This a fake name and email address making the rounds lately. I've been getting a number of reports on it so I assume this scammer has done a large mailing. The fake name is pretty common so look for those other clues - something about moving and having a moving company, sending a check for more than the amount owed and asking you to forward a portion of it elsewhere - via wire transfer... look out for these clues. There is no moving company, there is no sister's wedding - all of it is made up to get you to send your good money to them via wire transfer when their money is counterfeit.
From: Anne Brown [annebrownn@yahoo.com]
Good to hear back from you. Yes, I will like to proceed with the
purchase of the artworks. I think they are lovely works and I hope to
give them good home.
I am presently away in Cancun for my twin sister's wedding even
though it comes at a time when I was preparing for a big move and also
expecting a baby but it means so much to her. I should be back in few
days.
Meanwhile, I will like you to forward your mailing address and phone
number so I can inform my husband still shuttling between our home in
New Jersey and London on where to forward the payment. He has just
been transfer to head the IT section of their head Office in London.
I can also forward your contact info to the local cartage company that
will be moving all our house decors so they can get in touch with you
to arrange shipping details. They can arrange FedEx pick up of the
artworks from your studio.
I will look forward to hearing from you so I can know how best to
proceed. Cheers.
Hello! In your entry did you use the information from some studies or these are only your personal thought? Waiting forward to hear your answer.
ReplyDeleteNo real studies done, but my observations come from years (some 20+) of dealing with online scams. When you've seen these things over so many years, certainly elements and patterns become obvious. Sure, scammers keep tweeking and revising their approach to make them more effective, but certainly parts of these scams always remain the same.
ReplyDeleteIt was only relatively recently (about 5 years ago), that I decided if I focused on posting online more of what scammers sent to people and provided places where people could post their scam experiences, that more of this would show in google search results and so more people could be warned off from becoming victims in the first place. I'm not sure if it's made enough of a "dent" yet, but everyone's emails and posts to me saying I saved them from becoming a victim... this is satisfying enough for me.
First off, I got an email from a Ronald (Ron) Walker about purchasing some of my "Work of arts". The email sounds a bit fishy, but not so much as Anne Brown's. You know of this guy as a scammer perhaps too???
ReplyDeleteI can vouch for the Anne Brown case to some degree. I was emailed from Anne Brown last September with a similar email (far less detail though) about purchasing my artworks. I proceeded very cautiously...fortunately I didn't do it alone but had help of a professor who was wary and after giving detailed info about the condition of the works/complex nature of having them shipped and requesting Anne to pay the shipping upfront, I got no more email replies...so I figured that was a scam. We only emailed back and forth twice.
Scammers will use different fake names and disposable email addresses. The basic clues to look for are: they mention they will use a third-party shipping company, they mention being in a foreign country and/or moving to a foreign location, they don't say this but they will OVERPAY (that is always a definite flag - never accept overpayments). They typically use either a counterfeit check or a stolen credit card (and often the card will not be reported yet as stolen but a scammer will rarely know the billing address of the card and that is something you can confirm with the credit card company). They will ask you to forward the overpay on to the shipper so they can be paid. There is no shipper. They may or may not use a real name of a shipping company, but there is no shipper. And the final definite flag is they will have some reason why you are to *wire* the money to the non-existent shipper. They do this because once they pick up the money at the other end, it is untraceable - and they, with the money, are gone. NEVER ever ever wire money. I would say never wire money to a third party, but really, you'll be a lot more safe if you just decide to never wire money to anyone.
ReplyDeleteGlad you didn't fall for this scam!
Hi Kathleen,
ReplyDeleteI have a suspicious order from a florence Brown to ship to Vanuatu. She is paying via credit card and preferes shipping through DPD (british company). Her email is flora.brown@hotmail.com
Anything like that ever pop up?
Thanks,
Just got similar one from flora.brown10100@aol.com
ReplyDelete"I sent you an email recently, But i am yet to hear back from you.
I saw some of your works which i really loved and i will like to purchase them, Let me know if you ship to Vanuatu. In regards to payment, do you accept Master credit card ?
Do advice back so i can send you my list
Sincerely.
Florence Brown.
Oakland, MD 21550
Tel : 620-6920 "
I got an email like that too. See below:
ReplyDeleteI sent you an email recently, But i am yet to hear back from you.
I saw some of your works which i really loved and i will like to purchase them, Let me know if you ship to Vanuatu. In regards to payment, do you accept Master credit card ?
Do advice back so i can send you my list
Sincerely.
Florence Brown.
Oakland, MD 21550
Tel : 620-6920
Kathleen:
ReplyDeleteI'm forwarding you a scam email. The original subject line read "Order." This is a new name I don't see on your current list. I did the IP check and the originating IP is from Nigeria.
