The email solicitation looked innocent
enough: the ad stated that for a small fee we
could have two images of our work juried into
an online gallery ( there was a live link to the
website) that had hundreds of thousands of
"hits" each month. Better yet, the ad promised
that we could get a 50% discount on two
images we could place in a full color catalog
that would be sent to 10-thousand galleries
and art collectors in the U.S. and Europe. The
two color images would cost us $600.00
each and be printed on separate glossy
pages.
HOORAY! Finally someone was offering us a
cool deal that had the potential of launching
our art for the whole world to see! The two
images in the online gallery would cost only
$10.00 each and since we had $1,500 in our
savings account we could well afford the
$1,200 spent for the inclusion of our art in the
color catalog.
We didn't fall for this!
Nearly every artist with a computer has
received these offers, or offers similar to it.
Each year thousands of American artists lose
their investment and their pipe dreams of
instant fame by falling victim to these scams
that are designed to make money .... for
those sending the emails.
Here's the good news: It only takes about five
minutes of your time to run a background
check on these websites. Who.is is a
website for performing lookups of domain
names. For example, let's run a background
check on our website, www.artjury.com.
Launch your web browser and perform a
search using who.is. Within several seconds
your screen will populate with a lot of varied
information that will have no bearing on what
you are seeking. Near the bottom of your
screen you'll see this:
Domain Name.......... artjury.com
Creation Date........ 2005-03-27
Registration Date.... 2005-03-27
Expiry Date.......... 2010-03-27
Organisation Name.... Director
Organisation Address. 3131 McKinney
Avenue
Organisation Address. Dallas
Organisation Address. 75204
This tells you that our website, artjury.com,
was registered as a domain on March 27,
2005 and expires March 27, 2010 (don't
worry, we intend to renew the domain
ownership). Furthermore you can see that
our registered address is in Dallas, Texas
(that's not our mailing address and anything
sent to the Dallas address never gets to us).
But you get the general idea ... our website
has been around for quite some time and we
live in Texas.
enough: the ad stated that for a small fee we
could have two images of our work juried into
an online gallery ( there was a live link to the
website) that had hundreds of thousands of
"hits" each month. Better yet, the ad promised
that we could get a 50% discount on two
images we could place in a full color catalog
that would be sent to 10-thousand galleries
and art collectors in the U.S. and Europe. The
two color images would cost us $600.00
each and be printed on separate glossy
pages.
HOORAY! Finally someone was offering us a
cool deal that had the potential of launching
our art for the whole world to see! The two
images in the online gallery would cost only
$10.00 each and since we had $1,500 in our
savings account we could well afford the
$1,200 spent for the inclusion of our art in the
color catalog.
We didn't fall for this!
Nearly every artist with a computer has
received these offers, or offers similar to it.
Each year thousands of American artists lose
their investment and their pipe dreams of
instant fame by falling victim to these scams
that are designed to make money .... for
those sending the emails.
Here's the good news: It only takes about five
minutes of your time to run a background
check on these websites. Who.is is a
website for performing lookups of domain
names. For example, let's run a background
check on our website, www.artjury.com.
Launch your web browser and perform a
search using who.is. Within several seconds
your screen will populate with a lot of varied
information that will have no bearing on what
you are seeking. Near the bottom of your
screen you'll see this:
Domain Name.......... artjury.com
Creation Date........ 2005-03-27
Registration Date.... 2005-03-27
Expiry Date.......... 2010-03-27
Organisation Name.... Director
Organisation Address. 3131 McKinney
Avenue
Organisation Address. Dallas
Organisation Address. 75204
This tells you that our website, artjury.com,
was registered as a domain on March 27,
2005 and expires March 27, 2010 (don't
worry, we intend to renew the domain
ownership). Furthermore you can see that
our registered address is in Dallas, Texas
(that's not our mailing address and anything
sent to the Dallas address never gets to us).
But you get the general idea ... our website
has been around for quite some time and we
live in Texas.
Now, let's run a who.is domain search on a
website mentioned in an email we received
March 24, 2009. The email stated, in part:
"There are many elements involved in a work
of Art but everybody who deals with it knows
that it is hard to recreate the soul of a piace of
work with words.
"AsterArt.com is the virtual gallery where
artists and viewers can meet each other,
share their art and interests.
" Join AsterArt.com which was impulsively
created from someone familiar with art for
every enthusiastic artist, crafter, aesthete and
people of art around the world. By joining
AsterArt.com you will also be able to show
everybody your own piaces of work
In order to maintain the gallery and to future
improve it we will charge a small annual fee,
which we are sure it is well-founded.
Join us!"
_
Notice the odd grammatical usage and the
misspellings. Those could be clues to what
the online gallery will look like. Please keep
in mind that we are not rendering any type
judgement on this email or its sender,
AsterArt.
Now, let's run a search for AsterArt.com
in who.is.
The owner of this domain is Iliya Velikov. The
domain creation date was November 13,
2008. He lives in or near Sofia, Bulgaria.
The motives behind this email may be pure.
Would we pay the sender our hard earned
money via PayPal? Probably not. This
website is too new to have much of a
following. On the other hand the website may
catch the public's eye and become a favorite
of art lovers. You, the reader, should make up
your own mind about the bona fides the next
time you receive one of these offers.
Knowing the name of the person who owns a
domain can also be used to your benefit by
running a search for that person in Google.
It's also a good idea to include in that search
the name of the country or state next to the
name. By doing this you might uncover
additional background information about
whom you are dealing with.
As you can see, who.is can be a wonderful
investigative tool. In fact, you might want to
print who.is on a sticky note and place it on
your monitor stand for ready reference.
___________________________________
Return to Front Page
website mentioned in an email we received
March 24, 2009. The email stated, in part:
"There are many elements involved in a work
of Art but everybody who deals with it knows
that it is hard to recreate the soul of a piace of
work with words.
"AsterArt.com is the virtual gallery where
artists and viewers can meet each other,
share their art and interests.
" Join AsterArt.com which was impulsively
created from someone familiar with art for
every enthusiastic artist, crafter, aesthete and
people of art around the world. By joining
AsterArt.com you will also be able to show
everybody your own piaces of work
In order to maintain the gallery and to future
improve it we will charge a small annual fee,
which we are sure it is well-founded.
Join us!"
_
Notice the odd grammatical usage and the
misspellings. Those could be clues to what
the online gallery will look like. Please keep
in mind that we are not rendering any type
judgement on this email or its sender,
AsterArt.
Now, let's run a search for AsterArt.com
in who.is.
The owner of this domain is Iliya Velikov. The
domain creation date was November 13,
2008. He lives in or near Sofia, Bulgaria.
The motives behind this email may be pure.
Would we pay the sender our hard earned
money via PayPal? Probably not. This
website is too new to have much of a
following. On the other hand the website may
catch the public's eye and become a favorite
of art lovers. You, the reader, should make up
your own mind about the bona fides the next
time you receive one of these offers.
Knowing the name of the person who owns a
domain can also be used to your benefit by
running a search for that person in Google.
It's also a good idea to include in that search
the name of the country or state next to the
name. By doing this you might uncover
additional background information about
whom you are dealing with.
As you can see, who.is can be a wonderful
investigative tool. In fact, you might want to
print who.is on a sticky note and place it on
your monitor stand for ready reference.
___________________________________
Return to Front Page
Protecting your money from the growing danger of "Art
Experts" wanting to show your work
Experts" wanting to show your work
