#art scam

[oddarette]

Beware of the new art book scams

Hey there, I'm putting together a little PSA. Art book ads can no longer be trusted. I recently got an ad for an art book from a company called Comicpencil. The book is all AI generated content. I didn't purchase it, but after digging I found a youtube video from an artist called Jazza pointing out that there is no credit to any artists anywhere. He purchased the book and pointed out that a lot of the text content also makes very little sense.

I tried commenting on the ad pointing out that it was AI generated and my post was instantly deleted and I was blocked. I think they have some kind of detecting software that flags any mention of AI on their ads to keep up the charade. Here's one of their posts on one of the better AI image detectors, Hivemoderation. I know these things aren't always accurate but they can definitely help indicate AI if the results are consistent enough. I tested a few I could find that weren't obscured to hell and sure enough they all came out with these results.

Please. I urge you to share this. Scams in general are going to be getting worse thanks to AI and it's really important people are aware of this. Be vigilant.

#scam alert #psa #art scam #fuck ai art

[erika-xero]

A small guide to commissioning artists: how to avoid getting scammed by people who use image generators

Because “Ai-art” is not art and everyone can use image generators for free.

Disclaimer! This post will include generated images which were originally uploaded on DeviantArt and Twitter by people who generated them. Some of these images are of erotic genre but censored out. I beg you, do not bully these people. This post wasn’t written to call anyone out, it was written to help human artists and their potential commissioners. While some of the “Ai-artists” out there may be real scammers, others are not, and I strongly believe that no one should be bullied, doxxed, stalked and no one deserve any threaths over some silly ai-generated pics. And - as always! - scroll down for the short summary.

Commissioning an artist in 2023 may be scary, especially if you are not experienced in working with artists and have a hard time to distinguish artworks from images generated by neural networks. But even now, with the tech evolving and with neural networks generating pics with multiple characters and fan art, there are still quite a few ways to avoid scammers.

The creator you are going to commission must have an established gallery

This doesn’t mean that you should not commission someone who is new to platform, someone who started drawing in 2022 or later or someone who didn’t upload their work online prior. Image generators actually forced some of the artists to remove their work from social networks. In addition, image generators can generate thousands of images within hours, which means that the scammers may have quite a lot of works uploaded. What I mean is that real artists grow. Their skills gets better over time – even if they are already established artists with huge experience. Their artistic approach constantly changes and evolve. It means that if there are hundreds of images in the artist’s gallery but their skill is always the same level and their artistic approach doesn’t change over time – this definitely might be a red flag. As an artist with a tendency to nuke my galleries on certain platforms (such as DeviantArt, VK and ArtStation), if I get asked to provide my commissioners with examples of my early artworks I will do it with no hesitation. 

You need to look through the artist’s gallery and analize their work

Searching for some decent examples on DeviantArt I stumbled upon a gallery which is four weeks old but already has 660+ deviations all of which look the same way in the matter of skill and artistic approach. While stylization may vary from image to image (some of the artworks look like typical anime-styled CG artworks from visual novels and others have semirealistic proportions), the coloring, the “brush” imitation, the textures on the backgrounds are absolutely the same on every image I analized.

There are a lot of images depictinioning conventionally attractive white or sometimes asian girls in this gallery, some of which seem familiar or resemble the characters from various media. Yes, image generators can now generate fan art. But what they can not generate is diversity. There are of course living artists who tend to draw only conventionally attractive white or asian people too, but now when the image generators gain popularity this lack of diversity automatically raise my suspicions. Drawing a crooked nose or dark skin is not hard and living artists who use references rarely fail at it. It’s image generators who fails this task constantly.

Here is an image titled as a commission. The person who uploaded it also have some content under the paywall and I do not see their images being tagged as Ai-generated too.

Remember the golder rule: spotting an Ai-generated image is the same as spotting the evil faerie in a dark folklore tale. Look them in the eyes. Count  their teeth. Look at their hands and count their fingers. Check if they have a shadow and if that shadow is of human form.The devil is in the details.