Warm regards,
C.
From: flora.brown10100@aol.com
To:
Subject: Order.
Date: Thu, 26 Sep 2013 06:14:13 -0700
I sent you an email recently, But i am yet to hear back from you.
I saw some of your works which i really loved and i will like to purchase them, Let me know if you ship to Vanuatu. In regards to payment, do you accept Master credit card ?
Do advice back so i can send you my list
Sincerely.
Florence Brown.
Oakland, MD 21550
Tel : 620-6920
Just got same email from Florence. I replied ...you are busted
ReplyDeleteIt looks like another name used is Veronica Fishwick from Vanuatu. She actually sent a full Vanuatu address for shipping purposes.
ReplyDeleteI got this?.. looks fishy?....anyone have something similar?
ReplyDeleteDear,
Thanks for your response . I will like to know the availability and the cost of each selected below.
ORDER LIST ...
Beginning" Wall Piece C-12
...........Qty(1)
River Magic Wall Piece C-11
Stoneware and porcelain clay.
...........Qty(1)
SHIPPING ADDRESS..
Address : 125 Cornwall Street
City : Port Vila
State : Shéfa Province
Postcode : 22040
Country : Vanuatu
Kindly send me the total cost of the above and call either UPS or DHL for a shipping quote , but if you can't ship i can arrange for the shipping . Hope to read back from you with the total cost and we can proceed and finalized my order.
Sincerely.Veronica fishwick
Thanks.
recieved a similar email, but the person is using the name Amber Martel. Same mailing address and wants to use DPD Services for shipping. Thought it was fishy, but was going to follow through far enough to see if they asked for overpayment or wire payment of shipper. Doesn't look like there is any reason to go further. Darn and here I thought I was going to make a sale. Thank you all so much for posting. It has been a really big time saver.
Deletewell, well so someone else knows this Amber Martel......Vanuatu ......I have spent hours and hours on this just not "feelin it" my daughter said to just googel the name and place and I landed here. Thank goodness can't wait to say You're busted.
ReplyDeleteCan't figure it. Amber Martel from Vanuatu just gave me all the details for shipping and a very large order. Wants to call with cc#. and prefers anything but US postal. It just sounds fishy, although she would have to pay before I can even begin to finish order which would take a least two weeks... How could she pass off any bad payment in that time if it all checks out..... I just want her to get caught.. please advise.
ReplyDeleteLikely the credit card number is stolen and they want to position their story so they can overpay the amount by a lot and then get you to wire the overpayment back to them (sometimes they say there is a shipper who need to be paid but there is no shipper and sometimes they say oops, please send it back but it has to be by Western Union for this or that fake reason).
ReplyDeleteThe point is not the art or even the stolen credit card - they are after the cash you wire to them and the stolen credit card just gives them a means of not having to put any of their own money up to steal more money from you.
Have recently been receiving Amber Martel spam emails at a major Australian art museum shop. Thanks for the heads-up!
ReplyDeleteI too have also received emails from Amber Martel wanting to order a big list of my paintings etc with full shipping details etc. Thanks she was starting to give me a headache !
ReplyDeleteSame here, Last month i received Amber order request, Her order was placed and i shipped out by Fedex. The package was delivered to Vanutu on 5th Mar. to Same mailing address posted above. Two days ago she emailed me requesting to place a second order. I taught i look up her name since she order's wholesale and found this blog.
ReplyDeleteCan't figure it, the payment she made went through, i called the credit card co. and the card was verified in her name "Amber Martel" and its been over 30days she placed the order. after reading this blog i felt relunctant to go further with her second purchase. i just don't get it. I'm i been scammed or is someone impersonating her ?
You can see the long duration of the use of this particular fake personality, going back to 2012. Calling the credit card company and verifying the name is pretty useless - scammers can pretty easily steal the name and credit card number. What is more difficult (but not impossible) is for them to steal the billing address - so verify if the billing address matches. Often scammers will say they are "moving" so that it might make sense to a victim that the address does not match. If you ask the scammer who provides a credit card to provide their billing address and the security code on the back of the card, and then call the credit card company and say you are trying to determine if it is a stolen credit card, they will help you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, the point is typically to overpay the order and ask you to send the difference somewhere via wire transfer - is this happening for you in this case?
Still, given the length of this thread, my guess is you are dealing with a scammer.
Just received this e-mail from Veronica Fishwick
ReplyDeleteHello,
I want to purchase an order from you to my new store by mail order, shipping to Alaska.
My mode of payment is credit card.
Reply so we can proceed.
Veronica.
