that it is a gift received in the mail. Had you received a $5,000 check, as you discussed, then that would not have been a gift when it arrived. But, since you never discussed the $8,000 check, use the USPS regs and statutes to call it a gift, because, absent a prior bona fide business relationship with a sender, anything you get in the mail that you didn't order or ask for is a gift. That absolves you of any duty to send anybody anything, on account of it. If the $8,000 check arrives, and is accompanied by a writing saying how the additional $3,000 is to be handled, then that might also make it not a gift, but you are then free to send the whole thing back to the sender and say that this additional transfer of funds wasn't part of the deal. Either of these actions by you (calling it a gift and doing nothing, or sending back the check with the overage amount) will reveal the true nature of whoever is on the other side. 2. A forged check is NOT subject to the collection and funds-availability of a genuinely-negotiable instrument. Just because YOUR bank puts eight grand into your account after 3 or 5 days, as the case may be, doesn't mean there is a way for a forger to know that. That is, if you deposit the check, and your bank pays it, but you tell the buyer that your bank is still holding it for collection (if you say something like, "The funds are still being held by my bank, because there is some question about the authority of the drawee bank [the bank on the face of the document; you could also use the term "payor bank"] to pay the instrument," that will be the absolute truth), only the honest buyer will have a bank to go to ask if that check has been paid or not. Therefore, repeated, and ostensibly-patient, inquiries by the buyer, over time, may be a signal to you that there is no bank on HIS end with whom he can check. Mutatis mutandis, if YOU were the buyer, and YOU sent someone a REAL cashier's check, and your seller kept telling you that his bank hadn't released the funds, yet, wouldn't YOU go, sooner rather than later, to YOUR bank and see if it had been presented through the clearinghouse? If he is a forger, you can even smoke him out by saying, "Why don't you go to, or call, YOUR bank, and see if they have been getting the inquiries from my bank, and then get back to me and tell me what they say. Better yet, get me a phone number of someone at your bank that the people at my bank can talk to. I think that's the best way to clear this up." 3. Is there anyone please,on the list thast will help me to move SIXTY-SIX TRILLION DOLLARS USD$ out of the country. My wife she was the queen ,and these was her monies, but she was assassinated dead, and now they want to kill me, too. And I am in hidding. I am prepared to pay a goodly portion of these money to whoever help me, TWENTY PERCENT (25%). I pick you because of your upstanding character, honetsy and very large instrumentality. It is well-known, even in my country, where I was the Minister of Accounting and Treasuries. If this noble entreaty appeal to you and you can be of your glorious and merciful assistance, then kindly to be sending me please your credit card and bank information right a way. Bob Hey, yo, hepty-doop! OK End -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.21.7/1335 - Release Date: 3/19/2008 9:54 AM * ** List info, subscription management, list rules, archives, privacy ** ** policy, calmness, a member map, and more at http://www.cguys.org/ ** *
