Thank you so much Lori! I just got the same email this morning. I spent the whole afternoon, thinking about how to respond. I was about to send my reply and try and work with her with the caveat that I couldn't ignore the shipping cost when I thought to check out her name via Google. I came across your post. You just saved me a load of aggravation. Thanks again. I will be sure to post this scam on my blog too.

Hi Lori, yes, thank you for getting the word out on scams like this. I too was contacted by someone from "London"...interested in buying one of my paintings. I provided pricing, etc. and received a check for $1200 over the price of the painting. I contacted the "buyer" to let them know that the check arrived (on a friday afternoon) and also to let him know that he overpaid -- it was then that he told me his "shipper" was in town and could pick up the painting the next day (to ship with other household goods), and could I please give the shipper the differece (i.e. $1200) along with the painting. This seemed bizarre, so I told the buyer I wouldn't release the painting until the check cleared the bank. I took the check to the bank on Saturday, but the "buyer's" bank wasn't open, so the bank held the check and tried to put it through on Monday. It was a bogus check...Anyway, the bank filed a fraud report and asked me to make a police report also, even though I wasn't out anything. I contacted the P.D. and they said this goes on all too often and they wouldn't even take a report.

So, if you are out there and contacted by anyone you don't know -- be wise. If your gut says something is wrong, listen to it = )

I'm so sorry if this scam came from South Africa Lori- nasty!

Hi Lori, Damn! I was excited about such a big sale from my website. But my email was exactly the same. I have been corresponding with "Michelle" for 3 days getting the specifics down. Dan you're right, they are a bit more sophisticated. She Chose very specific pieces, agreed to my terms and such. My Web designer alerted me to this scam and sent me your website. I mean we have websites so that people find your website and want to buy your work, so people like this just suck! I would like your permission to email "Michelle" and direct her to this site and blog. Hopefully this particular scam will end here. I won't email her unless you OK it, but she needs to know that artists are on to her.

You know, I am tempted to take this to the point of receiving the check/money order and just sending her an email thanking her for her graciousness in sending me more than my asking price and that I will not be able to send her the "overage" because someone had already come by to pick up the pictures. "I was sure the person was from your shipping company, I am so sorry! Maybe you should check with them." I know, it's petty.

Hey Lara, that's a funny idea about saying that the paintings were already picked up.

What we need to do here is alert all our friends about this scam and similar scams. Feel free to link to this post.

I had a friend who was taken by a similar scammer 5 years ago. This is nothing new. Any artist with a website gets there sooner or later.

Lori

This is just the same old scam that I've been contacted with several times to include my home that I was selling! There is a website to report these scams. http://www.419scam.org/ It's a useful site whenever you are wary and wish to check on an email or simply to forward this one for them to investigate. Another website is snopes.com, to check on other bizarre emails or internet tales.
Thanks for posting this. Glad you are alerting people to this. I received it from another artist.

Thank you for passing this along. I just started a portrait business as a stay at home mom and appreciate any help I can get in the business-beware department!