If you are an artist, it’s great to hear from people who are interested in displaying your work at an art show. Or is it???

Dennis uses the internet to promote his work. So it wasn’t unusual to get several messages from people saying they wanted to buy his paintings. But there was something strange about the letters. They were almost identical with the exact same wording, but they were supposed to be from different people in Ireland who were involved in a Transafrica art show.

Coincidence or something else? What made him even more suspicious was that he was told he would receive an e-check for the cost of the paintings, plus $1,000. He was to deposit the

e-check in his bank account and then forward the extra money to someone else. He was told the money was to buy supplies for the show. Is an e-check fraud proof? And what is an e-check? Should he do it?

No, because he would have been the victim of a scam involving e-checks, the latest in payment options, but they are not fraud-proof. In fact, he had heard one of our reports on a similar scam involving fake cashier’s checks and knew a scam when he saw one.

And just to prove that he took the correct action, he made an inquiry of the company that was supposed to have issued the e-checks and learned that the account on which they were drawn had been closed because of fraudulent activity. So there – be forewarned. While e-checks may be a handy way to make payments, they are not fraud-proof. The best advice: don’t ever accept any form of payment where you are told to keep part of it and send the rest to a third party. Especially not from someone you don’t know.