Unfortunately there is an increasing number of sales people, and
even con artists operating on the internet and all artists
selling their artwork though the internet should be aware of
this. However such enquires should be fairly easy to spot and
hence ignore.

We have 2 key resources to help:
1) We have an article on our wiki with suggestions on how to
identify scams and what action you should and shouldn't take (key
points below):

http://www.theartistsweb.net/wiki/Art_Scam_Email

2) It's very useful to be able to ask other artists if they have
had any similar experiences/enqiries, so we have a dedicated (and
private) section on our forum for this:

http://www.artistsforum.org/art-scam-warnings-f18/
(NB you need to login to the forum to see this private section)



----- From the Wiki: Key Signs -----------
Here are a list of signs that the email/message you recieve is
not a genuine buyer:

    * The offer sounds too good to be true e.g. 'buyer' wants to
purchase a number of items at once
    * The email has grammatical mistakes or is written in poor
English
    * There is a sense of urgency in the message
    * There is some special arrangement requested, e.g. special
shipping agent
    * You are asked to send money/pay in some form e.g. shipping
fee, transaction fee - remember it is you that is selling the item!
    * The email address is from yahoo/hotmail or other major
webmail account
    * The 'buyer' has missed some fundamental detail, e.g. is
asking about your paintings but your are a sculptor, or asks for
prices that are clearly on your website.
    * Something doesn't feel quite right (trust your instincts!)