The latest scam I’ve been getting on Instagram are people who love my pics so much that they want to use my photos for a mural. Sometimes, it’s a painting. But either way all I need to do is accept a check for a large amount, keep a little for myself and then send them the extra for supplies. Art supplies can get pricey you know!
Of course, it’s just another fake check scam, and not even a very convincing one. So do not ever accept a check for more than it should be, and then send a stranger money! I feel like that should be common sense, but they wouldn’t keep trying it if people weren’t falling for it.
Click here to read more about different types of Fake Check Scams from the FTC. Read on to see what happens when you reply back to the scammers and give them a little bit of a hard time.
I Want to Use Your Photos for a Mural!
It starts with a nice complimentary message about how pretty your Instagram feed is, or how inspiring your photos are. So great that they want you to be their muse.
The Instagram scammer I’m using as an example wanted to make my photos into a mural. I got this same exact message last week, so getting this from another person alerted me this was a scam going around. This mural scam is also on TikTok now!
Once you reply back that they are interested, they will explain they will be sending you a check for a high dollar amount. This person was going to send me $2000, but once I got on board, they later upped it to $5000 because they wanted to use two photos. Lucky me!
Next, They Ask for Personal Details
This is where they start asking for personal information. I gave them an e-mail I never use for anything, the wrong bank name, and name of one of the witches on Hocus Pocus as my name. I kept asking them details about this amazing mural, but they don’t seem to have a lot of details for me.
They Send You a Fake Check
After this, they started asking for my phone number, so I gave them a fake one. I wanted to make sure they had no usable information just in case they were going to try and get into my bank account. The main part of this scam isn’t to steal your info through, it’s to steal your money by having you send it to them yourself.
Pretty soon I had myself a very realistic looking image of a $5,000 check, written out to an imaginary witch. They e-mailed it to me as my “allowance” and requested I deposit it right away. I’m publishing the photo of the check with some stuff crossed out, because it’s a fake, but it could contain info obtained through identity-theft.
If I did try and deposit it, it may actually clear. And then I’d need to send them their part of the check. And then that’s when I’d be losing out, because pretty soon the bank would be coming after me to get back their real money to replace the fake check money.
Avoid Fake Check Scams
This fake check scam also comes in the form of people “accidentally” sending you too much money for an online purchase. Then they will ask you to refund the extra. Then later you find out the check is fake, and you can’t get your money back, and you have to pay the bank back.
So NEVER EVER EVER accept a check and then send a refund. Also never give out your bank info to strangers online. Don’t even give them your personal info like e-mails or phone numbers that you use for things like banking or credit cards. The less info they have to use, the better.
Also, don’t send anybody a screenshot of a log-in code! That’s a whole different Instagram scam that’s getting a lot of people lately.
So What Happened with My Fake Check?
They kept telling me I needed to deposit ASAP, so I asked them a bunch of silly questions and then pretended I deposited it. Then they kept telling me I needed to Venmo them the money, or use cash app. Unfortunately, I don’t use those (at least not for scammers, lol) so I told them I’d need to use Paypal and it will take a few days to get transferred. My scam artist was so sad, because she wanted to get to work right away!
She helpfully suggested I just go to the store and get an Amex gift card for $2000. So suddenly my cut went from $1000, to $3000! I’m just making money like crazy over here.
I asked repeatedly for her e-mail, but she didn’t want to give it up. She then started trying to get me to hook a debit card up to my bank or use Zelle or Paypal through there. I just continued to pretend to be confused as to how any of that works, so then she got mad and started threatening to call my bank and reverse the check I never deposited.
Watch Out for Threats
She got very nasty, threatening that my bank would close my account and that I wouldn’t be able to get a bank account anymore. And then she’d call the police and I’d lose my job.
The threats kept escalating, and it was getting close to dinner time, so I finally let her know I was faking it. Funny thing was, she didn’t understand and still kept threatening that the bank would close my account. And by “my account” of course that meant Sarah Sanderson’s account.
I even asked her if she’d seen Hocus Pocus and said I’d given her the name of my Halloween costume. So finally, I just sent a message letting them know they are a terrible person, waited until it was read, and then blocked the account.
The account mentioned may still be active and trying to scam other people. If you get a chance, report @jamieson6594 for fraud. Or maybe send them a message and see if you can get them to send checks out to the other Sanderson sisters, lol.
As for the threats- if you get them, just ignore them. Some of these scammers get pretty nasty when they find out they aren’t getting your money.
