Be aware - SCAM convo!!!

[Former_Member]

I received this convo yesterday and thought it sounded 'dodgy' but emailed him back anyway.....after the second email from him I investigated further (googled his email address) where my suspicions were confirmed! Apparently these scams have been going on for a while now. Please be aware!

Dear Seller,
I am interested in the immediate purchase of your item and will be make payment via cashier check/money order, my private shipping company will handle the shipping, but before payment will be made i need to be sure of who i am dealing with if you are going to be honest and sincere throughout the transaction. A certified cashiers check is cash-able the same day,there is going to be an excess fund on the check ,the excess fund is meant for the private shipping company who will come to your place for pick up of the item, so shipping is not a problem,will you be able to transfer the excess fund to the shipping company the same day you receive the check?. check would be sent to you so when you get payment you can easily cash it at any cashing point near you or deposit in your bank. You'll be sending excess fund to my shipper , which would be meant for shipping arrangement.if you agree, signify your interest by forwarding to me your Final Asking Price, Full Name & Contact Address and Tel #. I await your response soonest.contact me to my husband email...nimotakenny@rocketmail.com
Best and kind regards,

Listing: www.etsy.com/listing/69875934/sale-30-off-nude-figurative-original-oil

[Former_Member]

YES! They are targeting paintings, I have gotten three of them! Did you report the seller? Etsy will disable their account.

[Former_Member]

Yes, I've reported it to etsy. Their account no longer exists anyway.

[Former_Member]

Ugh, some people are dispicable. . .

[Former_Member]

Amazing. I can't understand why people actually think this will work. I wonder if anyone falls for these emails...

[Former_Member]

Apparently so! What they do is send a 'certified bankers cheque' to you with a large amount if extra money to cover the 'private shipping company', you take the cheque to bank who cashes it and then you that extra money for the shipping (which goes back to the scammer through a money transfer account), you've already sent the money before the bank realises the cheque is a fake!!!! Shocking!!!

[Former_Member]

Yes, it's a common tactic to send you an overpriced invalid check and then ask you the extra money back. Thanks for bringing this up my friend!!

[Former_Member]

It's very tempting for someone to fall for this email. Especially young artists who are desperate to make a sale and get validation. I know it sounds ludicrous, but maybe out of the 100 people they target, one or two will fall for it.

My boyfriend opened up his site a few months ago and that night, some people convo'd him with a scam similar to this. They ended up sending him a check without telling him it was going to be about 3 times the amount of the painting. When he asked about it, they told him about sending their own shipping service. When the check arrived, he could obviously tell it was fake. They harassed him with emails for a while and sent him 3 more checks (one signed by Oprah Winfrey...) and did not stop bothering him until he threatened to go to the police.

Then just a few weeks later, another person (maybe the same one?) tried the same kind of scam.

And while no real harm was done, it was very stressful. He knows now to only use paypal as payment.

[Former_Member]

Yeah, thats a very common scam. Please do that on craigslist a lot

[Former_Member]

I rec'd a scam convo about two weeks ago. They gave me their private (!) email to respond to and they were interested in a piece of art that I have on consignment in my shop. How they were able to convo me via etsy, yet I was not able to convo them back, was too strange for me. I never replied to the email address they gave me and that particular etsy id is no longer valid.

[CrazieHappy]

Thanks for the heads up. I had no idea this was happening on etsy. So sad. There are some devious people out there thinking up things like this. Yuck.

[Former_Member]

I think these criminals started targeting artists with these scams about 1 1/2 years ago or so? I remember hearing about it on another art forum some time ago, and received at least one of these [via email] myself.

The fact they've started targeting Etsy sellers doesn't surprise me at all, and contacting someone through a private convo makes it seem more "legitimate".

It's a shame honest people have to constantly be on alert for those whose sole purpose is to to steal. No doubt artists have fallen victim to these, which is why they continue to plague the community.

OP - thanks for posting the heads-up for others.

[Former_Member]

I had this last week! He even sent me his telephone number, of course I got the voice mail...

The same exact scam...wanting to send certified check. I did notice he cancelled his etsy account within an hour of when the convo was sent.

This is usually more prevalent on craigslist. A couple years ago I sold an item on craigslist and the buyer sent a certified check for 1k over the sale price requesting I western union the difference back. Well, that check was fraudulent and eventually bounced!

Screw me once shame on you! Screw me twice shame on me!

Don't be scared to say you aren't comfortable doing business with someone if they are acting fishy. If it's truly a genuine customer they will ask why not...I would! :)

[Former_Member]

One That I got the guy was a little more creative. He claimed to be in the navy and wanted to send a painting to his wife as a gift. He kept saying he could only use paypal, which some people who are new to this site don't know how checkout works so I didn't think it was strange. Then he started saying that he had to use a "pick up agent" instead of mailing it because his wife lived somewhere no one would deliver to, I knew it was a scam cause no such place exists!
The goal of that scam though is to get you to log in to a fake paypal site they email that looks like they have sent you a payment when it is just getting your user name and password.

[justweddingbouquets]

I have had this also. They seem to do it on Sundays. Just report them to etsy and they shut them down right away. Paypal excepts checks and they need to go through etsy by etsy policies so don't ever fall for these.

[Former_Member]

Personally I wouldn't accept a check unless it was through paypal's system. Then there's a waiting period for it to clear through them. I did that in the past and just waited for it to clear before shipping.

[Former_Member]

I cannot believe these creeps have seeped in to the Etsy world too!!
UGH!!!