Every day in the news it seems that we hear news of some new scheme to defraud people. Certainly every week we get ‘phone calls at home from somebody who is pretty well certainly not who they claim to be. Generally speaking we hang up before we get to the bit when they tell you what the deal is. There is, as they say, a lot of it about.
I was surprised to receive a text yesterday from a friend and fellow artist in Bradford, anxious about a contact he had just had on the internet, from somebody in France who in interested in his pictures. Understandably he was delighted, but as he told me, he wants to see the money in the bank before he makes a move. He is right to be cautious.
Perhaps I covered this episode in the blog last year, but I was approached by somebody who expressed an interest in buying one of my pictures. When I insisted that the money had to be in the bank first he disappeared. There was a long story about him being a marine engineer who was at sea, so he couldn’t actually get to a bank. (I did explain internet banking, but to no avail.)
I am curious as to why anybody might want to defraud a relatively unknown artist out of a picture or two, although I am told that things get a bit complicated later in the routine, and it can turn into a minor money-laundering enterprise. It is interesting, I suppose. to have one’s life jazzed up a bit by some unusual episode or another, but I’m glad I didn’t fall for it. On this occasion, however, I hope that my friend is on the receiving end of a genuine enquiry about a sale.