Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Artist Experience: Tricia Allen Scam Email III

I can never post examples of scam emails "too much". This Tricia Allen name seems like a common one. But it's always good to post again, particular ones that reference another email address and an IP number.

Here is an email I received today from an artist. Scammers beware! We are catching on!


Hi Kathleen,
Firstly, thank you for your Stop Art Scams blog. I was immediately suspicious of the email I received from "Tricia Allen", however it was tremendously reassuring to easily and quickly have confirmation that it was a scam and a very mean one at that!

It looks like you already have plenty of documentation of "Tricia's" activities, but, for what it's worth, below are the details of the one that came to me.

Thanks again and have a great day.

Best wishes,
Louisa

scam email:

email address: tallenkourt@hotmail.com
IP Address: 41.155.23.190
Location: Nigeria
Subject line: artworks purchase
Email message:
Good day to you.

I am so excited that I came across of your work on internet search,I am interested in purchasing these creative artworks from you.....................

"We Are Here to Play","Highlights of Stakeball, David and Goliath" and "Racket Failure"

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 home 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 traveling from our Seattle 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 proceed for the payment of the creative artworks.

I will await your advise on how to proceed.Have a wonderful day.

Take care,
Tricia Allen
at

7 comments:

  1. AnonymousJune 30, 2010 at 8:55 AM

    Tricia Allen is a fictitious scammer name. I received a similar request to purchase custom artwork. Hilarious how stupid these Africans are.

    ReplyDelete
  2. KatieMoeJune 30, 2010 at 9:24 AM

    Tricia Allen *is* a fictitious name and I am also surprised how scammers keep using the same names from a basically pretty small list of names. I'm sure new ones will pop up as they find too many people catching on.

    I think its a broad generalization to imply Africans are behind these scams. In fact, the source of most of the emails I've seen are elsewhere - nigeria, south america, belarus, china, russia. I think they come from all over.

    Thanks for writing in. Glad you didn't fall for the Tricia Allen email.

    ReplyDelete
  3. UnknownJuly 13, 2010 at 7:43 AM

    I received exactly the same email described above. I was suspicious, so did some searching. I have also been contacted by her "shipping agent", which also appears to be ficticious as I could not pull up anything on a search for Harvestfield Freight and Logistic Services. So the scam continues.
    Merrily

    ReplyDelete
  4. KatieMoeJuly 13, 2010 at 8:04 AM

    Merrily,

    Thanks for writing in. Yes, most often the name of the "shipping agent" will also be falsified. They are counting on people not bothering to look anything up and trust that it "sounds" for real. But the more we keep posting these, the fewer the artists will be that will think these emails are for real.

    Your instincts were right on to look it up and see if you could verify anything.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Matthew LeVierAugust 2, 2010 at 8:14 AM

    What should you do if one of these people have contacted you?

    ReplyDelete
  6. KatieMoeAugust 2, 2010 at 8:21 AM

    Matthew,

    Unfortunately, the best advice I have for you - once you've identified this is a scam email, is to just stop. If you have replied and figured it out in second or third emails, just stop replying. If you didn't even reply to one message and know it is a scam - great for you! Just think of it the same as a viagra spam email. Mark it as spam, delete it and go back to making great art and don't give it any more time and attention.

    There isn't much that can be done, though once an artist has actually lost money and/or art to the scammer, they can report it to the authorities because then it has become mail fraud as well as a cyber crime.

    ReplyDelete
  7. AnonymousAugust 11, 2010 at 5:38 AM

    I was also contacted by this individual and their "freight company". I am glad I found this on the internet that it is a scam. She went as far as to say she is bed-ridden having a baby now, so the scam continues to get bigger. And this is why it has taken her extra time to have her husband send me the funds to cover the artwork. I will simply not reply to her anymore and block her email from my account.

    ReplyDelete