AVOID This Art Scam Email!!

My Experience With an Art Scammer.

  I wanted to share a story about a recent encounter I had with an art scammer.  I'll include a summary list of this conman's information at the bottom of this blog post.  

I was contacted by a "Mr. David Morton".  The initial email read as follows:

"I am so excited that I came across your work on Internet search, I am interested in purchasing some creative artworks from you let me know their various prices. And how much discounts are you going to give? Looking forward to hearing from you soon.
 
Thanks and best regards!
 
Mr. David"

    I thought it was suspicious, but I had never heard of an art scam so I emailed him back.  We exchanged a few emails and he had me send a list of all the available work that I had.  All of his emails had bad grammatical errors, which is another red flag  He picked out one piece that he said would be an anniversary gift for his "wife".  He asked if he could pay me an extra amount to cover private shipping because he was moving to Canada and he wanted to keep the painting as a surprise for his "wife".  This is when red flags started showing up for me.  I wanted to catch this lowlife so I entertained his emails and he sent me a check via priority mail.  In a few days, the check came and I immediately got an email from "Mr. David" instructing me to deposit the check.  The check looked real and was from a company called Ausenco Engineering USA South IN. located at 1320 Willow Pass Road in Concord, CA, 94520.
      I took it to my bank where they immediately flagged it as fraudulent.  "Mr. David" continued to text me from his phone number: 720-538-4635.  He said that his "shipper" named Carol Brashear would text me also, which "she" did from phone number: 409-600-9495.  "Mr. David" continued to insist that he was interested in purchasing the piece.  He continued to text me until I had enough of this sicko.
   As an artist, I love painting and I love having my people enjoy my art.  I had never heard of these types of scams, which is why this was such an eye opening experience.  This is  such a sick and twisted scam because artists are very susceptible to having someone buy work.  These scammers will never understand true beauty and art.  I hope my experience helps everyone become aware so that no one gets hurt by these dirtbags.

Here is a blog link with some more information about fighting art scams:  
http://stopartscams.blogspot.com

And here is a link to an article with some more information:

https://www.artworkarchive.com/blog/don-t-be-fooled-by-email-art-scams-how-to-spot-and-avoid-fraud

Here is a summary of the info from the scammer that I dealt with:

Type of Scam: Overpayment Art Scam (see picture below)
Fake name: Mr. David Morton
Fake Profession: Ocean Engineer at Ausenco Engineering 
email: [email protected] 
phone numbers: (720) 538-4635 (David's phone), 
(409) 600-9495 ("Shipper's Number")
Shippers name and address: Carol Brashear, City: Ravensdale Wa., Zip code: 98051