Protect Yourself and Your Art
Scams, phishing, malware, fake invoices, bogus art buyers, and email security are things even artists in an art group MUST educate themselves on. A recent email scam came to at least several of our PWAS members (if not all). In this day and age, we ALL must be prepared that there are people that want to 1. get your money and/or 2. get your art not by legitimate means.
Protect Yourself From Scam Email
Here is a recent email you may have seen come into your Inbox. I forwarded the email to Sandra to let her know about it. I'm not sure how our emails were targeted and may never know. But for your benefit, I'm going to point out the obvious flaws that raised my spidy-senses.
The Flaws in this Email and Beyond
- Junk Folder -This email landed in my Junk folder. I have email from Sandra come into a designated PWAS folder, so this email address was obviously unknown to my email provider.
- Wrong Email - Sandra Lewin's email is totally wrong. Look it up! That was the most obvious tell of this fake.
- A Sense of Urgency. The scammer wants you to spend your money quickly - and it offers to reimburse you...Yeah, right.
- Money. Asking for you to purchase something, anything - out of the blue. Or send money. Always a huge red flag.
- Recognize the Spoof. Sandra was definitely NOT out of state. You could call her to find out.
- Why YOU? Why would someone (even if a friend or family member) be contacting YOU to purchase something for them for something that happened years ago? The email doesn't really make sense at all.
- Misspells. Often scam emails have misspells, do look for those, although this one as far as the English isn't too bad.
- Laying on the Buttering Up. This one has the "absolute confidence in me"...yeah, right.
- Generic Salutation. Yes, this one does say "Dear Donna" but that isn't how she addresses me. An alarm should go off if it says "Dear Sir, Madame" etc.- its too generic.
- If anything says your account will be suspended - did you even have an account with the subject? Again, an alarm.
- Anything that asks for your social security, private info - probably a scam unless you are specifically ON an IRS or government site. But they ARE NOT asking you via email.
- Watch the Attachments! Anything ending in .exe, .iso, .zip are always suspicious. IF YOU go to Microsoft or something like Zoom and need to do an update - YOU are initiating the update, not clicking on something in an email. Be aware of these.
- If your gut, your intuition alarms go off, PAY ATTENTION! Remember the saying of if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is?
- If there is a URL (a link) in the email - don't click on it immediately! It is far better to manually go to the site in your browser than to click in the unexpected email.
- YOU CAN contact your friend either via phone, text, or verified email (check previous emails from the friend) and ASK if the email is genuine.
- YOU WILL KNOW as an artist, if there is a legitimate Call for Art coming from the art group. You can check the art group's website and this blog to find further info on it almost always. The PWAS Member meetings will have the Secretary's meeting minutes that should include what is coming up.
- CHECK OUT THE LINKS - Take your cursor and place it over any links in the email - WITHOUT CLICKING ON IT. When you do that, the link will show in the bottom left corner of your browser - check if it matches where you expect the link to go. The domain name should be spelled correctly!
- DON'T RESPOND to the email. If your email allows you to report the email as spam do that and block / delete the garbage.
- CHECK YOUR ADDRESS BAR. In your browser is an important part of confirming a page is legitimate, as is https:// in the beginning of the address. (https = usually good, http = not so good) Web addresses must be typed exactly right for you to go to the correct place on the internet as it is the Location Address. Much like if you mistyped your home address to someone, they are not going to the correct house.
Legitimate https://www.facebook.com/princewilliamartsociety/ account for PWAS. If it was something like http://placebook.com or http://facebok.com there's your red flag.
We are seeing an ever increasing amount of scams! Obnoxious, I know. Here are some very, very common scams and often they can be combined.
- You've Won! A Sweepstakes or Lottery or iPhone - just send the shipping fee
- Bank Warnings - so many variations to get your data so they can get your $
- Suspicious Activity or Login Attempts
- Copyright Infringement Claims - they claim to be a copyright holder, an artist or photographer and you or your website is infringing on their copyright. They want you to go to something like Dropbox or Drive and click on something...and there's your bug. Or they're phishing for your data.
- Fake Political Groups
- NFTs Scam - someone wants to purchase your art as a NFT (Non-fungible Token) or get you to "mint" your artwork. This sounds all kinds of dirty to me and I steer clear.