Her e-mail is veronicafish07@hotmail.com
Another scammer !!!
Hi Kathleen
ReplyDeleteI found your page after googling Amber Martel Vanuatu. I became suspicious as she wanted me to send some items from my website (jewellery, not art) to Vanuatu, but didn’t want to use FEDEX or Aust Post, but DPD. After emails back and forth and me wasting a lot of my time photographing items for her and getting an order together, I googled her name and came up with your scam page. Well, thank goodness for that! She tried to tell me that Fedex won’t deal with customs, which I know is absolute rubbish.
After I saw your page, I emailed her back and told her that I had found she was a scammer and how can she (he?) sleep at night, etc etc. She even wrote back and asked what I was talking about, she is not a scammer, not involved in fraud etc etc, I really wanted to buy your goods, how disappointing etc, where did I see this. I gave her the link to the site, which maybe was not a good idea, I am so sorry (wasn’t thinking at the time, just seeing red) and now I think Amber herself may have written on there, because the same day I emailed her I saw a posting whereby someone (anon) claims they received goods etc.
Thanks again for your page, without it, I would have been strung along for days longer (and I have enough to do) and maybe even been scammed. I consider myself not prone to this sort of thing, but really, it seemed like a real wholesale order!!
Regards
Kim
I just got scammed by Amber Martel!! I was ready to ship out a large order and "in line" to transfer funds to a moneygram, when it dawned on me this must be a scam. THEN, I found this information. I'm so sorry this has happened to me and each of you too! What terrible, terrible people do this??
ReplyDelete"She" is now scamming etsy store with email address of amber.martel019@gmail.com. This is what was written:
ReplyDeleteI saw some products on your webpage which interests me and i will like to purchase them. I want to make inquiry if you ship to Vanuatu Island. In regards to payment, Do you accept Master credit card ?
Will await your response.
Sincerely.
Amber Etsy Store.
I got the same initial email inquiry about buying artwork from me, from "Amber Martel, email "Amber Etsy Store." . In subsequent emails "she" changed her name to Amberina Martellus with the new email, Amberina Martellus .
ReplyDeleteI'm glad I found this page. I won't proceed any further with her.
Wow! I've been dealing with this girl for a month now! Back and forth back and forth with emails. I refused to deal with DPD because I saw it was a scam and even contacted the REAL DPD website with this fraudelent email address they were using. I had a bad feeling. I emailed her and told her I would NOT be dealing with DPD, real or fake! She has aggreed to pay 2x as much to use UPS. I'm so confused because she has fully agreed to pay in advance for everything and wait til it clears before I ship. I'm going to email her today and tell her to kiss it! This is BS! If something seems TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE... it usually is!
ReplyDeleteI have received a deposit in my account from Amberina for my artwork plus the shipping fee. How can I lose?
ReplyDeleteSame thing here but I do have the amount in the bank plus the shipping. What can go wrong from here?
ReplyDeleteWhat happened afterward? Did you find the money was stolen from a fake credit card? I have been having a similar conversations from Sue Schwab from Athens Greece, asking for DPD as well...
Deleteand now "she" is:
DeleteSue Schwab
63, Antigeo Road
Korinthia, Athens 10432
Greece
EMail - cwayline@aol.com
T: +30-904-906220
If a credit card is used, you will find it is from a stolen number and there will be a chargeback afterwards. But their trick is to overpay and ask the difference be wired to them and that's cold hard cash to them and money you will never see again. They actually could care less about the items they are pretending to buy. Their scam is done when they get that cash wired to them and then they disappear and move on to the next victim.
DeleteIt's a scam. Do not wire money to anyone. And deposits to your account are NOT yours until they FULLY clear - that is the loophole in the banking system scammers take advantage of. Up to it being fully cleared, banks can take that money back if it is found to be fraudulent. And then you are out of luck.
I've been going back and forth with "Sue Schwab" in Athens for a few weeks now. I suspected a scam from the get-go. Red flags here and there, but on the chance it was legit I did communicate with "her." But I had no intention of letting her determine the conditions of payment. In any event, so glad I found this chat so I can put the matter to rest.
