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, contrary 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 $200 each, unless “discounted”.
Quite a racket!
Update: Wikipedia has an entry for the student art scam.
It says the scam is a confidence trick in which cheap, mass-produced paintings or prints are misrepresented as original works of art, often by young people pretending to be art students trying to raise money for art supplies or tuition fees.
“In some early instances of the scam the sellers represented themselves as Israeli art students, but the scam is now international, with instances of Chinese, French, Chilean, and other nationalities posing as art students or dealers in Australia, Canada, China, New Zealand and the United States since at least 2000. The art is often sold door-to-door, bypassing exhibition sites or art galleries.”
Most of the mass-produced prints and paintings are said to originate in Asia.
×0
This is really really nice to see that people are so active about the legal side of companies operations.
The sales person you see at your door is normally a traveler and he/she will make around 20$-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
says:
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
says:
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
says:
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.
I am from sydney australia, and I really like this piece of art my Parents house, they told me they bought it from a french student travelling selling art so he could travel around australia… anyway I was searching to find the original artist of this piece its the “Woman being swallowed by a fish…abstract.” that Graham above mentions…and found out about this scam! I hope my Parents knew it was a copy and not an original, but anyway I love the painting and would like to see more, does anyone know the name of the original artist? There is an illegible signature not sure if it would be off the original or the copiers but it starts with a B. if that helps.. any help solving this would be much appreciated,
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.
Well their here in Canada to. I live in Sherwood Park, Alberta, Canada. We had a young man come to our house around supper time, July 24, 2009. He said he was from Israel on a art exchange program. He was selling oil paintings and he had a folder with all the paintings in there. The paintings were going for $140-$190 cnd. Thank goodness my husband was home, he asked a ton of questions and he knew it was a scam. After the student left we googled it and here you guys are with all the info. Thank you for posting the info, this has helped us tremendously…
So funny, we get flyers in the mail. Michaels is a art/craft/scrapbooking store. They were advertising some paintings for sale and 2 of the paintings that were advertised was the ones the student had showed me in his folder.
Guys, I want to shed some light about this whole issue, since I am an Israeli and I know people who have done this.
Everyone here who talks about spies, Mossad, etc is talking nonsense. Indeed it is a scam and those people aren’t really art students. It is just people earning good money in a sleazy way.
Personally, I hate it, and I do think it gives us a bad name- and I hope no one here will generalise here on all Israelis. a lot of us oppose this.
But please, remain proportionate, don’t take it to conspiratorial places.
Hello, I am from croatia,
I sell similar paintings in spain before 3 years ,
I paid about 40 euros each images 50×60 cm,
After 6 months I found the pictures on the 18 euros in web ,
and after I bay direct in china xiamen but much better
quality and reprodukcions of chagall, gogh,,, proky 5-25 $
and selling in offices per 30-70 euros,
This izraels scam artist
have the lowest image quality mostly ,,,And they pay boss to much price for each paintings 40-60 euros, not 5 $
,,
Naive people are everywhere, especially in door to door product sales and they have product in hand immediately and not ask for a price sometimes
The “art student” had also visited me and showed me oil paintings. I actually liked two of them and bought them for A$270. Despite everything I read here I do not regret buying these pictures.
I know they’re copies produced in China, but I still think they are beautiful. I do not think this is a scam, because I got what I paid for and the paintings are real oil paintings.
The boy who sold them to me did not claim they were original pieces of art. True that he had lied when he said he was an art student, this wasn’t the reason I bought these paintings in the first place.
Besides, salesmen lie all the time and we do not call them cheats. Sure I could have got these pictures in much less than what I paid, but it’s basically my fault that I rushed to close the deal and didn’t do a market survey.
And there is even the advantage that I knew exactly what I’m buying and even tried the painting on the wall before I bought them. So no, I don’t think these guys are cheats, they are simply sophisticated salesmen.
You are not being ripped off. It’s just normal business. The guy shows you the paintings and offers them to you for $300 a piece. You either say yes or no. If you say yes, that means that you like the painting and (in your mind) it’s worth the cash. Check out the merchandise and if you are happy, why not?
If you bought a fake or a copy, then chances are you are not much of an art expert and so, really, who cares whether it’s a copy? Did you care before you knew it was a fake?
And if the paintings can be bought in China for $5 the answer is simple. Get on a plane, go to China, visit the factory where they make them and then (in the prefect Chinese you learnt before going to China) negotiate. It’s so simple a child could do it.
I recently purchased 3 paintings, and I liked them. I think if you like the paintings what does it matter if it came from china. I have purchased many paintings in the past, and I am not certain where any of them came from.
I agree with Donni, David and Sydney – we should give these guys a break.
I was visited by an ‘poor art student’ in Melbourne a few years back selling largish oil paintings, but as I was actually a poor art student myself then, I didn’t by any paintings (I had lots of art and not much money). I remember having a good chat and watching him go thinking how much effort it would be to spend days walking around the suburbs carrying paintings.
I don’t think it’s a scam – it’s more like just dodgy sales people – and how many of them are out there! I know how it’s really frustrating to have been scammed having been myself in other contexts, but I really think people are being too hard on them. Who is really the scammer – the (probably genuinely) poor person trudging door-to-door selling chinese copies of paintings, or the corporate executives who undertake dubious business practices and who are pulling huge salaries that are vastly disproportionate to the majority of workers in the same companies?
