[00:02] scams, etc. on this channel, but one that I um haven't seen yet is a traditional switcheroo because this is something that happened to a couple that went to their local art fair over the weekend.
[00:15] Let's delve into the situation of the acrylic painting. And again, don't send hate or bully any parties involved. So, this is a post made by user Midwest Munchers. They posted this on Threads. They also posted this to TikTok as well.
[00:30] And they captioned this, "You can't even make this stuff up. Here's how we got So, it's like, "Here's how we got scammed at art fair this weekend." featuring her looking real happy at the art fair. People are shopping around in
[00:42] the back. So, her husband is holding a painting and he looks super happy about that. She captions it, "My husband found this painting he loved and shockingly I loved it, too. We never agree on art, so we knew we had to buy it." I relate to
[00:56] like our design tastes are very different. So, when we find something we agree on, it's a really like, "Oh my goodness, I can't believe it." moments. So, I can totally, you know, understand the excitement of like, "Oh my god, my
[01:09] painting." The caption continues, "We got to talking to the artist and he shared that he painted it last night and explained how he used acrylic paints to explained how he used acrylic paints to get the colors just right. We paid $250
[01:22] fair, my husband started to get suspicious that it wasn't a real painting." I'm curious, they never specified. But I'm just curious as to what made him feel this way, what kind of ticked him off that maybe something
[01:35] might not be fully legitimate or correct with this painting. It continues, "He went back to talk to the artist and the artist insisted that he painted the picture the night before." So, we brought the painting home and my husband
[01:49] still had a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. Dot dot dot. So, he put it into Google Lens. Boom. Which is how we found out that we paid $250 is how we found out that we paid $250 for a $60 print at Target. What? You
[02:03] know, I went and Googled Target print and this actually was the first image that came up. A Threshold 24-in by 30-in colorful landscape canvas board framed art by Threshold. And here they say, "Yep, definitely the exact same
[02:18] side-by-side, one of her husband holding the painting and one of the cutout from Target. went back and showed the artist proof that it wasn't a real painting and the artist immediately gave him a full refund. The art fair organizers found
[02:31] asked him to pack up and leave. Life's never boring, I'll give you that. That about so many art scammers, a lot of digital ones who will steal other sell it at conventions. There was a
[02:45] and I've talked about him multiple times on my channel cuz he was doing that was his. But I haven't seen a take artwork sold by somebody else, like, I don't know, Target, and then
[02:58] pass that off as their own artwork. A lot of people in the comments had some first clue should have been the fact that the artist, in quotes, painted it the night before. The paint would still be wet, too wet to frame." Which I don't
[03:12] some traditional work. It definitely can be possible, but it also depends on what paint was and what the material is and the temperature. And also how dry and like humid the environment is. There can be some situations where you can paint
[03:26] something overnight and then have it dry by the morning if the environmental conditions are lined up. And possibly if you're using acrylic paint because it adds, "Well, he could have painted something like that the night before.
[03:38] The big clue to me, as an actual artist, is that anybody reputable would have varnished it before selling. It's best to wait a couple days, varnish over two to three days depending on coats and method, and allow the stink to go away.
[03:50] Then sell." Glad you got the money back. Another person adds, "Tip $250 for original painting that size is way too low." Which is also fair. Look, every artist has their own pricing, whatever. I've typically seen original paintings
[04:03] of this size going at least one grand, at least. So, you know, 250 Another commenter says, "Not Bradley putting his artist's signature and date on the painting in the corner." Because yeah, did you guys catch that? If we go
[04:17] over to the picture here, you can see, let me zoom in, it says in what looks let me zoom in, it says in what looks like purple Sharpie, Bradley 2026. This also to me is a big giveaway, because like, okay, artists can sign
[04:31] their pieces in whichever way they want, whichever location. I love having signed connection to the artist. They don't often sign it with such like boldly contrasting, conflicting color to There's no purple anywhere else in the
[04:45] canvas. There's maybe some soft lilac, but this is like a purple purple. And slightly obscure location, like more in the corners or something. Bro put it like 3 in up from the bottom and 3 in from the right. That's pretty notable.
[05:00] if you look it up, you know. People signing art pieces, Monet's signature, know, the signature kind of signed in here, signed on the bottom. Or, you
[05:12] match the canvas a little bit better. Some more signatures. Purple Sharpie people in the comments, you know, you should have known. Serves you right, da da da." I don't think it's fair to
[05:26] say that. I don't think it's fair to bully or like, you know, make fun of people for falling for a scam. Look, if you're an artist, to you this probably look at it and be like, "Okay, night before, $250, way too cheap.
[05:39] Signature doesn't seem to match very well. Bringing a lot of alarm bells here, right? Another alarm bell, if you just take a look at the rest of the right? Cuz you can see some of it in the background of what's being sold. And
[05:53] they want, but they typically work in a specified medium for the most part. This is a landscape painting, but if you look in the background, we have portraits and dog pet portraits. Pets and people are also two different subjects to draw. A
[06:06] landscape is another subject. So, this person is painting in three separate saying you cannot do that. And many artists are talented and can draw in many different means. You don't necessarily see such a big spread in art
[06:19] styles. It's not the most common. But anyways, I digress. The point that I'm artist, all of these red flags may seem very apparent to you. But if you're not right? This is just a couple. I don't know if they're an artist. It doesn't
[06:31] familiar with artwork. So, they're walking around, you know, she gets that they both love, so she wants to introduce it into her household. And the artist, who is the scammer, is lying to them. Being like, "Yeah, I painted this.
