The Rat Gave Up

It had been nearly two days since I had received an e-mail from Stan, so I figured I should send him a "fish-or-cut-bait" e-mail:
Stan, I thought you wanted that drawing for your new apartment and that you were in a hurry to get it. I haven't had any response after my repeated requests that you send me the address you want it sent to (California or the UK?). I'm afraid I've had another request for the drawing and I can't hold onto it much longer. Do you want it or not? You had first request, buddy, so I'm giving you a chance if you want it, otherwise I gotta go with this other request. Jim

Now another day has passed. He had been so anxious to get the drawing and so insistent that we get on with our transaction, his silence makes it apparent that he has moved on, to spend his time conning some other artist. My most entertaining customer has dropped me! So, I decided to send him a farewell message:
Stan,
I guess you don't really want the drawing as badly as you claimed. So, how about it; let's be honest with each other, Stan. After all, we've had this trusting relationship and we're both responsible people (as you said earlier) so you can tell me the truth now. You didn't want my drawing at all, did you? You were just after the money you could get from my refund cheque which you were going to ask me to send you, because you were going to send an overpayment in a phony money order. Right? Come on, tell me the truth. I know all about the cons you guys are running. They're all over the news over here on this side of the world. And you don't live in California either, do you? You aren't getting transferred to the UK, are you? You're in Nigeria, aren't you? I saw the record of your visits to my website and I've got your IP address.

While I'm waiting for you to tell me the truth, I'll tell you the truth. You did this con so badly I had you figured out with your second e-mail. Here's some other truth: I've shared this con of yours over the internet with others. I've shared the information with lots of others; with artists and the police. I know at least one other artist who received an e-mail from you which was an exact copy of the e-mail you sent me. So give it up and get an honest job, Stan. We're wise to you and your organization and it's not going to work any more. You might think the internet is a convenient vehicle for you to use to steal easy money but it's also a convenient and effective means of communication and a way of warning others about you.

There, I've been honest. Now, tell me something truthful for a change and stop bullshitting me, Stan.
Jim

Rat Bait

Sunday came and went without another e-mail from Stan. On Monday I made that call to the RCMP then sent Stan this e-mail:

Sorry I didn't get back to you, Stan. I took the rest of the weekend away from the studio. I think I have a solution for us which might satisfy both of us. Actually two solutions.
1- You could pay me through PayPal and I will cover the cost of packing and mail from the $3430.00 US. That is simple and easy. Do you know how to use Pay Pal?
2- The other method could be for you to send me the bank cheque for $3430.00 US and I will take it to the bank. I will not send the drawing until my bank assures me that your bank cheque has cleared.
How does that sound?
Jim

Then, not many hours later (those guys in that Nigerian boiler room must never sleep) I received Stan's response:

Its okay,i will prefer the check,do consider the pieces sold and get back to me with your name and address with your phone # for me to proceed with the payment.
∂Will await your message.

No real surprise there, about Stan's choice of payment. And did you notice how he's reassuring me that he REALLY wants the drawing and he's hitting that request for my address and phone again (which I've told him before are on my website).
I thought I would push it a bit and see how much I could get away with in my response to that:

Stan,
My address and all the information you need is on my website. What I need from you before we go any further is your mailing address. I will pack the drawing in a safe tube and have it addressed and ready for when the cheque clears. I want to prevent the drawing you want from getting sold while I wait. By the way, you were mentioning that you were being transferred to the UK, so you will need me to send it there, won't you?

Stan came back with a short one:
nope my shipper will be coming to your place for the pick up

I like that "nope" touch. Sounds almost like someone else is writing this one for Stan. It sounds too, like they're getting impatient with me so I decided to remind him about the mailing. I notice Stan ignored my question about his being transferred to the UK:

I thought I made that clear, Stan. I am going to absorb the cost of the packing and mailing.

Now, I would never write to a purchaser of my work with that tone but I was trying to see how much sarcasm Stan could read into this and whether he could tell I was stringing him along. Stan didn't seem to pick up on the sarcasm, but he did finally catch the message that my address and phone number are on my website because he sent this:

can you send me your site again i want to confirm something.

I'm thinking that the "something" is my address. Strange, that he wants my drawing so bad but he can't figure out how to get back to my website. Oh, I forgot to mention that the subjects of his e-mails have been changing. The first subject was the title of the work he wanted and the next group of e-mails was titled "Interested", then the last batch have been titled "Payment/Pickup" as if they are being pulled from a file of sequential topics. I answered his request for the site this way:

You first, Stan. I mentioned earlier that I needed your address to prepare the packaging and you haven't cleared up that issue of your move to the UK. First you said you were in California then you said you were out of town and you were being transferred to the UK. This is going to necessitate a difference in the way I pack the drawing.

I've been hoping Stan sends the cheque and I can frame it and put it on my studio wall. I got an e-mail from Ron Lines with the most brilliant suggestion yet:

Why don't you tell Stan to send you the bank draft. When he does, keep it until a Nigerian "Government Official" needs your help to get money out of the country then send Stan's bank draft to them. Sweet revenge.

I figure if Stan hasn't caught on by now, he never will. My last message to Stan was sent yesterday late afternoon and there hasn't been a response to that. Maybe Stan, or his supervisor finally caught on. I may have played with the rat too long. I'll give him time for one more nibble and see what happens.

More about the rat

There have been no more e-mails from Stan the rat, but there have been some developments in the story. I decided to send Stan an e-mail today with a proposal which I suggested might be a solution to our stand-off. I suggested two solutions. One was that Stan pay me on PayPal and the other was that Stan send me a money order and when the bank lets me know that the money order has cleared, then, and only then, I would send him his drawing. I suggested that I would do the packing and mailing and would waive the charges to avoid using his own personal shipper. There has been no response from Stan.

