Is this a scam?

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

I just got this email, and am pretty sure it's a scam.

Dear Sir/Madam,
How are you?
This is May Shi from Xiamen(China) Sinoorigin Art Co.,Ltd.
We can supply different style original oil paintings, commercial oil paintings and famous artist reproduction paintings, ect.
If your business include any paintings projects for home and hotel decoration, please kindly send me an inquiry, I’ll show you more files about our products.
We have great advantages in impressional landscape, impressinal figure, Pino, Van Gogh, Monet...
Hope to hear from you soon and thanks for your time.
Please browse our website for more information: www.sinoorigin.com
This is my email: [email protected] and this is my MSN: [email protected]

Wish you’ll win a great success in 2009.

May Shi
Company: Xiamen(China) Sinoorigin Art Co.,Ltd
Address: South section of LianBan Mingfa Commercial plaza A-382, Xiamen, Fujian, China
Website: www.sinoorigin.com
Email: [email protected] or [email protected]
MSN: [email protected]
Tel: 86-592-6113479
Fax: 86-592-5152932

So is this a scam? Or is it a legitimate business? I highly doubt it is, but you never know. So does anyone know about this?

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:30 am

Most likely legitimate in the sense that they really do sell copies of artwork.

Kind of like the designer bag knockoffs, these are often produced by low-paid Chinese workers in sweatshop or near sweatshop conditions. Also like the designer knockoffs in that they generally ignore copyrights and feel free to steal and copy any artwork posted anywhere. A few artists on an art board I'm on have had their custom artwork stolen and copied by companies like this one (can't recall what companies did that).

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:31 am

whois give this, with an expiry date of 2010, I'm inclined to say it's legit.

Quote:

Billing Organization ............ HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Billing Address ................. 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Billing City .................... Beijing
Billing Province/State .......... Beijing
Billing Postal Code ............. 100011
Billing Country Code ............ CN
Billing Phone Number ............ +86.01064242299 -
Billing Fax ..................... +86.01064258796 -
Billing Email ................... [whois]
Technical ID .................... hichina001-cn
Technical Name .................. hichina
Technical Organization .......... HiChina Web Solutions Limited
Technical Address ............... 3/F., HiChina Mansion
No.27 Gulouwai Avenue
Dongcheng District
Technical City .................. Beijing
Technical Province/State ........ Beijing
Technical Postal Code ........... 100011
Technical Country Code .......... CN
Technical Phone Number .......... +86.01064242299 -
Technical Fax ................... +86.01064258796 -
Technical Email ................. [whois]
Expiration Date ................. 2010-01-15 01:27:52

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 23 Jan 2009 Posts: 3

Oh, so I don't get to scam bait? This is the first ever spam/this type of email I have ever gotten, and scam baiting sounds fun. So it most probably is real?

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:36 am

Not baitable.

But you can seed a few random guestbooks, and while you are waiting for a response, just pluck any letter from the surplus forum, and respond from your safe baiting address as if they were sent there.
The scammers typically send out hundreds to thousands of initial emails at a time, so they can't possibly remember who they sent it to.

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 7:37 am

I'd say legitimate site, as pointed out above, the paintings are produced on an assembly line production team, the better stuff would be the china and timber products, but again, mass produced.

No sense wasting time baiting them,

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 12:18 pm

But if you do happen to want 2000 copies of The Mona Lisa I'm sure they have them as stock items. Many of the paintings in galleries in Montmatre and touristy bits of London come from these places.

Posted: Fri Jan 23, 2009 1:42 pm

Hi Killer101 and welcome.
I assume this was sent to your real life email account?

If you want to start baiting, and it is fun, then you need to follow the guidlines within this forums Stickies.

Get a fake email address with Google, Fastmail, Hushmail or similar. We recommend these three as they hide your IP address which is handy.

grab a lad from the Surplus Forum to get you started.

Apply for a mentor, they are worth the paper their names are written on Wink

And have fun.

OH! and wave goodbye to your spare time. Baiting can become addictive. Laughing