Just now at the age of 76, for the first time in my life, I was the victim of a crime. It was done largely over the internet, through emails, texts, and digital bank transfers, and I never laid eyes on the perpetrator, or spoke with her over the phone, or knew her address.
While there’s talk about elder abuse over the internet, I considered myself immune to the familiar fare, the email that an account is frozen until personal information is confirmed. I knew to discard any emails addressed to “recipients” rather than to me by name. I also noticed that most of them, adorned with the logos of the institutions they speak for, often betray their actual source with bad grammar.
But what happened to me in this instance is that my usual defense protocol went by the boards because of the unusual nature of the request and the avenue through which it arrived.
In recent years I’ve worked primarily as an artist, with a de facto partner and advocate, Michael Ned Holte, a Los Angeles curator, art writer and teacher, and it was through Michael that I heard about Julia (or Julai) Grabski when he forwarded to me this email:
From: Julai Grabski <julaigrabski1@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Jun 23, 2020 at 2:40 AM
Subject: ARTWORK
To: <michaelnedholte@gmail.com>
My name is Julia Grabski from Philadlephia. I actually observed my husband has been viewing your work on my laptop and I guess he likes your piece of work. I’m also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, You are doing a great job. I would like to purchase one of your “”””””” ARTWORK “”””””Also, let me know if you accept check as mode of Payment.
Thanks and Best regards,
Julia Grabski.
With hindsight the question about accepting a check might have been a hint. But in this case the bad English was like an authenticating touch. Here was someone from a different culture staking a claim in mine. Okay, good, as my daughter used to say.
In several emails, Michael and I agreed on a small selection of work to send to her to choose a piece from, and at the same time he let her know that the images she’d included in her first email were my work, and that I’d coordinate the sale. He got this reply:
From: Julia Grabski <julaigrabski1@hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, Jul 8, 2020 at 11:56 AM
Subject: Re: Some works by Aram Saroyan
To: Michael Ned Holte <michaelnedholte@gmail.com>
Okay i’m intrested in buying the Untitled, permanent markers on paper, 18″ x 24″ $1,800. I must tell you I intend to give my husband a surprise with the immediate purchase of the piece. Also If you’d like to know, I’m relocating to Canada soon and our wedding anniversary is fast approaching. So I’m trying to gather some good stuff to make this event a surprise one. I am buying the piece as part of gifts to him (quickly before someone else grabs it). If we agree on a reasonable price, I will authorize a CHECK to you for the payment.
As regarding payment, I would like to inform you, that my husband handles the family credit card/bank and PayPal transaction. So i would authorize a CHECK to you for the payment. I would have handled this much differently if I’d been at home but at the moment, I am on training voyage to the North Atlantic Ocean, with new hires who are fresh from graduate school and won’t be back for another couple of weeks.
As regarding shipping, you don’t have to worry about that in order not to leave any clue to my husband for the surprise. My shipping agent (who is also moving my Truck and my Properties) will contact you to arrange for the pick-up of the piece (this is to avoid my husband receiving it, if been shipped directly to my address would ruin the surprise for this event). You both have to sign a proof of pick up at the most. So as soon as you receive the CHECK and it clears in your bank, my shipping agent will get in touch..
Regards,
Julia Grabski,
PS: In the meantime, kindly get back to me with your FULL NAME as you want it to appear on the CHECK, ADDRESS where you want the CHECK delivered by courier service including your ZIP CODE and MOBILE NUMBER, so the CHECK can be sent at the earliest.
xxx
There are telltale signs all over this, a jumble not unlike a Trump press briefing. But that’s hindsight. Otherwise in a household with other priorities, I got it that she was a little scattered, and responded to the good news. That evening I got this:
From: Julia Grabski <julaigrabski1@hotmail.com>
Sent: Wednesday, July 8, 2020 9:31 PM
To: Aram Saroyan <saroyancompany@earthlink.net>
Subject: Re: Untitled, permanent markers on paper, 18″ x 24″ $1,800
Thanks for your response, i will proceed to instruct your Payment at the earliest, I hope to visit your studio with my husband in the nearest future after our anniversary. In order not to leave any clue to my husband for the surprise, I will contact my Boss to issue out the check and have it sent to you.
I would have handled this much differently if i would be at home but I’m a bit pressed for time myself. I’m moving to Canada by next month end…
As it is, I’m sending you an OVER PAYMENT which will include my shippers fees as well. He has asked for an upfront before coming and since I have no access to a lot of cash, I’m trying to kill two birds with a stone. So, once you’ve received and cashed the check, deduct your funds and PLEASE help me send the remaining funds to the (shipper). I’ll forward his contact details to you once you’ve received the payment.
Now I’m concluding you’re a responsible person and I can therefore entrust you with this arrangement. I’ll let you know Immediately the check has been sent to you.