While this image may appear like a hand-painted artwork of the conventionally attractive girl at the first sight, however it has quite a few clues that may help you to realize that this artist is a scammer and his entire gallery is just a selection of most-decent looking images they managed to generate with neural network. This elven girl is insanely tall, and the shore behind her back, the stones, the grass and the trees are insanely small compared to her. The piece of jewellry is attached to her nips and it’s design makes no sense. What is the gold chain under her breast, which doesn’t seem to be attached to anything? Where does this piece of cloth hang from? Why does her head cast a triangular shadow on her arm?

Many details are easy to be spotted when an image is in high resolution. I do not recommend artists to post their works in high resolution online to avoid feeding the Ai-monster and also to avoid people using your works to produce pirated merch if they draw fan art. Yet in my opinion posting close-ups might become essential - because people who call themselves ai-artists are usually hiding the artifacts under filters and upload their image resized. So yes: avoid commissioning artists, who never post high resolution faces or overuse filters and blur. Because analizing the characters’ faces is now essential.

You may look at this picture and think: how is this possible for a neural network to create such a detailed image and not fail at it (if you also ignore the fact that the girl on the horse doesn’t have legs). Luckily, the person who uploaded it uploaded it in high resolution, so we can zoom in and... yeah.

The artifacts on these evil faeiries’ faces (especially eyes) and their hands speak for themselves.

Image generators have a tendency to either give characters extra fingers, phalanx or nails or hide the hands completely, if the person writing a prompt decide to to so. I do not know whether and how fast will the algorythm learn to generate normal human hands, but for now you should pay attention to these details to spot a generated image.

Like this randomly nakey fellow with two palms on a single wrist and with some extra fingers on their elbow...

...Or this Asuka Langley fan “art” I had to censor out, with her fingers twisted and crooked.

If you are up to commission an artwork and are in search of an artist who will actually do the job you absolutely must pay attention to small details on their works: the clothing, the jewellry, the tattoos, the anatomy.

While Ai-generated images may appear photorealistic at first sight, the neural network usually misses small details, creates artifacts and makes mistakes if there are too many similar objects or repetative patterns. For example, the infamous MidJourney Party Selfies depicting girls with roughly fifly teeth, extra collarbones and green watercolor spots instead of tattooes (and don’t forget to check the ginger lady’s hand). The hair dissolwing in fabric folds? Image generator. The clothing designs which makes no sence? Image generator. Jewellry dissolwing into character’s hair? Image generator. Moreover the image generators also make mistakes while generating interiors and architecture, since the algorythm is not aware of perspective and space and once again fails either at perspective and object size or with repetative objects and patterns. 

Like this image here: the bed, the window, the picture on the wall. The perspective on this image makes absolutely no sense: two walls and the bed all exist in different dimentions, while the character is once again of enormous height.

If you try to analize the background on this one, I swear, you can go insane. Look at the window and then look on the corner above it. 

There is also another red flag which makes it easy to spot a scammer: dozens of iterations of the same image, which usually happens with people who can’t choose the best image out of the bunch generated with the single prompt.

There are, of course, artists who do series of works, and sometimes these works may have similar ideas and themes, but they hardly ever look this similar to each other: they may differ in angles, poses, character designs and even the artistic approach (lineart, brushes, rendering and etc). The posting time is also important: drawing an actual artwork requires time and effort - for example, I need at least two weeks to finish an artwork with two or three characters and detailed background. So a bunch of ten similar images that are uploaded at the same time it is definitely a red flag. The ai-generated images have a lot of problems with anatomy, details, perspective and other basics human artists have to learn long before they become professionals. All while having glossy semi-realistic render which can only be achieved with years of practice. I’m not saying that there are no living human artists, who may make mistakes (everyone makes mistakes now and then, even the professionals who works in this industry for DECADES) or who choose not to give much thoughts to backgrounds while focusing on characters and rendering (it is okay too), but the combinations of various red flags listed above is something you definitely have to take in account while deciding whether or not you are going to commission an artwork from this creator.

