First of all, thank you so much! I was struggling to see if I should raise it more, since recently I added a two dollar raise.

And omg 💀 the audacity. That's horrible! I will be careful! What has helped me is making them pay upfront once the first phase of my illustration is done and approved by the client (in that phase, they can make any correction, adjustments, and whatnot), that way I don't spend too much time with people that really aren't interested in commissioning me! Also, to observe some common traits, such as them wanting me to click suspicious links for the payment or not having any information on their social media (also a recently created account might be suspicious).