About the Author
Candy Keane is a digital content creator and long-time cosplayer, most well-known for being on the cover of the Star Wars documentary Jedi Junkies. After making costumes professionally for over a decade, she now writes about geek culture and mom life, and continues to cosplay for fun, while sharing her love of costumes on Instagram @SewGeekMama. Her first children’s book, I’m Going to My First Comic Convention, was published in 2020 and won a Story Monsters Approved award for Excellence in Literature.
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Categories: Mom Blog, Mom Life, scam alert
I got scammed by these artists, the name is Andra on insta, I accepted the check and it somewhat went through. I got 100$ out of the 1000 they promised. I sent back those 100 and they still want 400$ for art supplies while i keep the 500$. The check has not cleared and I dont know what to do. can u please help.
So you have already sent them $100? The check most likely will end up being fraudulent and you may have to pay the bank back the $100 from the check. I would cancel that check and maybe let the bank know what happened.
Hey so this happened to me and unfortunately I deposited the check but did not send any cash through anything I called my bank because they’d suspended my account temporarily and they said to call them back in the morning. Am i in danger here. Gosh I can’t believe it some people are just molded by evil
Once the bank figures out it is a fraudulent check, they will suspend your account so no more activity can take place. Then they will need to talk to you to determine if you have committed a crime by knowingly depositing it, or if you are the victim of fraud.
The bank will take back the funds from the check and may charge you a fee on top of that, depending on the bank.
This scam happens so often that they are probably familiar with dealing with it.
I got this message but they never followed up to ask for my email. As soon as they said the words “bank check” I knew it was fake. And decided not to entertain them anymore. Strangely never came down to having to block them. But I never gave them any personal info.
I’m a very tech savvy person so knew it was a scam from the first message and have been dangling them along for a couple of days now. Decided to google it to see which direction to go with it and see exactly how they made their money. I see a couple of references to Nigeria and specifically Lagos. I’m not sure how tech savvy they are themselves, I’m guessing not very so I was thinking about feeding them some BS like “where are you located? Oh that’s weird because my uncle in the cyber crimes division of the FBI traced your digital footprint back to Lagos Nigeria.” Who knows if they’d buy that jargon but it might make them look at each other like uhhhh
They should offer to send you a check soon! That’s their main goal with this.
I got same message from https://instagram.com/harperlee432?igshid=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ== thank god I didn’t fall for it but I was about to. Please report the account.
Thank you for sharing the scammer! I will report it as well.
So I’m pretty sure that this just happened to me. I’m in a very dark place mentally and someone wanting to do a painting or whatever kinda perked me up. The person kept reassuring me that this is not a scam since they are not asking me for money. But I did mess up. I sent the screen shots and covered the information on the stuff that I sent. I don’t use one of my emails so I sent them that one. I’m not sure if it’s 2 people or 1. 2500 is what they sent me and I sent them 400 though Apple Pay. I know I’m doomed. I’m so screwed and scared that I messed up. I questioned this a lot but wasn’t sure until after I sent it. It didn’t feel right. They reassured me that things were gonna be okay, that I’m not in trouble and what not. But after searching instagram artist scammers I know I messed up. I just hope I don’t get arrested. But my weakness is that I try and see the good in people and that there are people out there that do and have ruined it for others. But now I know, just only a little to late.
So sorry to hear they got you. Have you notified your bank? I totally understand how reassuring they are, because they did the same to me when I questioned them. You won’t get arrested so don’t worry about that. You are a victim of fraud and didn’t do anything wrong on purpose.
I’m calling them today. Since I work second shift and my job is 40 minutes away, and I didn’t get much sleep cause of it. And with it being 4th of July tomorrow I definitely need them to know. It does suck that they got me. But what’s weird is that they have texted me asking how my night went, asking if I’m okay and what not. I haven’t said anything back nor have I left them on read.
I would recommend blocking their number and cutting off contact. They got your $ so they will probably be nice, but they can be very ugly and threatening once they know you are on to the scam.
So I ended up blocking their numbers and then just woke up to 19 messages about this that and the 3rd. Threatening to ruin my life and my account if I don’t give them their money. I told them that the check was flagged for fraud, to leave me alone and that I can’t give them what I don’t have. Like this is crazy. They even sent me an attorney text and all this stuff. Like it does have me stressed out right now. Should I go to the cops? I’m so stupid at how I got scammed over like this. 😒
Block them on everything! The attorney text is fake, don’t worry about any of that. They told me they’d report me to the FBI and I’d never be able to get a job again lol. They are the ones the FBI should after! They don’t do anything besides harass people and try to steal money, so as long as you block them, you won’t be bothered.
