The art student scam is a confidence trick in which cheap, mass-produced paintings or prints are misrepresented as original works of art, often by young people pretending to be art students trying to raise money for art supplies or tuition fees. [1] [2] [3] [4] The sellers mostly represented themselves as French art students, but the scam has recently been copied internationally, with instances of Chinese, Chilean, Nigerian and other nationalities [ citation needed ] posing as art students or dealers in Australia, Canada, China, Ireland, New Zealand and the United States since around 2000.[ citation needed ] The art is often sold in exhibition sites or art galleries. [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] Many scammers operate alongside and at the long-run expense of genuine art students who show their yearly work in festivals during the summer vacation.
Most mass-produced prints and paintings originate in Asia.[ citation needed ] These are essentially posters, sometimes referred to as "Hong Kong horrors," printed on rough paper, making the absence of brush strokes less apparent. There is a confusion between "mass-produced paintings" which are actually prints. These are being sold over the internet described as real oil paintings, taking advantage of the difficulty of spotting the scam behind the screen. Sometimes a few brush strokes are added to the prints to give them a more authentic oil-painting look.
People posing as art students were reported in Australia and New Zealand from as early as 2003. [4] [9] The paintings, worth around A$5, were passed off as being worth hundreds of dollars. [5] Three backpackers—an Israeli and two Chileans—were taken to court in Dunedin for the scam in 2003 but were discharged as the judge said that they were "minnows" in the organisation. They reportedly made NZ$15,000 in three weeks from the scam. The Consumers' Institute of New Zealand suspected that an Auckland man was the organiser of the operation. [8] A 23-year-old man was arrested in New South Wales, Australia, for operating the scam and 50 oil paintings were found in his car. [10] An adviser for the New Zealand Consumer Affairs Ministry said: "All around the world, students from various countries are doing this." She suggested that the scam's organiser may place advertisements in backpackers' lodges to recruit students. [11] The scammers have also claimed to be Greek, Argentinian, and French. [12] [13]
In 2004, a group of Russians said to have been selling mass-produced paintings as their own work, for hundreds of dollars each, were deported from Canada for working in violation of their visas. The scam recurred in 2009 in Calgary and in Warman, Saskatchewan. Eight people claiming to be students from Russia, Germany, and France were arrested, and 100 paintings were seized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Border Services. [14]
In China, scammers approach tourists at popular attractions such as the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square. [15] The scammer speaks English well enough to get into a conversation with the foreigner and then claims to be an art student whose works are on display at a nearby exhibition, which is part of the scam and sells mass-produced art reproductions at exorbitant prices. There are warnings about this scam in tourist guides. [16] [17]
From the summer of 2000, news outlets in the Pacific Northwest reported that young people were posing as art students selling mass-produced oil paintings, both copies and originals, for US$780–$2000 each. The so-called art students were said to be selling in exhibitions and galleries, primarily targeting local businesses. They claimed to be studying at art schools in Europe and to be in the United States selling works by talented fellow artists to raise money for art supplies or school fees. [3]
Through the early 2000s, some 13 separate incidents of "art student" encounters were reported across the United States.[ citation needed ]
An advance-fee scam is a form of fraud and is one of the most common types of confidence tricks. The scam typically involves promising the victim a significant share of a large sum of money, in return for a small up-front payment, which the fraudster claims will be used to obtain the large sum. If a victim makes the payment, the fraudster either invents a series of further fees for the victim to pay or simply disappears.
Scam baiting is a form of internet vigilantism primarily used towards advance-fee fraud, IRS impersonation scams, technical support scams, pension scams, and consumer financial fraud.
Domain name scams are types of Intellectual property scams or confidence scams in which unscrupulous domain name registrars attempt to generate revenue by tricking businesses into buying, selling, listing or converting a domain name. The Office of Fair Trading in the United Kingdom has outlined two types of domain name scams which are "Domain name registration scams" and "Domain name renewal scams".