Another example (this person openly admits that they use the images generators for funsies and I did not find him mentioning paywall anywhere). The image generator even imitated the watermark.

Red flags you may spot while working with the chosen artist

Image generators are tricky: they can generate multiple iterations of the same image, imitate WIPs and many more.

First of all, the artist should provide you with WIPs on every stage of work, not when the work is already done. We artists, do it for a reason. We need your feedback constantly, even if you grant us artistic freedom to chose the idea, the character pose, the medium and technique. There are always changes to be made, and we need to make them at proper stage: for example, change the pose or angle of your character while working on a sketch is thousand times easier than to do so while rendering the image. However, the minor changes are usually possible on the later stages (some of artists may require you to pay a small fee of a few bucks, others may not). While the living artists can easily change small details such as the character’s eye color (or other small design changes) not touching the rest of the artwork, image generators simply can not do so not rerendering the whole image. If an artist does not provide you with WIPs or only provide you with them when the work is done, if an artist refuses to make any changes  -  these may be interpreted as red flags. If an artist agrees to make any change, even the drastic ones, at a late stage, when the piece is almost finished - it is a red flag too. Ask for a small change every single time you need one. I know that there are artists out there who prefer to only provide their client with the finished image once it is done, but now when image generators gain populatiry his may be misinterpreted as if you are a scammer.

Here is a good example of image generators generating WIPs for an existing image: it might actually look scary both for many artists and many commissioners.

I know that some of the artists are panicking that the only way to prove that you really did the artwork is a timelapse recording but this method is not for everyone. Not everyone has a setup which allow them to record a timelapse for an every single commission (my laptop will simply explode if I try). Ask your artists which software/setup do they use, ask them whether or not they can provide you with a timelapse video, ask them which brushes do they use. I know that not everyone like sharing info on their pipeline but at this point it is essential to provide your clients with information on the information about your pipeline, tools and software. For example, if your artist works in Procreate (which is available in Ipad) they have all the timelapses recorded automatically. But please, mind that not everyone have such a privilege.

As a commissioner you can ask an artist for screenshots of their workspace with all the interface visible. If they refuse providing you with that or have a hard time answering the questions about the software they use it might be a red flag. I would also suggest you not to force your artist to draw everything on stream, especially if these streams are public, because there are already cases when people took screenshots of the work in progress, used the image to image generator to apply the shiny rendering to it and accused the original artists of plagiarism. It is a risk for artists and it is okay to refuse such a request. You can also ask an artist for .PSD file of the commission, but the artist have a right to refuse sharing it online for copyright-related reasons. The original .PSD file is a best proof of authorship in court for residents of many countries. Artists can still provide you with the resized .psd file with some of the layers merged or with the background/character png with transparent background without putting themselves at risk. Of course there are artists who draw on the single layer - but without a timelapse recorded this may indeed seem suspicious that the artist does not have a .psd file with layers at all. Always ask your artist to provide you with high resolution image when the commission is finished and fully paid for. There are artists who works on smaller canvases, but working on the canvas smaller than 1000px wide might be interpreted as a red flag, since it is easy to hide artifacts on a resized image. I myself prefer working on larger canvases, from 6000 pixels wide to 10000 pixels wide (300 DPI) because I had an experience with printing my images out to sell them at conventions. While I do not sell commissioned works as prints I still give my commissioners a right to print the finished images out for non-commercial purposes. Thus, I always make sure that it is possible to make a wall print of a decent size out of the finished product. Avoid working with platforms which do not support refunds. It must either be a payment system which support sending invoices or an established platform known and used among the art community (patreon, buymeacofee, boosty, Paypal and etc.). Most artists do not do refunds for finished works — which is absolutely a right thing to do - but sometimes an error might occure. I know people who accidentally paid for their commissions twice and the artists still had to do a refund. Yes, you must respect the artists Terms of Service, but ithas nothing to do with unrelyable platforms used to scam people.

