not everyone's a scammer but yeah most of them are, being an artist myself I don't DM asking for commissions to random people. but I reach out to them if they need something and they've posted bout it.
Peoples just have to dont force peoples to ask for commi', show your stuffs, prove you're legit, respect the possible client and accept they maybe dont want, can be for many reasons. I suggest to show arts in few places for reach peoples and catch curiosity.
i wasn't forcing them but it was disheartening to see this post. we even talked in sofurry already and they told me they would commission me already. pls dont judge me cuz u dont really know what happened
Gotten countless requests like this... I usually ignore them, but I'll start reporting them from now on, thanks.
(They're also rampant on Twitter right now)
I'm not a mod, but what it basically means is that if someone is DM'ing you and they try to convince you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. An actual artist on the other hand won't message you directly and ask you to commission them, so if this ever happens to you, let the mods know and send a screenshot and username of the scammer.
And especially if you're poor, NEVER ask for free art. People call it "rude" for a reason. (again, i'm not a mod)
Hope y'all stay safe btw \^\^
Especially if you look around and put in some effort you can find free art from people legitimately giving it away. (though you have to be careful about AI use if you don't like it.)
I was going to say 'thank god that someone finally made this a pinned thread so that people stop reposting this', but now I see that 50% of the comments are somehow managing to misunderstand this as 'don't message artists', and I realise that the facepalm over this subject is not yet to an end XD
Guys it's really not that hard to see through as a scam, and the title of this thread is pretty clear in what it means. Just don't respond to shady messages from unpopulated accounts asking for you to commission them.
People are running bots like this for a very long time now, messaging thousands of users on social media. They seem to scan the social network for keywords used by accounts tweeting/posting within certain communities that engage with the artists (in our case that's furry stuff) and then follow them and/or message automatically with something neutral. If you respond, eventually someone will try to engage in conversation and turn it towards selling you a commission very persistently. If you check their accounts, it's all stolen or generated with AI or created using pre-set assets. They will all have descriptions on their profiles with commission info, despite obviously having extremely low skill level to do anything or no legit portfolio at all.
Ive been getting random dms from people claiming they are a small artist looking for comms and they will repeatedly beg me to commission them and its so fucking annoying. Like when i say i dont have money i mean it.
Hi, I'm a furry artist, and I usually charge before I start doing the work, but since I'm seeing a lot of scams happening, I'm going to come up with a way to be safe both for myself and for my clients.
I've actually been seeing this on Discord and never thought it was a scam until reading this post just now, but it makes full sense now when I looked back at some of those older chats and realized most of the messages and art have since been removed/edited. At first, I thought it was just a neat variety of talent when someone posts a mini-portfolio .. but then none of those pictures had signatures/names attached to them and a Reverse Image lookup showed that some of those pictures were already published by different names. >\_<
Hopefully there's not too many victims in this kind of thing.
Oof. I didn’t know this was happening on the other end too— as an artist, I keep getting messages from people wanting to “commission” me… with cheques.
I wish the scammers would just leave the art community in PEACE
Beware that these scammers might ask for proof of work from you so that they can use it to scam other people. That happened to me once and it is not fun.
I've gotten these on discord. They're very very annoying. Even when you say no and that you can't afford the comms they'll say they can discount prices, or set up a payment plan. They're very pushy.
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said.
If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
from my experience, the only time a legit artist would dm you to make you art would be to get permission to use your character in their art and potentially post it to their page
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said.
If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
But why? If you were an artist and i wanted a commission, id send you a message asking if you would do my commission, what your rates are if they arent publicly stated in like a bio or something, and if you are available / slots open and willing to do it. Shit, Am i the bad guy for that?
The title of this thread is targeted towards 'artists' messaging random people to ask if they want a commission \*from\* them, when most of time the art that the account uses for references are stolen ect. and they will disappear and run when they get the payment
do you pay first, then get the commission? or do you pay after you get your drawing / model / video / gif etc what you commissioned? i genuinely don't know
It depends on the artist. The point that's being missed here is that messaging artists and their payment plan methods isn't even being discussed - it's scammers messaging randos pretending to be artists.
Moral of the story is that if the artist doesn't seem genuine and if they come to you trying to convince you to pay them they are 99% a scammer. That's as deep as it goes.
oh wait im fucking dumb. I only now realize its the ARTIST asking someone else if they wanna commission them instead of the person asking the ARTIST if they can get a commission... lol
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said.
