A bad economy is a double whammy for the jewelry artists.  Not only are there fewer buyers, fraud and stealing also tends to rise in a bad economy.  In this article, I wanted to emphasize the things a jewelry artist should watch out for based on several incidents I have encountered.  Let me take a recent personal experience as an example.  

As a designer and creator of gemstone, artisan jewelry, I have been doing art shows for several years.  This July, I was at the Fillmore Art and Jazz show in San Francisco.  Around noon, when the booth was especially crowded, a well dressed couple walked in and started buying a lot of jewelry in a hurry.  The lady, Brenda Elmore, was making her selections quickly.  She picked up five items , worth over $500, within a matter of 15 minutes.  Then she started pushing me to ring her up even though I was with a different customer.  She made out a check for the full amount and quickly showed me that the address on her license was the same as the one on the check. 

Somehow, the fidgety nature left me with an uneasy feeling.  As soon as they left, I called my husband to confirm whether he could find anyone by the name of Brenda Elmore in Belmont (as per the address on her check.)  Not only did we NOT find anyone by that name, when we called the lady’s bank we discovered that her account had insufficient funds. 

As a next step, I tried pursuing the case with San Francisco DA who referred me to Belmont Police who in turn referred me to San Jose DA, who has shown no action on the case even after 6 months. While frustration of pursuing the criminal could make for another big article, let me focus here on warning other fellow artists on how to spot a fraudster,

1.       If someone is buying your items (especially high priced ones) in undue hurry, be wary of the motives.  The artist in you could be flattered but the business person in you should be a bit cautious.  I observed similar hurried behavior in an earlier incident involving fraud.

2.       Always look at the check carefully to see if it is backdated.  The bank later told me that fraudsters do that to claim that the funds might have dried up after they give a check.  Even better, invest in a credit processing and check reading machine.

3.       Do not multi-task the transaction processing.  It takes your attention from checking the details. In this case, I could have noticed the check back dating if I were not rushed by the fraudster.

Remember that the fraudsters are experts in what they do and do not have as much to lose as you do.  So, your biggest allies are time (in checking their identity) and tools to verify their credit.  Invest in them.