I want to thank you for posting your list of "Known Scammer Names". You really are helping other artists avoid these folk.Also people within the U.S. have been hit with bounced check fees. I've heard some people who have asked the bank to see if the check is fraudulent before they deposit it in order to avoid the bounced check fee and have been successful at this (banks are getting better at recognizing these fake checks fast) but I guess it depends upon your bank.
I just received an email that I thought might be a scam. It was one of those "I want to buy a painting for my new apartment and am in a hurry" things that instantly made me suspicious. I googled "buying painting scams" and was directed to your web site. Sure enough, the supposed client "David Osborne" is on your list. The email address he used on the thing I got is "davidosborne03@gmail.com" if you want to add it to your list. If you want a copy of the email, let me know and I will send it to you.
By the way, there is yet another way you can lose money on these things. About a year ago I received one of these scam emails. I figured out it was a scam but got so far in as to receive the cheque. I took the cheque to the bank, almost sure that it would bounce, and sure enough it did. The problem was that I live in Canada and the cheque was mailed in the United States and was in US funds. When the bank got the cheque they put the money in my account, exchanging the amount to Canadian funds. When the cheque bounced, they took the money out again. The problem was that inbetween those two dates the exchange rate had changed and the bank uses the exchange rate for the day they do the transaction. I ended up losing about $100.00. The bank got the money rather than the scammer, but that is small consolation to me. You might warn artists that if the scam is coming from another country they can lose money on the exchange rate so they are running a risk if they even deposit the cheque.
Thanks again for posting the list.
Just another thing to be aware of.