To sum it up

Search for an artists with established galleries,which has a believable amount of works and the visible artistic progress/evolution;

Analyze the artist's gallery, carefully inspecting their work for anything that might be interpreted as a red flag. Excessive fingers, crooked hands, broken perspective, clothing designs and jewellry that makes no sense, extra collarbones, lack of diversity, excessive teeth, artifacts in the eye area, interior and architecture elements which makes no sense — all while the images being glossy, fully rendered as if the artist have decades of experience;

Avoid people with too many iterations of the same image in their profile;

Avoid people with too many images being uploaded at the same time (it is okay to upload a bunch of prevoulosly done artworks when you start running your account, but uploading hundrends of images every week for a long period of time is really suspicious);

Ask for constant WIPs. Give feedback at a proper time. See the reaction;

Ask for a small change when the image is almost finished: it is impossible for the image generator to do so without fully rerendering the image, at least for now;

Ask your artist which software and assets do they use;

Ask (if it is possible) for a timelapse recording — either if the commissioned work or at least of one of their previous works (if they had an opportunity to record it before);

Ask your artist for in program screenshots with visible interface and history (if possible);

Ask your artist to show you the layers of the artwork — at least character/background only layers (mind that the background might be less detailed/wonky at the places which usually are hide but the character's figure). Ask for a resized .psd with some of the layers merged or a gif animation of each layer being added on top — this is what I usually do;

Ask for high resolution file of the commissioned image once you paid for it and it is finished. If the artist doesn’t have it and claim to work on the canvas smaller than 1000 px wide and/or claim that they intentionally delete the original file somehow - this may raise suspicions. Of course a person can delete the file accidentally or have their hard drive crushed, but if you have already spotted some red flags while working with this artist it might be a sign of a person trying to scam you too;

Many of the stuff listed above might be interpreted as a red flag , but I strongly advice you not to judge anyone by one or two points from this post. For example, a person can draw on one layer and mess up the perspective on a drawing entirely! However, if you've played a bingo and suddenly won — you have most likely encountered a person who try to fool and scam you;

Avoid working with suspicious payment methods. If you never heard about  a platform before — google it and see whether or not other established artists use it. If not - it might be a scam;

And remember! People may use the images generators for various reasons: for fun, to create references of their characters to later commission reall artists artworks with said character (for example, the art breeder is a useful tool to create arealistic image of the character, even though I find it slightly limiting). Yes, image generators are unethical and trained on copyrighted data, but a person using it may not be aware of this problem. Not every single person who call themselves an “Ai-artist” has malicious plans to scam people or to gain wealth using their funny little tool. Sometimes they do it for fun and do not pretend that it is anything more that a game. Thank you for reading this far and good luck with your commissions!

Have a picture of an absolutely normal and realistic woman, generated by the neural network!

#ai art #ai art is not art #support real artist #support human artists #support artist #how to spot ai #how to spot a scammer #scam #art scam

[asura-zoro]

ATTENTION: ART THIEF AND SCAMMER

I know that I have reblogged some posts about this person, hoelys-blog, already but I think I should try to condense the info down to one post and provide some updates (updated information will be colored like this, or featured towards the bottom of the post.)

This person, who has identified himself as Lino to someone who measaged me (who was scammed by him), reaches out to you via DM to promote that they have commissions going on. Showcasing art that they have stolen and altered from other people. As far as I know, only one artist was able to get majority of their work taken off of this guy's "commission post(s)". I have reblogged some posts about that artists experience, you can see all the posts I mention if you search the #hoelys-blog tag on my blog or by clicking on any posts tagged as that.

Any effort to call out this scammer on his posts are made in vain- he deletes any reply or reblogged comment so that folks visiting his page cannot see any attempt at warning on his posts- UNLESS YOU CHECK THE REBLOG AREA AND VIEW THE TAGS.

