Scam warning
Hello guys (/n), I'm going to tell you a little story about how I almost got scammed today. THANKFULLY, I'm extremely skeptical about people and don't make rash decisions, but more to that in a second.
So, the story begins with an instagram request for a commission by a private account (with a name where a few letters had been replaced with numbers). Or rather, whether or not I do take requests. Now, it wasn't the first time I've received one, but it was the first time I thought: You know what? Why not try it out for once? In hindsight, these may already have been scam accounts who simply gave up once I shut them down at first contact. (Instagram has loads of scammers.) At that point, I was, of course, already aware that scams are a thing, so I was wary from the very beginning but naive and curious enough to try. I don't HAVE a business account on paypal or anything, I made it clear to the user that it's the first time I've ever tried this, so I ask for patience to bear with me trying to figure out how it works. For that reason alone I stated fairly low prices and what not. But I also made clear that I would charge for my work and payment via paypal.
The first thing that seemed... OFF to me, was that I was sent a reference picture and a 'can you draw this'. I expected ... more. Like, a prompt, a certain style or something specific like a tattoo design (to which I would have declined). Nothing came, they just agreed on the highest price range I offered. So, I figured they wanted a full on colored picture. I assumed that this person may have paid for commissions before and was therefore kind of used to these exchanges and didn't wish to bother me, the artist, too much. As I mentioned above, I do not have a business account on paypal. I never upgraded and paypal TELLS me, I need to give in a firm address. And since I live in Germany, I KNOW there are tons of restrictions for these. I'd have to have official paperwork and everything to do this, but I didn't want to risk publishing my parents' address and so on. NEITHER did I feel comfortable even sharing my private E-Mail. And here is where I was smart for once, because this E-mail was set up running about max. an hour before I responded to the Instagram request. Now, after all the necessary precautions were done, they told me they already sent me the money on paypal. Which... odd? I expected some reluctance and mistrust on their part. But again, I assumed it had to do with their experience. So I looked and found that I had received nothing. I checked again, nothing. What I did receive, was an Email from what appeared to be Paypal.
It looked official at first glance... And here is where my mind went cray cray. Because, okay, here me out, I'm easy to fool and don't like bothering people with my shit. I actually believed that this instagram user would have to pay 300$ to have me have a business account. And I thought, hold on, this doesn't make sense. If there is a fee to pay, why do THEY have to pay it, and why do they get it refunded? What's the purpose of these 300$ that appear and disappear out of and into nowhere? But I was fooled enough to believe it. Or at least assume it was a coincidence and that if this email was scam I did not suspect the instagram user.
Although, I did think, if this was a scam, it would make sense. Because they'd be playing me to believe they were the ones being fooled and I'd offer to pay them their money back out of my own pocket. Which I had early decided would be the last, LAST resort. Or in this case, none at all. Because I would have simply finished the drawing, sent it to them and then lived without the profit. They would have paid, I would have done the work, the payment would simply have been lost at sea and I'd feel like crap about how it all went, but without making a minus. But of course, as a morally just person, I could not let them pay that money to paypal for no reason, so I told them to wait, I would try to open a business account manually, because that should have fixed the problem, right? And I would find these requirements somewhere on the app, and likely in the process of opening a business account, right? There should be no such thing as automatically upgrading to business paypal without extra steps. That's why this seemed weird in the first place. But of course, there have been Loads of AGB changes without my notice, so what do I know? So, I tried. It didn't work and it didn't add up with the mail. The user told me, they would pay the fee, I told them to wait until I figured out more. I couldn't find anything about this, so of course, I grew more skeptical. Because I do not like when I don't understand how something works and how it's all connected, so I refused to give up just yet. (kinda weird how I assumed they would be just as mistrusting of such a money demanding email as I was. They didn't seem to be, but I didn't trust it.) I then told them that paypal usually allows you a refund if you didn't get what you asked for, but they said they tried and it didn't work, and that I would have to send THEM the initial fee back. I hesitated. Because at this point, it was beginning to feel ... weird. And surreal. Because I assumed they would focus more on receiving the art, but the focus wasn't on that at all. They didn't even ask me how long I'd need to do it. They didn't seem worried or stressed, they were calmer than me, and I was holding myself together remarkably well for my own temper. And I told them as much.
I asked them to wait again, as I would ask a friend of mine who DOES have a paypal business account and who knows these things. They asked me why we can't do it alone. So, I told them as follows:
It's obvious, isn't it? I KNOW my friend personally, I know what they know, what they can do, etc. I do not know you, the stranger over instagram and you don't know me, so I don't expect there to be THAT level of trust between us. They may as well expect that I'm the scammer, right?
And I guess that's when my suspicion slowly hardened, because wouldn't people NORMALLY be glad if I knew someone who could help? Why keep this between us, who have no clue what's going on? Of course, I thought, it could simply be pride. But then why let ME handle it all, instead of insisting they know what to do?
My next course of action was then to text that friend, while I already readied myself to respond to the paypal mail. Because how DARE they expect random people to pay 300$ for someone else's account? (Told you, I'm a naive fool.) But then... in the middle of typing, I paused. Because as I mentioned, Germany has a ton of restrictions. And ONE of these restrictions is that in Emails, they have to link an Impressum. Contact data and stuff. The email seemed... too short, so I went and looked up the email address. At first, I couldn't find anything. Which was even weirder, because if this was officially paypal, it SHOULD be linked somewhere, right? So, I tried looking again. And this time, there was one meager result. And THIS was it:
The email was fishy, because it had an onmail. ending. I cross examined it by googling the official paypal mail and.... BABAM. That one has a dozen results on google. At this point, I was honestly, more impressed than upset. And maybe a little proud that even my moral justice and naivety hadn't completely betrayed me. And you know? I would have felt bad to assume that the instagram user was at fault for this, and this wasn't just a coincidence... If it weren't for the fact that my intended business email had existed for less than an hour, therefore nearly impossible to have been open for data leaks or what not, and THEY were the first person I sent it to. It was the third mail in total I got, next to the "welcome to gmail" and "Your account has been linked to paypal" mail. So, finally, I could be sure. I reported and blocked the instagram user and I do hope that they get taken down. Check the email-addresses that want to send you stuff. Never trust people you've never met, ask for a second opinion if you're unsure and cross examine everything. I hope that by reading this little story, you guys will find the red flags that the idiot I am refused to see at first glance. I've highlighted them in bolt letters to make sure you see how MANY there are. Everything that's bolt are where my mind went: hold on a second. You can tell... it's quite a LOT I ignored before I reported them, isn't it? Don't be like me. Make sure you block them before this happens.
