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Friday, March 25, 2011

Scam Email: Shirley Truman

Here's a scammer that filled out a website contact form to begin the scam process. I love the last sentence. Rude of them to imply my website needs updating! [smile]

From: Shirley Truman (shirleytruman@rocketmail.com)

Comment:
Hi,
will like to know if you sell your art internationally as your artwork caught my interest and i am willing to purchase some piece therefore do you have the capacity to ship abroad Estonia and accept Credit Card as a form of payment?
I anticipate your swift response with your updated webpage.
Best
Shirley Truman
When told only paypal payments would be accepted, here was the scammer response:

From: Shirley Truman [shirleytruman@rocketmail.com]
Subject: Re: Comment from [website url inserted here]

Hi,
Thank you for the swift response,
I can only pay with giving you my credit card number and expiry because my URL would not allow me to complete any transaction of such online.
I want you to get back to me asap so that we can know how to proceed .
Best
Shirley Truman
Playing dumb.... also cleverly inserted the website url in the subject line so they could keep track of their "presonalization" of the exchange and not tip the potential victim off too soon that something was not right. Tssk tssk, fake Shirley Truman....

15 comments:

  1. "Shirley" also contacted me and tried to purchase a painting, using the exact same emails and text, including the response to PayPal. I can take cards directly, and as I was unsure as to the true nature, I took the exchange a little further. She pressed me to include shipping in the card charge. When I pushed back and insisted she pay that directly, she disappeared.

    Kathleen, how do you think this works as a scam? How does it benefit the scammer?

    ReplyDelete
  2. How these scams work is they will string you along as far as they can before revealing what they are actually after. And it's not your art. It's never about the thing they are pretending to buy.

    Two factors ALWAYS seem to be included in these scams:

    1. They will have some story about why they need to use a third party shipper who will arrange to pick up the art. The typical cover story is usually that they are moving from one country to another and have a company handling all of their items and this shipper will also handle picking up your artwork.

    Sometimes they skip the third-party shipper angle but typically it almost always comes up at some point.

    2. They will ALWAYS send a check (or pay by a stolen credit card number that has not yet been reported as stolen) for *more* than the amount owed. A lot more. And then they will have some other detailed cover story as to why they are doing that and then ask you to send the difference (either forward it to their third party shipper or if they are just using themselves, they will ask you send the difference back to them). Always via Western Union (because then they can't be traced).

    There is no third party shipping company. It's always just them at the other end of Western Union. They don't even care where the art gets sent to (and obviously it's not them or they would be traceable).

    The only "real" money in the whole equation is yours, the difference you send forward. And that is the crux of the scam. Unfortunately far too many artists fall for this and I've been working hard to reduce those odds by posting the actual scam emails people forward me (and that I get myself) and trying to educate artists to always google and lookup people if something doesn't feel right. And hopefully - like it did for you, these will turn up in the search results and keep more artists from falling victim.

    Thanks for sharing your experience!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Also quite humorous is the name. "Tru-man"

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks for this. Just received this very same email to my box, exactly. Thomas

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thanks a ton for this. I just got the same email as well. Only from Murnis Kepp: Reads as follows:

    Hi,
    will like to know if you sell your art internationally as your artwork caught my interest and i am willing to purchase some piece therefore do you have the capacity to ship abroad Estonia and accept Credit Card as a form of payment?
    I anticipate your swift response with your updated webpage.
    Best
    Murnis Kepp

    Thanks again for posting this. I'm now bouncing back the email as if I never received it.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I really appreciate you posting this!! I got this very e-mail from "Shirley Truman" and did a search on her and your blog post popped up! Thanks for the info! You're helping out a lot of artists like myself. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Thanks for posting this. I received the same email from "Lucy O'Brien"


    Hi,
    will like to know if you sell your art internationally as your artwork caught my interest and i am willing to purchase some piece therefore do you have the capacity to ship abroad Estonia and accept Credit Card as a form of payment?
    I anticipate your swift response with your updated webpage.
    Best
    Lucy O'Brien

    ReplyDelete
  8. Received the same by Murnis Kepp

    thanks for posting this!

    ReplyDelete
  9. Just received the same from Melrose William: Message:

    Hi,
    will like to know if you sell your art internationally as your artwork caught my interest and i am willing to purchase some piece therefore do you have the capacity to ship abroad Estonia and accept Credit Card as a form of payment?
    I anticipate your swift response with your updated webpage.
    Best
    Melrose William

    ReplyDelete
  10. rebeccamac001 sent me a similar email today and when she said she is from United State of America, and very bad english was used,the red flag went up. She wanted me to email her directly and give her my paypal name to pay me, which I would not. All correspondence was done through the website.(proof to them, hahaha) Then she wanted more and more of my art...$700 worth.I contacted the art site I belong to and hope they respond. I am glad to see these posts here. Thanks!! When she said the art would be picked up, I knew it was a scam. I would never give my address, or any personal info, to a stranger!

    ReplyDelete
  11. just received a "Murnis Kepp " today:
    from Murnis Kepp murniskepp@ymail.com
    to adriane@adrianeschramm.com
    date Sat, Jun 25, 2011 at 3:30 AM
    subject Inquiry
    signed-by ymail.com

    hide details 3:30 AM (7 hours ago)

    Hi,
    Interested in purchasing some piece of beautiful artworks so i will like to know if your art collection can sell internationally to Lithuania and if you are able to accept Credit Card as payment?
    Your swift response with your updated web page will be much appreciated.
    Sincerely

    ReplyDelete
  12. Just received the exact same email from ole Murnis here. Thanks for spreading the word.

    ReplyDelete
  13. I too have the latest version, but from a Nevis Feldman.

    ReplyDelete
  14. here's a new one! just got this one yesteday:

    My name is Martin Robert , Am American, but lives and work here in Cyprus .I run a company here in
    Cyprus.I recently viewed your web page and i was caught up in ordering some of your products,we are located in Cyprus,i will like to know if you have the items in stocks.

    DO YOU ACCEPT US ISSUE CREDIT CARD?
    HAVE YOU SHIPPED INTERNATIONAL IN THE PAST?
    DO YOU HAVE A PERSONAL SHIPPING AGENT?

    So kindly get back to me with the right contact person email,phone number and confirmation of your
    so that i can place my order quickly,i want you to know that i have my own personal shipping agent that will come for the pick up at your store,please advise so that i can proceed by going ahead to place the order.

    I am waiting anxiously to hear back from you.

    Best regard.

    From the desk of Purchasing Manager,

    Fax:206-984-4614
    Email : martins_roberts@yahoo.com

    Martin Robert

    ReplyDelete
  15. Yes, we already have a report on this one, and with the same email - it's not completely common for scammers to hang on to any email addresses.

    It is amazing to me how the same content shows up again and again and again and again, when one sees these every day from people posting them. They actually become very easy to recognize... but that doesn't help the artists out there who have never seen one and suddenly are so happy they have a "buyer".

    So we'll just keep posting them!

    ReplyDelete