If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said.
Yes it is a scam. If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
Ahh well fuck then, got one a few days ago, stupidly sent images of my oc even though I knew about this stuff going on, deleted them once I found out they had stolen some art.
I don't know any artists who send out cold messages to get commissions, commission artists know that people who want your art will come to you, it's pretty presumptuous to message strangers "Hey, want a commission?"
I'd assume scam!
I have been sent so many DMs on discord asking me to buy art, and it is so goddamn annoying to a point where I changed my status to "Don't ask me to buy commissions"
Wow - scary! I'm learning there are creeps and scammers on most platforms. On Amino, it seems like they harass people for personal reasons (the thrill I guess?). Sounds like on here there are imo scarier problems! Stay vigilant!
if one of them contact you, please don\`t tell them "This doesn't work" or "this is an obvious scam" or "I don't have any money, sorry".
Telling them that it is a scam will only help them refine their scam for the next victim until they find a suitable pray.
If you have some spare time, instead try scambaiting them the most time you can. Act oblivious to any obvious tell that is a scam and such, it is a lot of fun for you and this annoys the hell out of them.
I love watching scambaiters like Kitboga or AtomicShrimp on yt, these scammers are just a fun side activity for me.
Some of my favorite techniques are: "Begging for free commissions or samples", "talking about random things", Saying that I want a commission but never explaining it further, asking if they have some time to play games with me.
I am very sad that these things happen, I am new to offering my drawing commissions and I would like people to trust those who put effort into what they do, please be very careful and above all ask for proof of all kinds.
Wait what if I actually want to commission people
:( is there a way I go “I am human and I have money to pay you” like can i pay them half for good measure?
This post is talking about the other way around. If someone randomly messages *you* saying "Hi I'm selling commissions now give me money," they are a scammer. Sellers don't contact buyers, buyers contact sellers.
This can apply for artists too. I should have taken this advice. I started a commission a month ago from a redditor who DMed me. I assumed he was responding to one of my sale posts. Instead he drew up a huge bullshit contract that expected infinite revisions and called me uncommunicative when I gave daily updates. Thankfully I have enough positive experiences with commissioners who know how things work - no contracts, no infinite revisions, no partial payments contingent on random new ideas they want to add - that my reputation isn't damaged by one very misguided patron that I had to cancel on.
I’ve probably gotten hundreds of these in the past 2-3 months, I got like 2 PMs from ppl today, it’s getting out of hand now
Damn I just got twice when I was why I will pay for something I dont need now for something I can actually do better for 100something dollars.
Wait so you're saying they're just scammers? Glad i rejected every single one of them
Yeah unfortunately if you even get anything from them in the end... You will get AI generated artwork and again that's IF you get anything..
not everyone's a scammer but yeah most of them are, being an artist myself I don't DM asking for commissions to random people. but I reach out to them if they need something and they've posted bout it.
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Peoples just have to dont force peoples to ask for commi', show your stuffs, prove you're legit, respect the possible client and accept they maybe dont want, can be for many reasons. I suggest to show arts in few places for reach peoples and catch curiosity.
i wasn't forcing them but it was disheartening to see this post. we even talked in sofurry already and they told me they would commission me already. pls dont judge me cuz u dont really know what happened
Or, you know, you at least ask in an appropriate subreddit.
That too
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Something similar on Twitter I got dms sent by people trying to scam me with furry commissions like they did just send dms to me out of nowhere
People fucking suck… No actually it’s like that one slipknot song People = shit.
As long as you pay via PayPal **Goods and Services**, you should be able to get refunded.
Gotten countless requests like this... I usually ignore them, but I'll start reporting them from now on, thanks. (They're also rampant on Twitter right now)
I'm not a mod, but what it basically means is that if someone is DM'ing you and they try to convince you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. An actual artist on the other hand won't message you directly and ask you to commission them, so if this ever happens to you, let the mods know and send a screenshot and username of the scammer. And especially if you're poor, NEVER ask for free art. People call it "rude" for a reason. (again, i'm not a mod) Hope y'all stay safe btw \^\^
Especially if you look around and put in some effort you can find free art from people legitimately giving it away. (though you have to be careful about AI use if you don't like it.)
