Art Theft Scam Alert — classymedallion (now going by delizaviinne)
Just a heads up because I was contacted by this user minutes ago: Do not respond to any dms from @/classymedallion. They request for you to commission art from them for $75 in an expressed need for rent money (that's already an odd start to the conversation), but they do not provide any up front links or avenues to send funds in their commission post or in the dms.
To add to this, prior to the back to back posts of their artwork, you're greeted with a recent reblog after reblog of popular posts and only that. But the biggest red flag was the stolen artwork they claim to be theirs, and they've specifically targeted one artist by the name of @cherrysphinx (who also has art on other platforms). You can do a reverse image search for almost every single piece and find where they're originally from.
If any of this feels familiar, then it's because another account used this exact same tactic in the past, and even stole a great number of Cherrysphinx's art.
Even their so-called commission template where they're begging for money to avoid losing their house is stolen and cropped to hide the watermark (the image in their commission post was ran through the search engine and it led to a post on Weasly by Rococospade).
I linked the sources of each post below, just for reference since it seems that the same pieces of artwork are getting targeted.
Classymedallion's pfp was stolen from a user named selamander
Their banner was stolen from a post on Furaffinity by Kornepheross (the image is only viewable on Furaffinity if you're a member, but the search engine was able to find the art on Reddit)
Original artwork stolen from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr (the search engine didn't bring up the original post, but this artwork is actually what led me to the post about the other scam account)
Karlach art the search engine found on Bluesky by Cherrysphinx (also on their Tumblr acct)
Witch artwork the search engine found on ArtStation by Cherrysphinx (I funnily enough found the same catalogue of stolen artwork on DeviantArt), is also on their Tumblr acct
Wyll fanart the search engine found on Bluesky by Cherrysphinx (also on their Tumblr acct)
Dame Aylin fanart from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Astarion fanart the search engine found on Cherrysphinx's DeviantArt and ArtStation (also on their Tumblr acct)
Original artwork that was also uploaded to the aforementioned DeviantArt acct full of stolen artwork, was stolen from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr acct
Persona 3 fanart from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Karlach fanart from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
BG3 fanart from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Tav fanart from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Original artwork from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Original artwork the search engine found on DeviantArt by Cherrysphinx (also on their Tumblr acct)
Original artwork from Cherrysphinx's Tumblr
Original artwork the search engine found on DeviantArt by Cherrysphinx (also on their Tumblr acct)
Original artwork the search engine found on Cherrysphinx's DeviantArt acct (is on their Tumblr acct as well)
I got almost got scammed and I thought that I should let you know about this art commission scam it started on ao3 as a comment but it escalated from there as you can see
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Hello!
Thanks for letting me know about this.
Sadly it's not a 'new' scam, it's the ao3 version of the 'muse' scam. :)
You can find out more about it here:
💬 1 🔁 115 ❤️ 101 · 🚨Scammer Alert🚨 + 🔎Scam Exam(ination)🔍 · Seen as: 'I'm feeling so inspired by your picture/art!'
Scam Type: Muse Scam
I'm not sure what them "sending you a link" has to do with a credit card unless it's a scam website that will steal YOUR card information, but it definitely doesn't seem safe, nor would I ever do that....
Them using 'dear' is also a give away that it's a scammer, and if they were to ask for your paypal email it would be similar to the art commission scam that's also going around and can be found on my index via the pinned post. :)
On November 1, 2024, I received the below comment on one of my fics. I had replied to it, believing it to be in good faith. This person, Leaona Colin, as seen by the Ao3 comment chain and discord profile below, directly messaged me under the guise of discussing my fic, and the conversation was normal for the most part
The conversation started to change into an attempt to strong arm me into commissioning them directly (something that unfortunately does happen through a desperate measure) for an animation project. I had believed, in my naivety, that this was just two artists workshopping ideas until they had mentioned this being a "paid collaboration". Please note that I at NO POINT made any indication of wanting to make a commission or anything of the like. For the full context, I will link our discord conversation in its entirety
At this point, the conversation started to change to the commission, and in my own personal awkwardness/fear of being perceived as rude, I played along because I honestly did not know what to do next. The way that this person has approached me feels like a MUCH bigger red flag than the insane price they came up with.
