[Woodcarver] carving email

[D WINDERS]

Good advice.
  A number of fraud schemes from Nigeria have been hitting the UK for a few years now.
  If its too good to be true, then it probably isn't.
  Cheers
  David

Ivan Whillock <carve at whillock.com> wrote:
  Gentle Subscribers :-) Please support our List with a donation: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html

    This offer may or not be real.  I'd be careful, however.
   
  Some time ago, I received an inquiry about an elephant sculpture similar to a commission I had once done, which was pictured on my website.  I never do work without a contract and a down payment so I asked the inquirer to give me his address so I could mail him a contract.  He didn't reply.  Weeks later I got another email saying that he had been ill and would like to go ahead with the commission, asking where he could send the cashier's check.  I held firm that I wouldn't proceed without a shipping address, and a signed contract.  No reply.  After another few weeks, he emailed again, that his client was in a rush for the elephant, indicating he was ready to send me a check immediately.  Since the lack of a specific address had been obvious from the beginning, the deal smelled fishy from the start, so I didn't respond to his final email.  A week later I got a cashier's check in the mail for $37,985, or some such odd figure, slightly less than the $40,000 ballpark figure I
 had given him.  It was a check from a bank in Nigeria, with no note or return address.  Shortly after that, I got another email asking if I had gotten his check.  By then it I had not doubt that the deal was a sham, so I took the check to the post office to report mail fraud, and then to the police.
   
  They told of many people getting caught in schemes of every description where they are sent a phony check and then are asked, in one scheme or another, to return part of it, which, of course, would be the victim's real money.  Then, only after the processing delays, the very real looking check turns out to be phony, too late for the victim to stop payment on the real check. 
   
  An amazing number of people are taken by these schemes, including, the post office officials told me, lawyers and others whom one would think would be most wary.
   
  Don't be baited.  Take control of the situation, set your own guidelines, get mailing and delivery addresses, insist on a signed contract.  Do business in person or by mail, rather than online, unless you have a PayPal system, etc. where you know the transaction will involve real funds, rather than a phony check.  Never accept an "over-payment" that puts you into returning good money for bad.
   
   
  Ivan Whillock Studio
122 NE 1st Avenue
Faribault, MN  55021
Visit my website at
http://www.whillock.com
Visit my Picture Trail album at
http://www.picturetrail.com/gallery/view?username=ivancarve
      From: Linehan718 at aol.com 
  Sent: Sunday, March 09, 2008 2:50 AM
  To: woodcarver at six.pairlist.net 
  Subject: [Woodcarver] carving email

  

Gentle Subscribers :-) Please support our List with a donation: http://wwwoodcarver.com/WWWList/WWWList.html

    
---------------------------------
    
      Just out of curiosity, I'm wondering if anyone else has rec'd this email.  I have rec'd 2 of them coming from 2 different email adds.  Pretty sure its spam.   Even if it weren't, the project is too big for me to handle but in my mind, I'm fantasizing about it.  Imagine carving that big of a sculpture, it would be cool!!!
   
   
   
   
  Hello,
I will like to know if you sell carvings. Whats the unit price incluing tax. I want a wooden carving with the following information.
 
Animal: Elephant
Type of wood: basswood
Finish: coated with enamel
Dimension: 8 feet 3 inches tall and 12 feet long.
Type of elephant: African
1)It should be realistic
2)outdoor setting

Thank you 
John williams


   
    Maura Carving in NYC
www.carvinginnyc.com







    
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