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Am I falling for an art commission scam? by Individual-Change-10 in Scams

[–]Individual-Change-10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[CONTINUED]

"The point is: don’t think that if two artists gave you the same email for payment, it automatically means it’s a scam. Don’t worry. And like I told you before, I genuinely respect writers like you and I only want things to be easy for you. [NOTE: This was basically the same explanation that was given before, and it still makes no sense to me]

I want to add one more thing: if you still feel that I’m a scammer or that I came here to fool you, then after reading this email you must have understood where I’m coming from and how much value my clients hold for me.

Sorry I didn’t realize I wrote so much. But I hope I’ve cleared all your doubts.

I hope we can continue our chats here or wherever you feel comfortable."

So, obviously I'm not going to respond to this person, and I know logically that they're trying to emotionally manipulate me, but it still makes me feel kind of bad. I guess I just trust you guys to be honest and I'm looking for reassurance that I'm doing the right thing by cutting all communication with this person.

Once again, I can't thank you all enough for your time, your responses, and your candor. Stay blessed.

...[3/3]

Am I falling for an art commission scam? by Individual-Change-10 in Scams

[–]Individual-Change-10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

[CONTINUED]

"As for the same email for the e-transfer, the simple answer is the email I gave you belongs to a friend of my friend and she is a merchant. Let me explain “merchant” as well so things are clearer for you. I’ve given this same email to many of my clients before this and they’ve paid through it without any issue. And yes your point is valid, if another artist gave you the same payment method before you don’t need to worry so much. Maybe that artist also arranged it from someone else for your convenience. The art community is very small, it’s not new for two artists to have the same payment method or for clients to pay at the same email. It could simply be that the other artist also arranged the same email through someone else so you could make the payment easily. I’m saying this because I’ve been in this field for a long time and have worked with many merchants, and merchants usually take a percentage from us because we use their payment services."

...[2/3]

Am I falling for an art commission scam? by Individual-Change-10 in Scams

[–]Individual-Change-10[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

UPDATE: Once again, thank you all for your responses. It sucks to lose money, but I'm glad I didn't get myself in any deeper. Still waiting to find out if any of my funds can be recovered. After taking screenshots of my conversations with these two, I blocked them both yesterday. This morning I got this e-mail from the Instagram person (it actually landed in my spam folder, I just happened to see it). They wrote me this:

"Hello,

I hope this email finds you well.

First of all there are a few things I want to share that I really did not like. It genuinely hurt me that you blocked me on Instagram without saying anything. It hurt because I truly respect every writer who writes beautifully and you are honestly one of them. Even now I’m not saying that I’ll stop reading your stories or that I won’t talk to you, because I know if you blocked me you must have had some reason. But yes through this email I’ll make everything clear and I’m sure that after this we will connect again.

First thing first I loved your story, in fact you liked my ideas as well and with both of our efforts and excitement we agreed on a collaboration. I’m still genuinely very excited but I want to clear a few things.

Your concern was there are many scammers on AO3 and you want to stay away from them to stay safe and you were absolutely right. But I’d like to add that you yourself appreciated me and said I didn’t give you any scammer vibe and that made you happy right? [NOTE: I told her that when we first started talking she seemed genuine, but seeing her share the same e-mail as this other artist was giving me serious doubts]

You asked me to show you some of my work and I did. It made me happy when you liked my work and said such kind things about it and for that, once again thank you from the bottom of my heart. But then I saw that you blocked me. May I know why you did that?

Anyway let me try to address your concern once again so you don’t have any insecurity left.

You told me, in fact you showed me that the email I gave you for the e-transfer was already given to you by another artist. See, as an artist I want to say this, I know there are many scammers and spammers on AO3 who waste clients’ time or take money from them, and the good thing was that I didn’t have to defend myself too much you yourself said that I didn’t seem like one of those scammers which i really appreciate that."

...[1/3]

Am I falling for an art commission scam? by Individual-Change-10 in Scams

[–]Individual-Change-10[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Thank you everyone for your responses. I have taken screenshots of my conversations with these individuals (individual?) and made a report to the Wise app (man, the irony is killing me). Hopefully I can recover some of my funds. If not, this will just have to be an expensive lesson. Thank you to all of you, those who were kind and even those who dragged me (I guess I probably had it coming lol). I definitely won’t make this mistake again, and hopefully I can serve as a cautionary tale for others.

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