*stabstabstab

A few of my friends have been shooting emails out about being scammed- Since I just got two emails about it this week I thought that this is the time to pass the information on.

Art scamming sucks but it happens. More than likely, a scammer will approach you via email, and claim they want to buy a piece from you but they have to pay you with a check. One way this could play out is they send you a bad check, but before the bank rejects it they will claim they want to cancel the deal and want you to return their money via Western Union. Total scam.

So if you are an artist selling original work online, the best way to protect yourself is to only accept paypal or certified money orders. Run a check on their email address and the body of the email, to see if others with the same template or address are found. Once you recognize the email as a scam, do not write back (as tempting as it might be!). Contacting the scammer will more than likely open you up to more of these types of things.

Here is a good website for reports and discussion of attempted scams, for all types of artists. It's a great resource if you are ever in doubt:
Artist Fourms dot Org

It sucks but we gotta watch our backs, and keep our friends safe. So yeah, just putting that out there. Even if it never happens to you just be aware of it!

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