#mural scam

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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This is a type of fake cheque scam... someone sends you a cheque, or some sort of money transfer, but it will be for more money than you were meant to get, so they'll have you send them back the difference (ie, they are supposed to send you $500, but they "accidentally" send you $1500, and now they need you to return the extra $1000), so you you deposit the cheque, send them back the difference, and then the cheque doesn't clear, or the money transfer is reversed... so you lose the money

Something felt off about this person from the first time they messaged me, so I stopped replying, and then they messaged me again and I lied and said I didn't check my messages (though the part about my message being eaten by tumblr actually was true... I don't know if it was a Tumblr glitch, or if this account has already been reported as spam, but I've had at least two messages I sent disappear)

So after talking to this person once ever, then ignoring them for over a week, and then messaging them again, they immediately jump in with the copy/paste scam message

I should have trusted my first instinct lol

I offered the pictures for free just to see what they would say. No one in their right mind would pay for pictures of the Northern Lights taken in my backyard with a Samsung Galaxy S20, with no tripod, when high quality, royalty-free Northern Lights photos are readily available on so many stock image sights lmao

Also, they claimed to be from Montreal, but they spelled it "Montrèal", which is incorrect (the accent should go the other way). It's either Montréal or Montreal, it's never Montrèal. A Montrealer would know that... but that's just my own nitpicking lmao

Like, look:

Even spellcheck agrees with me lmao

legit istg i get like 20 these kind of messages on my both da accs weekly. no dumbass, i don't want u to "make" some mural shit of my work when in reality u are a fake who will take my money, what i want u to do is to go and suck a veeery spiky cactus! c:

but honestly, the best u can do is not to reply to them bc if u say no etc, they will be all "why not???" etc and also they will try to guilt trip you into it (or if you try to fool them and claim to be on board and make them spend their time on u when in fact ur not even interested and are only playing them so they spend less time trying to scam someone else. bahaa, which i have done few times.. oopsies?). it's why i never reply to chat messages unless you directly tell me on what what u want etc/if you have issues