Below you'll find links to advice and information about
how to spot a scam, fake art and/or fraudulent activity related to art and artists and art.
​
Below you will find summaries and links to relevant information relating to:
  • What are art scams and frauds
  • Websites which "out" scams and frauds
  • How to spot a fake website - which has implications for the content of an artist's website
  • How to spot fake goods or services
  • How to spot - and avoid - an email scam
  • How to avoid being the victim of an art print scam
  • ​How to be safe when paying for goods or services online​
  • ​Art Fakes, Frauds and Forgeries - general wrap up about legal action and arrests

COMING SOON
  • More about Art Forgery and How to spot fake art
  • What to do about a gallery which goes "rogue"
  • ​Beware of money laundering
See also the section on COPYRIGHT and the pages about

What are Art Scams, Frauds and Cyber Crimes?
​

Fraud is when trickery is used to gain a dishonest advantage, which is often financial, over another person. Cyber crime is any criminal act dealing with computers and networks.
What is fraud and cyber crime | Action Fraud
The ways and means of scamming artists and art collectors are numerous and multiplying. This page will attempt to highlight some of the more obvious scams, fraudulent activities and cyber crimes which happen in the art world.

Very few textbooks about the art business consider the different types of fraudulent activity which artists - or art collectors - may encounter.
Common Art Scams include
  • attempt to buy your art via email approaches (see below)
  • vanity galleries (see The Vanity Gallery) - where you pay them to exhibit your art
  • vanity book / directory publishers - who want to publish your art often for an excessive fee
  • invited to enter a 'vanity' art competition for a fee (note real art competition also have fees - it does not make them a fraud!)
  • invited to exhibit at an art event - but location / marketing suggests your art is "decoration"
  • invited to send artwork for an exhibition - which disappears
  • incompetent organisers of art fairs 
  • inexperienced people who sell services (e.g. tuition) to aspiring artists
Common Art Frauds involves:
  • creation of fake art - by individual artists
  • large scale manufacture of fake art - on an industrial scale
  • creation of fake art materials
  • art galleries / fairs trading while insolvent
  • money laundering when purchasing art
  • money laundering via art market sales and auctions​
  • selling shares in art to investors for more than the art is worth
  • misrepresentation by those purporting to sell art
Common Art Cyber Crimes involve:
  • the use of the internet, online websites and/or ecommerce for pursuit of any of the identified scams and frauds.
  • overpayment by the scammer involving a shipping company - this is the MOST COMMON ART SCAM USING EMAIL of all
Sadly the combination of inexperience in business (lots of us are just starting out), susceptibility to flattery (because we make our own products) and working alone (no one to offer a double check) means that we will continue to be seen as a soft target for those who make their living by deception.
I am [name}, an artist from [name} and I have recently faced a fraud by an [individual] that claimed to have a gallery and make exhibitions and publish an art catalogue. I gave him money for the art catalogue, under a lot of pressure by his side, and then he disappeared. I made a small research and found out more artists over the world that had the same problem with the same person. Is there anything we can do in order to stop him from taking artists money and disappear? Is there anything that you would recommend?
an international artist who wrote to me
REFERENCE:​
AND
  • How's My Dealing - Worldwide Reviews by Artists for Artists of Galleries, Art Fairs, Mail Scams and more.
    • You can insert the name of the gallery / event / company you want to find out about
    • Check to see if the organisation or individual you are concerned about is listed.

Websites which "out" scams
​

There are three sorts of websites. These are websites which are:
  1. generic and report all different sorts of frauds, scams and cyber crimes
  2. dedicated to very typical art scams
  3. related to those who infringe copyright or otherwise abuse artists' intellectual property

Please Contact Me with any recommendations about websites you have found useful for checking out scams and fraud.
REFERENCE

How to spot an Art Scam
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How to spot a fake, fraudulent or scam website
​

Those who attempt to market and sell fake goods or services very often also have a fake website.
  • These have a number of characteristics - see the RED FLAGS below
  • Only the very sophisticated fraudsters go to the trouble of producing a convincing website which passes all RED FLAG checks.

