New scam or legit e-mail request?

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Natalya Murphy

Natalya Murphy

CGF II, Certified Grumble Framer Level 2
Joined
Nov 4, 2006
Posts
478
Loc
Nebraska
If this is another scam, then it's got a new twist. No large-quantity order this time. Did any other Grumblers in the Omaha area get this e-mail? It just hit our inbox today. No corrections have been made for grammar or spelling.

#### BEGIN E-MAIL #####
I am an Expat working in Bangkok Thailand on special assignement. My best friend lives in Omaha with her family and I recently bought for them two "sewn paintings" from Vietnam which I need to get framed.

If I mail you the "sewn paintings" can you produce the frames and mattings so I can pick them up in person when I come to Omaha April 16? I can prepay by either credit card or wire transfer if you wish. While it is cheap to get things framed in Asia, the weight and size is the problem, which is why I need your help.

Please let me know if this works for you and whom I should send the paintings to? If you are unable to frame, then I will just pick them up when I arrive.
####### END E-MAIL####

Reasons it might be a scam:
- offer to pay by wire transfer or credit card
- ordering from another country
- gmail.com return e-mail

Reasons it could be legit:
- He's supposedly willing to provide contact information for his friend in Omaha, and a local number where he can be reached
- He's willing to pay through PayPal (I've got an inquiry in to PayPal to see if this transaction would be covered under their Seller Protection program)

I'm also keeping in mind the suggestion folks have made to check with the issuing bank to make sure the credit card information all syncs up with the owner information.
 
Looks legit to me, Natalya. Spelling and grammar are nearly correct. You do nothing until you receive the artwork. He's willing to pre-pay and will pick-up in person. Like you said he has a local contact and he's given you a valid reason to conduct the business in this way.



I wouldn't hesitate to take this one.
 
I'd say it looks legit. A couple things to note:

-Why does he call himself an Expat? I think you would use that term with the nationals in the country of which you are an expatriot more than you would describe yourself that way to your own countrymen.

-I would only use the credit card for a very small deposit, or to get an approved amount without actually processing the sale (I forget what that's called). I could see the possibility of prepayment by credit card over the phone, customer arrives and picks up order, then after the merchandise is gone (naturally) you could find out the card was bad. Better to take most, or all of the payment by swiping the card when he arrives in person.
 
Richard Darling said:
Natalya, does the customer include his name in the email? You might google the name to see if anything funny pops up.
Click to expand...

Even google the gmail address. When we were looking for a car and saw what we thought might be a scam, I googled the email only to find that the user had pages and pages of flagged craigslist listings all over the country. You never know if someone else has been through that and posted the email and address online as a warning.
 
2400 said:
might not be a money scam, but stolen artifacts. If you have doubts, DON'T DO IT!
Click to expand...

Sewn paintings as he describes them are very common in Vietnam. The are actually embroideries, and a really good 16 x 20 ins can easily cost USD 400. They take months to complete and are often made by the "hill tribes" women. They have been making them for 700years.
This guy sounds legit.
Why not let him send you the item, frame it, charge his card before arrives and the money is in your bank before he shows up.
It will be interesting to see how this story ends!
 
Last edited:
Hi all -

He e-mailed me pictures of the sewn paintings today with information on how they had been framed originally and some suggestions for the framing design. I googled his name and e-mail as folks suggested, and nothing suspicious comes up so far. Still waiting to hear back from PayPal to see if there's any fraud protection if I have him pay through them instead of taking his card information over the phone.

I'll keep y'all posted one way or another.
 
Richard Darling said:
-Why does he call himself an Expat? I think you would use that term with the nationals in the country of which you are an expatriot more than you would describe yourself that way to your own countrymen.
Click to expand...

This is pretty common for gov'ies to say referring to the fact that they remained in a country where they worked for the US Govt.

dave.
 
Go for it, make darn sure you have a clear understanding that he must accept whatever you select for his artwork. Tell him that not accepting those conditions is the deal breaker for you.

If he comes in to pick them up and says he does not like them, wacha going to do? Your going to end up taking the pictures out and giving him a charge card refund. He could possibly insist on a cash refund because he forgot his card, not knowing you will have a record of his charge card number.

