Mr. Keep your nose clean by T.C.
For those of us with Esty Seller accounts the thing that is second only to getting an Etsy Transactions email is an Etsy Conversation email, because this usually means that someone in the Etsy community is asking us a question about our shop items, is praising our work or maybe is notifying us they have put one of our items in their Treasury. These are, usually, all very positive and personal messages. They are a joy to receive and they usually make you feel good about what you are doing. I guess for me, these are like getting little hand written notes from Friends in snail mail :)
So, as I was scrolling thru my emails the other day, I saw a few "Convos" and was rather excited. A couple were from Buddies in the Etsy community and one was from a name unfamiliar to me. On opening this is what I read;
by lalala333
Dear Seller, I am interested in the immediate purchase of your item and will be make payment via cashier check/money order, my private shipping company will handle the shipping, but before payment will be made i need to be sure of who i am dealing with if you are going to be honest and sincere throughout the transaction. A certified cashiers check is cash-able the same day,there is going to be an excess fund on the check ,the excess fund is meant for the private shipping company who will come to your place for pick up of the item, so shipping is not a problem,will you be able to transfer the excess fund to the shipping company the same day you receive the check?. check would be sent to you so when you get payment you can easily cash it at any cashing point near you or deposit in your bank. You'll be sending excess fund to my shipper , which would be meant for shipping arrangement.if you agree, signify your interest by forwarding to me your Final Asking Price, Full Name & Contact Address and Tel #. I await your response soonest.Best and kind regards,email me to.........white.carl33 [!at] rocketmail.com
Wouldn't you know the item they were interesting in "Purchasing" was one of my higher end art pieces.
Of course, I didn't even consider responding, I immediately forwarded this to Abuse@Etsy.com and thankfully they took swift action in shutting down this outfit. They also forwarded a link to a recent Storque article about scammers, which I thought was rather interesting and especially the comments that followed.
So, I just wanted to share this with everyone, these people are out there. I have received many of these over the years thru my email accounts and usually ignore them, it doesn't bother me, it is just an irritant but this just seemed a little more personal because it was thru Etsy and I think they are getting more devious. I know they are everywhere and so I am trying not to be paranoid about this (Taking a Deep Breathe, realign my balance, no more swear words, calm, peaceful, positive thoughts)
And now I am off to read my emails :)
Happy Painting/Creating! :) T.