DeleteWe had exactly the same thing as above happen to our handmade ceramic pottery business with Sue Schwab. Received email from her with list of pottery she wanted to order - using the exact address shown above in Athens, Greece. She also wanted to use DPD shipping. She agreed to pay $860 in shipping for $510 pottery order. She sent an email address for us to contact the "DPD" shipper for pickup saying we would pay the shipper when package was picked up. She provided a credit card for total amount which we entered manually with our Square device. The amount was posted by Square to our bank account as normal the next day. We were in the process of packaging the order and getting ready to contact the shipper for pickup when on a whim I googled Sue Schwab to see if I could find her website... and this blog came up .. naming her and the exact address and details of order as posted above! I immediately called Square customer support which was very helpful. He said this was a common scam now and many merchants were falling for it. He advised to refund the credit card (easy to do on Square account dashboard), which I did. The amount was refunded out of our bank account back to the credit card used, the next day promptly. I then sent an email to DPD Customer Service (actually located in Germany) asking if this was normal procedure and giving them the email address of the shipper Sue had supplied. DPD replied: "DPD does not offer third party services of that kind. The domain name
Delete"@post.com" is also not a DPD domain (@dpd) and therefore has nothing to with us. Our local partner in Greece is ACS - there is no direct DPD branch. We also do not have a branch in the US and work with the US partner WnDirect instead.
IMPORTANT: we wish to point out expressly that DPD does not offer services of this kind. Any demands for payment in such a connection are attempts at fraud and are made with the unauthorised use of the DPD name and brands.
DPD urgently warns you not to respond to such demands and not to make payments of this kind! DPD accepts no liability for any damage or loss which results from such payments. In such cases we advise you to report the matter to the police without delay.
Kind regards
DPD Team "
Shortly after beginning email conversations with Sue Schwab on the "order" we received another such inquiry from Abel Boswell in Finland, but he wanted to use a different strange third party shipper for door pickup. He wanted to buy everything we had in stock shown on our Square online store. We were in the process of packaging up his shipment as well when we discovered this scam through this blog.
We sent an email to Schwab saying we could not proceed with order and had refunded the charge to her credit card. We did not receive a reply from her. We also sent an mail to Boswell saying we would not accept a credit card but would require a cashiers check from his bank by mail and would require he use a major shipper - not his shipper. Again, no reply from him.
Thank you for posting this blog - it saved us a couple of thousand dollars in shipping cash, as well as the loss of many pieces of beautiful handmade pottery. I hope this helps someone else avoid this heartless, ruthless, and devious scam.
The money they have sent you is fake and the bank will eventually figure that out and take the money back out of your account. In the meantime if you have forwarded money to the scammer's fake shipper, via wire transfer - that is how you lose. Your money is good, the scammer's money is fake and once a wire transfer has been completed, the money and the scammer are gone and untraceable.
ReplyDeleteThey are not after your art. They are after that wire transfer of your cash.
don't do it.
My husband just got the same email, but with a name change to "Caroline" at an Etsy store which we could not find.
ReplyDeleteThe beat goes on. I got a message yesterday from Caroline Studio in Vanuatu, with the exact same wording as Amberina's. It smelled funny, and my wife found your splendid blog with the full forensic analysis. My advice to others would be, RESIST the temptation to reply. That just shows the Amberinas and Carolines of the world that there is a real person at the email address, and invites them to try other tricks, such as hacking into your address book and telling all your contacts that you are stranded in Vanuatu and need them to wire money ASAP. Don't give them the chance.
ReplyDeleteAmberina, in far Vanuatu,
The place all my cash has just got to,
Said to me "Honey,
I make all my money
By doing what Mother said not to".
Here's mine to add to the list. Linda
ReplyDeleteAmberina Martellus
1:02 PM (23 hours ago)
to me
Dear Linda,
Thanks for your response . I will like to know the availability and the cost of each selected below.
ORDER LIST ...
Meeting Opposites
oil on canvas 21 x 21.5
Third of P O Series
acrylic and oil on canvas 38" x 52"
Voices Prebodied
oil on canvas 48" x 38"
Prelude to Dainty Little Fairies
oil on acrylic on canvas 21 x 21.5
SHIPPING ADDRESS..
Address : 220, Tassirik Road,
City : Portvilla
State : Shefa
Country : Islands of Vanuatu
Republic of Vanuatu, is a beautiful island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, We are from Baltimore, Maryland but work moved my husband and i down here. Shipping can be done by either UPS or DHL, So you can contact them for a shipping quote, Hope to read back from you with the total cost and shipping so i can make payment my order.
Sincerely.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Amberina - Studio
Mine to add to the list.
ReplyDeleteAmberina Martellus
1:02 PM (23 hours ago)
to me
Dear Linda,
Thanks for your response . I will like to know the availability and the cost of each selected below.
ORDER LIST ...
Meeting Opposites
oil on canvas 21 x 21.5
Third of P O Series
acrylic and oil on canvas 38" x 52"
Voices Prebodied
oil on canvas 48" x 38"
Prelude to Dainty Little Fairies
oil on acrylic on canvas 21 x 21.5
SHIPPING ADDRESS..
