Update: we have reached our goal of $2,000 in just two days! A huge thank you to everyone who donated, shared, and sent Harper good vibes. She is incredibly grateful as are we. I have shut down the fundraiser (no need to be greedy) but you can still commission art from Harper if you want to help her budding art career. You can dm her on Instagram @ootmel or email and I can put you in touch. Thank you again for restoring her faith in humanity and her bank account
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As some of you may know, our daughter, Harper, was the victim of an elaborate scam that drained her bank account of $1,700.
She received an art commission request from an older man who wanted her to draw a wedding photo as a gift to his wife for their 40th wedding anniversary. He provided photos and details. He said that he was too old and didn't know how to use online payment methods like Zelle, Venmo, PayPal, etc. so he sent her a check. The check was for $1,700 which was more than the commission because, he told her, that he would like her to send the difference to a printer to print the artwork but, again, he didn't know how to use Zelle so could she please do it for him. She deposited the check and when it cleared (yes, it cleared), she sent the money to the printer. She thought everything was fine until she got a $1,700 charge back for the check which essentially drained her bank account and then some. Of course, the "older gentleman" ghosted her and the print shop disappeared.
Needless to say, she is devastated. It also doesn't help that she is trying to deal with this while working and living in Japan. She did report the fraud/theft to her bank but it is doubtful that they can do anything about it since she used Zelle to transfer the funds.
We asked her if we could set up a GoFundMe to try to help her recover the money by donations or by commissioning artwork from her (and not paying by check, of course). I set a goal of $2,000 to cover her loss and the GFM fee that they charge.
You can see some of her artwork on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/ootmel/
You can message her through Instagram for commission inquiries or to say hi or you can email us and we can pass your information on to her.
Anyway, thank you for helping Harper if you can.
-Ken C. and Rumi M.