Didn't they pass a law recently where business's are not allowed to retain the clients charge card info? That could be the scam, if there is one. If it were me, I would go for it.

John
 
Just got one...hmmm

How do we feel about this one?

Hi there,

I found your website from the internet. My good friends are moving into a new apartment in Philadelphia soon next month and I am thinking of giving them a framed scenary picture of mine from New Zealand as a gift.

Would that be possible, if I email you the picture to print in good quality (probably around A4 size picture), then you choose the frame and cardboard background for me? Just something plain and classy would be great.

When it's ready, I will ask them to come in the gallery to pick it up.

Please let me know if you can help and a rough guesstimate on cost will be appreciated. I will pay via credit card.

Many thanks in advance.

Kent
From Auckland, New Zealand.
Click to expand...
 
Hello Artistic Framer,
Sounds legit to me. Be grateful...thanks to the internet you have got a new customer in New Zealand who wants to give you money.
But if you are still feeling unsure, then send him here...

http://www.yourframer.com/#

"Your Framer" will I know take his money and deliver to the USA address.
 
Last edited:
Natalya,
Did you ever get an answer from Paypal regarding your protection for the charges?

I just got a similar email from a customer in Germany today. The difference is they are not coming to the US. But the email was very personal and didn't have many of the telltale fraud signs.

Just curious what Paypal ever said.
 
Sounds suspicious to me.
Is business slow, do you need the job?
If not, why take the possibility of getting scamed?
Why can't he roll them, put them in a tube and mail them to his friend in Omaha?
He can then bring them to you for framing, pay for them and his friend can pick them up.
That way he picks out something he's actually seeing instead of taking the chance he won't like the framing. And then there's the "time" you have already put into it "investigating" the payment, E-mails, price, etc.
Why does he have to pick them up already framed?
I did a job for a guy who traveled from Canada to CA for his friends wedding. He brought me the pics the day before the wedding and his friend picked them up when they were done a week later.
 
All seems legit

Thanks to Keith for the gentle reminder to post the outcome of this story. The short version: it was all legit. Read on if you want all the details.

The guy mailed the items to me a couple of weeks ago. The package had a return address from a company in Bangkok on it so I did some internet investigation. I googled the company name and the customer's name, and it it turned out he was a facility manager for one of the company's buildings in Bangkok. The website also listed a company e-mail for the guy, so I sent a message to that e-mail to let him know the paintings had arrived. I figured if it wasn't really him, I'd get either no response or get an e-mail back telling me I'd gotten the wrong person. He replied back and he was the correct person.

I e-mailed him some Integrated Framer mockups and price estimates for the two paintings. He replied back saying he would frame the one and just pick up the other unframed when he got into town. In the meantime, he was going through the process of getting set up and verified in PayPal. I sent him an invoice for the deposit and he tried to pay it through PayPal, but it wouldn't let him do it because it detected that he was connecting from Bangkok. He e-mailed me with this information shortly before starting his westward travels. I e-mailed him back and told him he could just pay when he got into town. A day later his friend who lives here in town called and offered to give me his credit card information. He had called her and asked her to call me to give it to me since the PayPal transaction didn't work. I told her I would just take his credit card payment when he came in to pick up the framing. She assured me that he'd be good for the money, he's a really nice guy, etc. etc.

He came in last week with his friend to pick up the framed piece and the unframed one. It turns out his friend lives right here in town and goes to my church -- small world.

So, from everything I can tell, this was a legitimate transaction. I'll be monitoring my AmEx statements to make sure there isn't a chargeback from his credit card, but at this point I'm pretty confident that all is well.

Here's a picture of the finished product. Note: The horizontal line you see running across the picture is a reflection of a black lighting rail mounted above our design counter, and not a wrinkle in the fabric.

frame: LJ 345084 (soho black/silver cap)
mat: Frank's Fabrics FE-2055 (cascade hunter green)
flex fillet: Frank's Fabrics FE-FL2052 (cascade grass)
 

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I would say that there is actually some legit overseas buying going on. I am buying a print on canvas from a fellow grumbler overseas, and in my email I told him that wire transfer is 45.00 from my bank and preferred to use my credit card. Now I am afraid if he reads these threads I will never get my print:(


Please Please Fellow Grumbler.... this is not a scam, I really do want that print that I have only been able to find over yonder!
 
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