Now, here's where it gets interesting. I was checking the statistics on my website stat counter this morning and noticed a visit to my website which occurred very close to the day and time of Stan's first e-mail. The statistics indicated that there were multiple visits to my website from this computer and that there had been a referral link to my site from a gallery in the US. The computer used to visit my site was located in Nigeria! I've seen and read news items about the many fraud schemes coming out of Nigeria. Of course there is no absolute proof that Stan is in Nigeria (he has a gmail address and claims he's in California and moving to the UK) nor that he is at the computer shown in the statistics on my website.

But wait, that's not the end of it! Over the weekend I notified Bill Starke, a sculptor friend of mine who lives in Denver, about my exchange of e-mails with my buddy, Stan. This morning I received an e-mail from Bill and he included a copy of the following e-mail he had received this morning:

Hello,

Good day to you over there, My name is Stan thomas i'm from California and i hope this message finds you well.I was going through your works and my eyes caught...., i will like to have it for my new apartment this month. please let me know if the piece is available, if yes let me have the detailed price and more information about it. i will be waiting to read from you asap.

Stan.

The exact same e-mail I received a couple of days ago. Word-for-word, letter-for-letter, including the string of periods after the phrase "and my eyes caught....," in which, if Stan had the intelligence and wasn't so lazy, should have contained the title of the work of art he was interested in.

I consulted an office of the RCMP crime prevention unit and was told that Stan's con is very common and results in the con sending a phony money order or bank draft worth more than the amount required. The victim of the con is then asked to deposit the money anyway and send their own bank money order for the amount of overage. Of course in the case of Stan the art collector, the victim also loses a piece of art work. Although I doubt that will happen because Stan will probably never give an address for the art work to be shipped to.

So, all you artists out there, look for an e-mail from Stan and it's seller-beware! And Stan, if you're reading this, you gotta do better than that, man. You're so bloody transparent a child would know you were about to steal his candy. I hope nobody takes your phony bait!

I smell a rat

I received an e-mail yesterday from a person named Stan, who had a gmail.com address. Stan had apparently been on my website and had seen a drawing of mine that he said he wanted to buy right away for the wall of his new apartment. Stan had also visited the page on my website which gave purchasing instructions because he followed my suggestion to copy and paste the title of the work in the subject of his e-mail. Since Stan mentioned that he was in California I looked up the current exchange rate between the US and Canadian dollars and I replied to Stan with the price of the drawing in US dollars and I requested that Stan give me his address so I could calculate the cost of shipping, to add that cost to the drawing.

Here is Stan's reply:

Thanks for the message, I am very happy to know that the Pieces is still available for sale. i must tell you i am very much interested in the immediate purchase.I will like to let you know that your payment will be in form of a Certified Check.You dont have to worry about packing, insurance and tax because my shipper will be in the best position to do that as soon as you get the payment.This is because i will be traveling out of the country any moment from now for a business proposal.So get back to me with the information needed to send you the payment I:E :
Full Name
Standard Address
Phone number
Asking price reconfirmation

so that i can proceed in the payment arrangement, consider it sold get back to me asap with needed information.
Thanks

OK, now red flags came up and I started to smell a rat. There was something not quite right here. First of all the structure of this answer sounded more like an automated response from a business, instead of a purchaser completing a purchase. Forget, for a moment, the clumsy spelling, grammar and phrasing. The insistence that I supply my name, address and phone number seemed to add more stench to this transaction since it was obvious Stan had already visited the page of purchase instructions which contained my name, address and phone number. In each message there was this "asap" urgency as well.

I responded that I've never heard of a purchaser sending their own shipper to my studio to collect the work and said I prefer to pack and ship purchases to clients myself. I said if he was still interested in purchasing the drawing I needed his address. Stan's reply was short. He said I didn't need his address because his shipper would be coming to my "place to pick up the pieces" (remember, I'm in Canada and he says he's in California). I replied, again, that I didn't do business that way and I suggested he supply me with the name and phone of his shipper.

Here is Stan's reply:
Hello,
Thanks for the details which Ive noted down and have also forwarded it to my shipper.He's due in the US sometime next week and will definitely be getting in touch with you for the pickup.The truth is, I would have handled this much differently if i would be at home but Im a bit pressed for time myself. Im moving to the UK this month as im being transferred.As it is, I'm sending you an overdraft which will include my shippers fees as well.He has asked for an upfront before coming and since I have no access to a lot of cash, Im trying to kill two birds with a stone.So, once you've received and cashed the check, deduct your funds and PLEASE help me send the remaining funds to him(shipper).I'll forward his contact details to you once you've received the payment.Now I'm concluding you are a responsible person and I can therefore entrust you with this arrangement.Ill let you know Immediately the check is sent out to you so you should be looking out for it.

P.S:I`ll require that a reconfirmation of your address is done for me now. I await your reply.

Now there's more than the smell of a rat. I smell an outhouse in August. His shipper has been out of the US and will be returning next week. Well, Stan, I am out of the US, in case you haven't picked that up yet, so your shipper will need to turn around and get back on the plane! You betcher sweet bippy Stan is "trying to kill two birds with a stone". He's trying to get one of my drawings and giving me an "overdraft" (this is an admission that his check will bounce). I'm still trying to figure out why I should bail Stan out of his cash shortfall by paying "him(shipper)" Stan's bill.

That is where I've left it. If there's anything more from Stan I'll let you know. Stan may have concluded that I am a responsible person and that he can entrust me with this arrangement of his, but the feeling is not mutual. Folks, if it's too good to be true; chances are, it isn't. And this one has the smell of something that definitely isn't.