I Couldn't Resist. Did I Lay This On Too Thick?

a ha... gotta love a good sense of humor this early in the morning. It usually takes me a bit more coffee to get that spunky.

I sincerely hope he follows through on his celebratory endeavors : )

Good going Nikki !

Excellent! I hope he gets what he deserves.

Brilliant!

FOLLOW UP from Senior:

Dear Madam;

We are currently uncertain of the outcome of our business deal.

Our agent was gleefully met at the door by your most eager representatives wearing designer dark glasses as in the movie "Men in Black"...

Since, he has written only once from Guantanamo, Cuba where your representatives took him on an apparent sightseeing trip there.

Unfortunately, we have now lost all contact from him, and it seems he may have changed careers altogether.

Coincidentally, our Bank accounts have been frozen by our local government and we are currently rowing our boat towards a new country.

The good news is that we shall establish further communications with you as soon as we arrive to our next destination. We look forward doing new business with you again.

Please send us your Social Security Number so we may write you another check sometime in the near future

Signed - Senior

*cough splutter* goes off to clean her keyboard

"Senior collins from SC"

Darn! Seems I've missed the latest trend in names -- one capitalized, one not, with both matching your state abbreviation.

Henceforth, I choose to be called Taborri xiques from TX.

Yep -- that feels right! ;-)

You know, I'm going to start calling these politicians who leave me recorded messages to vote for them back and make a sales pitch.

Dear Senior,

Thank you for reaching out to me again. I have received further communication from your agent and he has, indeed, changed careers.

After his sightseeing trip to Guantanamo he continued his journey to Nigeria where he has apparently inherited a large sum of money. You must have heard over the media reports and the Internet on the recovery of various huge sums of money deposited by his father, a member of the Federal Government Of Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (N.N.P.C), in different Banks and security firms abroad.

You may wish to contact him for assistance with your money troubles as he is currently seeking a partner to assist with transferring $ 21.5 Million Dollars out of the country. I hear that he is willing to offer 30 % of the money to you for providing him with logistics, which would include a safe bank account, where he shall facilitate the transfer of funds into.

I would suggest that you hurry though, as he is also contacting many other people with this same offer.

With your commission from this transaction you should be able to patch the holes in your boat.

However, never fear. If your boat does not float you may wish to stop at the oil drilling platform in the middle of the ocean where you will meet with a fellow collector of fine art who shares both your tastes and literary talents. I am certain that there you will find what you are looking for.

Signed,
Nikki

You can call me and my husband Lord and Lady Weatherknee from the Pacific NW.

Ya, I'm going to sign my outgoing letters that way from now on.

A Note from Senior:

Mrs Marie;

I am encouraged by all your wonderful business ideas and all the great news you have to offer. We were not privy to the great fortunes our previous agent had inherited. We agree to the 30% fees and will contact him as soon as our carrier pigeons locate him.

As you know, communications are difficult to establish in the high seas and we have been forced to use Seagulls instead.

As you may imagine, Seagulls are very smart, and insist on being paid in sardines first before embarking on this mission. Also, they strongly demand 10% in commissions or turn us over to the local Coast Guard. ( We have not applied for proper documents or entry Visas yet because we don't really know where we are at....). Because of our principles and high moral standards you will be happy to learn that we refuse to do business with the White Sharks circling our boat at this time.

We are now approaching one of the mentioned oil platforms you were so kind to mention in your response. Apparently they are very happy to see us and have launched several torpedoes our way and launched several fast boats our way. This is a moment of joy for us.

We have also come across several pirates. We are in current negotiations with them. They have now expressed interest in your paintings and are willing to negotiate one of them for our lives. Please consider taking them up on their kind offer ASAP.

PS: We have not yet received your Social Security Number. Please also indicate your bank Account number for prompt fund transfer(s)

Signed: Senior

Carlos - Hillarious!
Nikki - can't blame you for your cleverly written response in the first place. We all hate to be duped, even for an instant.

Many things in the original besides the poor English are a tip off that it isn't legit. This makes me want to share something about responding to things like this -
hope it's taken in the helpful reminder light I intend it.

