So, in addition to my real life, I have a little online shop where I sell my supposed art. People buy stuff and that’s cool, but it’s not nearly enough to eat. Really I have the site up more for my own vanity and as a place to point curious friends to.
So, I was surprised when I got an email the other day where someone wanted to buy several thousand dollars worth of my art.
I was even more surprised, when they didn’t specify the exact pieces that they liked, rather that they had an upcoming exhibition and they liked my work in general. (In a later email, they did pick some pieces)
I was even more surprised when they they said they want the art sent to Nairobi. And they have a yahoo.com email account.
Also, their grammar and spelling is very poor, but I suppose english could be a second language if this thing is real.
They want to pay in advance by credit card, and I’ll check the card thoroughly before doing anything, but this whole thing is a little fishy.
I know of at least 3 people who have been victims of a similar scheme. It works like this:
They advertise something expensive for sale. (A matched pair of driving horses, a valuable antique motorcycle, a restored classic car, in the cases I know of).
Someone (usually from somewhere in Africa) contacts them, and wants to purchase it immediately. (Usually, they seem to know very little about the field, and don’t even bother to ask the basic questions. Like on the horses, didn’t ask about blood lines, show records, training, etc.) Similarily from your example: “they didn’t specify the exact pieces they liked…”
They are in a great rush, and need to complete the transaction as soon as possible. (Despite the fact that it will take weeks to transport a pair of horses to Africa, and there is a quarantine period upon arrival there, etc.) Note from your example: “for an upcoming exhibition”.
Because of the (unexplained) need for haste, they want to over-pay you, and have you send the thousands of dollars of ‘change’ to them. The sale is only $12,000, but they just happen to have a $19,000 cashiers check on hand, so they want to pay you with that, and have you electronically transfer the $7,000 change to their account.
You deposit their cashiers check, wait the standard 10 days or whatever your bank says it takes for that to clear, then transfer the ‘change’ to their account. A week or two later, your bank is notified that the cashiers check was a forgery. You are out the money you transferred to their account (which has been emptied & closed in the meantime), plus any money you have spent on preparing to ship the items to them. And if you’ve actually shipped them, you probably will have a hard time getting them back.
What you are describing sounds quite similar to this scam. The ones I’ve known of involved forged cashiers checks, while yours mentions a credit card. But I’m sure there are ways to forge credit cards, too. And in some of these cases, credit cards were mentioned initially, but then at the end they switched to paying with cashiers checks. Also, in at least one case, the US bank indicated that there was some suspicion that there was an insider at the Nairobi bank who had delayed the forged check notices for longer than the normal check-clearing time period. I suspect that an insider at the bank there could play some games with credit card verifications, too.
I’d really, really hesitate before proceeding with this.