He saw my attempts to warn people, deleted my replies/comments on his posts and I woke up to see that he changed his blog name.

Here are all of his blogs that we know of:

@Reikantopeni formerly hoelys-blog

@Kawaiibasementsublime

@Pashnaengnami

@lino1017 (homework help scam)

@iwilldrawanythingforyou

A former name for one of these current blogs is decaffeinatedharmonypaper

All of his blogs feature stolen and altered artwork, and most are advertising that their commissions are open. If any of you know any of the stolen pieces' original artists, please let that artist know so that they can file the proper reports.

What we can do in the meantime is report each post that has stolen artwork promoting that he has commissions open. This goes for anyone that you see that does this- you report them for phishing. What I did was also provide a link to a post that showcases the the source of each stolen piece of work within that post. Tumblr support will reach out and ask you to provide links to the report you make!

Speaking of, you can access that particular post via the #hoelys-blog tag, look for a post made by @tamiisnthere!

This person also seems to make their rounds in different fandoms based off of tags that I've read- so it is not just One Piece or DBZ.

This person is known to be manipulative in the DMs, and get you to take pitty on them. They also will straight up beg. So I emphasize DO NOT ANSWER BACK WHEN HE DMS YOU. Just report commission posts as phishing before you block him and delete the convo. If you do talk with him, screenshot/keep your messages so that you have proof.

If you have been scammed by this man, please report the account(s) he used so that you can get your money back. He uses multiple PayPal accounts, someone that was scammed by him has given me each email that they are aware of. (I am debating if I post them or not...)

I highly encourage people speak of their experience with this person in the comments or in reblogs of this post. That way we can see how deep this rabbit hole goes.

By all means, do NOT harass this person. Please only report and block him!

Other Information/Updates

This is a message between someone who has gotten scammed by Lino and I. They asked to remain anonymous, some of the info you'll see in the screenshots have already been applied in the post earlier. This convo took place on 1/04/2023.

01/05/2023 Update

I will not be releasing details such as his full name or his emails at this moment. I believe that this information should be known to people who have been scammed or whose work has been stolen first. If anyone has been scammed by this man, or work has been stolen and need certain information to file reports, please message me.

These are some of the artists that tamiisnthere was able to find (you can see that post on my blog's #hoelys-blog tag), whose works was stolen by Lino. If they have a Tumblr, please tag them in the comments. Or if there are other artists whose work you see that Lino has stolen.

@soyochii

KrisBurdarina (on redbubble)

@chibigohan

Kkugvw (on twitter)

#art thief #art theft #scammer #art scam #hoelys-blog #kawaiibasementsublime #pashnaengnami #reikantopeni #phishing #art #commissions

[braindeadmaggot]

Warning to all Tumblr friends

There's a new blog on here, @scrumptiousinternetyouth going around messaging me, a bunch of my friends, and many others asking if we want commissions. The only reason why I noticed this specific blog as suspicious is because they messaged mere SECONDS after I liked a photo they posted.

Turns out they've been soliciting and when asked about their work they've shared so much art of completely different styles, it became plainly clear what they were doing.

Here are the sources of the art they're using on their blog.

SIY's comm price list = vs = the original artist's self portrait: @soyochiiii [art link]

NFT art from KPRVerse - a metaverse building crytpo game

Alex Guenther's "Wakanda's Guardian"

this one was hard to find the artist for because there are so few posts. Here's a post from hiatus on twitter earlier this month, and one from @lazytama here on tumblr [original post deleted, link goes to @chibigohan] from March 2019

This blog was created less than a month ago and they're already up to no good. This is not what Tumblr is about.