We all know most of this, but it doesn't hurt to be reminded, including why it may be best to just ignore some of these:
From PC magazine a few years ago - still relevant -

"....e-mail users know that you should never respond to spam. Don't click links in the message just to see what they're about. Don't send back a tirade enjoining the spammers to stop bothering you. Don't even click the "unsubscribe" link. Spammers spew millions of messages to address lists that contain both valid and invalid addresses. Any response at all lets them know your address is "live," making it more valuable when they sell it to other spammers. But that's not the only reason to delete dubious messages without responding.

Every e-mail message comes with a header that identifies the message's sender, subject, date-time stamp, and so on. Beyond these visible message attributes the header also reveals the route that the message took, server by server. By following that list back to the beginning a recipient can identify the server from which your mail originates.

Letting them know your mail server address doesn't sound like a big problem. However, by using geolocation the recipient can get a rough idea of that server's location. Many Web sites provide this service; just search for "Geolocation". Geolocation isn't always accurate. For example, because I connect through a Virtual Private Network at PCMag headquarters a geolocation site will place me in New York rather than California. However, more often than not geolocation correctly identifies your region.

Now the recipient can use a tool like ZabaSearch to get your home address and phone number by searching on your name and region. The more uncommon your name, the more likely this type of search will work. Other services like Spokeo will reveal even more information about you. A Zillow lookup on your address includes Zillow's estimate of your home's value as well as its sale history.

Granted, not all of the online information is accurate. Spokeo in particular has been sued over inaccurate information. But much of the online data is correct, and a sleuth willing to go beyond the free services can find out even more.

So there you have it. At the start, Sam Spammer has nothing but your e-mail address, and no guarantee that it's valid. If you respond, Sam can parlay that guess to learn much more about you. He can get your home address, phone number, age, marital status, the value of your home, and more. The sender doesn't have to be a spammer, of course. It could be any stranger e-mailing you for the first time. To protect your identity, don't respond to spam or other dubious e-mail."

I have a client who was a victim of something that may have started like this and found herself out $15,000 - it never hurts to know and be on guard against what people are capable of!

Andrea

@Andrea - Excellent advice.

I'm actually giving a talk to a local art league on November 3rd on how to protect your art online and covering topics such as watermarks, copyrights, infringement, fair use, reverse image look-ups, DMCA notices and avoiding scams. This gentleman was kind enough to provide me with an example email to use. :)

Yes, he hit all of the red flags. However, many scammers are much more subtle. They can compliment you on one or two specific pieces by name, playing to an artist's desire for their artwork to be appreciated and sounding like a real person with good grammar and genuine interest in your art. They can even offer to pay by PayPal to increase the trust factor of their email. The offer to pick up the artwork or arrange for their own shipping (rather than having you ship it via a trusted method like UPS or FedEx) is another big red flag. PayPal does offer seller protection however only with proof of delivery/shipment. The buyer's PayPal account can claim the artwork was never received. With no way for you to prove otherwise, Paypal will refund their money and you will be out of luck. Or it could be a hacked PayPal account with another victim on the other end.

It always irritates me, though, because my grandma is a vulnerable adult who believes everything scammers tell her. It isn't a victimless crime. They just have to hit enough people and someone will fall for it. :(

@Carlos - LOL! I wish I could keep the exchange going but I'm afraid I have to get a bit of work done today. Thanks for sharing your great sense of humor and creative writing skills! :D

Fantastic let me know if you ever in the Philadelphia area for a talk.

My dad's computer was constantly infected. He clicked on EVERYTHING in his email. Once I was sitting a work and I got the now infamous "I'm wandering around Europe with tears in my eyes...." email about losing his passport and all his money, and he needed help to get home. My son emailed me and said "Grandpa's computer is infected again". I said "yeah, I know, I saw it".

The sad thing is, one of his old friends actually clicked on the link in the email and wired $5,000.00!!!! I mean, come on, my dad was 92 at the time. What did he think a 92 year old man was doing wandering around Europe alone?

My mother-in-law almost sent money to someone she thought was my son when someone actually called her on the phone and said he was stuck in Bulgaria or something. Fortunately, she got a ride from a friend to go to the drug store to wire the money and this friend was actually a sherriff's deputy, so that one was headed off at the pass, so to speak. When my husband yelled at her, she said "well, he said he was going to visit friends". My husband started laughing and said, Yeah in Marysville (7 miles from where we live), not Bulgaria!!

They keep sending these out because they work, unfortunately. Too funny Nikki!!!