They also told me that they were gonna ruin me and take my account into the negative to the point that I will never be able to pay back the banks. I screwed up so badly, I don’t even know how I got duped into a scam. I’m usually pretty good about not getting caught up in theses things and here I am hoping and praying that they don’t mess up my accounts until I can talk to someone at my bank. I was so stressed out that I didn’t sleep well and then over slept so I was running late for work and didn’t even get a chance to go to my bank. I’m just hoping that they leave me alone and don’t do anything. This definitely opened my eyes and was a true lesson learned. 😢🥺😩
It’s all empty threats. As long as you have spoken to the bank and they know about the check, then you are fine. If you sent them money you probably can’t recover it, but besides that, they can’t do anything.
Thank you for your support. For I do feel completely stupid that I let this happen. I guess sometimes things just get the better of us. Also I did block and I will be speaking with my bank tomorrow. For as I was freaking out Monday and today is a holiday. Thank you again. I’ll keep everyone posted with what my bank says.
Well don’t feel like that Lisa. That happened to me two weeks ago, but I got it worse of all. But hey at least we got everything taken care of and we can think of this as a learning experience now. Now we know to be more cautious and beware of these kind of scammers too.
When they knew my phone number I got random calls and texts from people I didn’t know and they would threatening me and even sent me a scary video. I was terrified.
This happened to me too, except I gave them $800. I feel like the biggest idiot on the planet, since this is my second time falling for a scam, the first one was a fake job and I lost $500.
They sounded convincing so I didn’t know it was fake at the time, plus I’m very gullible and too trusting of people. I told my mom as it happened and she suspected it was fake but I told her it could be real, I should have listened to her. I had barely any money to start with, I was desperate for any money. I need to pay my school tuition and now I can’t cause my account is negative. I called my bank and as I sent the money through Zelle, they’ll start a claim and maybe I could get the money back.
Sorry to hear you fell for it! They can be very convincing. Hope you are able to get your money back!
Don’t feel bad. I’m the same way, people do ruin it for other people who are really being genuine. I’ve never had anyone say hey let me do your painting. I was super shocked and happy. Like it was a good feeling. But then after I did it I’m like this don’t seem right and then I said something to my boyfriend and he’s like I think you got scammed. And then once I realized the check didn’t go through and I sent them the money through Apple Pay I went to my bank and told them what happened. They said they were not sure if I would be able to get my money back since I went though Apple Pay. But like that money was my my personal money that was taken since the check wasn’t even real. Like my bank will give me a credit of a check that I deposit. And it showed that they “credited” 400 but that needed up just being my money sent to them and what not. I will never do this again that’s for sure. Like this was truly a lesson learned for me. I hope things get better for you.
I totally understand that initial excitement! I felt that way with the SHEIN scam, which is what got me sharing these scams in the first place. They really prey on your emotions, which makes it easy to get suckered in.
SHEIN scam? I order from there from time to time. Please tell me about this? And yes I totally agree with you. Like I’ve always told myself if it sounds too good to be true; then it’s not real. I should have listened to my instincts more than my heart. But things happen. We’re human and some of us want to see the good in others. But people like them make it hard for us. The world is just a shitty place. 🥲
I got very excited to get an e-mail from SHEIN PR inviting me to get free clothes and paid per post in Instagram. But it wasn’t really from them. It was a trick to get me to send them a “shipping fee” to cover my first fake shipment of products. I caught on before sending the $ and posted a blog about it.
Since then I’ve gotten the same type e-mail from people pretending to be from Benefit cosmetics, ColourPop and MAC.
It just really sucks every time you get that e-mail and get that initial excited rush, and then realize it’s just another scam.
I’m glad you were able to catch it before you sent the money. And yes I totally understand where you coming from about that rush. You’re like yes I will this is gonna be amazing and it just turns out it’s some low life scum of the earth person trying to get your money.
i’m currently going through this situation . i finally got some sleep but i need to get my mental health back!
I’m sorry they got you! It’s just awful what they do.
Don’t beat yourself up about it. I was scammed two weeks ago, but when I found out I was too late and gave them some of my personal info and sent like $300. I was able to call my bank, make a new bank account, Social Security and change my phone number, but I couldn’t get my money back. It sucked, but hey at least that scammer can’t get me anymore.
