Okay, I’m getting a bit tired of this, so,
It’s probably been said by someone else before, but I might as well say it again.
If you’re an artist (like me!), there are GONNA be people trying to scam and phish you. Here are the red flags for it that I’ve seen here on Tumblr.
Someone COMMENTS on your art post, WITHIN THE HOUR IT WAS POSTED, asking if you’re available for commissions. Normal people that are ACTUALLY looking for a commission will usually just go straight to messages, but scammers can’t do that since you can’t mass-message the same thing.
The person in question isn’t following you and doesn’t have anything on their blog
If you DID message them, they give you an absurdly high budget, unprompted, usually in the hundreds range
Notably poor grammar (though this isn’t really a red flag on its own), and them asking for something generic like a drawing of a pet, family member, or themself
Some sort of ‘technical difficulty’ with payment that requires you to give them some sort of private information or banking info to fix. NEVER trust an email like [email protected], that’s a SURE sign of a scam
And remember, ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS ask for at LEAST 50% payment upfront! It’s just good practice.
And one last thing: you don’t need to feel bad about ignoring, blocking, or reporting a scammer. I know from experience that it’s a bit too easy to get your hopes up with “maybe this actually is a real person that likes my art, it’d be so rude to just stop messaging them.” Just BE CAREFUL.
All that said, sorry for the visit to yapsville. There will probably be more in the future though (notice how this is Moth PSA #01 lol)
Stay whimsical, and stay SAFE!
This was an official message from your local Mothman.