Artists selling art from their own websites or the websites of third parties need to be careful they are not displaying any of the RED FLAGS for a fraudulent website
RED FLAGS include:
  • price seems too good to be true - it probably is
  • no 'contact us' page
  • only a contact form (although these are also used by single females not wanting to advertise where they live)
  • lack of full and proper contact details: e.g.
    • name of the trading company,
    • postal address,
    • phone number or
    • an official email address.
  • poor grammar and spelling mistakes or phrases which just don't ound right
  • domain name registered in a different country
  • domain name is misleading or unprofessional 
  • domain name has not been around for very long
  • poor / small / bad quality photos - or use of stock photos
  • no terms and conditions page re services provided 
  • no shipping or returns policy for a company providing goods
  • no slavery policy (now a legal requirement in many countries)
How to avoid a fake website
  • CHECK the website for any of the red flags.
  • CHECK for reviews of the website and/or company and/or individuals
  • CHECK names of key individuals you are doing business with (look out for notices of bankruptcy; reports of fraudulent activity etc)​​
  • CHECK the company records (UK: check Companies House - and check the latest accounts and the background of individuals involved)
REFERENCE

How to spot a Vanity Gallery
​

CHECK OUT:

How to spot Fake Fairs and Art Fair Scams
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You need to be very wary of:
  • art fairs without a visible track record
  • art fair directories

Art fairs and art fair directories can attract negative comments from artists because what has been delivered falls far short of what was promised and paid for.

Fake Art Fairs are created by people with no experience of the business who recognise that artists wanting to sell their art will pay for a booth - and all "the extras".
RED FLAGS include
  • nobody has heard of the art fair before
  • you are offered discounted fees because of the quality of your work
  • no marketing of the art fair online
  • no response for more information about experience / previous art fairs they've organised
  • Booth fees are banked - but the organisation is poor, the marketing virtually non-existent and there are all sorts of practical problems on-site.
​
CHECK OUT:
REFERENCE:
Organisations such as Event Fair, FairGuide.com/Construct Data Verlag and International Fairs Directory (Portugal) are targeting exhibitors with their misleading directory services. 

​Organisations such as DataCaptive are contacting exhibitors offering misleading marketing leads. We will never sell our data, therefore we advise all exhibitors not to enter into business with any companies claiming to do so. 

Our advice to exhibitors is to IGNORE THE COMPANIES ABOVE COMPLETELY, and not communicate with them in any way. Writing letters simply confirms that you exist and are available at the address/email address/number they have for you, and therefore payment can be pursued.
1) Report it to your local trading standards 
2) DO NOT PAY ANYTHING
3) DO NOT COMMUNICATE WITH THE SCAMMERS even when they threaten legal action
Warning to our exhibitor
How to avoid a fake art fair
​
  • JOIN one of the specialist art groups which exist to support art fair artists and protect them from the scammers. These are:
  • REVIEW the Art fairs Section of How's My Dealing for the name of the Art Fair
  • CHECK evidence of any previous art fair held by the individual or the organisation
  • CONTACT the local business bureau to find out if they have had any dealings with them before
  • BEWARE some individuals constantly reinvent under new company names - check out UK individuals on Companies House records for individuals.
  • CHECK whether any of the key individuals have previously been bankrupt. 
  • NEVER EVER pay any money to any art fair or fair directory before thoroughly researching the enterprise - and the names of individuals behind it. Establish and check out whoever is behind the operation (including, in the UK their VAT registration number)

How to spot fake goods or services

​Intellectual property crime is committed when someone manufactures, sells or distributes counterfeit or pirated goods, such as such as patents, trademarks, industrial designs or literary and artistic works, for commercial gain.
Artists buy goods and services as well as sell them. They need to be aware of the different ways they can be scammed by fraudsters.
​
RED FLAGS for fake goods (e.g. art materials) include:
  • item description is not detailed enough; does not correspond with that on the manufacturer's website
  • looks different to proper goods sold by reputable sellers
  • good are not as described
  • sold by somebody you have never heard of
  • poor ratings for seller on online sites
  • lack of website or proper details for the seller
  • no physical location for seller listed
RED FLAGS for fake services (e.g. tuition / art fairs / art galleries / online art markets) include:
  • "too good to be true" descriptions
  • lack of professional credentials or details of past experience in this field
  • ​fake testimonials - either gushing or too basic
  • few / poor photos
  • lack of website or proper details for the seller
  • no physical location for seller listed
REFERENCE

How to spot - and avoid - an email / internet scam
​

The most popular type of scam related to the sale of artwork involves email.