I got this message also a couple days ago, I gave her my name, email and the name of my bank. But then I realized that this was too good to be true so I searched up on google and I found this page. So I told her that she was an scammer and I blocked her. But could she do something since I gave her my name, email and the name of my bank?
No, they shouldn’t be able to do anything with that besides send you annoying emails if they want.
My daughter fell for it today! She deposited the check and then started getting nervous and wanted to get rid of the money so she venmoed some back to them like they wanted. 🤦 The bank fixed some of it and changed her account but now these people are threatening to come find her and kill her! Now I am so nervous! Why don’t teenagers listen?! My husband is in IT and has told her for years to ask before doing anything.
oh no! They got very threatening with me as well. They told me the police were going to come have me arrested for stealing their money. I’m sorry to hear your daughter fell for it. I’m hoping people will Google this before that happens! They are just trying to scare her though. They are most likely on a different continent.
THIS HAPPENED TO ME!!! The fact that they use art is so disgusting and so uncalled for. They kept sending me 500 dollar checks and I only deposited two of them. After coming to realize that they were FAKE I had called Bank of America to let them know that I had gotten scammed. I was so scared because I could’ve gotten arrested when I really didn’t even know what the hell was actually going on. I didn’t even know that others were GOING THROUGH THIS. I wish I had searched it up prior before actually falling for it because now I can barley sleep at night because they call me all the time in the early mornings sending me threatening text messages, horrifying videos, AND ARE JUST CRUEL AND DISGUSTING. I can’t believe this and no matter how many times I block them THEY KEEP CALLING BACK 😭😭 like I hate it and it’s ruining my life and my money-
I’m sorry to hear they are harassing you! You may need to change your number to get them to stop.
I fell for it because I love art and I told them I would do it for free persisted on it, that it was necessary and when I gave in and gave my email, which wasn’t actually my email but where I messed up was my phone number. They were like oh now you have my check. I said I don’t even want it and I’m out because doesn’t seem real and I’m guessing you don’t just want to paint a picture. After that they got really mean. They threaten to kill me, they even sent pictures of people who they have killed before for and said that they have my picture so there’s no hiding, they said they will get somebody to assassin me. It was all very scary. To be honest I’m still kind of scared.
That is crazy they went that far! They were rude to me and threatened me, but not that bad. But please don’t worry, these people are just hiding behind a computer and lying about everything, including the pictures they send. Just cut them off, block all contacts.
I’m so sorry ! Dealing with the same thing right now! I gave a wrong email but my right phone number and they won’t stop. I just keep blocking.
Keep up the blocking! They should give up soon when they realize it’s a waste of time.
Hi, if I don’t give back those money, can I just block them?
You don’t give the scammer money because that’s laundering, which is a crime. And yes! Block, report, and delete them.
Thank you so much for this! I’m currently getting messages from I think the same person! 🤣 I know it sound silly but I wasn’t sure if it was real or not. I’m glad I found your article before sending them any personal details. Thank you 👍
Glad you caught it in time! 🙂
I also got sent pictures of dead people and death threats to send the money back this scam is really weird
It is the only one I’ve heard of where they’ve been doing that!
I got threatening messages and a video of someone shooting a guy 😣. It was so scary.
This unfortunately happened to me too they threatened my life and those of my family and sent me really gruesome pictures and videos
oh no! They sent you pics and video?? That’s the first time I’ve heard of that happening. That’s terrible. Sorry to hear it got that far.
I too deposited the check and I’m an adult. I don’t know how I got duped into it. They told me that they were gonna ruin me and take my account to the negative so badly to the point where I will never be able to pay the banks back. I did send money. But now they won’t leave me alone. I did tell them that the check was flagged as fraudulent and the bank is not depositing it. But they sent me some pretty nasty messages. I’ve saved and screenshot everything for my records. I’m going to talk with my bank tomorrow.
They can be pretty awful with the threats! Block, block, block and talk to the bank.
I definitely did block. And I’ve been blocking everything that calls or texts me. And been checking my account non stop. Thank you for your help.
Oh gezz I’m currently dealing with the same thing. I never cashed the check and they are sending me threatening messages that I did. I just keep blocking them. People are absolutely crazy! I was being nice about the artwork and when I said no thanks and she is going out of control.
The people doing the mural scam seem to be the worst with the nasty threats. Once I blocked them on Instagram, I never heard anymore from them. Hopefully you can block them out too!
