Saturday, August 18, 2012

Etsy Art Scams

Etsy art scams are viral. This is my story.

I just recently uploaded some paintings on to Etsy and within a few days I received an inquiry for one of them
If you can notice, the account of Winter Olympics is no longer on etsy. This should have set off alarm bells but I was thinking that maybe he/she wants to avoid additional Etsy charges that is why he/she asked me to contact him/her via his/her email add. 






I'm bluffing here because my paypal account is unverified and I can only process the verification on Wednesday next week.

This scammer even researched Western Union schedules in our area! Very persistent!


This is just a part of the very long list of Western Union branches located in Tacloban City and Palo Leyte.

I'm tired of editing print screens of my email so I'll just copy paste the rest of the conversation here.

Shakirat Hassan: 
Hello, 
     Alright, am at work right now, i will leave office in the next 10minutes to go and complete the money into your paypal account. Okay, 
So you can go ahead and complete the money to the agent information as soon as you have got the confirmation from the paypal.
   
Here is the shipping company information: 
First Name :Debbie
Last Name: Beckmann
Address: 7000 N.Main St.lot 50
City : Jacksonville
State : Florida
Zipcode : 32208
Country :United States

Get back to me with these following details:
SENDER'S FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
STATE:
CITY;
ZIPCODE:
COUNTRY:
MTCN#
TOTAL AMOUNT SENT AFTER WESTERN UNION CHARGES;360USD

the shipping company will contact you to book a pick up date and time that will be convenient for you after they have received payment.

The agent is a Debbie Beckmann in the US. Does this person even exist?

I then waited for his/her Paypal payment for nearly an hour. During my wait, I received another message in Etsy of a buyer interested in another painting. The account user was already non-existent in Etsy and wanted to talk to me via e-mail. I dropped her a message.

When I checked my email this morning I received a reply from both Shakirat Hassan and Sherrie Vega, the new buyer.

Shakirat Hassan:
Hello
Pay Pal emailed me with the confirmation mail,funds have left my PayPal account too.Check your PayPal email address for the PayPal confirmation email,Pay Pal said that they would be holding the money i sent because of the excess payments that i made which was the money for pick up, i will need you to proceed and Wire the excess which is $360:00USD to my pick up agent to enable them make a booking for the picked up of the item.Remember that you will wire the agent fee to them via Western Union Money Transfer ,So  please do send the $360:00USD via Western Union Money Transfer,i include$30:00USD as the Western Union Money Transfer charges.You can easily Walk into a local post office or any Western Union Money Transfer outlet around you to send the money.After you have sent the money please get back to me as soon as possible with the Western Union Money Transfer details,the MTCN number which you will be given by Western Union Money Transfer after you have sent the money as well as the sender's name and address so i can
forward it back to PayPal for your money to be put through or you can email it to PayPal directly,that is alright as well.Here is my pick up agent's info that you will need to send the money to through Western Union Money Transfer:


First Name :Debbie
Last Name: Beckmann
Address: 7000 N.Main St.lot 50
City : Jacksonville
State : Florida
Zipcode : 32208
Country :United States
Get back to me with these following details:
SENDER'S FULL NAME:
ADDRESS:
STATE:
CITY;
ZIPCODE:
COUNTRY:
MTCN#
TOTAL AMOUNT SENT AFTER WESTERN UNION CHARGES;360USD

my agent will contact you to book a pick up date and time that will be convenient for you after they have received payment.

Regards.
.
Sherrie Vega:

I know that Paypal sends an email confirmation if money has been sent to your account, but this time around I didn't receive any notifications. I logged in to my Paypal account and I still have my previous credit. 

I started searching online for Etsy art scams and Etsy painting scams. There are a lot of stories out there and I'm flabbergasted!

When I checked my spam (now I'm hungry) I found a fake Paypal notification.
And I received 4 more versions of this email in my spam box.
Something should be done to get rid of these Etsy art scams!
How about you? Do you have a similar experience?

Vamoose!
Ma.Diwata





2 comments:

  1. I got this, too!! I wrote to this shakirat and when I did received their reply about "you don't have to worry about any shipment," my radar just went off really loudly inside my head. Fortunately I didn't get to exhange too many emails with them. A buyer promptly paid for my item and I wrote to the scammer telling them my item is sold. Did you lose any money?

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