#StopArtScams
I feel an obligation to do this for my fellow artists. BEWARE! There are an incredible amount of NFT and other art scams on social media targeting artists. It makes me sick. Below I will give you the warning signs and what you can do about it. Some of these scams are highly sophisticated with proposals from high-end galleries.
WARNING SIGNS OF A SCAM
Generic email greetings
URLs that look deceptive and inauthentic
Wrong, out of date or out of place logos, design and type
Grammatical errors and improper English
Does not state anything specific about your artwork
Huge range in their budget, such as “$500 to $50,000.
If it sounds too good it most often is not real.
They will ask questions that can be answered by visiting your website
If you can’t find any other information about them outside of social media, it is a red flag.
They comparatively do not have a lot of images on their social media.
There is a sense of urgency in their request. They will say their “wife” has been looking at your art on your website and they want “to surprise her” and her birthday is soon.
They will use existing art world people’s names like Amelia Redgrift from Pace Galleries
If they want to buy real art works. not NFT's. They want to arrange shipping with an agent or third-party shipper or mover that will pick it up directly. They will than offer to send more money than is due so you will be obliged to give them a check for the excess when you send them the artwork.
They will pick artwork from your Instagram account or don’t say which artwork they want to buy and will ask you to choose within a certain price range that may be several thousands of dollars.
WHAT CAN YOUR DO TO PROTECT YOURSELF?
Always look at their email to see if it comes from the company, they say they represent.
If they say they are a specific person in the artworld ask for a video call. They will most likely say no to that.
Create a #stopartscams on your instagram so they know you are on to them and they will stop sending you requests
Tell a fellow artist about the scams and how they can protect themselves #payitforward
You can report these scammers to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) https://www.ic3.gov/
