Is this a scam?

[Cynthia Daniel]

Another tip-off - they typically say ALL your work is beautiful. Ask for a phone number and physical address - bet she won't give you this information or if she does, it will be fake. These scammers are getting more and more clever. I feel very strongly this is a scam.

[Patt Legg]

Terri

What did you say your day job was "detective"? Very clever and until I put them together, I had not noticed but RED flags were going up everywhere. Now--here's a clincher is the email from the "shipper" with even one other name:

Good day Sir/Ma,

I received an e-mail from Mrs Treva that we should work with you to ship some artwork paintings from you to her new house in Africa very soon.

Please get back to us with full details of the kind of art works to be shipped, As she advised, we will be picking up the art works from your gallery. we need to know the weight...e.t.c so we can send our bill to her for payment with her other house decors.

I look forwarding to hear from you soon.

Thanks

Ben

For: UKSHIPPERS


The thumbs down is from me.

Thank you all for your support. Please tell me that you UNDERSTAND my excitement. I thought all of my hard work ( you can catch my list under Time Management thread) had finally paid off with managing my own site and all.

This is off subject but actually connected too. Question I am trying to add a PayPal button on my site. I understand that is fairly ok. What do you think? That way CC and bank accounts are already cleared by them.

Thanks again so much
I will write one more email to Mary Wilson, Mary White and Mrs. Treva. Wow I have been duped.

[Terri Ficenec]

Patt--
So glad you saw through it in time. I was worried for you.

By the way, before you respond back to 'them'... you may want to contact local law enforcement and possibly other officials... the Colorado attorney general's warning on these kind of scams notes that:[INDENT][B]"Citizens are warned that fraudulent cashier

[Patt Legg]

Thanks Terri

About that WV law enforcement.---well, let's put it this way. We (my hubby and I ) were in CC Identity Theft sort of. By that---I mean we were getting charges and weird phone calls for 8 months about things. Long story short----luckily my hubby checks CC purchases ver-r-r-r-y closly and we stopped them short but never found out how or who. We reported to local law enforcement and they just kind of said basically --hope it doesn't happen again and we'll look into it. They won't but I am seaching (via internet) as to how I can tell the other pros in law about it.

I was worried about me too.

[Jean Kelly]

I've been reading this thread with interest and was worried about you too. I'm so glad you posted here and everyone caught the scam before you got stung. I'm disappointed for you also, and wish you a real sale to make up for this bull!

Jean

[Richard Monro]

To protect from scams like this, I would recommend using wire transfers under the following conditions:

1 - set up a bank account with the minimum deposit needed to keep the account open. This will be used only for your wire funds receipt account.

2 - If possible have restrictions put on the account that no wire transfers out of the account are to be permitted. This is an additional safety step as you will have to provide this account number to the sending party. If they are crooks, this will keep them from doing a reverse transfer.

3 - As soon as the money is received, remove it from the account and put in your normal bank account. Leave only the minimum deposit in the wire mail account

[Patt Legg]

Richard and Heidi,

I appreciate all that you have said. Richard, I had already checked with my bank and they gave me the same advice that you gave here. Very good idea.

Heidi, everything you said rang a bell with me. That, I suppose, was the basic reason that I wrote here on the Forum. I felt Red flags up immediately but then I was told that I was too timid and skeptical old sad thing of "maybe they are right, maybe it IS ok?"

Well, my gut told me it was not right. I have written one last email telling them that they should wire me and for them to let me know and I will give information. Thus far-------I have heard nothing. Just as I had thought.

Thanks to you all for all of the support and ideas. I really did know not to jump in with both feet and throw "common sense" away but that old " I wish it was so" had definitely crept in.