Address : 220, Tassirik Road,
City : Portvilla
State : Shefa
Country : Islands of Vanuatu
Republic of Vanuatu, is a beautiful island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, We are from Baltimore, Maryland but work moved my husband and i down here. Shipping can be done by either UPS or DHL, So you can contact them for a shipping quote, Hope to read back from you with the total cost and shipping so i can make payment my order.
Sincerely.
Have a wonderful weekend,
Amberina - Studio
Hi - I have been corresponding with this person, and it sounds just like the above email. What tipped me off is they asked for the Liberty Bridge Paintings - those are local to a spot in GREENVILLE SOUTH CAROLINA… why on earth would someone in Vanuatu want them? After a quick Google search, I found this thread and wanted to share-
ReplyDelete-------------
Thanks for your response . I will like to know the availability and the cost of each selected below.
ORDER LIST ...
[listed of six painting titles and sizes]
SHIPPING ADDRESS..
Address : 220, Tassirik Road,
City : Portvilla
State : Shefa
Country : Islands of Vanuatu
Republic of Vanuatu, is a beautiful island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, We are from Baltimore, Maryland but work moved my husband and i down here. Shipping can be done by either UPS or DHL, So you can contact them for a shipping quote, Hope to read back from you with the total cost and shipping so i can make payment my order.
Sincerely.
Have a wonderful day,
Caroline - Studio
I have had similar contact with Amberina Martellus. She has not mentioned anything about shipping, but what was odd was that she was willing to place a $1,000 order for my products (felted pillows) without even seeing one up close and personal first! It felt odd that someone in the south pacific would be interested in wool/felted items! I googled Amberina Studios and found this blog. Thanks so much!!!
ReplyDeleteHey everyone, I've been contacted by this same person too. Only under the name Caroline Mayer or Caroline Studio- Etsy. If it wasn't for this blog I probably would've gone along for too long with this person so thanks so much to everyone for posting their experiences.
ReplyDeleteFirst email: I sent you an email recently, But i am yet to hear back from you.
I saw some products on your webpage which interests me and i will like to purchase them. I want to make inquiry if you ship to Vanuatu Island. In regards to payment, Do you accept Master credit card ?
Will await your response.
Sincerely,
Caroline Studio - Etsy
Second email:
Dear Meaghan,
Thanks for your response . I will like to know the availability and the cost of each selected below.
ORDER LIST ...
- Daisy II
- Daisy
- Internet Cat II
- Luna’s Colours IIII
- Cake
SHIPPING ADDRESS..
Address : 90, Lini Highway, Numbatri Area
City : Portvilla
State : Efate
Country : Islands of Vanuatu
Republic of Vanuatu, is a beautiful island nation located in the South Pacific Ocean, We are from Baltimore, Maryland but work moved my husband and i down here. Shipping can be done by either UPS or DHL, So you can contact them for a shipping quote, Hope to read back from you with the total cost and shipping so i can make payment my order.
I will appreciate your timely response.
Sincerely,
Caroline.
Third email:
Meaghan,
Thank you for the update, Sorry for the late response been quiet busy. I don't use Post office services, I have had bad experience with them (Lost Package, Broken goods.) I just don't use Post Office anymore.
Sub Total : $800 AUD
After reading your message, I called UPS agent to confirm shipping quote, using 10lbs as weight and pickup from australia to Vanuatu. They confirmed the shipping rate for all is between $500 to $900 for 5-7days delivery. Full insurance of the value. I also inquired if the quote includes custom clearing charges and both said NO. which makes issue worst, the quote is expensive if it doesn't include the clearing fee.
They further explained that the price covers insurance and would be delivered at custom office in Port Villa. I would have to pay huge sum to clearance brokerage to get the package cleared from custom.
I contacted CollectPlus Courier service that has delivered to me in the past and i got a fair estimate from them. Though i don't know the actual weight, so i gave them the pick up and delivery and they sent me an estimate of $300. But with the weight, pickup zip-code and insurance value they would provide us the exact shipping quote. Which they assured me would be less and includes duties & custom brokerage.
I want you to Email the CollectPlus Express post for a shipping quote via the below e-mail [ Collectplus.customer.serv@post.com ] Provide them with the Weight, Content Value for insurance, Dimension, Pick up Zipcode.
kindly get the shipping quote from the courier this morning, So I can finalize my order today.
Sincerely,
Caroline Mayer.
-
I ended up getting a quote from this "collectplus" courier service for $550 dollars which she was perfectly happy to spend along with the $800 for the works. I sent her an invoice through PayPal but soon realised how fishy she seemed and I couldn't find anything about her or her "etsy" store online until I put scam into the search then I found this blog and cancelled the invoice.
I have since heard from both her and the courier company trying to organise payment and pick up but have simply not replied.
