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I do NOT want this thread to be people coming in saying "I got one of these" and then pasting in the email. It is not necessary, nor is it a good idea.

However, that being said, I have more updates from a member who shared this with me. This email was sent through our system.....

I would love to purchase your artworks, it’s unique appearance and your creativity behind them is really captivating. I’d love to know if they are available for sales because I’d love to add them to my collection

The member got the identical message from two different 'people'.

Alavez Jaden and Tyson Richard

Unfortunately the member answered the first one, and a couple of days later received spam form 6 different companies selling T-shirts, probably from China.

Now, as I said in the top post, we know they do not need to ask these questions as the art is clearly on sale here.

Please do not answer emails that ask this kind of question. They can see the work is on sale.

If in doubt, please put the email, name, or wording of the email direct into Google and you will see people already giving warnings.

Thank you to the member who came forward, and who let me share this

I would recommend a message to any groups you administer about this scam. Also, set your email program so that it does not automatically download images in an email. If you are downloading images, and you open an email from a scammer, he will know your email address is live and will add you to his spam list. An email from Pixels or FAA won't lead to being put on a spam list, but any email from a company selling T-shirts will.

People who buy art know how to buy it on a site like Pixels without having to ask. If it looks suspicious, think twice.

While on the subject, just a mention of another scam currently circulating, this time on Facebook. Many of you have Facebook accounts, even in connection with your involvement in selling art here. This scam works as follows. A bad actor steals images off the internet. Popular images are those of fashion models. Then they set up a new account, and use a handful of pictures, maybe only two, and then they make a friend request. When you get a friend request from a total stranger with pictures of a handsome man or beautiful woman, save the images, and then use Google image search to see who they really belong to. If the person in the image is wearing glasses, it probably won't work, but if not, you may get results. One of the scammers used photos belonging to a male fashion model, and my searches uncovered an article in a city newspaper talking about people stealing his images. I was able to contact him and give him a link to the bogus account and he said he would take action. Facebook will not let you report a scammer who is not using YOUR photo. But if you get an invitation, ignore it. I did talk to a couple of these folks, Their bad English (just a few obvious grammatical mistakes) and their demanding my phone number and email address were a clear warning. One even told me he was desperate for money. If you make your information visible only to friends, it prevents them from accessing your friends list, and protects them from the same scammer. However, if you do so and then share content in a group, using a link to the information on your account, non-friends won't be able to see it. Nevertheless, the best practice is to make sure that only friends can see your content, and I highly recommend you do not post pictures of yourself or family members, or reveal specifics about where you live, etc. If you have protected your information this way and you respond to Messenger messages from them, they will be able to see when you are online. If you accept their friend invitation, then they have access to your friends and may try to scam them.

I got the exact same email from "Tyson Richard". Poof, deleted, gone!

Thank you for the information that confirms,I was contacted by a jaden Alavez,
“l would love to purchase your artworks, it’s unique appearance and your creativity behind them is really captivating. I’d love to know if they are available for sales because I’d love to add them to my collection”
The next e-mail was you pick out 5 and for $2800 each. I was very skeptical then and it was from jadenalavez025@gmail.com and to buy through
NFTs and getting a crypto wallet ! I block him!
I knew it was a scam!

Speaking of NFT, deviantART has the ability to search the web for stolen art works, those images that belong to their members that appear elsewhere on the web. They notified me that one my images was being used as NFT, I investigated, and confirmed, and asked them to take action. They did. The image was removed. I suspect what they are doing is proprietary, but would be very useful here and elsewhere, yet costly to develop. And the sites that have stolen art on them have to feel your program has teeth.

I got a new wordy variation of the - I love your stuff - from a johnson doe... Lol... John doe. He loves my nature works... (I have none), and he would love to see my catalog or website, that has like 4000+ images.. That he's on... Funny stuff.

On the plus side it means I don't have to interact with anyone.

----Mike Savad

Yeah, I got an e-mail outside of fine art america, and I think they spoofed something to make it look like it was from fine art america. They asked me if my art was for sale. That made me laugh, ummm yeah....... BUT, I NEVER reply to those, I instantly block. Scam.

