Israeli art scam
The Kalgoorlie Miner this morning exposed a scam in which foreigners are selling “original” artworks door to door.
Young people, believed to be Israeli or Iraqi (odd mix), claim to be art students earning a living.
I’ve personally had two different sellers knock on my door in the past six months.
According to authorities, the young people are probably on visitors visas and operating illegally according to immigration laws and the Door-to-Door Sales Act.
The Act requires the presentation of ID and a 10-day cooling-off period.
I never got that far into the pitch to determine those questions, but a woman who spoke to the newspaper said no such bonafides were presented.
I’ve seen emails from police and government departments tonight which suggest the scammers are on the run to Esperance, which rather supports the theory they are acting illegally.
One suggestion is the paintings are mass produced in China for $5 each, sold to scammers for $75 each and sold to mug punters for about $200 each, unless “discounted”.
Quite a racket! More here.
These articles might be of interest:
This is really really nice to see that people are so active about the legal side of companies operations.
The sales person you see at your door is normally a traveler and he/she will make around 20$-50$ from the painting you buy from him.
The paintings are hand painted and are sold in gallery’s around the world for 600$-10,000$.
I guess in total people get a good deal, as every one knows nike make their shows in china and it cost them around 3$ but can you buy a real nike for less then 100$ ? and if you go to the mall you will pay for the same nike 200$ cuz of the rent.
In total it is up to you if you buy or not.
I saw paintings that where sold 30 years ago and they are still loved and look great.
In any case if you do not feel like helping a traveler make a $ I found this website www rtgallery com ,I think you will fined it has good prices and lots of paintings for your house.
The site that you offer, rtgallery.com, installs Malware. Luckily my computer alerted me before being infected.
Everyone else, watch out for this site!!!!
Also…..I believe I just got scammed….I bought two larges pieces that I really like but am concerned now about the original nature of these. Several people have mentioned sites where you can find these prints; can someone help with that?
I had someone at my door yesterday afternoon claiming to be a student from the “university” in Israel with no ID claiming to be selling original art too. I don’t mind helping someone make a buck but when they are trying to make that buck by BLATANTLY LYING to me about what they are selling and who the represent then I do hold it against them. Thankfully I didn’t buy anything. The art wasn’t spectacular and the price was way too high. I could buy better art at Winners for less money. By the way, I’m in Alberta, Canada. Guess they’ve moved north to find more suckers.
I am from Australia in Darwin and I bought 2 paintings at a sum of $800, I am so up set about it. My partner knows that I love art and I am always trying to get him to help people in need more so as a surprise when the guy came to our door he asked him to come back when I was home so that I could choose something I really liked. He surprised me and we were really happy. We got receipts for the pieces a signature and everything and I was looking forward to receiving a certificate of thanks to hang in my office but after much hunting and searching for the paintings origins I found that I could not get hold of anyone even though I have a phone number which is 04345 12896 (if anyone out there can hunt it down) there is no response. I try and do so much to help others and always try to stop prejudice and all this does is make me angry and never trust to help people in need again. I hope they are happy with the reputation they have given their people and have realized how much damage they have done to the generosity of those that give to people in need in their own country. I will no longer be telling my partner to trust more, I should have listened to him from the beginning.
And im sorry Andera but how much money did you loose??? How would you feel if you lost $800 get off your high horse and realize that dishonesty is not right!!!
Woops sorry Andera i meant Adrian the first comment!
We got scammed in Artarmon, (North) Sydney, Australia. We thought we were helping out students, they are very convincing and good con artists. We felt sorry for the guy, which is why we bought a painting for $150, to help struggling artists, little did we know you can buy the same painting off the internet from China for $5 after we did some research. They should be ashamed of themselves and giving Israeli people a bad name. If anyone tries to sell you art door to door, just say no thanks and close the door!
I just hadan “israeli art student” knocking on my door about an hour ago. He was very friendly and the paintings he was trying to sell me were quite nice, but obviously there were copies. I was honest with him and told him, that I have only £10 cash on me so he offered to take a cheque or he could wait for me until I get some cash from the neighbours or from the cash machine. As soon as he said this I began to be suspicious, but I was nice to him all the way, as he wasn’t the usual salesmen type. At first he asked for £80, and said, that it sells for £280 in exhibitions. So I asked if he has got a card or a website and asked where the next exhibition is. He said that they will only be one in the UK and that is London. Funny enough my sister lives in London, so I asked where in London. As soon as I asked him, he forgot where the exhibition was and when because it is not him but his friend who is going to be there. Asked for his friend’s contact details..no comment.