Yep, I got the same email.
DeleteHave cancelled PayPal invoice.
I also have receive an email from a Caroline Mayer with the same words as posted by the person above.
ReplyDeleteI found it fishy when I saw the times the emails were sent by this Caroline when Vanuatu is only one hour ahead of where I live.
I've also cancelled the PayPal invoice and threatened to contact the authorities. SCAMMERS!!
Got the same scam about using collect plus couriers. New name and location, Erica Bachman from Athens Greece. Uses a gmail address. I've had several interesting types of scams but they all have one thing in common. Their first question is about using credit cards, and they don't ask anything about the art, the process, anything about size… I'm going to quote the Brooklyn Bridge next time in their choice of clay, bronze or plastic. Then give them the name of my credit card processing company which will be the local fraud division of the police department. If I wasn't so busy I would waste their time with a red herring. Or quote them a red herring!!
ReplyDeleteSame thing just happened to our photography business from this person/ alias:
ReplyDelete"Erica Bachman'
erica.slidestudios@gmail.com
"Erica" paid for some prints on my website and requested shipping via: http://www.collectplusexpress.com/
The payment cleared to my bank account, and then Erica requested we wire money to the shipping company - CollectPlus. Collect Plus had a personal name on the wire transfer details instead of a business. This was a big red flag, and then after some google searching we found this blog.
Classic scam, foreign country shipping destination, overpayment, rush order, ect.... We just though it was real since the money reached our bank account. Too bad the money was from a stolen credit card.
BE SUSPICIOUS AND VERY CAREFUL!
We just got the same scam about using collect plus couriers. It was from Erica Bachman says she lives in Greece but originally from Texas. We busted her because she tried using a credit card from Kentucky that was denied before using the Texas credit card. Luckily Square caught it before we did anything with the payment. Watch out for this lady! She's a scammer!
ReplyDeleteShe's now Shannon Fisher from Greece (originally from San Antonio) and she's still "using" CollectPlus courier services.
ReplyDeleteShe's now
ReplyDelete-------
Corey Bachman
Lechaio Korinthia, Athens
+30-162-922301
I've been in contact with "Launa Wright" from "Wright Studio" or "Outer Island Studio"
ReplyDelete63, Antigeo Road
Korinthia, Athens 10432 Greece
outer.island.studio@aol.com
I sensed a scam but there has been nothing to confirm it in our correspondences. She wants us to ship via DPD which is maybe where we missed the scam- she provided the email in which to contact them for a quote (CUST.SERVICE.DPD@post.com).
However, she sent us her credit card info yesterday and the billing address is in North Carolina. That's when I really started digging and found this blog. I've tried to call the people at the address listed for the credit card but the line has been busy. I was hoping we could potentially set the scammer up but it looks like I've just wasted a bunch of time packing up these pieces. Oh well. Better than losing a bunch of money!
Thanks so much for your blog. I was able to match language issues to avoid doing business with a scammer. Here is our entire thread.
ReplyDeleteBest,
Shenny
Sent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Veronica Swan [v.swan7705@outlook.com]
> Date: December 19, 2015 at 2:54:13 PM PST
> To:
> Subject: Re: Art Piece Inquiry
>
>
>
> Hi Shenny,
> I am okay with the cost of these four pieces therefore i will like to proceed with the purchase and i want you to get the shipping cost so you can sum everything up and let me know all total required to be paid to acquire the pieces
>
> Name of piece
> ==========================================
> Name of piece
> ==========================================
> Name of piece
> ==========================================
> Name of piece
>
>
> On the shipping one will have to pay additional fee at the delivery point here in Gibraltar because they will never bring to ones house. courier like Fedex, UPS,DHL are not worth it here especially USPS and TNT all of them are not rendering good service here probably because they already known very well.
> You can contact this courier http://servexpresscouriercom.myfreesites.net (servexpress.com@hush.com) as well with the weight and cost of the artwork for the shipping and insurance to my address because they ship and deliver safely without one paying any other money before collecting the goods unlike some other courier where it will not be delivered to your address rather you will have to go to their office to pick it up and when you get there you will be told to pay other money before collecting it.
> I will be looking forward to hearing from you asap.
> Thanks
> Shipping Address
> 28, The Square,
> Marina Bay,
> GX11 1AA Gibraltar.
>
>
>
>
>
> On Dec 19, 2015, at 8:03 AM, Veronica Swan [v.swan7705@outlook.com] wrote:
>
>>
>> Hello,
>> Thank you for the swift response these are the artworks i have chosen from your site so i want you to get back to me with the cost price of each so i can give you the credit card number to run for the payment
>>
>> Name of piece
>> ==========================================================================
>> Name of piece
>> ============================================================================
>> Name of piece
>> ================================================================================
>> Name of piece
>> ================================================================================
>> Name of piece
>>
>>
>> I want you to get back to me with the cost of the above so that you can have the payment.