BOTTOM LINE: They are NOT interested in your artwork; they want to steal your money.
Below I
  • explain the features of this type of scam;
  • how to check it out,
  • how to avoid being scammed and
  • how to report the scammer.
In summary this involves ​a person who pretends they want to:
  • buy your art 
  • buy a present for a spouse (husband or wife) and/or 
  • buy art to decorate a new home
BUT the individual
  • seems too good and/or false to be true
  • tells a long garbled story about what needs to happen
  • lives overseas
  • loves your art but appears to be unfamiliar with your website
  • has some very odd requests re payment and shipping
  • wants to pay by cheque or Western Union
  • wants to pay you more than the artwork is worth.
Picture
What an email scam sent to artists looks like
An artist talks about email scams below.
RED FLAGS include:
  • referencing a website which has no art for sale
  • tight timescale to get your artwork shipped (for a "birthday" or "anniversary")
  • poor command of English e.g. poor spelling, grammatical mistakes, very odd phrases
  • third parties are involved - often a shipping company
  • odd requests in relation to payment or shipping e.g. they want 
    • ​your bank information
    • to pay you by bank transfer
    • to use a shipper because they're out of the country at the moment
  • overpayment sent
  • your gut says something is not quite right. Always trust your gut - it's spotting things you haven't yet processed in your conscious
How to avoid being scammed by an email scammer
  • State your terms and conditions for sale of art from your website on your website. 
    • ​Make sure these are scam-proof.
    • Refer enquiries to your terms and conditions 
    • End communication if they cannot comply.
  • DO NOT ASSUME an email request or caller is genuine - people aren’t always who they say they are.
  • Listen to your instincts – if something feels wrong then it is usually right to pause and question it.
  • CHECK the name of the individual online - some come up on Google as being scammers!
  • CHECK the shipping address online - use Google Streetview to see what it looks like and whether it is plausible​
  • Stay in control – have the confidence to refuse unusual requests for information or delivery / payment arrangements
  • Bank transfers are one way traffic - if authorised they cannot be reversed.
  • NEVER EVER REFUND AN OVERPAYMENT - it's almost always a scam - and that's what you tell them. 
  • Never ever wire money to them for an "unintentional overpayment". This is the core of the scam. (it's very difficult if not impossible to get your money back if you repay it and it turns out to be a scam)
  • Never ever give them your financial details for payments
    • unless they are a reputable business 
    • instead use Paypal or a similar service to send them an invoice.
Below you can find links to those who have written about this topic.
If you are a social responsible citizen can I suggest you REPORT
REFERENCE: EMAIL ART SCAMS
However you can be TOO cautious......
​
  • People do buy art from websites for their loved ones.
  • They also commission art for birthdays and anniversaries.
  • If you treat every email as a scam you can be missing out on income.
  • Use your common sense and perform routine checks

The image on the right is a coloured pencil drawing I did for an American lady who emailed me after spotting a sketch on my sketchbook blog and asked if I could create a drawing of the same view.  She wanted to give her cycle loving husband a picture of Mont Ventoux in France - the killer climb in the Tour de France - for his birthday. Absolutely no problems with this commission.
Picture
'Mont Ventoux from Crillon Le Brave' a commission completed by the author of this website

How to avoid being the victim of an Art Print Scam
​- or looking like you are a scammer!