Sorry, but I dont really get this thing. Did Senior ask for bank account numbers?
If he did not ask for bank account and routing numbers why would you think he
was fake?

http://tinyurl.com/pfbpwlp

Elder Vernard O. Collins, Sr. | LinkedIn

This fellow is from South Carolina.

He has what amounts to Senior twice in his name, Elder and literally Sr.

Dave

LMAO, you might have directed a good customer to the FBI.

I am smiling.

Dave

Doubtful, David. How hard would it be for a scammer to find a random name off of social media to use? Everything about this exchange raises red flags.

My Aunt Alice passed away several years ago after time spent in a nursing home. Fortunately, before she began living there, she wasn't involved with computers and the internet. Still, the bad guys found her and found ways of intimidating or cajoling money from her over and over. So sadly, this kind of thing has been going on for a long time. I know Andrea's advice is sound ... still ... from time to time I've been tempted myself to send something crazy right back to these awful people. Nikki ... I enjoyed your message VERY much ... Carlos's responses as well!!!

I do admit to having some fun when these noodle-heads call on the phone, sometimes. As long as no one else is in the house, wink wink ...

David, the intro post contains my exchange with "Senior" who is most definitely a scammer. Lower in this thread, Carlos Diaz and I continued a fake, humorous, mock-dialogue with "Senior."

It wouldn't matter if there is a real person by that name or not, that would just be a coincidence. The real person (if there is one by that name) didn't send this email, a scammer did.

This is a common scam against artists. The wording may change, but the gist is this:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
1. Scam artist contacts legitimate visual artist expressing interest in buying one or two pieces of their artwork which they may or may not mention by title.

2. You respond, excited and validated that someone is interested in your art and hopeful for that elusive online sale.

3. They start a dialog and spin their tale.

4. They may or may not have bad grammar (trying to get past spam filters.)

5. They may or may not ask their request in a confusing way with complicated math (that is just an excuse for sending too much money on their soon-to-bounce check so you can refund them the overage on your good check back to them).

6. They express a need for urgency and possibly secrecy (a surprise for their spouse) as a reason why they wish to pay by check rather than order securely through your FAA website.

7. They may even offer to pay via PayPal (we all trust PayPal because of the seller and buyer protections they offer, but wait: there are conditions to those protections! Read on...)

8. They have their own shipper so you don't need to worry about it (and you have no protection or proof of delivery, therefore no seller protection through PayPal and they can claim they never received it and get a refund.)

9. They have also scoped out your house since you were kind enough to give them your home address and personally identifiable information, whether through online tools, a peek in your windows, or both. You are ripe for future scams of all sorts, even if you never fall for this one again.

10. You allow their "shipping agent" to take your artwork. You may even mail back the extra money they accidentally over-paid. Later, their check bounces or PayPal refunds their money and you are left with no money, no artwork, and no recourse.

David, he also sent a different canned spam response to me later, changing his story significantly but still in an unbelievable way. There is zero chance he is a real collector. 100% spam.

Also;

# 11 They Live on the Himalayan Mountain Range. One can easily back track their E Mail IP Zipcode 18,937:

The first foothills, reaching about a thousand meters along the northern edge of the plains, are called the Sivalik Hills or Sub-Himalayan Range.
Further north is a higher range reaching two to three thousand meters known as the Lower Himalayan or Himachal or Mahabharat Range. EMail IP Address Zip Code 18,937

# 12 They express themselves in strange - unnatural colloquial expressions as"Dear Sir or Madam"

# 13 - They don't have an FAA account

# 14 - They live off a "Ponzi Americanus Stupidous" diet.

:)

Brilliant Nikki! :}

North Charleston, South Carolina - ‎Mechanical Technician at Boeing South Carolina
View Elder Vernard O. Collins, Sr.'s professional profile on LinkedIn.

I dont belong to Linkedin, and I dont want to open an account. The idea that this guy has traveled
to the Philippines on business is more than believable.

From the second message:

"I would have handled this much differently but, at the moment, am on
training voyage to the Philippines with new hires who are fresh from
graduate school. I would have come to purchase the piece myself but
won't be back for another couple of weeks."

Yes his story keeps changing, but he has a reason for that.

Again if he never asked for bank routing and account numbers.......

