Before you sell your work Many of you received the email I sent 10/19/05.   Here is the copy: Dear Artists, Photographers, and Craftsmen; It has come to my attention that some of you have been approached by someone wanting to buy your work and have it sent to them before you receive payment. Please do not send any work to anyone without receiving payment first. I find it hard to believe that anyone would do this to you, but I am not suprised at anything anymore. Thank you, please be wise. Marie White/ www.arttract.com Please be very careful.  The internet is a good tool to sell your work, but there are people who take advantage and try to steal what they can.  Read through some of the emails that were received to get an idea how to protect yourself from a scam.  It doesn't matter what site you are on people will still try to fraudulently get what they can from time to time. Following are some of the replies: NEW 11/25/05 Hi friends, please read the forward, something similiar happned to me through a supposedly sale of my work via internet and now I am out of U$ 4000.00 which I can not afford. Be careful with money orders!!! I received fraudulent US Postal money orders and they were so real that the banks were fooled and did not realize for 6 weeks that they were fraudulent. Take care, love Ingalora Ingalora Dwyer 9/20/05 Hi, Marie. I just received an email from someone wanting to buy two of the paintings I have listed with arttract. They are "The Apples of My Eye" and "At Mike's Pond". Since these paintings are not online anywhere else, I'm assuming they saw them on your site! Now, the question. How to proceed with shipping and payment, etc. This person is in Ireland, moving into a new home. She says she has someone on that end that will handle shippiing. Should I ask for partial payment before sending out the paintings? There are so many scams out there and I have never shipped anything overseas before...so I am a little hesitant. Do you have any advice or experience with this kind of situation? Lenora 10/15/05 Hi Marie! I'm sorry to say the offer to buy my paintings was a scam. Other members of Watercolor Workshop have received the same offers. Too bad there are so many people out there willing to cheat anyone they can. Fortunately, I found out in time so I didn't lose any money but gained some wisdom! Take care.... Lenora ******* Dear Mary, Thank you very much for your email. I already know that and I don't send artworks without payment. Every day people are asking prices for my artworks and they propose payment by check or banccart. They always say it's ok for the total sum(artwork + shipping + assurance) . And at the end they are saying : " in the package you can put also par example 2 GSM of a wellknown marque, they are to give like a present to the family" . With those people we are not any more artists but trafficants. They give names of an American firme after some searchwork I find out that they are all from Nigeria, Côte d'Ivoire,... I'm happy that you are sending at every one an email that they must look out. I hope that you and your family are going well. Best regards, Bakkach F. and family ******* Guess what? I reported it to the fraud division after I received $2000.00 of bogus money orders. Money orders as payments are totally out. Paypal, cash( not cashiers checks) and personally signed in person credit cards ok. Jamie R Morhaim ******* Thanks Marie. Your mail will help many nice hearted artists not to fall in this mistake. I did hear similar stories and was personally approached by someone who claimed to be Irish. I didn't trust his mail and broke all communication with him. Kind regards, Hélène Khoury ******* Thanks Marie, there is a lot of scam out there. Be aware of all the propositions from Africa!!!! Also if you get paid by cheque wait for it to clear before you send your work. Ingalora ******* Hello Mary, Yes this is true! I am constantly getting e-mails from con artists in South Africa and Nigeria. I don't open any of them because it is obvious that they are phony. Also, other artist need to know that they are using false money orders to pay for artwork. Thank you for the e-mail. ******* Marie: This is the second letter that I got from her. This is after I wrote back and asked her a few things about where she had seen my paintings and such. I got 4 or 5 all together. The last one put a stop to it when I wrote and gave her my mailing address for sending the money order and I told her I would put it in a special account until it cleared and by then I would have all the information on her shipping methods. Also I told her that it was for her safety and mine. That way there was no way she could get ahold of my checking account or such. Well that did it I haven't heard from her again. Hope to see you soon. Love to you all Sandy From: Danielle Kirk dnill_kirk@yahoo.co.uk Date: 09/20/05 14:58:49 To: Sandy Beck Subject: Re: Art Works Dear Sandy, Thank you for the quick response.I saw your paintings at www.arttract.com. I live in the United Kingdom with my family but we're moving soon to Dublin in our new home. Moreover i know i've selected perfect and attractive artworks which must be expensive just let me know their prices and how to proceed for the payment. Hope those informations stated above will help you for your findings. hope to hear from you ASAP. Regards, Danielle. ___________________________________________