How to Scam an artist... and fail at it.
On February 9, 2015,
I received an email from Nathan Ebaugh, Finnish retail businessman
dealing with Art.
The whole thing was
a scam...
Nathan had visited my Pinterest Board “Art Direct from Artists”. He wanted to purchase some of my mosaics and some masks from Brazilian
artist Andy Ferrari. I put him in touch with Andy so he could
directly deal with her.
After we agreed on
prices, Nathan asked me to have my mosaics shipped to
Helsinki, Finland through his US shipping agent Richard Kirk from
Wichita Falls Texas. He would pay for the art and shipment with
his credit card. I would just need to pay the shipment.
What would really
happen was that he would pay me with a stolen credit card. I would
wire money to the Shipping Agent (They do not take credit cards) to
have them come pick up the Art pieces. And I would not hear anything
from anybody any more.
Of course the credit
card being stolen, I would get no money, the credit card payment would not be valid, but I would know about it too late. And I would have lost the
money I had wired to the (Fake) Shipping Agent.
There were several
red flags in this story :
- No Websites
either for the Client or the Shipping Agent.
- Email addresses
on gmail and outlook. Generally, established businesses have
dedicated websites and email addresses.
- The fact that
the Shipping Agent only took wire transfers
- The fact that
Nat did not have a Paypal account (You do not need an account to make
a payment through Paypal), and that he told me Paypal did not work
with his credit card.
- Specially the
fact that he was asking me to find someone else who could use a
credit card terminal to receive his payment.
- Finally, I never
found any Shipping Agent of this name in Wichita Falls...
I suppose the same
person was handling the 2 email addresses. While this was going on,
he was trying the same scam with Andy, who did not fall for it
either. However, this kind of scam probably goes on. Beware !
Never send any money
for shipment of your goods, unless you are protected. Once you wire
money, there is nothing you can do...
Here are some of the
details of the whole tentative scam :
This is the first email I received :
Name: Nathan Ebaugh
Email:
natebllc@gmail.com
Phone: 9027819872
Comments: Hello
Sales, Am a Retail Business man i will like to order for some of your
goods to my store in Finland,let me know if you can ship to my store
in Finland and also accept credit card? Regards. Nat
We exchanged more
emails and I understood he had seen one of my Pinterest Boards “Art
direct from Artists” and was interested in purchasing Mosaics and
Masks displayed on it.
The masks were
creation of Andy Ferrari, so I got him in contact with her.
When I googled Nathan I could not find him. I asked him details about his activities and told
him I would accept credit card payments through Paypal.
Hello Nat
Thank you for your
inquiry.
I ship mosaics
worldwide, I have pieces in France, Australia and Dubai, I can ship
air or sea. I make a strong wooden crate for the mosaics and they
travel very safely.
I cannot directly
take credit card but you can use your credit card to pay through
Paypal.
Could you please
tell me a little more about your business ? Do you have a web site ?
I am looking forward
to hearing from you.
Sincerely
Frederic Lecut.
I was a little
surprised he had no website address, but after all, people have been
doing business without website for centuries... His English was not
exactly proper, but I thought that was normal for a Finnish guy.
(After all my English is not perfect either...) As we agreed of the
sale of 4 pieces, Nathan asked me to contact his shipping agent
Castle Shipping Ltd in Wichita Falls, Texas, to ship gods to his
address in Finland. I contacted the
shipping agent and here is the answer I received :
Dear Client,
My name is Richard
Kirk ,under the umbrella of CASTLE SHIPPING LIMITED.I am the pickup
agent in charge of your customer's order, We can see in our data base
that the customer with the ID # LK8230CL8 is from Finland and i can
see that we have shipped to them before. Below are what we will need
to quote you:
The pick-up
address:(Where goods will be pick up) Dimensions: Weight: All you need to do
is to pack the order down and we shall come over and have it repack
for pick up.
Richard Kirk - Castle Shipping
Limited, 474 7th Street, Wichita Falls, Texas 76301
Everything seemed
legit and professional...