I also got the same email from Alavez Jaden, but I didn't understand if the messages are really sent through FAA, few have this email from me, of course if I had replied I would have spread it to many good people

I was just checking my emails and got the same one, so decided to come here to see if anyone else did! Yep! I did open the email, but will delete.

Folks, Abbie DID say she doesn't want people posting "me too" messages. But I have a couple of pointers. Both of my came from the Fine Art America email system. I looked at the full headers. Most email programs are set up so that you do not see that automatically, but you can look at it. There is usually a tiny arrow you can click near the subject line that will give you the full header. You may have to look for it.

Another tip: you get an email that seems strange, and it has links. If you set up your PC so that when you hover over a link it will display at the bottom of your screen (depends on your browser and other things), then you can tell if the email address displayed is not the real email. Many spammers fake the sender email address. I can't tell you how to do that, but if you want to have this ability, and you need help finding out how to implement it, then by all means ask someone to show you. If you actually click on one of those links, you may either get a virus from the site (if you don't have adequate protection) or you will be asked to reveal information that will steal your identity or credit card information or passwords. If you haven't set your computer to show the link when you hover over it, look at the URL when you arrive. If it is at all suspicious, and the sender didn't address you by name (not email address), then don't supply any information.

I am part of the team for my server, to detect and filter out spam messages, and I have many protections. So I know when I can safely respond to an email. That is why even though I was pretty sure these emails were scams, I did respond to see what would happen.

Hi, I couldn't see my Weekly Update. The page would not load. Sorry if i am in the wrong forum for this, but was not sure who to discuss this with.

My Premium site with my domain name has merged AGAIN with my original pixels premium site

Now they BOTH have the domain name. This is not just me!

https://jessicajenney.com/

https://jessica-jenney.pixels.com

Yep me too. I forget what we did to fix that or if it was just fixed on its own or what.


----Mike Savad

My domain names are jumbled again as well - the pixels.com URL is being replaced by my custom URL.

Here is the thread with the Premium site problem. From 2 months ago!

This error affects our search in Bing and other search engines.

https://fineartamerica.com/showmessages.php?messageid=9180111

Is this new? When I do a search on my pro site, I get some framed or canvas views of the search words I used at the top. Its kind of distracting there especially as they are randomly portrait or landscape views.


----Mike Savad

Mike, yes that is new and probably the cause of the domain site merging with the pixels site problem!

The first 6 results are in the way of the actual results, that's all I see now, I have to scroll past that every time I do a search. Its actually pretty confusing to have them listed at the top.


----Mike Savad

Earlier in this discussion, I mentioned getting an email from Richard Tyson, wanting to buy my art. I responded. Today I got an email back from him with a gmail address. He wants to buy five of my works for $2000 apiece. The email contained a run-on sentence (poor grammar, punctuation, spelling, etc. is a warning sign). Sounds really attractive, right? Most likely, this is the deal. You agree to sell. He wants to pay by check. The check will be fraudulent and will be for more than the amount of purchase. He will want you to refund the difference. If you do so, he just collected that much money from you. Otherwise, the check may clear your account, but eventually the bank will discover the check was fraudulent and will take the money back out of your account. In the meantime, he has your art.

Notice in the original wording which Abbie posted, there were also errors; wrong homonyms, etc. In addition, the use of a gmail account and the delay in responding to my answer are indicative of fraud. A legitimate buyer will almost certainly have an email address of his own, not from a general free service.

Here is how I know further this is a scam. I am not selling any originals. He wasn't specific about what interested him. None of my art works is worth $2000 because I am not selling an original. My goal here is to sell many copies for a small amount of money, which is a very different thing.

I am part of the team for detecting spam and fraud for the company that operates my email server. I am savvy to a good many scams, bot obviously not all the possibilities, and these folks are crafty. So I am not in particular danger of being defrauded personally, but since these scammers are using the FAA email system for initial contact, they will email people who have no idea this is a scam, and may fall for it. This is one reason I recommend that any email from a potential buyer be handled on site rather than sending an email directly to the artist which he would reply with his personal email address. The answer should come from FAA or Pixels, not from the artist personally.