Many thanks, talk to you soon,
Julia Grabski.
xxx
I’ve since learned that “Over Payment” is a scam trope and that it should have set off alarms. Instead it was the bit about visiting the studio with her husband that I puzzled over. My wife and I were self-sequestered in a pandemic, and she was on the East Coast in the middle of moving to Canada. The $2,500 shippers fee was of course also puzzling. I’d written that I could send the unframed drawing in a strong mailing tube, a matter of less than $100 with insurance. But it wasn’t my business.
I didn’t hear from her for a week, and wrote Michael that I’d decided not to push it. Maybe she’d had second thoughts. Then:
From: Julia Grabski <julaigrabski1@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, 16 Jul 2020 14:28:08 +0000
To: Aram Saroyan <saroyancompany@earthlink.net>
Conversation: Untitled, permanent markers on paper, 18″ x 24″ $1,800
Subject: Re: Untitled, permanent markers on paper, 18″ x 24″ $1,800
Good morning Aram, I will like to inform you that the check has been sent, this is the usps tracking number (9211705213683562522949) the check contains $4350 which is going to cover the funds for the piece and the shipper fee let me know as soon as you get it.
best regards,
Julia Grabski.
xxx
The envelope was sent Priority and should have arrived in two or three days. It took eight days, with notices from the Post Office that it was on track to its next destination. When it arrived, just the check without a note, the return address was in Van Nuys, about fifteen miles from where we live. (The zip code on the postmark proved to be for Brockton, Massachusetts.)
With the arrival of the check, the transaction entered an accelerated final phase, like the chase at the end of a movie. Now Julia was joined by her shippers, Anthony Brady and, a little later, Santiago Luis. They needed the money after I deducted the price of the work, but it needed to be sent in two installments, $1,300 and $1,200, because Brady had exceeded his limit on Zelle. The second amount was to be sent to Luis’s Zelle account. At the same time, Julia was concerned she’d have to pay extra if she didn’t meet their deadline. I couldn’t get the check to clear with my usual bank app photo, but then made the deposit at an ATM. It cleared the next day and, pushing myself to get to the end of this now labyrinthine transaction, I juggled the rest of the details. Anthony, who wrote the same broken English as Julia, at one moment texted: “Can you please do this now because I can’t understand Julia.”
I’d packed the piece in a mailing tube to be picked up on our patio table. Along with it I left three copies of a signed receipt, a copy for each of them and one for me with their signatures. I wondered if they would pick it up that afternoon, but got a late text from Anthony that it would be early the next morning.
At 4:30 the next morning, two strong jolts of an earthquake centered nearby woke me up, and when I looked at my phone I discovered two texts, both sent minutes earlier, canceling the pick-up, a brief one from Anthony and the second in more detail from Julia:
On Jul 30, 2020, at 4:21 AM, Julia Grabski <julaigrabski1@hotmail.com> wrote:
Good morning Aram. There is a big problem right now. My granny was rushed to the hospital this morning and the doctor said she is suffering from appendicitis and is about to burst so they need to carry out the surgery as soon as possible. Due to her hospital bills, i won’t be able to buy the “Untitled, permanent markers on paper, 18” by 24 anymore and i am so sorry for your time and any inconvenience i may cause, but her life matters a lot at this point, i want you to deduct $200 for yourself
and send the rest $1600 back to me this morning.
Have inform the mover about this too. Please i hope you understand and once again, i am so sorry for the inconvenience. Her life matters a lot to me.
Please kindly get back to me once you got this text.
best regards,
Julia Grabski
xxx
I considered making a kill fee claim, but by now just wanted to be done with it. I pressed the Zelle button to send the $1,600 and I’d exceeded my 24 hour limit and would need to wait for the next cycle. Then, on an impulse, I checked my bank balance.
It was three figures. An unholy shock shot through me.
The $4,350 check that had first cleared was on hold now for fraud. Later that morning I opened the case at the bank and then referred it to the LAPD. The check had bounced and I’d lost $2,500 of my own money, and if I hadn’t checked my balance, it would have been $4,100.
The manic, cracked energy of all this, the malign cunning—really bordered on an artistic performance.
More familiar are spray-and-pray overtures. A decade ago, from time to time I’d receive, say, an email from an African prince who wanted to forward a million dollars to me. He just needed to know my name and account numbers. These days things have heated up a lot. But in a similar vein, this week I got the following letter from Secretary of State Mike Pompeo:
And the same week, from Amazon:
When the scam worked, admittedly my own susceptibility was the first and primary culprit. I got stuck on the blandishments in bad English and the run-on sentences until the boom was lowered on me with well-timed expertise. These are sad times, surely the frequency and variety of these solicitations reflect that. Julia Grabski (really—Grabski?) may not exist, but once upon a time whoever wrote those letters might have done something better with a penchant for meandering histrionics.
While the Amazon letter was unmistakable fraud, I was still in a sweat from the scam, and impulsively dialed the number. I’m not Kelly Barnham, and don’t know one, him or her. Somebody answered “Hello.” There was miscellaneous background noise, not an office, not a receptionist. I questioned the order and was asked what the order number was, and then disconnected.