#warning #art scam #stolen art #art scam alert #scam alert #buyer beware #kindly reblog and tag if you know the artist #not sure if I should be impressed with the gochi signal boost reblog having 'shill art' in its tags or not #a shill is 'person who poses as a customer in order to decoy others into participating'. to bait to lure or to deceive #basically admitting to being an accomplice to the sham #very clever #shill art #indeed #the last photo with goku and chichi was a reblog comment on their first post last month promoting their commissions #that post was just deleted earlier #signal boost #scrumptiousinternetyouth #artists on tumblr #tumblr artists

[kyra45]

Instagram art scams

Please note this scam can also occur on other sites where you advertise your art commissions and not just Instagram.

Someone will message you asking you if you do commissions and then send you a picture of ‘their’ dog, ‘their’ sibling, or anything else and ask you to draw a portrait or a mural. However, they claim they’ll pay you $300-600 or more for it but also claim they can’t pay you by the regular way because of issues and can only pay by check or another third party payment method that isn’t very trustworthy.

Sometimes, they’ll claim the check is for too much and you’ll have to give them some money back. This is a scam. The check isn’t real and if you cash it you’ll be out of cash. They don’t want to commission you they just want all your information. Don’t take commissions from anyone who acts like this. Refuse to take their order and warn anyone else who may have gotten the same scam. Links below lead to other posts that show the general idea of what the scam is overall or to show others who had experienced it.

Sources (Other posts)

One Two Three Four

(Links are from the iOS app. I apologize if they do not work on android or elsewhere.)

#scam #art scam #Instagram art scam #psa #important info

[lonewolfshewolf]

Ppl using AI Engines to do commission art scams

Feel I should notify: people are using AI Art Engines to finalize sketched commissions like using the blank sketch/line-art to fully color + render it so they don't have to pay the artist for a full-color piece

If you do commissions, be forewarned. You can add a new rule of your TOS that you don't allow anyone to feed or modify your art in an AI-Engine or you can pull your sketches off the market completely

It's a sad thing really

#art scam #ai art is theft #ai art is art theft #ai art is stolen art #ai Art scam #artist support #commission scam

[ahedderick]

Well, Dang

Art credit tkingfisher here on Tumblr, aka Ursula Vernon. I keep this visible on my desktop at all times for . . reasons.

I was getting kinda excited about this potential commission. The above was the second email I got from him. I wrote back to confirm, got my big pad of bristol board out (I had to FIND it first, I usually use the small one). Then I got another email from him asking for my bank info - so he could send me a cashier's check. Uh.

That is not how cashier's checks work. This was w-a-y better organized and set up than any scam I've run into before. So, for any younger artists out there; this exists. He probably found me from my DeviantArt account, because I recently posted an illustration there and I used the tags for illustration for the first time in a long time. I've had a lot of scammy stuff happen through DA, but nothing anywhere near this detailed.

#artblr #art scam #artists on tumblr #artist #illustrator #illustration

[arcaneglitch]

I Nearly Got Art Scammed

Hey guys. I wanted to share this story with you as a precautionary tale for artists that take commissions. It's one of those things you think will never happen to you until it does

So here's how I was almost a victim of an art scam and what you can to prevent scams from getting the better of you

This one started on ArtStation, which makes sense as a target since it's primarily a portfolio site for artists rather than a typical social media. It began with a standard question about commissions.

Nothing out of the ordinary, right? I replied that I was and asked if she would like a link to my commission form. In hindsight, her response should have alerted me that something was off because she didn't ask for the form. Instead she offered to pay $300 for a drawing for her son's birthday (just over a month out).

Still, if you're an artist desperate for commissions, you might overlook any oddities. We corresponded a bit more, sorting out details about the piece. That's when she sent this:

That's the first warning sign. These days, it's practically unheard of not to have an account set up with an online transfer service (think PayPal, Zelle, etc). Still, you might write it off as someone being a bit old-fashioned.

This is where the first tip comes in: be specific about how you accept payment and don't immediately compromise

At that point, we switched to email. She agreed to a pose for the commission on November 9th, then was silent. Two days later (November 11th), I emailed asking her to confirm additional details.

