Forum - Art Scam Alerts

I will have to start this, ww w.picassomio.com . Bad buyers! Payment for my art work nearly a month over promised date.If I try and send an email to them it gets bounced back. Dont join their site!!

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got an email today claiming to be sent via voodoochilli, wanting $3000 to exhibit at an art exhibition.... Tickets for friends and family were "only" $1000.You have to chuckle, really...

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I don't know how, they think, they are going to get away with it..
These people whoe pull this scams must we are stupid...Ha Ha

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They must be stupid if they think artists can afford that kind of money!! lol

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Youre right Cathy...

hows it going in Worcestershire?...not so good by your last comment...in Britain at present everything is down...we are going through a slump ...but the government won't face up to it...Everyone is having to tighten up.

I think it will get worse before better.

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Yep, I agree Georgia. Things are slowing down in England thats for sure.

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I hope this will fit but heres one that I recieved via Voodoochili:

Hello,

I am John Ross, The organizer of The 4th Walt International Art
Exhibition which will be coming up at the Clapham Art Gallery located at
unit 02, 40-48 Bromell\'s Road, London, United Kingdom. This year, the
4th Walt International Art Exhibition is proud to be associated with
The National Art Gallery, London and Clapham Art Gallery.

The Walt International Art Exhibition is internationally respected for
discovering and promoting new and emerging artists of the highest
standard. We are a market leader in the quality of artwork that we present
in our gallery.

We continues to discover new artists and supply artwork to corporate
collectors, interior designers and architects including Merrill Lynch,
Shell, Earls Court Olympia, London transport, Spink property and fox
Linton.

Due to four years experience and our extensive knowledge of the
contemporary market we provide, we therefore present the 4th Walt
International Art Exhibition 2008.

Our 2008 4th Walt Internationally Art Exhibition has been repackage and
shall attracts two set of guest which are
1.) Guest from around the world and
2.) Artist from Africa, America and Europe.

We would like to invite you to be our guest or artist at the
exhibition. The exhibition will be open and end as schedule below:

Wednesday 9 July, 2008
9:00am – 5:00pm
Thursday 10 July, 2008
9:00am – 5:00pm
Friday 11 July, 2008
9:00am – 4:00pm
Saturday 12 July, 2008
10:00am – 4:00pm

At The 4th Walt International Art Exhibition you’ll be able to see
and buy latest art work master piece as a guest and attend seminars
addressing the latest art work in the industry and meeting professionals or
display your art work as an artist to a large number of buyers and
make sales.

As an artist, the cost for a stand to display art work cost $3000 only
and for our guest the cost of buying a ticket per head cost $1000 only.

For accommodation in London during the exhibition (4 days) for both
guests, good numbers of hotels around the venue has been partner with for
a 17% discount for all our guests outside and within the UK. For
enquiries and booking of accommodation please email Jim Whyte at
whytejim@yahoo.com

For purchase of ticket and stand for artist to display their art work
please, contact John Ross at
waltinternationalartexhibition@yah oo.com or call +447031939636.

Deadline for all payments is 30th may, 2008.

For complete event information please, feel free to call. I look
forward to seeing you at The 4th Walt International Art Exhibition.


Kind regards
John Ross
Project Manager

Did anyone else recieve this?

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Thanks for sharing Pach.....
Did this come to you via voodoo email?

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Funny that the email has numerous typos (a big tip off for scam email), a search on Google for "Walt International Art Exhibition" results only in a few verbatim copies of the email, but nothing about the exhibition itself. Also, the Web Site for the gallery that is supposed to be hosting this show... Has not updated it's events listing since 2006.

Sniff sniff... can smell something rotten in the state of Emails.

Maybe (just maybe) it's legit, but it certainly is not reading that way at all. I would not trust this at all.

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Pach, that's the same one that I got.
Anthony, the typos were indeed numerous and a cause for suspicion when I received the email. I tend to distrust anything like this anyway, but the whole thing reminded me of those e-mails you sometimes get asking for your bank details so that large, fictitious amounts of cash can be deposited. At least this one said straight up that they wanted money - honesty, of a sort!

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Barb:

Honest dishonesty... The suckers may even get to display their art at a real gallery. (Though I would expect the gallery to turn them away at the door...)

I've gotten a few of those 'Help me get rid of money' emails. They are pretty funny, but chillingly, they do make a profit for the shysters.

One making the rounds now is a new scam where they send you a bogus cheque and ask you to cash it, and send them back a portion of the cheques value, you keeping the rest. Once the cheque bounces (a week later or so), it's too late... This is all done under the pretense of a 'Mystery Shopper' testing out money wire services.

Another one is 'rescue a puppy' from a shelter. For a small fee for paperwork, you get to save a puppy which will be shipped via airplane. Once you're expecting the little trembling adorable puppy, they pull out the stops and hit you with expenses for shots, transportation, surgery or whatever they dream up.

Ain't the wild west of the Internet fun...

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Watch out for an email sent via the artists' contact form that starts with " My name is Vivian,i saw your profile today in(www.voodoochilli.net)and became..."

This person has been contacting members with the same email. Don't worry I have made precautions to stop this, and as long as you don't reply this person will not have your email address.

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A google search shows that this is quite a common email.

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After reading some of the accounts, accordingly it's a marriage scam. Her dead father left her $3.7 million US, but she needs to have at least a fiance who can stand on her behalf for the transfer of funds. She's offering 20% to any sucker willing to take the bait. That's why she is emailing everybody. We all know that solid long term relationships start with an email from a total stranger.

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Darn I'm already married.

I feel sorry for the people that really fall for this. Most people seem to forget the old "If it seems to good to be true, it probably is"

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And the screw keeps turning! Harry open this thread after I wanted to alert the Voo about picassomio.com. This evening 9 months after dispatching the art work a had a call from the above. Saying they were sorry about the delay and then given a speech about the worlds money problems. And again like I was in March promised i would be payed in September!

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I seem to get at several variations on the theme of 'scam' each week. there seem to be new ideas cropping up all the time; I suppose you have to give them credit for inventiveness, at least...

...my poor spam filter is overworked, though!

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Andrew,
did you manage to pin them down to any september in particular?!

Hope you manage to get this sorted...

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AAAAAHHHH NO! Dont say that Barb!!

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And it goes on with picassomio.com, they never did pay in September, so Barb you could be right about which September! But to make things worse they are offering me web space at a great price,( yeah right)! So I reminded them about the art work they stole and thought I'd flag up their name again just to warn anyone away.

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