From: Ryan Wickham [wickhamryan@yahoo.co.uk]
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: Original Painting
Good Evening,
I saw some of your paintings in your website i am interested in purchasing some of your Original paintings for my mum as a gift for the new year I am a Geologist by profession and i reside in Manchester United Kingdom.Since it almost the end of the year i would like to know if you still have some paintings available at the moment i will also appreciate it if you can kindly let me know which section of your website i can see more of your new works.RegardsRyan
Scammers use the Internet to find new victims. I fight back using the Internet to educate and help artists NOT become victims.
Friday, November 12, 2010
Scam Email: Ryan Wickham
This scammer was not going to get very far by sending his scam email to "undisclosed". Lazy. And an obvious tip-off to the recipient.
This is word for word the same e-mail I rec'd today from Ryan. I found this website when I googled his name. What would happen next if I had responded?
ReplyDeleteChristine
The crux of these scams is that eventually they will send a check that is more than the amount they owe, with some lame story usually involving a third-party shipper, and asking you to send the difference to the shipper. But there is no shipper. Only them. And it is that difference in cash they are targeting. Their check will turn out to be fraudulent (or credit card) but your cash is good and untraceable once it has been picked up by them via Western Union.
ReplyDeleteNow - there are many variations of how they explain their way to that point, but that's the point.
Glad to see you didn't fall for it!
I also got this scam email just yesterday, yep, same exact email What an insult to artist who are already struggling to sell their work in this economy. He claims he saw my work online (castrofinearts.com). Don't trust ANYBODY who offers to send you more money than you ask for or who sets the terms of the transaction. Also, be suspcicious of anybody who is writing to you from overseas. The FBI claims to be interested in these emails but I don't think they really pay too much attention to them.
ReplyDelete