She didn't get back to me until November 14th.

This is another indicator of a scam (listed as one of the warning signs in articles). If someone was confirming details for a time-sensitive commission, it's highly unlikely they'd go radio silent for days, especially when they were responding consistently before.

A day later, she emailed to tell me that there was a problem with the check.

I replied and she gave me the details.

What she's attempting to do is execute an overpayment scam. They typically involve generous offers paid through atypical methods such as credit cards or cheques. Then the scammer will admit to some mistake with the payment (as above) or admit to overpaying you from the start while giving you a fake excuse. The excuse she came up with was fairly detailed, but I don't think there's any reason someone wouldn't be able to cancel a cheque that hasn't been cashed.

Later, she sent me this:

Also typical of an overpayment scam. You're asked to refund the extra money through an online transfer (she suggests Zelle later). If you follow through, you'll discover that the scammer either used a fake/stolen credit card or that their cheque bounced.

DO NOT SEND THEM MONEY. If you send them money, you will not get it back. Same goes for whatever you might have sold to them.

The part that tipped me off was her telling me I could send the money back through Zelle. Not that the stuff leading up to that wasn't fishy, but that's what drove it home.

She revealed that she has access to an online transfer service, yet she didn't offer to pay for the commission that way, despite it being much more convenient. I suppose one could argue that she wanted to send money from a specific account that wasn't set up with Zelle. But if that was the case, she could pay from the Zelle account and then cover with a transfer from the other one at a later date.

I asked her if reimbursing her was the only way, suggesting that using Zelle would be easier. She completely ignored the suggestion.

Again, in what situation would you not be able to cancel a cheque that has not been cashed?

By this point, I was pretty much positive that it was a scam. I shared screenshots of the emails with another artist friend of mine, and she agreed that it sounded like a scam.

In my last email to the scammer, I told her that it sounded like a lot of hoops to jump through and that I typically collect payment through online transfers. I said that unless we could work out an alternative form of payment, it sounded like she needed to find someone else.

Anyway, I figured I'd share the story here. Hopefully, it'll help my fellow artists and warn people about the dangers of scams.

Thank you for reading! You can find more information on overpayment scams here and here is a link to spotting the signs of an art scam.

#artist on tumblr #art scam #psa

[nattousan]

PSA to any artists who get emails like this

This is a scam 98% of the time

And this is one of the more legit looking ones but thankfully there were a couple things that immediately set off my radar

The most glaring being the odd phrasing of the message.

"I've been on the lookout for some artworks lately in regards to I and my Wife's anniversary"

just isnt something that sounds like what a natural english speaker would say! and who capitalizes Wife??

Also the fact that they're asking for "more information" about my "artsy collection" doesn't make sense.

Now, some people who speak perfect english type incomprehensibly, so the second reason I immediately suspected this was a scam was that "she" doesn't address me directly. She doesn't go, Hi Nattousan! I like your art and want to buy some! She tells me where she's from first??

It's all kinds of sus, but I play along just in case, and wouldn't you know:

red flag number three: Can't use a money app, not just a specific app, but any app. They want to send me an "accidentally" large check, have you cash it, and then send them back the "difference". But then the check bounces and you've just sent them 500 of your real dollars.

Don't waste your time with these people, don't give out any personal information and DO report and block any emails you get like this,

it IS a scam.

#this has been a psa #art scam #og post #psa artists

[acrylicalchemy]

I think I’ve received at least a baker’s dozen NFT scam messages in the last 24 hours. If even 10% of those were legit requests, I’d probably be sitting pretty 🔥🤣

All my work is available, so take a look. If you’re not in the market for art, your likes, comments, and shares help a lot. You’re also welcome to try my audios 🙏

This work is currently on exhibit at Adelman Fine Art ❤️

#art #artists on tumblr #michael carini #painting #artist #carini arts #abstract #contemporary art #acrylic alchemy #carini #art gallery #nft #nfts #nft art #lol #art life #artist life #artist scam #art scam

[taffydragonblog]

If you sell commissions on Instagram, please read this. So far I've been targeted by two of these scammers.