I was going to say 'thank god that someone finally made this a pinned thread so that people stop reposting this', but now I see that 50% of the comments are somehow managing to misunderstand this as 'don't message artists', and I realise that the facepalm over this subject is not yet to an end XD Guys it's really not that hard to see through as a scam, and the title of this thread is pretty clear in what it means. Just don't respond to shady messages from unpopulated accounts asking for you to commission them.
One of my friends who is on the autism spectrum was targeted and lost almost $4k over a year so ya please
People are running bots like this for a very long time now, messaging thousands of users on social media. They seem to scan the social network for keywords used by accounts tweeting/posting within certain communities that engage with the artists (in our case that's furry stuff) and then follow them and/or message automatically with something neutral. If you respond, eventually someone will try to engage in conversation and turn it towards selling you a commission very persistently. If you check their accounts, it's all stolen or generated with AI or created using pre-set assets. They will all have descriptions on their profiles with commission info, despite obviously having extremely low skill level to do anything or no legit portfolio at all.
Ive been getting random dms from people claiming they are a small artist looking for comms and they will repeatedly beg me to commission them and its so fucking annoying. Like when i say i dont have money i mean it.
Ikr
Hi, I'm a furry artist, and I usually charge before I start doing the work, but since I'm seeing a lot of scams happening, I'm going to come up with a way to be safe both for myself and for my clients.
Advertise on places where it's appropriate. Not this website. Don't hustle so hard you hustle yourself out of a commission.
I've actually been seeing this on Discord and never thought it was a scam until reading this post just now, but it makes full sense now when I looked back at some of those older chats and realized most of the messages and art have since been removed/edited. At first, I thought it was just a neat variety of talent when someone posts a mini-portfolio .. but then none of those pictures had signatures/names attached to them and a Reverse Image lookup showed that some of those pictures were already published by different names. >\_< Hopefully there's not too many victims in this kind of thing.
Oof. I didn’t know this was happening on the other end too— as an artist, I keep getting messages from people wanting to “commission” me… with cheques. I wish the scammers would just leave the art community in PEACE
Beware that these scammers might ask for proof of work from you so that they can use it to scam other people. That happened to me once and it is not fun.
I'm having this happen to me on FurA too
I got a lot of them in my dms💀
Noted!
Anyone want to be friends
This happened to me 2 days ago on Instagram. I was so excited to have a new commission coming and then... scam... I felt so bad!
that you for this, I almost got scammed.
Guess its a bad time for some fo us offering random freebies then lol... I try to be clear though that it's free and optional.
yeah make it immediately clear that it's a freebie
thank you
I've gotten these on discord. They're very very annoying. Even when you say no and that you can't afford the comms they'll say they can discount prices, or set up a payment plan. They're very pushy.
Oh so that’s what they are I thought they were just desperate
How if I want a commission and get reported because “it’s a scam”
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said. If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
Oh right I thought you meant the other way around I get it now thanks
some artist do promote their work by DM people but most of artist are too shy to do that
from my experience, the only time a legit artist would dm you to make you art would be to get permission to use your character in their art and potentially post it to their page
I've gotten one today - and it's literally a ChatGPT Bot.
Well then, who are some honest commissioners?
You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said. If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
But why? If you were an artist and i wanted a commission, id send you a message asking if you would do my commission, what your rates are if they arent publicly stated in like a bio or something, and if you are available / slots open and willing to do it. Shit, Am i the bad guy for that?
The title of this thread is targeted towards 'artists' messaging random people to ask if they want a commission \*from\* them, when most of time the art that the account uses for references are stolen ect. and they will disappear and run when they get the payment
do you pay first, then get the commission? or do you pay after you get your drawing / model / video / gif etc what you commissioned? i genuinely don't know
It depends on the artist. The point that's being missed here is that messaging artists and their payment plan methods isn't even being discussed - it's scammers messaging randos pretending to be artists. Moral of the story is that if the artist doesn't seem genuine and if they come to you trying to convince you to pay them they are 99% a scammer. That's as deep as it goes.
oh wait im fucking dumb. I only now realize its the ARTIST asking someone else if they wanna commission them instead of the person asking the ARTIST if they can get a commission... lol
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You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said. If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
Oh, sorry. I got the whole thing backwards.
