It looks like I got one for myself too! It seems that they may be using the
Sculpture Portfolio page over at the ISC website for their "victims".
I was contacted this month about my sculptures. The guy asked where he could see more of my work; I sent him some basic information and a link to the page on my website with all of the available work; he wrote back for prices on several sculptures; I responded; then he said that he would buy one of them (the most expensive one) and tack on a huge sum of money for shipping. Of course, having read this thread, all of the alarm bells sounded at this point.
Quote:
Dear Julianna
i am pleased to purchase this piece 4:Title: "200lb" Price: $1,200 CAD
The sculpture is a gift for a friend of mine in U.K and as of the transporting of the sculpture pick up will be done and payment will be given to them at the point of pick-up the shipping company is an air frieght company they will be picking up the sculpture and make a special delivery to my friend. I will be adding an extra $3500 CAD for pick-up of the sculpture which will be paid to the shipper at the point of pick-up.I will be needing your contact address and telephone number to issue payment to you.
Regards,
Julius
Happy new year
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Quote:
Hi, Julius.
That's an excellent choice---I hope your friend will agree too!
$3,500 is an exorbitant amount for freight. Might I suggest that you switch to FedEx? They are merely charging approx $1,600 for shipping to London.
Also, due to the nature and amount of our transaction, I will only be able to accept a certified cheque---I trust that this won't be a problem. For your security (and peace of mind!), I would like to suggest that you ask for the bank to return the cheque to you after I have deposited it.
When do you expect the sculpture to be delivered to your friend? I will draft an agreement with the details before we "seal the deal". The address and phone number will be included in the agreement.
Thanks.
Julianna
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My response was sent on the 10th, and I have not heard anything back since. This is after a very swift exchange of the earlier emails.
I looked back at some of my older emails, and saw that I had been contacted by persons from the internet in February and December of last year, and the writing was similar and they had inquired on many of the same sculptures. It seems that they are now trying to get an artist's hopes up, then make them an offer they can't refuse.
Sneaky.
I'm quite happy with my response, because it's safe for someone who really does want to buy my work (although the circumstances are certainly peculiar; and feel free to take me down a knotch if you disagree
). Feel free to use my response as a "template" for yours if you ever encounter a similar situation. My biggest personal concern was that I was able to delay providing my address until I knew this was a safe thing (I work out of my home).
I want to thank everyone for posting their previous experiences. Although I hope that I would have been alert enough to be suspicious of the transaction, I really don't know whether I would have been too excited about a sale to wonder why they were paying more than twice the price of the sculpture (from an uknown artist, to boot!) merely for the shipping.
A search for 'shipping scam' on Google suggests that this isn't only happening to artists.