Hello Million Friends,
Here’s a great email I received last week from someone who wanted to buy my art. You’ll love this one.
Dear Chris,I’m Mary Landry, I came across your work at http://painterskeys.com/ , I am interested in the purchase of your arts to beautify our new home, we are moving from our canadian home to Ukraine in a couple of weeks.
What is the price of the art below excluding the shipping cost?
(1) Shall We Camp? – oil painting – 18 x 18 inches
(2) Field Bouncer – oil painting – 30 x 40 inchesOn the payment, I would be glad to pay you with a Personal Cheque, because this method of payment is instant cashable.
Please do not hesitate to contact me on how we can proceed.
Best regards,
Mary Landry
Here’s the email details:
From: Mrs M. Landry [mailto:ijovicks@yahoo.com]
Sent: Friday, November 30, 2007 1:56 AM
To: chris@chrisbolmeier.com
Subject: Purchase Of Artwork.
Well, let’s analyze this:
- Nice introduction with her name
- Where she found my art – notice that it’s very specific
- How my art would help her in her new home – Hang on, I’m starting to cry just reading how my art will make her feel. Let me get a tissue.
- Now on to the moment of truth – She asks how much is my art. Good question.
- The killer question – She wants to pay me with a personal cheque because it’s “instant cashable.” Oh really? Hmmmm, Oookay.
- She wants me to contact her on how to proceed. See below.
By the way, I know I should have deleted it but I just had this wonderful Italian feeling to NOT “Forget About It” (said like a good Italian mobster).
Thanks so much for the interest in my art. I don’t accept personal checks but will setup a PayPal link for you to purchase my art. The painting Shall We Camp? is sold but Field Bouncer is still availabThanks Again!!
Chris
Pretty tricky huh? I intentionally cut the sentence off and left some space as if I kept writing. I bet ya’ that fooled ‘em. 
Well, I know these spammers know what they’re doin’.
I never received a reply but if I acted excited in my reply, as if I really wanted them to buy, I have a strange feeling the next reply from them would have been something like:
“Give us your bank account number and I’ll transfer my cheque there. Or, I’ll send the cheque, you send the art”.
In the end, like a good Italian, I sez… (play audio below)
Whadda think? Was this Email Fraud or Not?
See you in the comments.
Thanks,
Chris
Technorati Tags: Email Fraud
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
Yep – fraud, altho I believe the check would have been good – it’s part of a larger scam where you, should you bite, refund them some money because the check is too large…..then many moons down the road, the check isn’t good. I actually played with one of these for a while just for fun.
Tammy V (sorry about the “anon” but goodgle/blogger makes me do it)
wow – the fraud people are getting tricky— the move to the Ukraine made me a little suspicious and the fact that there was not very much personnel info– I thought that sentence about checks was written a little awkward….I thought you handled it well — what does cutting off the sentence do? How can a check be good and than not good?
thanks for the education.
Not sure Dahlia, maybe Tammy will tell us.
About how a check can be good and then not good.
Chris
Dahlia,
I chose to play with them by cutting off of the sentence. They probably would’ve responded if they were sincere, that’s all.
Chris
Hi Chris, I wouldn’t even have known this to be a “Email Fraud” !!I don’t really know what a “personal check” is? I guess we don’t have this here in France. I would have been all enthousiastic about this and naïv
Have a great week, I’m looking forward to your next beautiful colourful paintings,
Andrea
Yes, this is fraud, Chris. The broken english is a dead giveaway. I did play along for a few emails with a scam like this about two years ago, partly because for some reason I enjoy poorly written english and spelling errors. (seriously I do!) The guy was too obvious with the email address of vincent000@yahoo.(now, c’mon, that’s fairly clever!) Who could not see through that? This was before they figured out a way to leave twenty messages a day on our inboxes. BTW, while we’re on the subject, my son found a t-shirt that reads “My money went to Nigeria and all I got was this lousy t-shirt”. Love it. Do you think there is some law enforcement agency on the case of searching to find these guys?
There are government email addresses to send spam and fraud to:
spam@uce.gov
uce@ftc.gov
Chris, very interesting post. I’ve linked to you on Shak & Jill at http://www.shakandjill.com. Thanks for sharing your story!
“Instant cashable” is such a funny word!
Yes it is funny. Thank for stoppin’ by.