Since the dawn of the internet, the problem of phony art being sold has only grown, experts say, and the primary coin of the forgery realm has long been the fake print, which is relatively easy to create, often difficult to detect and typically priced low enough to attract undiscriminating novice buyers.
Art Experts Warn of a Surging Market in Fake Prints | New York Times
There are two types of markets for art prints:
  • ORIGINAL fine art prints - which are
    • designed to be produced as a fine art print (rather than as a painting or drawing which is then printed from a photo or scan)
    • generally produced as a limited edition
    • always numbered
    • always signed by the artist (i.e. the signature is NOT printed and is often in pencil)
  • Reproduction Prints - often
    • unsigned
    • may not use archival papers and inks
    • using digital giclee printing.
There are three types of scams in the art print marker
  • the artist who misrepresents their printed artwork
  • ​the art dealer who sells forged prints
  • the printer who steals prints from the artist

​"Limited edition" strictly speaking is a terms which should be limited to fine art prints created as original art ONLY - and never used for reproduction prints. Since creating more of the latter is as simple as loading the printer with paper and ink and pressing the button. Some may reprint the image at a slightly different size - and start selling a "limited edition" all over again.
The third type of scam is that involving reproductions of fine art prints by well known artists.
There are many more prints in circulation by some artists than they ever produced.
Print collectors are seen as "easy pickings" by some disreputable dealers.
The anonymity of many sellers on such auction-based sites like eBay make the appearance of fakes a matter of course, but there are a rising number of fixed-price portals who are also willing to be less than scrupulous with the works they have on offer. 
Misrepresenting artwork (1)

If you are buying an art print by a named / well known artist you need to be very, very careful. 

The art market is full of crooks who will try and scam art collectors by selling them a forged fine art print. They will try and make it look as near as possible to the real thing.
fakes.... are typically photomechanical reproductions of the originals. The forgeries are made by people with no connection to the artist and are sold as his or her work; they will often be accompanied by phony signatures from the artist or bogus certificates of authenticity.
​Art Experts Warn of a Surging Market in Fake Prints | New York Times
Misrepresenting artwork (2)

Artists often use "limited edition" to describe their reproduction prints - particularly those who like the idea of increasing the price of their work, However there is no way you can ever ascertain whether they printed only the number in the edition. 

​An open edition print is one which keeps being printed for a long as it sells.

IGNORE the notion of limited edition and just buy a reproduction print if you like it
Statisticians at the George Washington University in 2013 estimated that 91 percent of Henry Moore drawings available on eBay at that time were fake. 
​​Art Experts Warn of a Surging Market in Fake Prints | New York Times
Dali, now 82 and infirm, is one of “the big three” artists whose names most frequently engender complaints, art experts said. The others are Joan Miro and Chagall. Prints attributed to Pablo Picasso and Alexander Calder also generate many complaints.
"Limited edition!"
"Rare special edition!"
"Collectors’ edition long out off print!"
"Rare antique" (from 1989)
"Strictly limited print on hand-made paper"
"Limited luxury edition"
In this case, statements with a positive connotation are used for sales purposes. In reality, it is the copy of an original by means of photomechanical reproduction (and thus an art print). Often such prints are "limited" like the issue of a daily newspaper. Often these prints are marketed with handwritten numberings (implying the artist did the numbering him- or herself), hand-made paper is supposed to sell better, and frequently dubious "certificates of authenticity" or "expert opinions" are added.
Printers who steal

I learned about this type of scam very early on from a friend who produced very popular cat drawings and sold them as giclee prints. One gallery she was doing business with was creating additional giclee prints and selling them as a sideline.