If you do answer an email from Pixels, you may well get such an enticing offer that you may be tempted to fall for it. So the best policy is not to respond at all. Pixels and FAA provide legitimate ways for buyers to buy art, and there is no need to go outside the system, nor should you. I am not experienced with selling originals, so this is not advice to people who do.

I don't know if anyone knows, but is there a 'block' option to block these people so they won't keep pestering us? I know there's a follow and contact but what about a block?

Hi Cindy,

The public is sending you communication from your contact button on FAA / Pixels.

In turn FAA is relaying that communication though their site in the form of an FAA email.


Unfortunately, there are many unethical individuals in the world who take advantage of people by attempting to scam them out of money.


You can add those emails to your block or spam email list with your email provider – however, if you do you will no longer receive emails from FAA / Pixels or from actual potential buyers contacting you though FAA.


The best thing you can do is If you suspect that an email or text message you received is a phishing or scam attempt:

• Do not open it. In some cases, the act of opening it may cause you to compromise the security of your information.

• Delete it immediately to prevent yourself from accidentally opening the message in the future.

• Do not download any attachments accompanying the message. Attachments may contain malware such as viruses, worms or spyware.

• Never click links that appear in the message. Links embedded within these messages may direct you to fraudulent websites.

• Do not reply to the sender. Ignore any requests the sender may solicit and do not call phone numbers provided in the message.

I got one email from “Javier Williams” with a subject of “Appeal to buy your artworks’.
Another one email came in this morning from “Alexander Estes” with a subject “I want to purchase your artworks for an exhibition”. LOL. You can purchase from the site!
These look scammers to me. They are very active recently either in the Devientart and FAA, be cautious.

Can the site STOP erasing my 2 letter keywords? Even if this site for some reason doesn't search for them (and I can't imagine why not so many important words like state abbreviations uses 2 letters), google needs it too. It makes no sense to erase it, I need it to find my own things, google needs it also.

So I just don't get why it does this now.


----Mike Savad

I also got an email from Alexander Estes. This makes several different aliases this bad actor (or actors) is using. It looks like they have targeted Pixels. So it might be a good idea to set up a place where Pixels emails will be directed other than personal emails, since some people may fall for it.

That said, it might be a temptation to set up some extra verification or something. I am here to caution you about the new FAD, 2 Factor Authentication. It is NOT a legitimate way to screen out bad actors. Anybody can buy a junk phone and satisfy the requirement. It does not PREVENT any kind of nefarious activity or access. What it WOULD do is penalize the honest people who participate in this site. Particularly those who have a hearing loss, like me. I have had absolute nightmares with some sites over it.One is threatening to cut off a source of income. Another owes me $100 and will not pay unless I pass 2FA. It should also be noted that no person should EVER give out their phone number to ANYONE over the internet. Lots of people do, But you are running the risk of having your phone number passed on to numerous sources, some of which will HARASS you with robocalls. This has happened to me, although I never gave out my phone number to anyone at all to begin with. People search sites got it, and people who want to harass just buy the information behind your back. I subscribed to Incogni to get my personal information expunged from these sites. It is costing me money to protect private information from being disseminated to the world. So if anyone demands your phone number for any reason, find a way to refuse to give it out.

One more thing: I suggest that you set up a discussion where people can report new aliases, so that if you want to block their access, you can, which is to say, stop their emails from going out from Pixels.

Thank you everyone for your replies to my SCAM Post.
John McCormick

I've had a few of these emails and yes MOST of them were scams. But I have one contact that made me more money than I ever made in one day. They were desperate for someone to go shoot about 50 shots in my local town during the pandemic. No one would help, but I did. I made $2200 that day! It was a nice contact and I was pleasantly surprised. I have also had a few trolls jump on my page and cuss me out for no reason and post garbage on my pictures. NOW HOW??? Don't you have to be a member to post comments?? I turned them in but nothing was done!

Is it the solar flares?

My https://MikeSavad.com AW site is acting up. It either didn't load at all, white screen, or it loaded up one main picture and not the rest, and there is a long delay when loading.


