In the Off-Chance You Didn’t Know About These Art Scam Emails

We all know that art scam emails have been around since email became a thing in the 1990s, when I was in college and the biggest inconvenience in this regard was getting paper junk mail. Now, of course, we have to be diligent. In the fifteen years or so that I’ve been an Online Editor for the arts, I’ve seen various scams targeting artists, which I then share with you to keep you, your money, and your art safe.

Just recently I received yet another spammy email, which tells me that some artists are still falling for them because otherwise, the scammers would move on to a different method. We saw this recently with the false text messages about drivers owing money for highway tolls. The news reported that so many innocent people were continuing to receive these because there were enough people falling for it.

So I’m sharing this now, not for the first time and not for the last time, I’m sure. The following is a screenshot of the most recent art scam email I received, with the indicators highlighted:

1. The punctuation is wrong in the greeting, and they used “fineartnewsletter” as my name.
2. Another punctuation error (more to come, but I’ll stop pointing them out – you get it by now).
3. I can tell this is spam because they’re complimenting my artwork, when I’m never the artist featured here. (My art is writing, hence my career here as a writer / editor.)
4. Which leads us to the highly complimentary nature of the email. These are usually over the top with their praise, so don’t let your ego be stroked to the point that you fail to question the source.
5. No signature, only “Best regards.”

I removed the sender’s last name and email address just in case they used the real name of an innocent person and somehow spoofed* an email address.

*What is email spoofing? It’s when a scammer makes it look like an email is coming from a legitimate address, when it’s really not.

What should you do when you receive art scam emails? Block the sender and delete the email. Take it a step further by sharing a screenshot of it on social media to warn your friends.

Have you seen other examples of scams directed at artists? Share them with us in the comments section below.

Discover more art business advice with these free articles at RealismToday.com.