We all have had email that we know are scams. You know the kind, "I am writing to you because I have a Zillion dollars I don't know what to do with, so I will deposit in your bank account, I just need your account numbers", signed the former King of Siam.

Last fall I was contacted by an author in Poland. In his email he stated that he wanted to use my image Firefall for his website and book cover, and he would pay me to do so, also royalties for any book that sold. His English wasn't great, he told me he had a German friend who helped him with the language. We emailed back and forth many times, ironing out this and that, talking about the coming holidays, the weather and so on. He told me that he had searched over the internet, and found my image to be exactly what he wanted.

Sometime before Christmas we were discussing payment, and he said he needed my bank account number. Up until this email, everything seemed perfectly normal, on the up and up. So I contacted a friend of mine at WC, someone who knows the world and business very well, and he gave me a way to word my reply, so as not to burn any bridges, in case this was legitimate.

I have not heard from the author since then. So it seems that scams can be tailored to a specific person. Here are the previews he sent me.