Here is a new one for me. I have received my share of scam emails from people asking about my paintings, but here is one asking for help with her brush strokes!?
"I am hoping you could be kind enough to help me on the watercolor brush strokes you used on the mockingbird nest that you have on tube. I have been trying to paint a really realistic nest for forever, mine all come out looking false.
(name removed), on Beautiful Lake Anna
Sent from my iPad"
I don’t know what to think of this one… there is some bad English “on tube” etc… Her email address does not match her name and it is from iCloud.com.
I don’t know if it was real, I had similar through Facebook. The one I had was asking for help and review of her work, tips on improvement, and teaching on her brushwork! I said I am no teacher, know next to nothing and would not be a fair judge. Told her lots of free videos and paid videos on YouTube and lots of good teachers there but not me. (I said all of this very nicely of course!) Got one more message ignoring what I said and about just starting out and wouldn’t I help…and I just deleted it.
I think this email scam has resurfaced. I received an email from “Potter Taylor” saying his wife had been looking at my paintings and he wanted to surprise her with a painting for their anniversary. Grammar was bad even though he’s an “Ocean Engineer” He wanted to send me a check even though I said payment goes through Paypal and wanted my full name, address, cell phone, etc. They’re moving to Singapore so there’s an urgency to get the transaction done. Said I don’t have to worry about shipping costs as he would have his shipping agent who is moving his personal effects arrange for pick up. Not sure what their angle is specifically but it doesn’t sound right.
I just reported a spam email to DPW. Interestingly, the email he used is not corrected. Whether on purpose or not, he left out the “m” in gmail. The real email address that needs to be blocked is pottertaylor5050@gmail.com
Thanks,
I recently (Nov 30) got one asking if I took cashier’s checks. That sounded suspicious to me. I didn’t reply to it. I didn’t want to give them my email address.
Thank you to all who wrote about scammers! I think your replies saved me from a scam from a person who used bad grammar and bad English. I know now that these are signs of a scam and if the person had really wanted the art, they would buy through PayPal. I am fairly new to DPW and appreciate all the replies other artists have given to this question.