Internet fraud is a type of cybercrime fraud or deception which makes use of the Internet and could involve hiding of information or providing incorrect information for the purpose of tricking victims out of money, property, and inheritance. Internet fraud is not considered a single, distinctive crime but covers a range of illegal and illicit actions that are committed in cyberspace. It is, however, differentiated from theft since, in this case, the victim voluntarily and knowingly provides the information, money or property to the perpetrator. It is also distinguished by the way it involves temporally and spatially separated offenders.
419eater.com is a scam baiting website which focuses on advance-fee fraud. The name 419 comes from "419 fraud", another name for advance fee fraud, and itself derived from the relevant section of the Nigerian criminal code. The website founder, Michael Berry, goes by the alias Shiver Metimbers. As of 2013, the 419 Eater forum had over 55,000 registered accounts. According to one member, "Every minute the scammer I'm communicating with is spending on me is a minute he is not scamming a real potential victim."
Xu Beihong, also known as Ju Péon, was a Chinese painter.
The Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art is a museum in a converted Arnold Print Works factory building complex located in North Adams, Massachusetts. It is one of the largest centers for contemporary visual art and performing arts in the United States.
Charles Frederick Goldie was a New Zealand artist, best known for his portrayal of Māori dignitaries.
A romance scam is a confidence trick involving feigning romantic intentions towards a victim, gaining the victim's affection, and then using that goodwill to get the victim to send money to the scammer under false pretenses or to commit fraud against the victim. Fraudulent acts may involve access to the victim's money, bank accounts, credit cards, passports, e-mail accounts, or national identification numbers; or forcing the victims to commit financial fraud on their behalf.
Voice phishing, or vishing, is the use of telephony to conduct phishing attacks.
Telemarketing fraud is fraudulent selling conducted over the telephone. The term is also used for telephone fraud not involving selling.
Maria Duval is the woman at the origin of the Maria Duval psychic scam. Claiming to have psychic powers, she gained some fame before her name became associated with a vast and sophisticated mail scam.
Sanyu or Chang Yu was a Chinese-French painter.
The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines, such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts, also involve aspects of the visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the applied arts, such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, and decorative art.
A technical support scam, or tech support scam, is a type of fraud in which a scammer claims to offer a legitimate technical support service. Victims contact scammers in a variety of ways, often through fake pop-ups resembling error messages or via fake "help lines" advertised on websites owned by the scammers. Technical support scammers use social engineering and a variety of confidence tricks to persuade their victim of the presence of problems on their computer or mobile device, such as a malware infection, when there are no issues with the victim's device. The scammer will then persuade the victim to pay to fix the fictitious "problems" that they claim to have found. Payment is made to the scammer through ways which are hard to trace and have fewer consumer protections in place which could allow the victim to claim their money back, usually through gift cards.
The locksmith scam is a scam involving fake business listings for cheap locksmith services that, once called out, overcharge the customer. The scam targets people who call a locksmith out of desperation, usually because of being locked out of their car or premises. Locksmith scams have been reported in the U.S., the U.K., and New Zealand.
Kitboga is the Internet alias of an American Twitch streamer and YouTuber whose content primarily focuses on scam baiting against phone fraud. His channel has over 1 million followers on Twitch, and his YouTube channel has over 3 million subscribers.
An overpayment scam, also known as a refund scam, is a type of confidence trick designed to prey upon victims' good faith. In the most basic form, an overpayment scam consists of a scammer claiming, falsely, to have sent a victim an excess amount of money. The scammer then attempts to convince the victim to return the difference between the sent amount and the intended amount. This scam can take a number of forms, including check overpayment scams and online refund scams.
COVID-19 scams are frauds whose cover story primarily relies on the existence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Such scams have been reported in multiple countries, primarily the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
An Israeli art scam with suggested links to espionage and fundamentalist fundraisers may have turned up on the Semiahmoo Peninsula. At least half a dozen locals—probably more—were likely duped by the hoax, which has for years puzzled North American authorities. Young Israelis posing as art students travel door-to-door hocking mass-produced art as their own. The works are worth little, but still sell for hundreds of dollars to naive customers.