Just curious and cautious...

[swandog.livejournal.com]

Has anyone else gotten this letter or had dealings with this person? Is this someome I should be wary of?



Dear artist,

I am currently making an internet site in which different aspects and different forms of art will be presented. There will be a gallery in which various forms of art will be displayed, everything from poetry to oil paintings, sculptures and tattoo’s. Also there will be a forum for artists, critics and other people interested in art. Also I hope that some veteran artists are willing to help some beginners on their way in the form of online workshops and articles.

A preview of the site can be found at http://www14.brinkster.com/expressus . Although the real name is not yet displayed, nor the design completed, the various aspects are present.

My idea is that every artist will have an own gallery in which he or she can display his or her art in an safe way, making it only possible for trained hackers to store pictures. Also every artist will have a very own POP3 e-mail address (works with programs like ms outlook), has control over his or her own artwork and it will all be free of cost for the artists. This will be done by using commercial banners on the site itself (not near the actual artworks, which will be displayed in a pop-up). There will be no spam e-mail, no viruses, no unwanted pop-ups and certainly no violation of copyrights!

You as artist have the advantage that you can display your art for free on an international orientated site, having a lot of potential costumes visiting and get in contact with various other artists to share ideas and you might even see it as a source of inspiration.

But before I buy a place on the internet I would very much like some artists who are willing to embark on this little adventure and display their art on my site. That is why I send you this e-mail, please reply if you are interested. There will be no spam e-mail, viruses etc. be send to you and this e-mail address will not be sold to a 3rd party (which would not be very smart of me), I will just put you on a list as potential users of my site. I would also be very grateful if you would forward this message to other artists, the more the better. If you are interested in helping me making the site I would also be most grateful. Please contact me if you are interested.

Yours sincerely,
Frank Leystra
expressus@mail.com

(I haven't replied to him yet; just wanted to ask here first.)

--Swandog

Comments

[vulgaris.livejournal.com]

These days I wouldn't oblige with anything but low-res watermarked pictures... Unfortunate but you never know what schmoe is going to decide he/she wants to make/sell prints with or without your approval. That and they really need to get the design up [and the add OFF] before they start hosting art. That's just bad form! ;)

[wereguitar.livejournal.com]

I -think- that person emailed me sometime last year, I told him "sure" and never contacted him again *L*

[wyna-hiros.livejournal.com]

This sounds sorta shady to me. But then again, I guess I'm sorta pessimistic.

[thrivis.livejournal.com]

I got an email a long time ago... from a different email address. And it sounded remarkably similar. O.o; I replied to it, and never got an answer back. :'D

Uh.. Email him back. Usually scammers either never reply back no matter what you mail them, or they only mail you back when you give them permission right out and don't ask questions.

I'd ask this person if he's an artist, or has a relative who is an artist... or whatever else is the motive for making a website like that.

The link doesn't seem to be working right now, aw. :)

[loregryph.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's fishy...hosted on a freebie website, the form-letter email is sent from a free web-based email system and asks you to pass the email along to other artists you know. If they were serious about this, they'd have already obtained a domain so their emails would have at least some credibility.

I'd say don't touch the place with a ten foot pole. Email back, see if you can figure out anything, but don't give permission to use your art unless you can find out more.

[rabidcollie.livejournal.com]

Yes. Apperantly their idea of making the image "safe" is embedding it as a background. Anyone with Internet Explorer can right click to "save background as" or "view source".
Their spelling also makes me suspicous.