PSA: Artists Beware!

A talented artist friend of mine has just been targeted by a scam artist, claiming to be a fan of her work from Belarus. The woman contacted her via email and enquired about buying about $1000 worth of my friend's work. This is not that unusual, as she does large paintings and has been contacted via email about the sale of her work before.

What was unusual and sent up the red flags for her was the urgency of the transaction and the scam artist's insistence that she use a specific courier for which no trace of existence could be found online. Add to that incredibly poor spelling and odd grammar mistakes in the scammer's emails and well...she decided to do some investigating. She discovered that she was in fact about to be the victim of a scam.

One way you can help protect yourself from this kind of scum of the earth activity is to visit Artscams.com
They have all kinds of advice about what to look out for. They also have banners that you can post to your blog. The best way we as an artistic community can help prevent this kind of crummy targeting of our fellow artists is to take a few minutes and post a "heads up" to our readers our our own blogs. Visit Artscams.com, read up so you know what to look out for and then help spread the word by posting one of the banners to point others in the direction of this important information.



Luckily my friend listened to her instincts and was able to avoid what would have been an ugly experience. Let's make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else. Please help spread the word!