‘There’s a scammer out there posing as the Cultural Council chair’

Local artists are being targeted by con artists using bogus emails from a Cultural Council for Palm Beach County official.

West Palm Beach photographer Joel Cohen knows all about the Cultural Council for Palm Beach County, the nonprofit that supports local artists through grants and advocacy. A collection of his images, his first solo exhibition, has been on display since Oct. 15 at the council headquarters in downtown Lake Worth Beach. 

So when he received an email last month with “Cultural Council for Palm Beach” in the subject heading, he didn’t hesitate to open it.

“Joel, I started a recognition program that will express my appreciation to some members who have made key contributions to achieving major goals with gift certificates and I appreciate it if you could assist me with this.

“You should keep this confidential until they receive them. Can you handle this for me? I will get back to you with necessary details.”

The name at the end of the email: “Cheryl Crowley” — a name Cohen said he was not familiar with. But when he checked the council’s website and saw Cheryl K. Crowley listed as the board chair, he assumed the email could be legit. 

He quickly responded. “I said, ‘Sure, I will help you out,’” he said in an interview.

A few minutes later, “Cheryl Crowley” replied with more instructions.

“Here is what I need you to do, (sic) Kindly make the purchase of 4 Apple gift cards at a denomination of $100 each, amounting to $400 online from Amazon and they(sic) deliver it into the recipients emails directly. Let me know if you can do it now so I can provide the recipients (sic) emails. Is Check(sic) fine for reimbursement?”

Cohen said he laughed reading that email. He checked the email address and saw it was from a Gmail account, not a formal Cultural Council address, and it did not include Crowley’s name.

“Stupid me. I should have known immediately it was a scam,” he said, adding that he almost always checks the addresses on suspicious emails. Cohen said he immediately alerted a Cultural Council official about the scam emails. He was told he wasn’t the only local artist who received one.

Scammer used publicly available information

At least 15 have forwarded scam emails to council officials since Nov. 5, said Jessica Ransom, the council’s director of artist services.

“This has the fragrance of a dead fish,” artist Jerry Ginsberg said in an email to Ransom. 

“I believe there’s a scammer out there posing as the Cultural Council chair,” wrote mixed-media artist Harold Claudio.

Ransom believes the actual number is higher. The 15 artists who shared their bogus emails with the council “are just the people being proactive and letting us know,” she said. 

As far as she knows, none of the targeted artists who reached out to her gave money to the bad actors. 

But she said the fake emails illustrate the lengths scammers will go to steal money, in this case apparently by exploiting the council’s website and chairperson to find marks. 

The council’s website includes a directory of more than 700 artists, many of whom include their websites and contact information in their biographies.

“We haven’t been hacked. Cheryl hasn’t been hacked. They’re just using information that is readily available,” Ransom said. 

Council officials have alerted their computer tech to be on the watch for suspicious activity. They also plan to issue an alert to artists in their next monthly newsletter. 

Artists are often targeted

Everyone gets targeted by scam emails. But artists, eager to show and sell their work, can be more inclined to overlook red flags.

Although the bogus “Crowley” emails contain grammatical errors, they look genuine at first glance to many recipients, the subject header using the same words as the council’s web address (palm beach culture). “I bit into it right away,” said Dennis Church, a Delray Beach photographer who volunteers with the council. “They wanted to know if I could help with something. I said, ‘Oh, sure, let me know what I can do.’ Then it quickly turned to something that got my radar up.”

Con artists also target legitimate local artists without exploiting the Cultural Council. 

“I get all kinds of emails that come through my website. I’ve never had a legit one. It’s always a scam,” said Church. “They want to buy your art and they praise you but they want to pay you with crypto currency. I just don’t even respond to those.” 

Yvonne Fok-Gundersen, a visual artist from Palm Beach Gardens, said she recently added web security measures in response to repeated email scam attempts, including one earlier this month from a scammer who told her she saw her work at the Cultural Council.

Fok-Gundersen said she fell for an online scam last year and lost nearly $600, a costly hit for an artist. She said the scam started with an email from a potential buyer who said he discovered her work online. (He did not mention the Cultural Council.) 

“They’ll do anything to steal your money. It’s just crazy,” Ginsberg said. “If these bad actors would employ the same level of industry and creativity in honest pursuits, they would do better.” 

The real Cheryl Crowley said she encourages anyone involved with the Cultural Council to carefully look at email addresses to make sure they’re legitimate. Council emails end with “@palmbeachculture.com.”

“It’s disconcerting that someone would show such little regard for the artists and the many people who support the Cultural Council,” she said.

Editor’s note: This story initially appeared in the Lake Worth Beach Independent, the place to turn for Lake Worth Beach news.