Email: marioandrea439@gmail.com
Website: https://katiejeannewood.com
Message: I am Mario Andrea from United States , I am very much interested in the purchase your Art piece for Anniversary to surprise my wife Thanks.
Time: August 9, 2019 at 11:32 pm
IP Address: 105.112.74.17
Contact Form URL: https://katiejeannewood.com/contact-katie/
Sent by an unverified visitor to your site.
I knew immediately this was a scam, just by the way it was written. I’ve received emails similar to this one, and they always want to buy art for their wives..because they’re such nice gentlemen. Or that’s what they want you to believe, anyway.
Other red flags include..
When someone is serious about buying artwork, they buy it. They don’t write to tell me they’re going to buy it. Some will write, and ask if they can put down a deposit on a painting, sure, which is completely different. They’re serious about making a purchase, and I will happily put paintings on hold, and set up a payment plan for them.
I’m sure if I wrote back to “Mario”, he’d want to send me a check for hundreds more than the price of the painting..to pay for the extra cost of shipping. Lo and behold, I’d be shipping the painting out of the country, even though he told me he’s in the US. After I shipped out the artwork, I’d be expected to return the extra money to him. After I mailed out my check or sent him money via Paypal, the check he sent me would, of course, bounce because it’s most likely stolen or a phony. He’d make off with my hard earned money, AND my artwork. Um..no, thanks! Not today, son.
Also, he didn’t mentioned what piece he wanted to buy. That’s a sneaky way of prompting a conversation with me, to lure me in, so I start to trust him. “Oh, that painting..yeah, I’ve been trying to sell that for years now. What? You want to send me hundreds more than the list price??” Oooh, soooo tempting for artists, right? If I was going to reply to him, my first question would be..what artwork are you interested in? Of course, having dealt with these jokers numerous times, I already know he would pick the most expense one he could find on my site, and probably more than one.
And, red flag number 3..my artwork has price tags on it already. There is no need to write to me if you’re “from United States”, as he claimed he was. Shipping is included in the price to the US, so all you have to do is click the buy now button, and checkout.
Even though I knew this was a scam, I decided to amuse myself, and investigate further. It really isn’t hard to do. I’ll walk you through it, so you can do it also.
Okay, you see the IP address – 105.112.74.17 – at the tail end of the message? If you can find someone’s IP address, you can get an idea what part of the country or world they’re in pretty easily. Luckily for me, I get the IP address of everyone who contacts me through my website. You can also get it by looking at the full email header of any email you’re sent. Here’s how to do it if you have a gmail account.
With the IP in hand, I went to Google, and searched for “IP address lookup”. It led me to the Whois site. I copied and pasted the IP address into their toolbar, and hm..very very interesting results for someone supposedly “from United States” came up. I probably shouldn’t be such a doubting Thomas. I guess it’s possible that “Mario Andrea from United States” was vacationing in Nigeria when he contacted me, huh? 😂🤣😇
Source: whois.afrinic.netIP Address: 105.112.74.17
% This is the AfriNIC Whois server.
% Note: this output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the “-B” flag.
% Information related to ‘105.112.0.0 – 105.127.255.255’
% No abuse contact registered for 105.112.0.0 – 105.127.255.255
inetnum: 105.112.0.0 – 105.127.255.255
netname: Airtel-Nigeria
descr: Airtel Networks Limited
country: NG
org: ORG-VNL1-AFRINIC
admin-c: OA38-AFRINIC
admin-c: AJ28-AFRINIC
tech-c: AJ28-AFRINIC
tech-c: OA74-AFRINIC
status: ALLOCATED PA
mnt-by: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower: AIRTEL-NIGERIA-MNT
mnt-domains: AIRTEL-NIGERIA-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
parent: 105.0.0.0 – 105.255.255.255
organisation: ORG-VNL1-AFRINIC
org-name: Airtel Networks Limited
org-type: LIR
country: NG
address: Airtel HQ Building
address: A-Banana, 5th Floor, Wing B
address: Plot L2, Foreshore Estate, Banana Island
address: Ikoyi-Lagos.
address: Lagos, Nigeria 234-1
phone: tel:+234-802-192-2396
phone: tel:+234-802-192-2396
admin-c: OA38-AFRINIC
admin-c: AJ28-AFRINIC
tech-c: AJ28-AFRINIC
tech-c: OA74-AFRINIC
mnt-ref: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
mnt-ref: AIRTEL-NIGERIA-MNT
mnt-by: AFRINIC-HM-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: Adebayo Juba
address: Airtel HQ Building
address: A-Banana, 5th Floor, Wing B
address: Plot L2, Foreshore Estate, Banana Island
address: Ikoyi-Lagos.
address: Lagos, Nigeria 234-1
address: Nigeria
phone: tel:+234-802-222-0541
nic-hdl: AJ28-AFRINIC
mnt-by: GENERATED-8RMUILJADQULH7BYNQAJAGXTMWNZL08P-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: Olalekan Akala
address: Plot L2, Foreshore Estate
address: Banana island, Ikoyi-Lagos
address: NG
address: Ikoyi
address: Nigeria
phone: tel:+234-802-192-2396
nic-hdl: OA38-AFRINIC
mnt-by: GENERATED-6EPJDBDOP1KS1RF4ZUS5VE29MSFH6ZLA-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
person: Oluwaseun Adebajo
address: Plot L2, Banana Island Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria
phone: tel:+234-802-222-9029
nic-hdl: OA74-AFRINIC
mnt-by: GENERATED-ZQO5HDXQT67QPMP0OLFPHCWMXTO5FNWR-MNT
source: AFRINIC # Filtered
So, yeah..this is a total scam, just as I suspected. Don’t fall for it!! I advise you to delete this email quickly if you get one in your inbox. First, tho, you can report the IP address to the FBI or to IPDB, which I have done. I don’t know if anyone really looks into these things or not, but I figure it doesn’t hurt to try. I’ve never received a followup from any that I’ve reported. However, I remain hopeful that some day all these scammers will be caught and prosecuted.