>> I will be looking forward to hear from you.
>> Best
>> Veronica
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Dec 01, 2015, at 01:22 PM, Veronica Swan [jbeautyatop@gmail.com] wrote:
>>
>>> Hello,
>>> It gives me a great delight being Interested in purchasing some
>>> beautiful piece of your artwork and i will like to know if you accept
>>> Credit Card for payment and will be able to ship your artwork?
>>> Please your swift response will be most appreciated so that i can let
>>> you know the artworks i would love to purchase.
>>> Sincerely
>>> V
Definitely Scam.
ReplyDeleteNotice how the email changed. And lately scammers are trying to tell a more elaborate fake story about their "shipper" and giving people information to check out the shipper. Doesn't mean they have an account there AND really, the scam never gets to this point anyway. It's just there to justify why the scammer will over-pay (with counterfeit or stolen cards) and ask YOU to *wire* that money to the non-existent shipper... which is really just the scammer themselves at the other end of that wire, running off and disappearing with your cash - hopefully (in their minds) before you find out the original payment is not valid. So it really never gets to the shipping point of the "story".
1. Never accept over-payment when selling online. Insist on shipping it yourself.
2. Never ever ever ever wire money to anyone when selling online, no matter what their inconvenience sob story is. No real buyer is going to insist upon this.
I am working with Veronica presently. The scam is the same however, all she has said is that sh is just going to give me her credit card number. ??
DeleteI thought about taking the number and just waiting until the bomb goes off. What do you think?
Hi,
ReplyDeleteI got the same email in 12/15. I smelled the scam, so I barely replied.. it was suspicious. Hope nobody got caught by it. thanks for this blog.
Thanks for this blog. this scam is still going on...from jason george and bbc: jsgeorg@hotmail.com
ReplyDeleteI got an email with the subject art order:
Hello,
It gives me a great delight being Interested in purchasing some
beautiful piece of your artwork and i will like to know if you accept
Credit Card for payment and will be able to ship your artwork?
Please your swift response will be most appreciated so that i can let
you know the artworks i would love to purchase.
Sincerely
Jason
if transaction has been made by stolen credit card, its client will dispute the purchase and the card company will proceed to chargeback
ReplyDeleteYes, but there are other parts to this scam. The scammer will overpay with some story about a shipper or something, and ask that the over payment be sent on to the shipper, and then they have some story as to why that over payment needs to be wired.
ReplyDeleteSo even if a chargeback happens on the credit card - to the owner of that stolen credit card, not the victim of this scam - the scam victim is still out the amount they have wired to a non-existent shipper, who is just the scammer at the other end of the wire.
My wife has just been in communication with Jason George (jsgeorg@hotmail.com), who purports to live in Bosnia Herzegovina. The usual story - wants to buy artworks - wants to pay by CC. Alarm bells rang when he specified a shipper rather than use ours. The shipper, MailRose Delivery Service, appears to be completely fake, with a non-existent address in Ireland, phone numbers in China and a Google Maps location in San Francisco! Jason was doing quite well reeling my wife in until I looked in depth at his preferred courier.
ReplyDeletejust got scammed by JASON GEORGE ! scumbag has been corresponding for weeks about 4..and then 9 of my paintings! he told me to use mail rose delivery, they assured me a refund is not a problem if they havent picked up the packages yet..i doubt ill see my money back but at least i didnt send out the package...im on the line with the bank now filing a claim... how big of an asshole to you have to be to screw already in debt artists out of their money and their work!? life sucks.
ReplyDeleteI am SOOO sorry this happened to you. It is exactly why I started this blog and the related Facebook page. The only way we can fight back is to try and earn each other. It is so terrible what they do.
ReplyDeletei cant tell if " mail rose delivery service" is legit or not though...
ReplyDeletei emailed them the second 'jason ' name popped up here..i explained the situation and sent the email. i scrolled further down seeing the delivery service was non existent and put the 2 together thinking jason is the mail service... but now i just received an email back from them:
Thank you for choosing MailRose Delivery Service,
We are sorry to hear about that and your refund will be processed as soon as possible this takes 3-5 business days to co ordinate through our account department
You will need to email us the account details you want the refund sent to
i mean.. if thats Jason i figured there would be no response...
now i feel bad about accusing the mail service to the bank in the email i sent... very confusing scam... i hope to get to the bottom of it.
oh my god~!
