There’s been a huge rise in commission scammers recently, mostly on Instagram. A lot of new artists don’t know what to look out for, so I figured this might help people.

How they begin

Usually the scammer will write to you asking about a commission. Something deceptively cute - mostly I encounter asks about pet portraits, with one or two photos sent. They’ll probably try to sell you a sweet little story, like “It’s for my son’s birthday”. They will insist that they love your artwork and style, even though they don’t follow you or never liked a single piece of your art.

What to look out for:

Their profiles will either be private, empty, or filled with very generic stuff, dating at most a few years back.

Their language will be very simple, rushed or downright bad. They might use weird emojis that nobody ever uses. They will probably send impatient “??” when you don’t answer immediately. They’re in a crunch - lots of people to scam, you know. 

They’ll give you absolutely no guidelines. No hints on style, contents aside from (usually) the pet and often a name written on the artwork, no theme. Anything you draw will be perfect. Full artistic freedom. In reality they don’t really care for this part.

They’ll offer you a ridiculous amount of money. Usually 100 or 300 USD (EDIT: I know it might not be a lot for some work. What I mean here - way higher than your asking price, 100 and 300 are standard rates they give). They’ll often put in a phrase like “I am willing to compensate you financially” and “I want the best you can draw”, peppered with vague praise. It will most likely sound way too good to be true. That’s because it is.

Where the scam actually happens

If you agree, they will ask you for a payment method. They’ll try to get to this part as soon as possible. 

Usually, they’ll insist on PayPal. And not just any PayPal. They’ll always insist on sending you a transfer immediately. None of that PayPal Invoice stuff (although some do have methods for that, too). They’ll really, REALLY want to get your PayPal email address and name for the transfer - that’s what they’re after. If you insist on any other method, they’ll just circle back to the transfer “for easiest method”. If you do provide them with the info, most likely you’ll soon get a scam email. It most likely be a message with a link that will ultimately lead to bleeding you dry. Never, and I mean NEVER click on any emails or links you get from them. It’s like with any other scam emails you can ever get.

A few things can happen here:

They overpay you and ask for the difference to be wired back. Usually it will go to a different account and you’ll never see that money again. 

They’ll overpay you “for shipping costs” and ask you to forward the difference to their shipping company. Just like before, you’ll never see that money again.

The actual owner of the account (yes, they most likely use stolen accounts to wire from) will realize there’s been something sketchy going on and request a refund via official channels. Your account will be charged with fees and/or you get in trouble for fraudulent transactions. 

You will transfer the money from your PayPal credit to your bank account and they will make a shitstorm when they want their money back, making your life a living hell. They will call you a scammer, a thief, make wild claims, wearing you down and forcing you into wiring money “back” - aka to their final destination account. 

Never, EVER wire money to anyone. This is not how it’s supposed to go. Use PayPal Invoice for secure exchanges where the client needs to provide you with their email, not the other way around.

You can find more info on that method HERE.

What to do when you encounter a scammer:

Ask the right questions: inquire about the style, which artwork of yours they like, as much details as you can. They won’t supply you with any good answers.

Don’t let the rush of the exchange, their praise and the promise of insanely good money to get to you. That’s how they operate, that’s how they make you lose vigilance. 

Don’t engage them. As soon as you realize it might be a scam, block them. The sense of urgency they create with their rushed exchange, and pressure they put on you will sooner or later get to you and you might do something that you’ll regret later.

Never wire money to anyone. Never give out your personal data. Never provide your email, name, address or credit card info. 

Don’t be deceived by receiving a payment, if you somehow agree to go along with it. Just because it’s there now doesn’t mean it can’t be withdrawn. 

Here is a very standard example of such an exchange. I realized it’s a scam pretty fast and went along with it, because I wanted good screenshots for you guys, so I tried going very “by the book” with it. 

Please share this post, make it reach as many artists as possible. Let young or inexperienced artists know that this is going on. So many people have no idea that this is a thing. Let’s help each other out. If you think I missed any relevant info, do add it as an rb!

Seen as: 'I'm feeling so inspired by your picture/art!' Scam Type: Muse Scam

1 - Description of this scam:

The muse scam is a variant of the fake check scam in which the scammer will contact the victim over social media and claim to want to use their image for an art project. The scammer will often use a stolen social media account to increase their credibility. They will offer a generous sum of money and offer to pay via check, and the victim is instructed to send money to the scammer for “materials” via an irreversible method. The victim is under the illusion that the funds cleared when the bank makes the money available thanks to current regulations. Usually the fake check deposit will be reversed in a few weeks, but it can also take several months. If you do not have the funds to cover the amount, your balance will go negative. Your bank will usually charge a fee for depositing a bad check, and your account may be closed depending on the severity of the scam. source (reddit)

Additional info about the muse scam. (from malwarebytes)

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Example account shown here: @muralmagicsworld (banned)

Accounts also running this scam: @craftpatch, @shadyduckgladiator emilyartlana emilyfanartist thoughtfulgraze rogerwil01

(Note: There are probably a lot of scammers running this scam. This post is mainly talking about the blog that I managed to find or were made aware of.)

2 - What this scam looks like.

