It would seem that, by now, everyone is familiar enough with email scams that we should not be falling for them.

And one would think that the perpetrators would realize that no one is going to get sucked in anymore and give it up. But, either they are a stubborn lot or there are still enough people who have not gotten wise to them to make it worthwhile for them to continue sending them out.

We have all seen these. An email, usually in very bad English, arrives stating that the author has seen our work and wants to buy some. The various versions range from preposterous suggestions that we name our price and ship whatever we want to a more believable scenario in which we are asked to send images and prices of available work.

But, in any case, what follows rarely varies. There is always an agent of some kind to whom the pieces are to be shipped. The payment is always more than the asking price and it is explained that the extra is to cover "shipping" or something and we are asked to sent the difference to the agent. If we are gullible enough to do this, we soon discover that the check we received was bogus and that the "shipping costs" have been deducted from our own finds. If we are even more gullible and have actually shipped the work, we are SOL on that too.

I personally do not know anyone who was dumb enough to go for one of these scams but there must be some out there because the scammers keep at it and who would waste their time if they were not getting a bite now and then?

D.D.