Emails from "potential clients"

[schoonsart]

Has anyone here ever received an email similar to the following:

"Hope this message finds you well ,I came across your web page while
searching for good artworks . I must tell you that your artwork touched me instantly. I\'d been searching the web for art, and everything seemed so one dimensional, except for yours. Beautiful!, i will like to buy some of these creative artworks directly from you which i think will be perfect for my wall which are

titles of requested artwork were listed here

I will be happy to have these selected artworks in our new home.What
are their prices exclusive of shipping cost? We are moving from our
Alabama home to our new apartment in London, I will appreciate an earlier reply. Thanks.
Best Regards
Jenny Keith"

I have received a few emails similar to this one. The pieces they wanted to buy were different, but the gist of the emails were the same: poor spelling/grammar, wanted to know the price of the artwork (which is clearly stated on my website), wanted to know cost of shipping but did not provide their address and they were all moving soon from the US to another country.

I've been ignoring the emails so far, but with a tinge of doubt - "what if I am passing up an opportunity to sell some of my artwork?" I was curious if anyone else has received similar emails, if they have attempted to answer them, etc.
Thanks.
[/i]

[Erika Takacs]

Schoonsart, the letter itself sounds authentic, but the alarm bell went off when I read they're moving to a different country. I know there are scams similar to this on eBay. Still...you never know. You can ask them to pay you through PayPal, and once the payment went through, you'll be happy to ship them the painting(s). Don't forget to add the shipping price to your total. PayPal is very secure and buyers don't need to show their credit card nr. to the seller. If you don't hear back from them after this, they're scam artists.

[schoonsart]

Hi Erika

Thank you for the advise. I was more curious to see if others had experienced the same. I did find this site on the web about scams directed at artists including email scams: http://www.artscams.com/
and the email scam examples: http://www.artscams.com/artscam.html

Good information to know.

[xxbreezy]

I haven't personally received an email like this but have had them come from what I thought was paypal. I just sent the email directly to PayPal for authencity. But..thanks for the link to the artscam website. I favorited it. I agree with previous post...I would need more detail about the buyer myself.