- Fake Job Offers
- Collaboration / Pay to play - I'm not working with any of these out-of-the-blue and part-with-your-money schemes.
- Shipping Notifications
- A Problem with Your Payment Info
- Government Refund
- Fake Invoices
- Fake Reset Password Requests
- Romance and Family Member Scams
- You Owe Back Taxes
- "I need to use your phone number to break into my Facebook Account"
- Student Loans - just got this one again. Urgently trying to contact me, time sensitive, final warning, flagged, blah-de-blah-blah. Right...I don't have a student loan.
- "You'll get exposure"...even your local businesses or events may say these words. Just pay attention to how much work you will have to do and what they are offering in return. Actually, how much traffic is actually coming through to potentially help you make sales to make it worthwhile for you.
Other Scams
I've previously written blog posts called "Art Scammers are Everywhere" and "Spammed as an Artist" which the email described periodically makes an appearance. Well worth reading because many of us as artists have received a version of it. Basically you are contacted that the person wants to purchase a bunch of your artwork...have you seriously EVER had this happen?! And it snowballs drastically after that.
Phone Calls
If an odd call comes in beware that these days they can fake voices. I know, this can be horrible. Again, is there a sense of urgency, a something terrible will happen if you don't send money - CALL, text or email your friend or family member and see what they say when you get ahold of them.
"Hi Grandma, my phone isn't working and I'm on my friend's phone. Can you send me $____?" - I had a version of this once and I'm not a grandma.
Also, be careful of using the word "Yes" in a call you are realizing may not be legit.
I often do not answer any phone call that I do not recognize the number. In my contact list, I have the names of the person so I know who is calling. I figure if its that important, they will leave a message.
As you know, in our art group there are a LOT of emails. You know not to click on links in messages from people you do not know. But as you can see, this one faked that it was from someone we did know. In your head, do you hear that thought that says, "this is weird". Do NOT ignore your voice!
Someone got hacked, hence the need to FIRST have a look at your email to see WHAT is going on with it. If there are those red flags, take the step of texting the person and ask, "Did you send me an email asking for money, gift cards (whatever)?"
AGAIN...you need to IDENTIFY the SCAMMER and you can't rush answering the request.
1. Stop - don't rush your reply! Verify, verify, verify.
2. Do Not Click - definitely don't click on a link or download any files unless you KNOW it is legit and you are expecting the info.
3. Check the Source - contact directly using other means like their website, contact page or phone number. For a friend you can call or text.
An Ounce of Prevention...
- Never pay for anything upfront.
- Conduct all of your business and sales through legitimate resources.
- You must protect yourself with detailed and signed contracts, terms and conditions, a payment and payment process, etc. For Commissions, I get half upfront and its not refundable. This is especially important when working with someone the first time.
- Beware of emails with unclear, unusual, vague, "out-of-the-blue" requests especially from people you do not know.
- Trust your instincts - if it feels weird, check and verify for legitimacy.
- If someone gets angry, aggressive, starts to pressure you - walk away. Be done with them.
What to Do If You've Been Scammed
See the section on What to Do If You've Been Scammed via Email
Go to https://www.identitytheft.gov/Info-Lost-or-Stolen When info is lost or exposed.
Do the homework, read more here What is a scam and how can you protect yourself?
And finally...its up to YOU to protect yourself, I can only make the suggestions listed here. It's up to you to apply them.
Artistry Spin Blogmaster and an artist member of PWAS in Woodbridge, VA, specializing in acrylic painting. She paints landscapes, seascapes, animals and many subjects. Visit her Website at DonnaLiguriaArt.com, her Donna's Esty site and her Blog at Donna’s Cave Paintings.
Local Art: The Prince William Art Society is a 50+-year-old non-profit art group in PWC for the appreciation of fine art throughout the county and Northern Virginia. Visit us at any of our local art shows or join us for our monthly meetings - held on the 4th Monday of the month at the Tall Oaks Community Center at 12298 Cotton Mill Dr, Woodbridge, VA at 7:30pm
Want to join PWAS? Go to https://www.princewilliamartsociety.com/membership
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