I submitted Weight
and Dimensions to the Shipping agent and received a professional
email with a quote :
Dear Client,
We would be glad to
provide you with cost for shipment from the pick up location 610
Mitchell St, Headland, AL 36345 USA.Due to recent new custom
regulator on some goods in Finland, the freight charges has increase
which we believe Mr Nathan should be aware of. For a shipment
moving from 610 Mitchell St, Headland, AL 36345 USA to Vesakkotic
6719 FI-00630 HELSINKI FINLAND , with the total weight and dimension
you provide, below is the quote as requested.
Customer ID#
LK8230CL8
Your quote request #
is 003649842.
Shipping fee:
$1420.00
PICK-UP ADDRESS: 610 Mitchell St, Headland, AL 36345, USA
Delivery Address: Vesakkotic 6719, FI-00630 HELSINKI, FINLAND
The freight costs
includes: Collection from your
Yard - Customs clearance - Transfer fee - Air Freight - Duties - Inland transit to
Finland - Insurance - Import Permit - Door To Door
Delivery in Finland - ETC
We have greatly
reduce the price of your customer shipment. We accept Wire transfer
as a means of payment, you have to let us know when the goods will be
ready for pick up in other to schedule a pick up for the shipment as
we normally have a lot of shipment request.We can ship to any where
in the world and we will be grateful to be at your service.Thank You
and we hope to serve you.
We make it a simple
task, Whatever the journey, Wherever in the world.
Thank you
Richard Kirk
Castle Shipping
Limited - 474 7th Street, Wichita Falls, Texas 76301
As I thought the
quote was little high, I contacted my Shipping agent who quoted me
$860. I contacted Nathan about that, but he told me he was used to
dealing with Castle Shipping and would rather pay full price for
their great service... After all, it was his money !
Hello Frederic,
Thanks so much for
getting back to me with the cost of my order and shipping cost from
Castle Shipping, am quite please with the cost of order and shipping
cost from Castle Shipping,with Castle Shipping fee i wont be paying
for any more tariff,tax or charges,also i sincerely appreciate you
getting another shipping quote for me through DHL,there are some
charges they don't pay for which i will have to pay when the goods
get to Finland that why i want you to make use of Castle Shipping for
the shipment,more over the shipping address is difficult to locate in
Finland which has cost me lost of goods and goods been return so
please feel free to make use of Castle Shipping.
I will like to
proceed with the order by sending you my valid US issued credit card
details to charge for the order and shipping,please let me know the
details you will need to process my credit card.
Thanks
Nat
I replied this was
no problem but that I could not proceed his credit card directly and
that he could pay me with his credit card through Paypal
Hello Nathan
Like I told you from
the beginning, I cannot process your credit card myself, however, you
can use that credit card to pay me through Paypal. You just go to their
site and enter my email address. I would rather you
pay directly the shipping company, but I can do this for you if you
would like to.
Paypal is charging a
3.9 % fee to process the international transfer....
I finally received
this answer :
Frederic,
Thanks so much for
getting back to me with the final cost of my order, am quite please
with the total cost, i will be please if you can get a close source
of yours who has a credit card terminal machine to charge my credit
card, i will be paying for the sub-charge fee for the charges,please
bear with me on this i don't have an account with Pay Pal and it
doesn't work on my credit card.
Thanks
Nat
Now this was a
little strange. I was not going to go ask someone I knew to use their
credit card terminal, so this was my answer to Nat :
Dear Nat
I should be able to
use your credit card through Paypal myself. If you provide me with
all details of your credit card, I can do this for you. I will need
credit card number, name on card, billing address, expiration...
Since then, I have
not heard from the little Weasel...
I am a modern mosaic artist with a
studio in Headland, Alabama, USA and Saint Valery / Somme in Northern
France. Although my work is mostly inspired by the Arts of Classical
Rome and Greece I am also highly interested in modern artists working
with unconventional materials. I enjoy sharing the latest news about
them in this blog.
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