Identity Theft
I received a very interesting email today:
Richard how can you say this is a fake? I am afraid you know nothing about Eddie Cobiness and this is an original as it was purchased from him personally and can have Ernest Cobiness his son to back it up. I have a vast collection of Aboriginal Art which I have collected for 20 years and have several Morrisseau’s and some I sold several years ago a cross Canada. I will back up all the art I sell and will not lose any creditability. If you are brave enough to give me your phone number I will call you on my nickel. If not please retract your statement.
—– Original Message —–
From: ( richard.cleaver@gmail.com)
To: xxx
Sent: Thursday, July 16, 2009 5:25 PM
Subject: Reply to your “Rare original Painting by the Late Eddie Cobiness”You’ve received the following reply to your “Rare original Painting by the Late Eddie Cobiness”
From: richard.cleaver@gmail.com
this is a fake
You can respond to richard.cleaver@gmail.com by replying to this email
I keep a gmail account for casual email. It is the email address listed on this blog. It is there for folks to make contact with me directly as opposed to posting a comment. Many of my friends and colleagues follow the blog and they are not comfortable with posting online comments. I receive hundreds of emails on a monthly basis from people who follow the blog. I have never worried about sharing my email address before today.
I have never heard of Eddie Cobiness and I do not have an interest in Aboriginal Art.
I did not write the comment.
Someone used my email address in a fraudulent fashion. And there is really nothing that I can do about it. But it does scare me. Virtually anywhere a comment is placed, someone can use a fraudulent email address. There is no effective authentication mechanism to validate whether an email address rightly belongs to a specific owner.
I must admit that I am troubled by this email. I have to think about this type of identity theft and its implications.