Scam Email: Mac Nuel

Received this post this morning and wanted to share it:

Hi everybody. This is an Art Gallery from Geneva (Switzerland).

If you own an art gallery you better get away from Mr Mac Nuel (nuelmac@yahoo.com) because he's a professional art scammer.

He contacted us by email a month and a half ago asking for an artwork price and details that he had seen at our website. He described himself as a british oil engineer working on the Gulf of Mexico and interested in buying an artwork from our art gallery as a wedding present for his daughter.

He sent us a paycheck for an amount three times higher than expected and he asked us to be totally credited because his wife was about to come to Geneva to chose another pieces for their collection. So we did it.

We sent the artwork to a location in London and Mr Mac Nuel suddenly ask us about wiring half of the paycheck amount to an account in Hungary 'because his wife was there shopping for the wedding and needed the money urgently'. As paycheck appeared as credited in our account, we accepted.

A few days after, our bank told us that there were no funds on that paycheck and it was too late to get our money back. We also realized that nobody picked up the artwork in a fake address in London.

He is using a proxy to show a new IP address any time.

Mr Mac Nuel even tried to get more money from us inventing an incredible story about a crush accident where his future son-in-law died and her daughter was seriously injured. Obviously, we didn't proceed this time.

So, if you hear about Mr Mac Nuel or someone else trying to invent those kind of art scams, be aware. Some very fine art galleries had been concerned.

CF

 Always the tip-off on this scam is they pay for more than is owed (by a lot) and ask that a portion of it be forwarded somewhere via wire transfer (typically Western Union or MoneyGram). The story changes up but not these two critical steps of the scam. Their money always turns out to be fake while you have forwarded your good money. Once you receive a check for significantly more than the amount - stop right there! and cease all communication with the scammer and turn the check into your bank's fraud department.

I hate when the scammers win one...