SHIPPING SCAM

Thanks to this website, I have escaped being caught in a shipping scam. I searched on Google for Madzime Shipping Agencies which does not seem to exist, but found the name of Mr. N. Madzime listed here in connection with a rental scam and the bank details are identical to those that I was told to pay money into. A Mr. Grant Crawdrey, who gives his address as Victoria, Australia made an offer for four paintings from my website and sent me a cheque for a lot more than the value of the artwork, as I was to pay for shipping through Madzime, who charges about 10 times as much as firms like FedEx or UPS. I was told that this was because the artwork was large and fragile. I was given a postal address for Madzime Shipping Agencies and checked on Google simply because I wanted an email address of phone number for my own convenience. If I had not done so I would already have paid over £1,000 for shipping and been stung. Today I had a call from my bank telling me that Mr. Crawdrey's cheque had bounced and if I hadn't been suspicious I would have paid the shipping costs two days ago. I have since found out that this time of scam is pretty common, and they frequently target artists because they think we are an easy touch!

So, thanks, ScamWarners.

Angelica

Hi Angelica!
I'm so glad to hear that you found Scamwarners and the information that you found prevented you from being scammed!
Would you please post any emails that you received, including the headers? The more details that show up on a google search will help others to learn that Mr. Grant Crawdrey is a scammer and that Madzime Shipping Agencies does not exist.

Thanks for this information! I´m also an artist and got this email today:

Från: [email protected]
Ämne: Inquiry
Datum: lördag 25 jun 2011 23.48.57 GMT+02:00
Till: undisclosed-recipients:;

Good Evening
The images in your website is so fascinating and so vivacious looking at each piece of work make me know you added so much dedication in making each work come out to life but unfortunately i lost the weblink but i was able to save your email address am writing you because i need your help to get back to your website so that i can be able to see more of your work and purchase some for my apartment. I reside in Victoria Australia hope to read from you soon.
Regards
Grant

Translation:

Scammer bought/borrowed/stole a mailing list for artists, but it's way too much work to go through each individual website and place fictional orders when most of them aren't going to fall for the scam anyway. So he sends one bulk email to the whole list, figuring that anyone who answers the first email without being too suspicious is more likely to fall for the scam itself.