Some years ago I was working in a business where someone else called to scam us.
I got the call. The caller was sending truck with an agent. The scammers were
going to pick up a huge order. I was to take a check from the agent for
$800 more than the whole $1200 purchase. I was to fund the check, handing over in cash to the agent
with that $800 difference. That is how these scams are supposed to work.

Boeing technicians travel the world.

He has lousy language skills, I will give you that, but that makes it even more difficult
to call it a Spanish speaker who is writing this stuff. Because the noun verb relations are
not bad translations.

From one of the emails:

"so I'm trying to gather some good stuff to make this event a surprise
one.Boudoir Sonata $36 Greeting Card: $7Phone Case: $44.95 and i need
like 10 piece of this so calculate total amount and get back to me
immediately
I am buying yours as part of gifts to her (quickly before someone else
grabs it).
Kindly email me the asking price asap. I'm okay with the price, I
think it's worth it anyway,
so I'll be sending a check."

He clearly offered to send you a check first. You would know if the check bounced. He
also did what a lot of middle aged men would do, he looked over his wife's shoulder not
really paying much attention to what he was about.

Between the $36, $7, and $44 items the average price is something like $40 per item. I fudged
the $7 item, because of the ten items he wants $7 generally wont be the price. So he would have paid
$400. That is not much of a scam. No one from Nigeria scams for a mere $400.


Dave

All I can say is I do not know.

I would not say 100% either way.

I would want to join Linkedin to see where Elder has been traveling.

Dave

David, this is a classic scam. Many of us online have read the almost identical wording time and again, over the last decade or so; I'm actually surprised that you've escaped such attempts.

The profit for the scammer is in the shipping arrangements. I won't go through all the details -- they're easy enough to find online -- but you might start with reading this:

http://stopartscams.blogspot.com/2013/07/scam-email-steven-leavitt.html

Sound familiar?

Though Nikki's response was fun, Andrea is correct -- never, ever, respond to a scammer!

Wendy, thanks for posting that link. David, there are 86 comments from artists at the bottom of that link who received similar scam letters. Unfortunately, you are the mark they are looking for.

I hope if you ever receive a letter like this that you recall this thread and it acts as a voice of caution for you. If you do decide to proceed with an iffy transaction anyway, do it smartly: Have them order through FAA (you are not at risk this way.) Or, if you must accept direct payment then do not accept a check. Carefully read the terms of PayPal's seller protection policy ( https://www.paypal.com/webapps/mpp/security/seller-protection ) and follow them to the letter. Do not use a non-standard shipper that the seller provides or allow someone to pick up in person. Use FedEx or UPS and get both a shipping confirmation and a delivery confirmation, and only ship to an address that PayPal has verified as being associated with their PayPal account. Otherwise, you will find out the hard way that what your fellow artists are telling you is true.

That's solid advice, Nikki. I hope David comes back to read it.

Guys,

You are right.

You know the ultimate give away? As you said Nikki, he should go through FAA, but that would mean using a credit
card.

No credit card no sale.

I thought the name Elder O. Collins Sr. was so unique it had to be.

As I said I have seen the scam years ago in a retail store. I just assumed
every time they tried to pull this, the schemers would want cash back from the
check.

Someone else I know who always has a mark on her back was
offered money for a horse once. The offer came from Australia. She sent
the schemer her bank account and routing numbers. She was wiped out within
minutes. That was missing this time, so I thought it was a different deal.

Call me tone deaf on this one, this time. Thanks for the warning.

Dave

PS I frequent a donut store near by. Many of us have been going regularly to this donut
store for years. Twice now a friend of mine has been the mark for new counter waitresses
who need money. Each time he has ponied up and never been paid back. Those same new counter
people have always had other marks as well. They never even bother to ask me for a "loan". I am generally
not an easy mark. Live and learn.

I'm glad we were able to help, David!

Wendy's right, too. It would be easy to spoof a real person's name and city using info that is readily available via social media. The same method you were using to verify if a Senior Collins really existed (LinkedIn, FaceBook, etc) could be used to pick a name out of a hat, create a gmail or yahoo account, and mix in a little identity theft with a scam.

I've had real collectors with typos, real collectors hoping I can ship something immediately/overnight for a last minute gift, or with a story and asking for a discount, etc. Sometimes it can be hard to tell. I'm polite, I steer them to the website, and I'm helpful with answering questions. I even have a way to take credit cards safely if they are asking for something not offered here like wedding invitations, and I follow safe practices. So far, so good.