Well as he was a nice guy and he had nice paintings, I offered him £10 for the one I really liked but it wasn’t enough. After he left, I google’d “israeli art student scam” and bingo, thousands of sites found. Mainly american ones, scared of spyes and such which I really don’t believe in. But anyway, cause I don’t like liars on a Friday night asking for my money, I phoned the local police… Hope they will find him. Loser.
By the way, this was in the UK… o if it is the same group (probably not) then they must earn well to travel around the world.. jealous
Twitter: @mgorey
Brigitta, it’s hard not to like these scammers in a strange sort of way. They’re clever polite young people who present well. They sell goods which are pleasing to look at.
Their lifestyle is enviable.
But at the end of the day they’re liars and con artists.
The funny thing about these types, Michael, is that they’re capable of succeeding honestly if they would just bother. I think a lot of con-men are a variant on thrill-seekers who do extreme sports. Of course, the base-jumpers and so on (usually) only wreck themselves. If those paintings are actually oil or acrylic on canvas, rather than prints on textured paper, it’s not really a complete scam. You do get a painting; it’s just not unique or reasonably priced. The top-grade scam delivers nothing but a hole in your wallet (and possibly a real one to your head as well).
I’ve recently been doing my bit as a world citizen by engaging in email correspondence with a persistent West African spam-scammer who purports to operate from Dakar, Senegal and uses the handle “Edith Zakary”. “Edith” (who is 99.99% probably male, of course) is trapped in a refugee camp and needs my help to escape with her millions that are holed up in the “Royal Bank of Scotland”…
I agree with a comment I read on Digg that, as long as you don’t use means traceable to you, everyone who receives these emails should reply to them and spin them out as long as possible. It only takes a couple of minutes a day to keep ‘em on the hook and wastes time they might spend on victimising the less savvy.
Twitter: @mgorey
Retarius, I love the idea of stringing along a West African scammer. I read a great story about that once. Take care of personal security though.
If you have a look at my post “West African Scam ‘Babes’”, you’ll find a link to a great site called 419 Eater that gives a “how-to” guide on this. It’s named for Section 4-1-9 of the Nigerian penal code that covers these offences. There’s also an excellent site called Quatloos that covers a lot of Internet scams and how to fight them.
The great thing about this is that it actually does something useful, unlike a lot of internet role-playing sites where people are engaging in futile pursuits.
I live in Campbell, 2km from the centre of Canberra and had an “Israeli art student” named “Ben” call out to me as I was in the driveway earlier this evening. He was carrying a portfolio of art with about 20 artworks painted by “a group of his friends”. They were mostly colourful although there were 2-3 black and white oil works, all on canvas. He was very pleasant and polite and I let him show me all of the artwork. He asked me which one I liked best and I said one that was an abstact of the Tour de France by “Liroy”. He said I could have it for $A160. I said that I didn’t have that sort of cash and he said he would take a cheque. I told him that I had enough artwork. He left and went to sit at a bus stop a couple of doors down. The bus came and went, he continued to sit at the bus stop. A little later, I looked over and he had gone – I suppose someone had come by and picked him up. Pictures include one that he said that he had done, signed “Jacob”; he said this was his middle name. It was colourful and depicted a snowcapped mountain that he said was in Israel. There was also a similar one in black and white. There were a couple of Paris, featuring the Eiffel Tower; one of 19th Century Paris depicting people in period clothing. There was one of Venice, one of Nova Scotia, one of Madrid, a couple of absracts, including one of 5 colourful human forms that represented the five continents. There was one of 3 trees and one divided vertically into three, depicting summer, spring and autumn. Hope this description helps someone in identifying a scammer.
They’ve hit Johannesburg in South Africa too!
I also encountered these Israeli’s in our home in Pretoria, South Africa. They operate under an apparent ‘manager’ called Dror. Their paintings include works of a certain C.Penn.
I’ve heard the artists go by the names of Noah, Aliad etc.
Apparently they come into your house and while one asks to use the bathroom, instead he/she goes and snoops around the house, stealing small items and money.
Twitter: @mgorey
Sounds like they have moved from Australia to South Africa.
Well, well, well! Guess who’s been to Ireland!
Hi, I live in Cork, Ireland and these “Art students” have been knocking on doors here for quite awhile.
I suspected something wasn’t right, A girl claiming to be spanish and representing art students from europe was selling art door to door and guess the artist i choose…C Penn. I googled the daylights out of that name and ended up here.
Anyhow I knew something was up, she wanted 200 euros and I laughed and did say to here get away out of that! So, I offered 60euros thinking there was no way she would sell at that price, but an hour later she knocked on our door again and said i could have it for 70 euros so i bought it!
Scammed for sure…………
And back to Australia again!
