Not a lot of major scams have been coming through my email lately (although I'm sure they're still happening). This morning, CBC reported that some email accounts are being hacked and fake SOS emails are being sent out from them. Less than an hour later, I received the following email from one of my business contacts' email addresses:

Subject: I need your favor

This scammer has been burning a hole in my inbox for a while, but for one reason or another, I kept getting distracted from posting it. This is a two-parter, with the "buyer" and "shipper" sending the emails to an artist (who, luckily, knew what was going on):

An emerging artist from Canada has sent me an email she received from "Anderson Wouoth". The email screams scam; some of the tell-tale signs are:

• asking for multiple works, clearly pulling the descriptions off a website
• offering to send the cheque in the very first email
• asking for contact information in the very first email
• slightly broken English that attempts to be formal

Every time I think the scammers who target artists are moving on, I hear of another one. I guess they just know better than to send me emails now.

Our latest scammer is "Anderson Wuouth", using the address andersonwuouth@yahoo.se, and requests that the artwork be sent to the following address: Anderson Wuouth, Hirsackerstrasse 64, Postfach 324, CH-8810 Horgen, Switzerland.

Looks like the scammers aren't very happy with being ousted. Art News Blog reports on a request by a scammer to be removed from their art scammer list. The scammer in question is "Bikram Shrestha (sbikram81@yahoo.com)", who has the honour of being first on the alphabetical list.

Art News Blog reports another scammer, "Maxwells Brown". They seem to be getting lazier with sending readable emails....

There has been a call circulating for the "Toronto Art Show", and the Ontario Crafts Council has issued a warning on it. In recent correspondence the Ontario Crafts Council has confirmed that the three major sponsors listed on the show's website: Tim Horton's, MacDonald's and Coca-Cola have stated that they are not associated with the show.

I think I have pointed to them before, but the Artists File Online Community Board has a good listing of active scammers. Because they are an active online artist community with sale opportunities, they're an excellent place to harvest scammers!

artenzie has reported a scam email from an "agent" (Steve James) who is reportedly looking for artwork in Scotland. The bold, to-the-point tone of the email (and the fact that real agents don't work this way) is the biggest hint that it's a scam. Beware!

Every time I wonder whether the scammers are still targeting artists, I read about someone else who has been sent one of these emails. Art News Blog just reported a scam email from johnson_mark_arts01@yahoo.com. You can read the full scam email at Art News Blog.