I remember being so mad after each time I was scammed in India, then cooling down when I realised objectively that the money was so small to me and could mean so much to the scammers. It obviously isn’t the same situation here, but I do believe moral indignation around these situations can be very socially and economically relative.
We just bought a painting from a guy that turned up at our door.
It was cheaper than paintings in Sweden. We saw different sized paintings and the other sizes were not to our taste, plus each painting had its own peculiarities.
We bought one that we liked. I thought it was a better deal than flying to China to get one.
He made some money and we got a great painting for the money.
What’s the problem?
(I buy underwear and jeans that get holes in them for about the same money. This will hang on the wall for years)
Pleasant young guy looks French but English accent selling art Door to door in glen iris and east malvern tonight. Was polite but didn’t buy anything. No idea what prices were as told him from start I was not going to buy.he appeared to be on foot.
Now they are in Norway:
http://www.bt.no/nyheter/lokalt/Advarer-mot-kunstsvindel-899512.html
Hi folk,
I feel like sharing with everyone, hopefully you’ll feel all a bit better.
First let’s say the most important: those guys are not only Israelis, they are backpackers from all around the world who don’t really know what they do. I’m French; I did it myself and am not proud of it. Although it’s the only job I found to pay my travels.
I feel bad about the whole thing but in the same time, some of the buyers will never know and they were so happy to buy a real painting with a story behind it for 100 bucks, really happy. I truly hope they will never read those blogs so they can still enjoy those beautiful colors in their homes.
In the same time I think I really earned this money, walking 8-10 hours in 30-35 degrees and forcing doors was really hard. I was so happy when I finally could stop this terrible job and have enough money to discover your beautiful country.
The money you gave me guys, I gave it back to your economy. I had only 200 bucks on my bank account when I got back home but thanks to you I had thousand of beautiful landscapes in my head.
Those young students do this door-to-door job as any other shitty job they could find to pay their travels. Before judging those poor young guys, check what motivates them to accept those sad jobs. Working for 3 or 5 bucks an hour in a restaurant does not pay. Have you ever checked that the pizza you have in your plate at the restaurant has not been prepared by a poor backpacker (yes for me 3$/hour is a poor salary). Hope you’ll do it next time.
Yes those canvases are probably made in China. And what? You like one of the canvas? Good for you, buy it. Do you think you have paid more that what it was worth? Where would you have bought art? How much would you have paid?
Next time you have one of those backpackers at your home, don’t yell at him. Tell him/her that lying about the origin of a product is not fair. Advise him to tell the truth about the product. If there is a canvas that you like, tell him you would love buying one for what is fair for you and help this young guy/girl to understand a bit of life.
Hope I have not hurt anyone.
Regards.
Nicolas
I live in what might say has a lot of Jewish people, tonight a handsome short dark and nice chap knocked on my door claiming to be an israeli art student trying to set up his own gallery. Having looked on the net he more less uttered the same lines as the other “art students”
I have reported him to the police
They are now in Southern Norway. Very personable young girl who seemed comfortable telling about the various techniques used in the paintings. Wanted to sell at high prices (1300 kroner per piece). Wanted only cash and seemed a bit surprised to learn that I worked with the tax office and wanted to know more about how they were registered in Norway etc. She made a few calls but couldn’t get through to her “boss” as she herself had no such details. Gave her my email address for them to send further information to me. I doubt I’ll be hearing anything!
There here in Kelowna, BC now too. Like others have said they are very polite. As I wrote the cheque I googled them and the second website was the scam. I asked him what he thought he seemed surprised. I told him to clear it up and then come back. Like others have said I would appreciate just the honest truth and a fair price. I have no problem with someone supporting themselves by selling door-to0door. We don’t have to buy if we don’t want to. So this is only a scam in a sense because they are lying as to the origin and reason behind it. Which honestly is sad. I would have just preferred the truth.
They are operating in Pretoria East (Menlyn) at the moment…She calls herself Ira (very charming), said she is travelling with a group of Israeli Art Students and then she showed us her portfolio… Each painting was R1000 she said but she would give me a discount because I am pregnant! Imagine. They are very beautiful paintings but when she showed me a painting of the “tour de france” I felt uneasy because I saw the exact same painting on the internet (I came across the picture by accident, while searching for something else)…anyway, I nudged my husband and told him that we should think about it as R2500 is a lot of money…overhearing what I said she then replied that we could keep the paintings and think about it and that she would return the next day. We agreed. Later the same evening I googled “Israeli art students” – no surprises – I found many articles on the same subject. I called Ira this morning and told her that I she should collect her paintings and that I was not interested in purchasing as I knew all about the scam also that I would contact the police immediately! I could hear that she was taken aback by my conversation…She cut the call…and I’m still waiting for her to collect! Please check out the following website: http://www.paintingweekly.com – all the paintings in her portfolio are on this website. BE AWARE
I live in Benoni, South Africa and she was here today. Red hair with frickles and an accent that sounded more like french. Very convincing and calm. Ja a fool and his money, if it had’nt been for the net it would have been mine.