ReplyDeletejbeautyatop@gmail.com
jsgeorg@hotmail.com
i'v been contacting him already for a month!!
coz for me there was no way to get the credit card payment.
and today i went to see the MailRoseDelivery website, the website was gone. and as above mentioned i gouged the address, then it doesn't exist. oh my god. i spent a lot of time on it!!
I also felt suspicious but I couldn't find any reason to do it with me.
i mean the amount of money to cheat is not too big.
it is not nothing but. because of the amount of money isn't that big so i thought it was not a cheating.
then today i found this blog!
oh my god. jason george is still waiting my email to make a procedure the payment.
Another scam artist?
ReplyDeleteSent from my iPhone
Begin forwarded message:
From: Kathleen
Date: February 10, 2017 at 7:39:39 AM EST
To:
Subject: Re: Price List / Detais.
Dear Toni,
Thank you for the prompt response.
In my previous message i was inquiring on the paintings i attached to this email. I like all three and will need more details on each, sizes, prices and if they are available.
Shipping won't be a problem and can be done by either UPS or FedEx after packaging, Hope to read back from you with more details.
I will appreciate your timely response.
Sincerely,
Kathleen.
Looks like a scam.
ReplyDeleteYep Veronica Swan from - uh- Gibraltar ahem - is 'jbeautyatop@outlook.com'. "She" wanted 5 paintings. I wasn't selling, though ;). This is a lesson in reading poorly written English. For example, many spammers simply don't have subjunctive clauses in whatever language they do speak, etc...
ReplyDeleteI googled that email Elaine Spencer after receiving the similar proposal and thankful for this blog. Really upsetting that people targeting artists, vulnerable and in need. Shame. Please, be careful and thank you for support. :(
ReplyDeleteSorry if this posts twice, I didn't get a confirmation of any kind in FF,
ReplyDeleteAmazingly enough that SAME email address is still being used today, I just got one of their scammy emails;
Elaine Spencer
Reply To: eels777@outlook.com
Return-Path: jbeautyatop@gmail.com
Received: from 10.0.16.101 (LHLO njtozpfv02.mcomdc.com) (10.0.16.101) by
njtozmbv11.mcomdc.com with LMTP; Mon, 26 Mar 2018 19:17:57 -0400 (EDT)Authentication-Results: njtozpfv02.mcomdc.com (amavisd-new);
dkim=fail (2048-bit key) reason="fail (message has been altered)"
header.d=gmail.com
Received: from njtozpfv02.mcomdc.com ([127.0.0.1])
by localhost (njtozpfv02.mcomdc.com [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024)
with ESMTP id T8yqLw6vA4-K for ;
Mon, 26 Mar 2018 19:17:57 -0400 (EDT)
Received: from mc-ibgw-6002a (mcib-6002a.a.cloudfilter.net [52.40.142.38])
by njtozpfv02.mcomdc.com (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 44556440045
Good Day,
How is work and family? I picked interest in your artwork and decided
to write you. I will like to know if your artwork can be purchased and
shipped internationally?. I can email the artwork of interest and
payment will be completed in full once you confirm my purchase order
with a quotation. Kindly let me know when you are in office and ready
to take my artwork order also let me know if you accept either Visa
Card / Master Card or PayPal for payment
Best Regards
Elaine Spencer
===============
First of all my web sites CLEARLY state I will not ship out of the USA, and the email address used is not the one I use on my sites or in Paypal even though the email is mine obviously- it came to a non art non sales box.
Just recently got one of these emails. Thanks for the info. I wasn't sure if it was real or not
ReplyDeleteReceived an order from Elaine Spencer eels777@outlook.com claiming to be from Republic of San Marino and requesting the use of a courier company Costa Express Delivery to shipping address 77, Dogana Blvd Serravalle Sigla 47891 Republic of San Marino. Once order processed on our end the billing and shipping addresses were different with an Oregon address given. The IP address used to place the order was 162.250.145.251 Hopefully this information will help prevent the next artist from getting scammed.
ReplyDeleteI got the same email from Elaine Spencer (eels777@outlook.com). Thanks for sharing the info.So upsetting
DeleteI got an email from Belly Jordan from Gibraltar with email address bbjord777@outlook.com
ReplyDeleteThe 1st email says:
Thank you for the swift response these are the artworks i have chosen from your site so i want you to get back to me with the availabilty and cost price conformation of each so i can give you the credit card number to run for the payment
Sunlit Magnolia
Regular price$1,500.00
=============================================================================================
The Splash
Regular price$3,000.00
I want you to get back to me with the cost confirmation of the above so that you can have the payment.
I will be looking forward to hear from you.
Best
Belly
Looks fishy to me. Anyone heard of this name so far,