I was just contacted by someone who had my email address as well as information about my interest in antique beads - perhaps through one of my publications. He had a nice story about wanting to buy a necklace of antique beads for his wife, whom he found was surfing some of my on-line bead posts on his laptop. It was quite touching in that he thought she would be thrilled to get one of my designs as a surprise.

However once he selected a strand from the ones I sent him pictures of, he said he could not pay through normal channels, and instead wanted my bank account info for a bank transfer. On top of that, he wanted to send someone to my house to pick up the package instead of using USPS, FedEx, etc. so his wife wouldn't be suspicious.

This was a rather obvious ploy to get my bank account info and also to possibly case my house for a robbery.

He is using the name Donald Parker and says he lives in Illinois. He did not answer any of my questions about what sites his wife was surfing, or the type of beads she looked at. He also said the links I provided to my Etsy items did not work.

I feel this was an attempted identity / bank account theft and wanted to alert the bead community.