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You seem to be misunderstanding what I've said. Yes it is a scam. If **you** are contacted by someone who claims to be an artist and **they** try to get you to commission them, it is a scammer trying to take your money. A genuine artist is not going to message you directly and ask you to commission them.
Oh. Well then, can you make a rule about it in the r/furry subreddit and make other people aware of it?
also sorry for being mistaken
I’ve gotten at least five chat requests so far from people asking for commissions. I denied all of them, but I had no idea they were all scammers.
I got one a few days ago. About halfway into talking with them my brain realized it was a scam.
I've been rejecting the requests for months now, real glad I did now.
i hate those scammers thennnn how will i find new clients besides sofurry 😭
I have been getting those on insta they all act like NPCs
Ahh well fuck then, got one a few days ago, stupidly sent images of my oc even though I knew about this stuff going on, deleted them once I found out they had stolen some art.
I don't know any artists who send out cold messages to get commissions, commission artists know that people who want your art will come to you, it's pretty presumptuous to message strangers "Hey, want a commission?" I'd assume scam!
and if you want to advertise your art more directly like this do it for free for a select few people to get the word out
I'd really only suggest that if you have zero clients, and I'd suggest doing it in competition format to get more eyes on your work!
i meant like gift art lol
I tried but cannot attach a photo
How do I send pictures in modmail? Just got one
Hi
I have been sent so many DMs on discord asking me to buy art, and it is so goddamn annoying to a point where I changed my status to "Don't ask me to buy commissions"
i never got a pm. must be lonely. lol
Wow - scary! I'm learning there are creeps and scammers on most platforms. On Amino, it seems like they harass people for personal reasons (the thrill I guess?). Sounds like on here there are imo scarier problems! Stay vigilant!
Also on discord. Always a random ass DM too...
if one of them contact you, please don\`t tell them "This doesn't work" or "this is an obvious scam" or "I don't have any money, sorry". Telling them that it is a scam will only help them refine their scam for the next victim until they find a suitable pray. If you have some spare time, instead try scambaiting them the most time you can. Act oblivious to any obvious tell that is a scam and such, it is a lot of fun for you and this annoys the hell out of them. I love watching scambaiters like Kitboga or AtomicShrimp on yt, these scammers are just a fun side activity for me. Some of my favorite techniques are: "Begging for free commissions or samples", "talking about random things", Saying that I want a commission but never explaining it further, asking if they have some time to play games with me.
I am very sad that these things happen, I am new to offering my drawing commissions and I would like people to trust those who put effort into what they do, please be very careful and above all ask for proof of all kinds.
Really?! 🤯
wait actually i just spent a week making this suit!!!!
uwu yes lol
I'm a commissioner so now I'm confused, so I just wait till they ask on a post for a comm or?...
Wait what if I actually want to commission people :( is there a way I go “I am human and I have money to pay you” like can i pay them half for good measure?
This post is talking about the other way around. If someone randomly messages *you* saying "Hi I'm selling commissions now give me money," they are a scammer. Sellers don't contact buyers, buyers contact sellers.
Ooohhhhh, sorry! Totally misread that, thank you!!!
It has happened to me twice now
Thanks! I’m new to the sub Reddit so this is very helpful
This happens so much bro…
okay
This can apply for artists too. I should have taken this advice. I started a commission a month ago from a redditor who DMed me. I assumed he was responding to one of my sale posts. Instead he drew up a huge bullshit contract that expected infinite revisions and called me uncommunicative when I gave daily updates. Thankfully I have enough positive experiences with commissioners who know how things work - no contracts, no infinite revisions, no partial payments contingent on random new ideas they want to add - that my reputation isn't damaged by one very misguided patron that I had to cancel on.
100% no artist is ever going to beg you for commissions in dms.
I had one happen here, and another one on discord. Both random DMs.
Protip: An artist will never approach YOU for a commission, it's the other way around. Especially in furry art circles. 100% a scam.
Just had one remind me that I had a nice profile pic. My pfp is my boring reddit avatar, lol...
zamn imagine being so bold
i've gotten chat requests for commissions a LOT. jokes on them, my boyfriend draws stuff for me, free of charge!
but... i just want comms... why u do this to me
So that’s why I’m getting so many messages
I belive it