[06:45] on it. I painted it last night. I did that, you know?" So, like, what are you supposed to do? If you don't know any art and the artist that's there is lying that they painted this themselves when they did not, what are you going to do,
[06:59] falling for this. I always say this, if you think you're not going to fall for a scam, you are the prime victim actually for a scam. I hope you none of you guys saying, right? None of you guys are above scams. Everyone falls for them.
[07:11] But there were other people saying, "Hey, like, how did you not notice? You paint strokes on it, right? No brush strokes, etc." And a user adds, "The you are ridiculous and annoying. There are mass-produced prints that have
[07:24] textures added to them to look like they're painting. Target definitely sells prints like that." And they add, "The detail he added about painting the to throw out there, though." And yeah, that is something that you will see in a
[07:37] will use some sort of like varnish or whatever and add like little brush whatever. Like here, here, here, here. So, when you tilt it from the side, it does have like texture to it. So, it looks like, you know, to somebody who
[07:50] maybe doesn't know art that it was hand painted. Where it's not. It's a digital with some texture. And to a similar comment, another user adds, "I have this paint strokes. People who come to my house often think it's real and I have
[08:04] again, the worst part is this isn't the only instance. This is just an instance because their gut told them something was wrong and they Google Lens searched worked for a guy who had a picture framing company. On Sundays, I worked
[08:19] overtime at a market selling framed oil paintings he provided. He called them them in bulk from Hong Kong. They were painted on a production line. Also, low-key weird to call them Tommy Wong specials unless you know that the guy's
[08:31] name is Tommy Wong, you know." Another user says, "I fell for the same scam in selling paintings of the city on the acrylic paints and I thought they were beautiful. I shared them with my father
[08:43] immediately burst out laughing. He told me that I could get the exact same paintings on any street in Cusco. And he said, "When you get home, you can find them all over eBay." He was right. Another person adds, "I was next to a
[08:55] show a few years ago. It was obvious to all the nearby vendors that it was cheap crap from China, but she insisted she made it. The earrings were literally in the cellophane bags they came in from the wholesaler. I ran into her at
[09:07] later and threw her under the bus hard with the organizers. Another vendor at banned her. She had balls, I'll give you that." Another one also I want to add is somebody who's like getting into crocheting, crocheting takes freaking
[09:22] those little Miffys. I made one of the big one on stream, right? These little right? Cuz I'm new. I'm learning. I'm only on my second year. More experienced and 1/2 hours per Miffy, okay? You think I'm going to be able to rack up this
[09:37] massive spread of little bunny keychains for a show a week? No, hell no. And if you see a crocheter selling their crocheted and crocheting at the booth because it
[09:50] every spare second to crochet. I'm crocheting at like restaurants, dude, because it takes so long. And this is a sweater that I'm working on. I don't got So, that's a big one with the crochet. If they got a bajillion different little
[10:03] crochet animals and you talk to them and they're like, "My team made it." and you there, likely drop shipping from China. Obviously, obviously, disclaimer, right? There's many crocheters who might have a partner or a helper step in to man the
[10:17] doesn't know how to crochet, so they're not crocheting. The partner doesn't know crocheting. But with those people, they'll be like, "Oh yeah, my wife made it. My boyfriend made it." Whatever. You know what I'm saying, right? And then
[10:29] whatever, they're crocheting. It's not one person be like, "Oh, it's my team of drop selling. Like, wait, is that even a word? Drop shipping, is that a word? Mount Horrible. We were working the booth directly across the aisle from
[10:43] this guy. He had a lot of physical items like chairs with designs. It wasn't just prints. I don't quite know why somebody who is a creator of some works would down immediately and he refunded the buyer's money, but he seemed pretty
[10:56] genuine, even chatting with other booths for a while after he got shut down. This understood it a lot better. Side note, what's really funny is I went and looked Fair, and they have the most AI-generated looking picture ever on
[11:09] in the background melting. I don't know what's happening to this guy. They could have just ran a picture through AI or something to get this, but what are your thoughts on this story? And I'd love to hear your thoughts in
[11:21] the comment section down below. Again, scamming with AI-generated AI and all that sort, never okay. Don't scam people, man. And again, if somebody fell there's no need to be rude in the comment section. They're an unfortunate
[11:34] person that didn't recognize that this was a scam and accidentally fell for it, for some artwork and you see a traditional piece that you like, couple of things, you know, that you could use, you know, check off this checklist. One,
[11:48] doesn't actually appear anywhere else. But, two, you know, talk to the artist. style? Artists typically They have a favorable medium and a subject they'd like to paint. So, they typically will paint only or mainly like pets or mainly
[12:02] landscapes. So, you know, a consistency across what they're selling is a good one. Three, if the pricing seems fair for a full painting like that of that size, it typically goes for at least one grand. Rarely will find it in the the
[12:15] grand. Rarely will find it in the the 250s, 300 range. That's that's very low. true, it possibly could be a scam. And then, another one, if they're signing it with a purple Sharpie in a pretty notable spot on the art piece, probably
[12:28] something's up here. But again, everybody falls for scams. back. I'm glad the fair organizers worked swiftly on it and booted the person out. So, thankfully, it was all resolved. But again, we'd love to hear
[12:42] this video, I appreciate it if you like and subscribe. And guys, we are about to hit 300k subs. I think by the time this video is live, we might be at 300, which I'm so excited for. Thank you guys so much, by the way. Yay! I appreciate it.
[12:57] Mondays and Saturdays at 6:00 p.m. Pacific Standard Time and Thursdays at 7:30 p.m. Pacific Standard Time where I do a podcast with my friend. So, I'll have to catch you all there or in another one of my videos. Peace.