I have a fairly good web presence, one that I've built up over years. I am far less concerned with # of followers than SEO; I'm not looking for a fan base on Instagram, I'm creating a reference point online as a business tool. Though this year is looking up, I still sweat every potential sale. I've got bills to pay and I'm trying to do so by doing what I love.
Enter the email art purchase scam. If you haven't experienced this, it goes down something like this:
You get a random email from a potential buyer saying they found you online and love your work. Stoked, you respond, only to get asked to send money, your art, or both. At the second stage of the scam it becomes pretty obvious, but at that point they already have your email address.
Unfortunately, like a lot of scams, it must be somewhat effective. Artists lose their work, and may even lose money. It happens enough that if you search "artwork purchase scams" you get hundreds of thousands of hits.
Here's one I received just today. I deleted the sender's email, title of the painting in question, and changed their names, but left everything else as I received it:
Comment: Hello
I was checking thru the web and these particular piece ("xxx"oil on canvast) caught my eyes,am hoping is available for sale,please get back to me,hopefully we can proceed from there.
Regards
Rita & William
The first telltale sign its the poor spelling and grammar. Danger, Will Robinson! Since I don't publish my email address on my website, it comes through a comment form, which has the handy feature of giving me the IP address from which the mail was sent (or at least sent through). This one came from Turkey. Hmm. This isn't an exact science, but be wary of foreign countries for reasons I'll go into later.
I know part of us wants to believe that the work is so damn awesome that, duh, of course if people are "checking thru the web" and see it they will want to give us cash money immediately. Oh yeah, and they happen to be important collectors too, right? This is our egos/insecurities talking, not our brains. Art sales can (and often do) happen out of the blue, but it is very rare to be approached online or via email by someone you don't know. Also, there are hardly any specifics in the message. No small talk, no introduction, just straight to the chase and written hastily.
What if they are real? Let's just entertain that for a moment. How, exactly, are we going to get the work (in this case a 10' tall painting) to the potential client? Shipping domestically is a four-figure scenario and a PINA, what do you think it will cost to ship internationally? Who's paying for that, btw? Do you really think that someone willing to spend thousands of dollars for art is buying art randomly off the internet? Spoiler Alert: no.
I know people who successfully sell their work online. It can be done and done well. But the big difference is that they already approaching it as an online business, often with a time window for purchase. They also tend to use Paypal or a third party vendor of some sort to protect themselves. People who buy art tend to get excited. They tell you about themselves, where they are going to put it, where they live, so on. Dodgy solicitations that feel wrong, ARE.
There are variations of this of course, most notoriously the pay-to-play galleries or art publications. Most every reputable artist, gallery owner and dealer frown on the p2p "galleries." Don't do it. You may get that New York show, but no one will take you seriously, and an art career is an endurance event, not a sprint. Reputation matters. But that is another post.
Use the web. Look people up, check for known scams. Protect yourself and as importantly, protect your work.
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