March 18, 2026 | Beware of scams: NFT scams in the art world

In recent months, we have been contacted by several artists who have received suspicious inquiries from purported art collectors. These inquiries express a keen interest in the artworks—without going into detail about them—and claim to want to purchase the artworks as NFTs (non-fungible tokens).

At the latest in the second step, they then claim to want to purchase the NFT on a very specific platform. An unusually high purchase price in Ethereum (ETH) is also quoted, which sounds tempting to artists but also serves to unsettle them and suggests that they should, of course, be familiar with ETH.

We are not yet aware of any cases in which artists have suffered financial loss. Nevertheless, the inquiries in German or English all follow the same pattern. We assume that, at the latest when the fees of the advertised (fake) platform are charged, the cost trap snaps shut and the artists lose money.

Therefore: Be skeptical of offers to buy art as NFTs. Examine the offer carefully. Under no circumstances should you make an advance payment!

Report any cases that seem suspicious to you!