Art shipping scam rears its ugly head (again)

Yes, this one seems to be doing the rounds once more (or it never went away)…

Have you received an email like this one?

Email from TODD

Happy New Year, Am Highly delighted in your art and am interested in the piece of your

work that i add on the subject.

Kindly tell me the details of the piece and their price and let me know if you still have them available because am really interested in purchasing them.

I will be waiting for your response,

Happy New Year to you and your family.

Best Regards,

Todd.

 

I wrote about this kind of scam a while ago and have received several emails this week from artists telling me they’ve had the email above.
You can read my previous post here.

 

 The M.O. (as the cops in The Sweeney would say) is that the artist is contacted as above, asked to ship via a nominated courier and pressurised to ship quickly. A personal cheque is received, and all seems well. However, if the artist responds to the request to ship quickly, they will find that the cheque has bounced, but the piece has been delivered.

 

This scam is subtly different from the one I wrote about previously though, in two respects.

1. The email the artist receives names one of their pieces in the subject line – thus making the email seem more pukka.
2. The scam seems to revolve around the cheque taking longer to be banked and thus rejected than the shipping.

Another artist-related scam

In other scams the artist receives a cheque for more than the price of the piece and  is invited to send money to cover the shipping.

This is usually via Western Union (a legitimate money transfer service with no connection to the scammers). By the time the cheque has bounced, the artist is down that ‘extra’ shipping money. The nominated shipper in this case turns out not to be real, so at least the artist hasn’t lost the artwork itself.

Selling online via safe methods?

One of my website design clients contacted me this week to say they’d received some ‘phishing’ emails along these lines and said they were glad they didn’t sell online.

I don’t agree with this view, of course.

Selling online and using a payment service like PayPal is just about as safe as it can get.

Yes, there are distance selling regulations to be followed, but that applies to all of us selling online, so it’s just part of the ‘cost’ of doing business.
There’s a neat summary of the UK Distance Selling Regulations here.

 

And yes, chargebacks can occur. So that’s why it’s vital to use a delivery company that provides a verifiable proof of delivery. If the customer tries to reverse the payment, you can prove the piece of art has been delivered.

 

 In all the years Jenny and I (Vitreus Art) have been selling online, we’ve only had one instance where the customer acted on their right to return a piece – which we subsequently sold elsewhere soon after.

 

So my conclusion to this slight digression is that although there are scam emails circulating, the benefits of selling your art or craft online are still powerful; with a bit of common sense and some research there are plenty of ways to protect your business from scams.

 

I’ll be posting more about this soon, so do subscribe to receive email alerts from this blog, or leave a comment, or get in touch!

 

 Happy selling,
Mike

 

Work from Home ‘multi level marketing’ – don’t let desperation lead you to sign up!

I’m sure artists aren’t the only folks who might be tempted by the hundreds of MLM (multi level marketing) opportunities all over the internet these days.

Sadly though, having spoken with several artists who are finding it harder to make enough money these days, it’s clear that the lure of an extra home-based income scheme is compelling.

In my view, any exploitation is reprehensible, but what’s worse is exploiting anxiety or even desperation. ‘Make money working from home’ is a siren call to all those folk struggling to get by, or recently made redundant, or finding that their normal line of work just isn’t bringing in enough money.

Don’t be tempted – pretty well all these MLM ‘programmes’ are modern versions of the old pyramid schemes. There seem to be two clear models.
The first is based around selling healthcare or skincare products with questionable efficacy (try looking for independent peer-reviewed research!). These schemes rely on the participant (who’s going to get rich real soon!) selling products at prices that don’t bear comparison to ones on the high street to friends and relatives.

The soon-to-be-independently financially successful entrepreneur will also be expected to recruit more sellers in to their network, earning a fee each time they do.

The second scheme is more pernicious, because of its astonishingly devious use of the internet.

In order to avoid being labelled as a pyramid scheme, a product has to be traded. In many cases these are lead-generation software products, or email lists of poor fellows who unwisely signed up to ‘marketing information’.
The pernicious aspect of this is the way the marketers of these programmes have used ‘burying’ techniques to ensure the first 20 or so search engine results pages (SERPs) show links to articles purporting to give an honest appraisal of the techniques – always concluding – ‘I tested this system and it’s not a scam’.

For added plausibility, the reviews equally often offer advice – ‘this is not for the lazy or greedy – you’ll have to work at it’.

Let’s face it – there are no sure-fire ways to get rich without genuine endeavour, or inheriting!

For those who might reason that they have nothing to lose but the scheme joining fee (usually a sum high enough to make you think it’s legit, but not so high you’d pause for thought), unfortunately most schemes like this operate on a recurring subscription basis. You may have to cancel your credit card to close the monthly debit!

Artists (and everyone else) – if it seems too good to be true, it almost certainly is.  Instead, much better to take a really good hard look at what you do, who your customers are, how you reach and interact with them, and form a business plan that’s based on legitimate enterprise!

Happy selling,
Mike

p.s. do let me know if you’ve found a get rich scheme that really works – I’m always ready to earn more without having to actually work. Joke!

Domain Renewal Scam – Artists on alert

If you’re like me, and you have several domain names under your control, or if you’re (also like me) just a bit vague about dates, then you may not be all that sure when your website domain is due to be renewed.
An example of a domain is vitreus-art.co.uk – the domain for my stained glass website www.vitreus-art.co.uk.

Sadly, there’s a scam out there that exploits this, and I wanted to bring it to you so you won’t get suckered.

Companies with names that usually include the words ‘domain’, ‘renewal’, ‘services’ etc are sending letters (yes, you remember – on paper) to domain registrants advising them that their domains are due for renewal, and requesting payment (usually by cheque).
The letter is laid out like an invoice, and is written to suggest that the company is authorised to carry out domain transfers and renewals.

To encourage you to act and not ask questions, the letter is worded to convey a sense of urgency – your domain will expire, making it available for one of your competitors to use, and your children will be possessed by the devil, etc etc.

The data on who a domain belongs to is public, although non-corporate domain registrants can opt to have some of their personal details left invisible. This public data shows when a domain is due for renewal, so it’s easy to check on yours (or someone else’s).

So what happens if you get worried that your domain is about to expire and send off a cheque in a panic?
Nothing – except they bank your cheque! They’re not authorised to renew or transfer your domain – that’s done by the registrar – who will contact you before the domain expires anyway.

What should you do if you receive a letter like this?

Firstly – check your domain using a domain tools provider like Demon (link here) to see if your domain is indeed about to expire. If it’s not, then throw the letter away and certainly don’t respond to it.
But do tell your web-savvy friends in case they get a letter too…

Secondly, if it is about to expire, contact your domain hosting company or the registrar for the domain shown on the WHOIS record and follow their renewal process. If you use a third party for your web services, get them to do this.

Thirdly, do not pass on your domain EPP key – used to transfer a domain – if you have it.
And don’t be pressurised into requesting it from your current domain registrar and then forwarding it!

Despite the threats usually contained in these letters, there’s a grace period when a domain actually does officially expire allowing you to re-register the domain, and you’ll get several weeks notice from your registrar in which to act before that.

And if you do want to transfer a domain for good reasons, do it through the current registrar.

So, please, watch out for this scam and make sure you’re in control of your web presence.
If you need help with this sort of stuff, or if you’re not online yet, do get in touch!

Happy online marketing!
Mike