One way to avoid this is to keep complete control over the printing. If you create a lot of prints, it could be worthwhile to invest in a quality printer.
How to avoid being the victim of an art print scam
​
AS A BUYER (or seller)
  • Consider where you are buying an art print.
    • ​There are a LOT of print scammers on Amazon and eBay and other apparently reputable sites.
    • They take vintage prints and reproduce them using giclee printing and pretend they are originals.
    • They do the ame with contemporary prints if they can get hold of good quality images
  • Consider the price you are paying - and do some research. One of the advantages of prints is there is a resale market and you can check out recently paid prices for similar or the same work
  • Use your common sense as to the numbers in a limited edition
    • ​if it's a low number and the printmaker is using a proper fine art printing process then it may well be genuine.
    • If it's not an etching / lithograph / limoprint etc and the limited number is big and involves giclee, then it's a reproduction and the use of the term "limited edition" is essentially meaningless.
  • Check whether the print has been signed by the artist separately from the print i.e. the signature is not printed
  • Check out the seller / dealer - is there anything online which suggests this individual is less than reputable?
  • A Certificate of Authenticity does not make a print genuine. Some artists never issued them so if you are supplied with one signed by the artist then the print is almost certainly a fake
  • Increase the caution you employ in checks the bigger the name of the artist​ - the more you spend the more careful you need to be.
AS AN ARTIST
  • Do NOT upload top quality images of your artwork to the Internet - unless you want to be ripped off
  • Keep careful control of the reproduction prints made of your artwork and all print inventories -
    • Know how many prints have been produced and who has got them.
  • Issue a Certificate of Authenticity - signed by you and keep an inventory of the ones you have produced. Thi provides a basis for challenging forgeries or "extra copies". It should include:
    • title of the print,
    • size of the print,
    • type of media it is printed on/with
    • the number of the print above the total number in the edition
    • date
    • artist signature 
  • Search the internet regularly (using Google Image Search - see How to do a reverse image search) to see if your artwork is being offered for sale somewhere it shouldn't.

​
Art forgery is the creating and selling of works of art which are falsely credited to other, usually more famous artists.​

​REFERENCE: ART PRINT SCAMS

How to be safe when paying for goods or services online
​

How to be "better safe than sorry" online

What follows is a summary of the recommended guidelines produced by Europol who are seeking to reduce the amount of online frauds and scams.
​THE GOLDEN RULES
​DO
  • Buy from trusted sources. e.g. check ratings of sellers 
  • Do your online shopping at sites that use full authentication (Verified by Visa / MasterCard Secure Code - the one on the back of the card).
  • Make sure the data transfer is appropriately protected (e.g. you are on a secure website with https:// or a lock at the bottom of the browser window)
  • Use credit cards when purchasing things online
  • Think twice before allowing websites to store your card details
  • Always save all documents related to your online purchases
DON'T
  • Never send your card number, PIN or any other card information to anyone by e-mail.
  • Don't provide your card details unless you are buying something. 
  • ​Don’t send money to anyone you don’t know
  • Don’t send money upfront to the seller if possible. 
E-Commerce: Tips And Advice To Avoid Becoming A Fraud Victim 
​HOW-TO GUIDE | Europol
Artists who sell their art online ALSO need to be sure they are also following all the good practice recommendations
REFERENCE:

Art Fakes, Fraud and Forgeries
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Art fraud, the deliberately false representation of the artist, age, origins, or ownership of a work of art in order to reap financial gain. Forgery of a famous artist’s work is the best-known kind of art fraud, but fraud may also result from the knowing misattribution of the age or origin of a work of art
Art Fraud | britanicca.com

The majority of art crimes that the police focus on relate to theft - and fraud and forgeries seem to come low on the list of priorities (in the uSA). Mainly because the police forces lack expertise or access to expertise in such matters.
​

Art Fraud - generally
​

REFERENCE

Arrests for Art Fraud and Scams
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REFERENCE:
​Below I'm going to list articles about the various art scams and art frauds that people have been arrested for.

​Art dealers arrested for Fraud
Art Dealers and Auctioneers sued for fraud
Films about art scams
​False Impressions: The Hunt for Big-Time Art Fakes by Thomas Hoving
This is a big, broad book on art fakes, fakers, and suckers written in Hoving's signature style - amusing, wicked, and mischievous. From the shroud of Turin to Pre-Columbian pottery, Hoving covers the biggest, the best, the most embarrassing, and the most costly forgeries - most never before published, some he himself collected. He explains the differences between out-right forgeries and works so overly restored and tarted up the result is tantamount to forgery. (Publisher)
The author of this book is the former director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. ​The book may have been published in 1982 - but there's a lot about fakes which does not change.
​
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Publication date: Illustrated edition (19 Nov. 1982)
Language : English
Paperback : 384 pages

BUY THIS BOOK
REFERENCE: ART FRAUD & FORGERY