It would be one thing to come into my direct messages and say "hey, I'm an animator and I'm wondering if you'd be interested in commissioning me to draw [scene] as a paid commission", however what I went through was a bait and switch. I had gone into this thinking I would be entering a casual conversation about my fic, about the story, and about my writing process, but that pretense was very quickly dropped after the above polite small talk
Mind you, THIS is the animation that they seem to be requesting between 1800-2200 USD for:
I had debated whether or not I should include the video, but I feel that it is important to bring up due to the insane price and the information that @baratrongirl helped provide me with due to her husband's own experience in this industry (thank you SO much Richard!!)
I have reported the comment to Ao3 and I have reported the profile to Discord itself. This is a warning to fic authors and other fan creators to please, please, PLEASE, be on the lookout and to stay safe. I have also learned of a recent scam in Ao3/FFN comment sections where a wave of commission scammers use stolen or ai art to promote themselves and either make of with the money or send some sort of ai art. There hasn't been any mention of anything for animation, but it is very much possible that the scam is evolving, more info about this can be linked below
r/FanFiction: PMs on Fanfiction.net offering me commissioned art
r/AO3: Great, the art scammers are now being registered users
r/AO3: These comments are starting to be an annoying trend
This user is your typical "I steal other peoples art, pretend its mine, please commission me I need it for <urgent reason> before <day> please I'll pay you back in art." And then they ghost you.
How this story started:
Part 1. The DM.
Part 2. How/Why this is a scam.
After the DM, I knew almost instantly this was a scam. So with the help of @kyra45 we started looking through the "art" on the scammers blog and found them to be.. rather inconsistent in style.
Not only that, but the first red flag was a 3D render that was straight up stolen.
The original creator/owner:
Note: the date of the op was 9 months ago.
And for me, I reverse image searched this image:
Which lead me to this website, tumgik:
which is where I found the user cherrysphix!
So then I looked them up on tumblr and: WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT!
Here is cherrysphinx's art from 2024!
Annnnnd...
Here is the stolen art/archive from this scammer this month!
HMMMMMMMMMMMMM.....
And look! The 3D model's there too!!
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Long story short: Yeah. It's a scammer.
Don't commission them. If you have, ask for a refund. You'll never get your art. If they DM you, report them immediately.
If you don't know how to reverse image search images:
Here's a how to guide: Reverse Image Search.
And remember:
If an artists art looks inconsistent in style, do your research first.
If they only started posting on tumblr within the last week/month, and they're DMing YOU to ask you to commission THEM? It's most likely a scam.
As many of you are probably aware, there are a lot of scammers on tumblr right now. One of my tumblr friends has unfortunately just been scammed out of a large sum of money in excess of $3000 from a tumblr scammer, and is now having to deal with reporting fraud to their bank in the hopes to get their money back. Their tumblr account was also hacked and deleted by the scammer.
My message to you: DO NOT TRUST ANYONE who messages you directly claiming that they accidentally reported your account instead of someone else's. They ask you to use Discord, or email, to speak with tumblr support staff...except it isn't real support staff. They then hack and delete your account and blackmail you into sending them money to recover your account. If anyone comes into your DMs saying anything like this (and it usually starts with a simple "hi" message before they start the scam) REPORT THEM IMMEDIATELY.
I have been getting these scam messages a minimum of 3 or 4 times every single day. I report every account that does it. You should too. Report and block, simple as that.
And please, if you have a moment...REBLOG THIS SO IT REACHES AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE. I do not want anyone else to go through losing money like my friend did. Look after each other by warning your tumblr followers of this scam, because not everyone is aware of it yet.
The 3rd method the scammers on Tumblr have adopted these days.
I'd like to bring to your attention a new method used by scammers to ensure that you quickly fall for their schemes. When simple messaging the victim to inform them that they had been falsely reported and to use a token number to contact some random person on Discord failed, they turned to a second method of creating an account under the name of the Tumblr support team and began tagging accounts in their little posts to tell them that they should click the blue link so that this issue is resolved quickly and that they will be compensated for their troubles. P. S Do not click that link, and do not contact that guy on Discord.
NOW these scammers have adapted a different method where they get into your DM and tell you that you have been fasly reported by them and show you a page of the report with your account name and pfp on it along with the supposed report made. Do not fall for. It just happened to me by this account name ' okyii'. They quickly followed me after that, and I told them that it was fine, that I had been reported a million times, and that they shouldn't worry. They quickly unfollowed and blocked me. These actions are all you need to know to identify a scammer.
I have put a pic of what those supposed false reports these days look like. Commit it to memory.
This most likely generated using AI or photoshopped by taking one template and putting your pfp in it
