Unfortunately there is an increasing number of salespeople, and even con artists operating on the internet that want to steal your money. All artists selling their artwork through the internet should be aware of this.
However the good news is such enquires should be fairly easy to spot and hence ignore.
We have 2 key resources to help:
1) We have an article on our wiki with suggestions on how to identify scams and what action you should and shouldn't take:
http://www.theartistsweb.net/wiki/Art_Scam_Email
A summary of the key point are listed below. But we recommend you read the full article.
2) It's very useful to be able to ask other artists if they have had any similar experiences/enquiries. We have a dedicated section on our forum for this:
http://www.artistsforum.org/viewforum.php?f=13&sid=29e258bb2265c643ae488e3c95254770
(NB you need to login to the forum to post a comment)
Key Signs for spotting Art Scams
Here is a list of signs that the email/message you received is not from a genuine buyer:
- The offer sounds too good to be true e.g. 'buyer' wants to purchase a number of items at once
- The email has grammatical mistakes or is written in poor English
- There is a sense of urgency in the message
- There is some special arrangement requested, e.g. special shipping agent
- You are asked to send money/pay in some form. E.g. a shipping fee or a transaction fee. Remember it is you that is selling the item, you should never have to pay!
- The email address is from yahoo/hotmail or other major webmail account
- The 'buyer' has missed some fundamental detail, e.g. is asking about your paintings but your are a sculptor, or asks for prices that are clearly on your website.
- Something doesn't feel quite right (trust your instincts!)
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