I live in Watson, Canberra not far from the lady named Debra above and had the same experience this evening. Nice guy, not too pushy with Art work pleasant enough to look at so we agreed to put a $10 deposit on one piece costing $90. Glad I did some research after he left and found all your helpful comments. Don’t really mind paying $90 for nice looking stuff but the dishonesty leaves a bad taste so I think I’ll leave it on the door step tomorrow with a thanks but no thanks note.
Was actually worried that it might be some sort of ‘figure out when they’re not home and rob the place’ kinda scam but that doesn’t seem to be part of the recipe.
Yeah, they are still in the Canberra area, and I wish I read this before being scammed $250.00 for a single painting…it just happened last night and I’m still pretty upset about it.
Hi Michael, good to see the blog is still up. Hope you’re doing well over east.
Things move in mysterious ways.
A colleague of mine at the Sound Telegraph came to me a few days ago telling me an Israeli girl knocked on her door and tried to sell her a Tour De France painting for a stupid amount of money. No ID and from a group called Bring Art to People. Google it and lo and behold, there you are
Wonder if it’s the same lot?
Laura T
Yes, they are the same people. They are now operating in Cyprus. I recall the tour de france painting – however this is not called that but Loops with Competitor – no. HS0246.
Check out the site: http://www.dupine.com – you will probably find all the paintings you have seen there selling for $5,95 each or €11,75 each. They are mass-produced in China (this is the wholesaler) although they claim that these are hand painted the canvas looks odd. The company also is ok to sign these with different names – the one I bought bears signature by someone called “gregori”.
I have passed the matter to the police and the consumers association.
I hope this helps.
As per Debra in October, this evening it appears that we also had the same person but now they have moved over to Red Hill.
I was suspicious of this as I asked questions regarding the origin etc, and I only received vague responses back.
I said that as we had only a small amount of cash on us, we were unable to think about purchasing.
Happy now that I followed my instinct!
Bring Art 2 People is still in Canberra (31Mar09). Tonight ‘Matan’ came to our house saying he and his friends are poor art students from Israel. He was extremely friendly and polite. When asked him for credentials he just said, “We’re an independent group of artists, we don’t have cards but you can call my team leader.” To make a long story short, I initially purchased a painting for $170. Once he left I immediately googled “Bring Art to People” and found this site. I then hopped in my car and found ‘Matan’ and several other art peddlers down the street. Their van had broken down. I confronted the peddlers and asked for my money back. They gave me my money and handed over the painting. They then asked for some Marijuana and jumper cables…no way was I going to help some pot-head, scam artists.
I did hear one them say that they were all staying at the Carlton. I hope the police find them and get them out of Canberra asap.
And as of this afternoon (5 April 2009), they are in Jerrabomberra. An allegedly Jewish girl called Abigail (0411 580173)showed me the Tour de France painting and some of the others described by you.
I asked enough questions and received enough vague responses to be suspicious. Hopped on the internet and here I am.
A pity about the dishonesty. Some of the pictures were okay.
Had two of them open my screen door, try the front door, bang on the window and ring the bell before I opened up expecting it to be my impatient son. However I am faced with two swarthy looking bums with an open folio of “art” I told them to F… off, and tried to close the door, one tried to stop it being closed on them and angrily stated ” you must look at these before you send us away” I replied take your crap and F… off or my dog will take a piece out of both your A**es. I was really angry that they just about invaded my home, only stopped by my locked door.
I just got scammed for $250 by a handsome French “artist”.. I like the ‘painting’ but am now annoyed that it’s not even a painting just a cheap print … I’m just wondering if anyone else has the naked girl – black and white?
I live in hope that it may be different from the others as he told me he painted it himself. Brisbane Australia..
At the moment they’re in Toowoomba,Qld.Luckily we have no room on the walls for more pictures, otherwise I’m sure I also would have purchased one, especially with Mothers day tomorrow.
Eltham, Melbourne.
Had A French “art” student (Filix, or Filip)(medium height, black hair, carrying a yellow art folio) knock on my door. Again I was not going to let him in but felt sorry for him, and thought there was no harm in having a look. He showed both me and my partner and we took his number. He asked for our number but I said we would contact him if need be. After he left my partner started laughing because she had heard about this type of scam. I felt like a dick, but at least I did not buy and of the art. Similar prints to those mentioned earlier;
tour de France abstract thing
Moulin rouge
Woman being swallowed by a fish…abstract.
Provincial france?
Urban Street scape.
A Cat/Tiger….abstract…. using coconut something or other to create texture.
Forests.
A terrible one with three trees he claimed was his.
http://www.china-art-discount.com/index.html
Some of the “alleged” art work is on this site. Including the one he claimed was his and some of the black and white paris street scapes….oh yeah….at least it cost me nothing but a few minutes with a dishonest traveler.