----Mike Savad

I have the same problem as Mike Savad! My Premium site with my Domain name is extremely slow and getting error code 525

I sent this to tech support.

Any updates on the - not getting any mail at all from this site -- issue? Usually I get something, but there isn't a single thing coming at me. Which also seems to include customer mail, I tried sending myself one and I have yet to get it. So i'm not sure what's going on there.


----Mike Savad

Yeah that's confirmed, I sent the mail to me, and got nothing. So customers can't contact us at all. Its been about 25min or so now.


----Mike Savad

Same as Mike -- I sent myself an email from my Premium site and never rec'd it. Will contact Tech Support

I'm thinking - is it possible that the amazon servers install spam devices that's stopping the mail from going through?


----Mike Savad

I contacted tech support about premium site messages not getting received. But now I didn't even get "Support ticket created" email.
Hopefully this messaging problem gets fixed soon.

We do not need emails about No Emails. We are aware

Can I send a banner plane? :)


----Mike Savad

email issues are now fixed.

Yes. I got some, not sure if there will be a backflow... So out of curiosity, what was the issue?


----Mike Savad

I haven't gotten any emails from Fine Art America since May 14, 2024. For a while, I was getting warnings from Yahoo that Fine Art America emails were spam whenever I opened a Fine Art America email, but I replied that it was a safe email. Now, I'm not receiving any Fine Art America emails. I have a Yahoo email address. A few years ago, this happened, and it was determined that Yahoo was blocking Fine Art America emails. I wonder whether this is happening again. They're not even in my spam file. I know I get several messages from group administrators every day, but I'm not getting them in my email.

I am getting some notifications of emails on the site from group administrators. I haven't gotten daily notifications of activity for days. My spam filter would not block FAA unless I specifically told it to do so. I get ASKED if the filter mechanism is in doubt.

Customers are not receiving confirmation of their orders going as far back as May 16 as far as I know. Including today (May 22).

In other words, emails still aren't going out.

Fine Art America emails started appearing in my inbox again yesterday, May 24, after stopping on May 14. The FAA emails hadn't been going into spam. I don't know whether FAA contacted Yahoo to fix the problem, but I'm happy to see the emails again.

I got one yesterday. He wanted to pay me 2800.00 for 5 images. Asked if they were copyrighted. I told him that if he wanted 5 images, I have no doubt that FAA would be more than happy to help him.

What is odd the email came from FAA or Pixels to my email, but I was never able to find the email in my inbox on FAA / Pixels... Scammer's wasting my time.

The weekly update newsletter email from Fine Art America are empty (no content) for the last two weeks.

Can I have my views back or give me the option of what I want to list on my AW site? I use that number to tell me if I should promote or not, and I don't see an advantage why it should be hidden.

Thanks


----Mike Savad

My email updates have no content for the last 2 weeks.

I got a email from the name Carlos Trivia , it first came as some have mentioned in this chat , from fine arts as an outside request and interest in buying art of their collection. I did reply which created me writing him to his contact gmail from my personal email . He did reply and also shared where he was from in California and interested in working out something for NFT market. I replied once more and have not heard back but now after reading everything here , it seems and reads like the others so maybe this name will help raise awareness. If any more activity comes on it , I will update things here but it appears clearly to no longer reply .

Philip

Go back to the discussions homepage
See Scams in the sticky threads. That is a scam

www.justcallrob.com is my domain name

robert-niemeier.pixels.com

Obviously most people don't have this problem, I have reported it to technical support twice with no response, Any help here?

Your connection is not private
Attackers might be trying to steal your information from www.justcallrob.com (for example, passwords, messages, or credit cards). Learn more
NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID
Turn on enhanced protection to get Chrome's highest level of security
This server could not prove that it is www.justcallrob.com; its security certificate is from *.fineartamerica.com. This may be caused by a misconfiguration or an attacker intercepting your connection.

Proceed to www.justcallrob.com (unsafe)

I clicked on facebook, and it says the link is broken and I should go back to the newsfeed. Not sure if its just me or if the site has a mangled link thing.


----Mike Savad