Dark Matter Studio

Help Disabled Roommates Recover & Stay Safe

I'm reaching out during one of the toughest times in my life. After my mentally unwell roommate moved out unexpectedly, my disabled roommates and I are left in a crisis. She left us with all the bills and only a few days to pay rent. To make matters worse, her boyfriend threatened us with a gun, trying to illegally evict us. She even took our fridge, leaving us without food and a trashed house. As someone living with a disability and without a car, this sudden financial and emotional burden is overwhelming. The funds raised will go directly toward rent, utilities, and groceries—essentials we desperately need. If we can raise enough, I hope to get a car to help us regain some independence. Please share this post to help us keep a roof over our heads and rebuild after this traumatic experience. Your support means the world to us.

I hope y'all are familiar with these in this day and age, especially my artists out there, because they're incredibly common.

About half an hour ago I posted a drawing and tagged it #artists on tumblr, and very quickly received this comment.

My scam radar went off immediately, due to the generic blog name and lack of any emotion in the comment, but I decided it might be an entertaining venture so I dmed them. They asked for a drawing "of these", and sent me a random selfie. I got the details and told them it would be $15, and they promptly offered me $300. At this point I know it's a scam, but I play along for funsies and give them my paypal. Shortly, they send me this image for "confirmation" (I blocked out my email)

And they began to insist that I checked my email. I looked in my spam folder and found the following email.

This is fake. This is not a thing. And the "you're to refund the $200.00 back" is the scam. They send vaguely official-looking emails at you to "prove" that they sent you the money, then have you send them $200 (or however much the scam is for). Then, surprise surprise, you're out $200.

I continued to play along for a bit, and in the second email "Paypal" told me that I had to refund the $200 before they could "credit the $300 to my account", along with these lovely threats.

- victim posts an item for sale on craigslist or w/e

- scammer contacts asking if a check is ok

- scammer then asks if they can write a check for more than the agreed-upon price and for the seller to give them the overage back as cash, often with some excuse about it being an out-of-state bank, they don't have a card and need some cash for something else, or whatever.

- scammer gives check, gets cash and item, and bounces

- guess what the check does, too

please understand that this concept does not actually help anyone. the sensible thing to do if an artist is undercharging is to tip them for what you think their work it worth, and be sure to let them know that. even if this doesn’t cause them to actually change their base prices, at least YOU’RE paying for what it’s worth, and THEY’RE getting business instead of nothing.

by essentially boycotting artists who are already unsure of the value of their own work (and are thus underpricing) you’re not sending any positive message. no one is going to up their commission prices when nobody is buying them. the only thing the artist gets out of it is that people don’t want to buy their art for some reason, and people who’s products aren’t selling aren’t going to say “oh i guess it was because i wasn’t charging enough, i’ll pump up the prices!”