Part 1: The request. (on a post made by a bot no less... lol)

A secondary (more recent) example of this request can be seen here:

The source of this is from this post by @blankwisher64 who gave me permission to use it. Thank you!

A third example can be seen here - Given by anonymous:

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Part 2: The blog an their posts.

The blog's earliest post was made on November 11th 2024

Using google lense (the photo icon you can use to look up an image on the internet) I was able to find these images linked to a youtube channel and an instagram account made by an artist known as Andreas Liss.

The woman in the first instagram post's name is credited, by the original artist, to be the lovely Anastasia Dmitrieva.

Where as the scammer... well.. They decided to call her... Jennifer.

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Final words: The muse scam is quite common and it's recently migrated from instagram to tumblr. If you are someone who posts pictures of yourself or your animals, always remember this: If someone tells you they're feeling 'inspired' and they'll draw you or your pet but you have to 'pay for art supplies' and they're willing to send you a $1000+ 'check/money order' and 'you can keep the rest' because they're feeling 'oh so generous'?

It is and always will be a scam.

Other helpful guides on spotting scams. (by @kyra45)

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ok so there’s like a scam thing going around on instagram that’s taking peoples accounts and whatever. I have trust in the people on this site the most however a lot of you are still stupid. ok

so all the messages are formatted the same and ask you to do them a favour, then ask for your number basically. (Images lololo)

Along with a crunch ass screenshot ummm which should make it obvious but a bunch of my friends fell for this(????)

anyways so like just don’t give them your number at all!!!!!! Don’t do it!!!!! I know that should be basic online sense but most often it comes from people on your friends list or people you know ! I can almost understand why someone would fall for it but like come on you guys aren’t in your 50s I hope.

apparently it’s also happening on TikTok but I haven’t been able to confirm that nor do I know of any other sites this is happening on ok!!!!!

if you’ve given them your number and are still in your account, log out of all sessions, unlink your phone number, change your password, etc. if you’re unable to access your account then ummm idk you MIGHT be out of luck however you should contact insta support and be an ass(JOKING!!!! request kindly it will give you more of a chance)

stay safe online everybody ok!!!!!! thank you

timothywill183636 for spam bot being paid to advertise a scam that targets married couples mobile devices. Gotta love it when scammers waltz into my own comment section.

timothywill183636 (10m ago)

got a message of someone asking if i‘m available for commissions. i sometimes get those but most of the time you see at first glance those are scammers.

this one seemed legit though. liked some posts. followed me. had actual posts and a legit looking profile.

but the way they wrote seemed odd. then when i told them what i charged, they said they were willing to pay up to 500€ which is uhm. 10 times my rate. and i got a bit suspicious then.

they sent me a picture of a friend they wanted me to paint for her birthday. i reverse image searched the image but didn’t find anything.

they said they wanted to pay all the money upfront and like??? who does that? i had a really bad feeling but still went along with it. gave them my paypal handle. a few minutes later they sent a screenshot that said they couldn’t send the money. they needed my mail address.

god knows what went on in my head, but i told them.

they didn’t reply again. i got a really bad feeling then, transferred all my money from my paypal wallet to my bank account where it‘s safe, and changed my password.

a few hours later, their account was gone.

I will add the links of the two videos I watched. Part of me is disgusted by the waste of money and another one finds it entertaining. Maybe that's because I'm poor and unemployed. Ahah.

Back to the main topic: it seems that great part of those false brands (they have fake web sites, that usually disappear from a while, after scamming and frauding a meaningful number of people, I guess) copy this brand called House Of CB, stealing the modeling shooting of the clothes sold online by House Of CB. To make the scams more legit, those fake brand steals contents from the review section of similar (and least more honest) Amazon Dupes of popular clothing designs. In this section you can find a LOOOT of photo of people who happily post pictures of them wearing the products, the fake brands steals those pictures and use to make their sites look more legit. Another sources of images or videos to use as base for fake Ads of scam brands are the profiles of content creators, fashion vlogger, influencers or regular social media users who share their positive feelings about their new piece of clothing.

The thing I noticed immediately is HOW in this kind of scams the victims are more than one: in the first place we have the online buyers who has small budget and is scammed of their money; the second is the original brand or the designer, who is deprived of their entrances and of their intellectual property; the third is the content creator or regular social media user who sees their reputation and image trashed by the unconsesual association to a fraud.

It's important to notice that this kind of scam involves mainly Fast Fashion products, which are publicized under fake ads and sent to the clueless buyer, who thought to have found a big deal.

This is important, because fast fashion is widely renowned as an exploitative business model resulting in low wages, poor working conditions, a disregard for workers' rights and negative impact in environment such as water pollution and carbon emissions.

So, this kind of scams give a huge contribution to the exploitation of garment workers around the globe and also damage the planet in wich we are all living.

I want to say that those YouTubers were both from USA and I'm from Italy. I didn't see any fake ads during my Instagram and Tik Tok scrolling, I saw only small enterprises and single creators who craft and sew their own stuff and they seemed totally legit to me. Is this because in USA there is a less culture about costumers protection than in Europe?

I can't answer. Just be careful, buy ethically and support small businesses.

Edit: some reddit users report that they have been scammed by a copycat version website of House of CB, though a fake Instagram ad that reported some 'big sale' happening.