An Anatomy of an Art Scam
Artists Beware!
It feels like—in a year full of financial and emotional vulnerability—there’s been more scams than usual. Not a day that goes by that I don’t receive a robocall claiming I’m late on CRA payments, friends have sent money thinking they were paying shipping charges, and email accounts have been hacked. There’s no accounting for the uptick in potential scams—are scammers preying on the uncertainty people are facing? Or are they facing desperation themselves?
One particularly insidious scam targets artists—and it can be hard to catch right away. The barebones of the scam are: someone reaches out over email expressing interest in a piece, information is exchanged (price, shipping details, address), they send a cheque for more than the agreed-upon amount, they ask for the artist to cash the cheque and transfer the difference. After the money is transferred, the cheque bounces and the artist is out of their own money.
The nature of this scam is that each step is believable. More people than ever are buying art online, in fact, it’s been encouraged to reach out to emerging artists and buy directly from them. The delight at making a sale, along with the scammers’ basic knowledge of art world transactions, means that the scam is often not caught until late in the process. Scams tend to target people’s emotional responses—fear, loyalty, pride, happiness. As these emotions flood in, response time quickens, skepticism lowers, and judgment is momentarily impaired. In this case, the thrill of making an art sale coupled with the financial vulnerability artists face makes this scam even more devastating.
I’ve reviewed multiple art-scam emails and was struck by the seemingly innocuous details that repeat. The main similarity is that the person often mentions a wife and anniversary surprise, along with a budget. I’m going to try and break down a few of the tropes (copied from various scam emails), and expand on why I think they use them:
I would really love to purchase some of your works for my wife as a surprise present regarding our forthcoming 20th anniversary.
I actually observed my wife has been viewing your website on my laptop and I guess she likes your piece of work.
I have been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my wife's anniversary which is just around the corner.
There’s often mention of a spouse and an anniversary—a subtle way to increase trust. There’s something charming about a husband buying a surprise gift for their wife. The fact they’ve been together for so long works to indicate they’re stable, reliable, and trustworthy. Imagine if the email was from a 21-year-old single man starting out their collection—it automatically becomes more suspicious based on age and marital status.
My budget for this is within the price range of $1500 to $7000.
Also, kindly email me back with some images and price-list of your artworks that is ready for immediate sales within my price range ($1,000- $15,000).
The red flag here is that their budget is such a large range—indicating they have no clue how much the artist they’re reaching out to sells their work for. It doesn’t matter to them how much the work is, because they’ll be paying with a fake cheque anyway. In my experience, collectors’ are more likely to ask for a PDF with prices versus giving a budget.
I stormed on some of your works which I found quite impressive and intriguing. I must admit your doing quite an impressive job. You are undoubtedly good at what you do.
You are doing a great job.
There’s something to be said for old-fashion compliments to warm someone up!
Alarm bells should be ringing if the person never answers your questions (such as: how did you hear about my work? or what interests you in this piece?) or won’t agree to another form of payment. If something in your gut tells you something is off, check-in with another person to see what they think (that person can be me if you want a second opinion!). Most importantly, never wire someone money after cashing a cheque, no matter how convincing they are.
I think most people want to see the best in others, that we’re inherently trusting. When that trust is broken, and money or financial data is stolen, the sting is two-fold: the loss of money and a loss of trust in others. People cite feeling shame after being scammed—but why feel shame for a desire to connect with others? For being flooded with empathy or the desire to help? Or happiness that you’re being recognized for your work? It’s the person scamming who lacks the interpersonal skills that make life meaningful.
Feel free to share this post with any artists in your life who may benefit from knowing about this prevalent art scam.
I was honoured to be invited on the Word Weaver podcast, chatting with host Louise Claire Johnson about my writing process, Canadian Art Forecast, and the media landscape. Listen anywhere podcasts are found (try searching “Tatum Dooley”).
Very informative. I wasn’t ware of art scams but it all makes sense. It feels like we need to be extremely vigilant with everything in today’s society.
These scams seem to become more common every year - I have caught 3 of these so far in my career. The most recent one was this January and it was a bit different. They asked me to speak at a corporate conference about my art, give a presentation on the work of my choosing - same pattern of validation and promise of $$s and then the follow up where they asked for my contact and mailing address. The email was from an email that was similar to a real business which gave it credibility, but the .com lead nowhere. When I asked for a call to discuss they claimed they were too busy.. And when I called them out they never responded again. Moral of the story is if it sounds too good to be true, it often is..