Nikki...you just made my day! lol and...Carlos Diaz, I was crying laughing at your post (follow up from Senior)....you're a riot, I tell you!

oh that is brilliant! very funny.

Nikki,
Thank you for sharing this. I just received a message from Senior Collins, and it didn't feel right. So I did a web search, and this thread popped up. You've save me some headache time! (-: Here's his latest:

donotreply- at - fineartamerica.com
12:35 AM (15 hours ago)

to me
From:
senior
seniorcollins15@gmail.com

Subject:
ARTWORK IS NEEDED

Message:
Greetings!
My name is Senior collins from SC. I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess she likes your piece of work, I'm also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, : ) You are doing a great job. I would like to receive further information about your piece of work and what inspires you.I would like to purchase one of yours as a surprise to my wife on our anniversary. Also, i Will appreciate if you can give me the price quotes of any available works of yours ready for immediate sale,.

Thanks and best regards,
Senior.

Hi Sheri, I'm glad I could save you some time and headache. Yes, that is word for word what he sent me in his first message. Definitely a scam artist. I'm glad you followed your instincts and did your research first rather than replying to him!

Best wishes,

~Nikki

Me too!
I'm curious, do most of you feel using your real name as opposed to a "pen name" is a good idea? I always have, but the predatory nature of the internet sometimes makes me wonder if it is wise. I sometimes wonder if I should create a shortened version of my name, I could use some other professional opinions. What do you all think?

Received the exact same email from "senior collins in SC" a few weeks ago. So glad I found this thread, as his incoherent long winded diatribes definitely raised a red flag. Thanks for sharing!

If I could only be as diligent as those guys with promoting! If it didn't eventually work they wouldn't be doing it. Reminds me of the one muti-level marketing company who advice to me was to just keep flipping over rocks until you find someone willing to buy.

I just read through this. I live just up I-26 from where this man supposedly works and know a little about the company. He would not be in the Phillipines with new hires in training. If anything, they would be in Washington State.

I pretty much just assume that anythingin my e-mail box that looks like a scam is a scam.

Damn I just pissed myself. :-) I needed this good laugh.

That's funny. Great comeback. Love it.

Some of the other red flags: They don't say which piece they are interested in. They are on an oil rig;traveling overseas; opening a gallery in Dubai or some odd place where they can't be contacted or looked up.

David: Everything in NIkki's scammer's emails are classic come-ons that no one should EVER fall for. The reason they offer a check is because it's a) fake. b)they then ask you to cash the check and "refund" the balance left after shipping. Of course, since the check is bogus and the victim sent back a balance, guess who walks away with some money? Not the artist...

Depending on the brass ones on these stupid scammers, she could very well get an angry email about how they went to that address, were arrested, etc and then they'd ask for their money anyway.

For some great scamming of the scammers, plus tips on how to protect yourself, visit http://www.419eater.com/

I was bombarded with spam from West Africa for a long time;
Eventually, fed up with it, I replied to one from an old lady who was dying and wanted to leave me money. I asked why me? She said that god had told her to contact me. I asked her why? To leave me the money and I must send my bank details. This carried on for several more emails each one being more urgent. Eventually she said that her doctor had operated on her 5 times and now she hadn't much time left - extreamly urgent for bank details. I sent back seems like your doctor is not very capable, perhaps you should try another and get a second opinion.
Never heard another word from them since and the spam has stopped.

That's brilliant!

Was about to post about 419eater but I see Louise beat me to it.

Glenn

Twitter is interesting. I am getting a few followers from Nigeria. One actually has
an interesting web based news letter and is real. Never asked for a dime. The
other few who have said something like "hello" I am avoiding like the plague. No
response from me. Hello from the third world does not mean the flow of money
for art on Twitter.

"hello" on twitter as a first response is totally meaningless. They have not a single interest
in my art if that is all they say. Run for the hills.

I am new to this racket. Getting the hang of it. I will be okay. Money is a one way street.

Art going one way and money traveling the other way back.

Dave

I have never responded to one of these - and I've gotten them - if they have seen my art - they know how to get it as it's ONLY on FAA - don't keep it in the house.