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...

Scam Email: Xena Modrich

At first I thought this scammer was going to take the Xena Warrior Princess route. Their fake name generator really has some weird combinations. Everything else about this is pretty standard. Of course, a REAL art buyer would know exactly which pieces they are interested in and wouldn't be outlining the payment methods on the first email contact. A scammer with a stolen credit card will also never have the card's billing address - which is why they will have some story about "moving".

If you ever get one of these stolen numbers, do the card owner a favor and report it to the credit card company and at least take that one number out of circulation.

From: Xena Modrich [xen327modrich@rocketmail.com]
Date: June 10, 2012 1:55:06 AM PDT
Subject: Inquiry
Reply-To: Xena Modrich [xen327modrich@rocketmail.com]

Hello,
I am emailing to inquire about availability of artwork for sale in 
your inventory and if you are able to process Visa and Master Card 
Number/Expiry date/Cvv as payment. Let me know so that i can 
communicate with you on the artworks that interest me,you can also 
indicate to me which of the arts are sold and which are available on 
your website. my address is 37, Tigne Street, Sliema. SLM 3141  Malta
I will be looking forward to reading from you.
Best
Xena

Scam Email: Karen Rose

Kathleen,

Hi I stumbled on your site while trying to search for list of now-a-day scams and I have had an encounter with a scammer that I wanted to report to beware of, she goes by the name of "Karen", but her email is *rosekaren@operamail.com*. I had an ad on craigslist.org for a item I was selling and she replied saying that she was claiming to be buying it for her nephew and asked if she could purchase the item via paypal (by saying the exact same thing you have described in your post). I asked her to go to my ebay link to purchase through paypal if she wanted to do it that way and
she can either pick it up, ill either drop it off, or ship it from there; instead of agreeing she persisted on keeping ebay out of it. I told her ok but I won't ship the item, I'd rather deal locally she made up a story about how she wouldn't be able to pick up and that she will pay for shipping and handling expenses but never mention the item by name or how much she would offer for it, so i stopped emailing her and now I'm trying to warn others. I also wanted to thank you for the post because it was very informative and saved me a lot of hassle.

Scam Email: Scholz Daniel

Really? Scholz Daniel? "...am Scholz?"

Hard to believe these scammers are this stupid still with their fake names and grammar. Good for us, though.

From: Scholz Daniel [schdan965@live.com]
Subject: Bastet og pyramidene, 70x80

Good day to you over there, am Scholz I'm from Brisbane and my eyes caught this particular work, i will like to have it for my new apartment.please let me know if the piece is available, if yes let me have the detailed price and more information about it. i will be waiting to read from you.

Greetings.