#instagram #art scam #scammers #scam alert #scam

[alpacitha]

ARTISTS OF TUMBLR PLEASE BEWARE OF THIS ART SCAM!!

If you aren't aware, there's a scam where someone will reach out to you, asking to commission you for a big project with a really good paycheck. They'll ask to pay with a check, and when the check arrives, it's written out for more than the agreed upon amount. They'll ask you to cash the check anyway and just send the extra money back, but the check will bounce, and you've lost that money.

My brother just encountered this scam the other day, and I just wanted to put out the particular details in case they use this same story elsewhere.

It was a "brand new company," so new, they don't have a website and you can't find them on Google. The company name given was Rox Lasting Fixtures. They offered him $1,200 ($800 up front) to create a logo for their company. The $800 check came in written for $2,800.

Hopefully these scammers don't try this again with anyone else, but spreading the word never hurts. Please reblog this to save an artist's wallet!!

#art scam #scammer #commission scam #reblog please #please reblog #artists on tumblr #alpacitha talks #signal boost!

[redlenai]

So I went ahead and prepared a few banners and replies for scammers (Yes, I used Sims 4 icons because I like them a lot for the aesthetic). Please let me know if you use it, ESPECIALLY if scammers reply back to you! hahahaha

Oh-Oh! Seems your request has been denied. The reason is that this is an evident scam, too bad! Maybe give up and get an honest job?

Lucky you! Due to your unsuccessful scam attempt you have won a Shovel! If money is what you want, maybe this will help you achieve that!

Wowie! That scam attempt was bad, here is a Voucher so you can finish School! Maybe that way you'll land a better job and stop being a parasyte!

For your unsuccessful scam attempt we decided to give you this Consolation Prize! Don't feel bad, some just need an honest job to get money! Give it a try!

#artist on tumblr #artist struggles #artist wins #instagram scammer #art scam #red lenai edit #Knowing my luck it'll be a while before I get to use them for real #but its not bad to be prepared! #The Consolation Prize one is my favorite #which one you liked the most? Also feel free to suggest new ones!

[duchesscelestia]

this month's art news video is now live!!

#ai art #ai art drama #anti ai art #art news #art commentary #speedpaint #commissions #commission scam #art scam #adobe firefly #marvel secret invasion #marvel ai #Youtube

[kyra45]

Instagram/Facebook/etc art scam

Do you post your commission info on other sites? Then unfortunately you may find yourself messaged by someone who claims they want to commission you but also don’t seem to have read your commission sheet or commission information. This is because they message multiple accounts who post art and don’t really do much to get what info is needed. The main hint to the messenger being a scammer is the following:

1. The message asks you if you are doing commissions. If they looked at your Instagram and you posted that, why are they asking you if it’s a recent post? The answer is obviously yes so there’s no point in asking that, generally. However this is not the main thing to look out for.

2. The message asks you to draw their cat/daughter/son/dog/etc and supplies you with a very generic photograph that likely was stolen off Google images and isn’t actually their photograph. This is the most common commission type they will ask for.

3. The message claims to pay you $300-$600 for this commission. This should instantly be a red flag especially if your commissions are not that high and the commission itself is rather simple. They may also ask you to cash a check for that amount or more. That check is fake and you will not get that money. This is how they scam people who don’t realize it’s a fake check.

4. They want you to contact them via phone number. Don’t do that. If their messaging you via messages, there should not be any reason to need text messaging. Not a main concern, but something to be wary of.

5. They ghost you after you drew the art. They have no intention of paying you for your work even if you do it without payment. Unfortunately you will never get payed.

#scam #Instagram art scam #art scam

[singingrainbows]

Don't fall for this AI Art Book SCAM!!!

#art #art book #scam #ai art #ai scam #art scam #art book scam #youtube #comic pencil