One of them tried this trick with me tonight. I played along for a little bit, then fed them a fake sob story, begging them to stop trying to scamming me. They first asked for a screen shot from my bank, so I sent them a partial screenshot, with only the “daily limit” portion and no identifiable info… They kept trying to get me to write my name and date on a sheet of paper (was never going to happen). They also video called me a bunch of times, wanting to see my face (I didn’t let them). They used a code word that Nigerian scammers often use, “Alaye,” which means thug/scammer in their language. They wanted to know if I was one of them, trying to con them back. I wasn’t threatened, only accused of being a conman, myself. I’m surprised they didn’t get rude with me. They just said “have a nice life.” Probably because of the fake sob story I fed them. I told them I’m not some rich American, either, so I’m sure they got bored of me.
I didn’t know about the code word! That’s a new one. I should try using it on the next scammer and see what they say, lol.
i just got this message 2 hours ago. ive never really been scammed before so i was just excited that someone wanted to paint me! at first i didn’t know that i would be “paid” so i complied, only then for them to tell me i would be compensated. i couldnt sense a thing!! i asked to see some of their previous work, and they showed me, which was a mistake. i have them my real name, phone number, and email, and told them which bank i associate with. they sent me up to 3 checks, and it seemed like they were gonna send more, which would have amounted to 2500 and i would get 500. i deposited 2 checks which both had 453.36 each and sent back 400 using apple pay, and then another 100 on cash app. before i could deposit the third check, i suspected something was weird, so o searched it up only to find “INSTAGRAM MURAL SCAM” as the first search. i sent back what i could but there’s still a pending deposit of over $400. i don’t know what to do. i am going to contact my bank as soon as i wake up tomorrow, but this happened right before i fell asleep and now i can’t sleep as i’m shaking. please give any advice on what to do in this situation. i was stupid and naive and im never falling for this shit again. im so MAD. i am still sweating cold sweat. i’ma broke college student, please help me
Oh no! I hope you were able to get in touch with your bank to stop the deposit. Dealing with the bank directly and letting them know what happened is the best thing to do.
i of course blocked them but i’m not sure what i’m supposed to do now.
Alert your bank that you were a victim of fraud. The checks they sent you may clear at first but will later come up as fraudulent.
I just had someone try the scam on me. I luckily found this page and learned what to do. I didn’t deposit the check because it looked fake. For some reason they let me off the hook and didn’t threaten me. The scammer was toneysarthub on insta.
Glad to hear you stopped before depositing the check! There are a lot of different people pulling this one, so sounds like at least you got lucky with them not getting threatening like they did with me and others.
Yep, this just happened to me but before they could proceed any further with the scam, I sent them a link to this post asking if anything seemed oddly familiar to what they were telling me. Needless to say, I was blocked shortly after. Thanks for posting this! 🙂
LOL! That is too funny you sent them the post. Love it. 🙂
I just sent them this post too. My scammer was @f.aleksandra2027453 and had followed some of my friends to make it seem like they may be someone I know.
First of all THANK YOU for putting your scammer on blast!!
Ours was named Allysa Jade (IG iamjade_07)
This just happened tonight- It was on my 18yr old daughter’s secondary account that’s focused just on her modelling- but I manage it and deal
with all her DM’s
(There is also a Reddit thread about this scam as well btw)
It began with the scammer complimenting my daughter, saying she wanted her to serve as her muse for a mural she was going to paint and that she was hoping paint a picture (notice it was a mural first and then a picture) by using one of one of daughter’s modelling pic posts
BUT the VERY QUICKLY she shifted to a LOT of talk focused on the payment that her “client” wanted to pay ASAP so that she could finish the painting by next week- (That was the first red flag- I mean who the heck can finish a detailed oil portrait in a week or less like the ones she had posted on her account???— but I figured I would get more info….
Then came the jibber jabbering nonsense about her “client” wanting to pay by emailing a cheque and that the check would be $2500 and my daughter’s portion would be $500. – I was like, umm ok that’s weird sending a cheque by email but ok, cool.
THEN- she wanted my daughter’s full name and an email – I (acting as my daughter) said, hmmm maybe I should give you my mom’s email.
THEN –
She says “btw I need the name of your bank for the endorsement on the back of the cheque”WHICH MAKES NO SENSE – People don’t need to know the name of your bank to send you a cheque – and an endorsement is a signature that the person receiving the cheque signs on the back,….. but I had some time to kill so I gave them a different bank’s name
Then I asked what the client’s name was and if she (scammer) was based in Canada like me (my daughter) (I asked this cause she had an Australia flag and Canadian flag on her profile and Ottawa Ontario and Australia written there
as well)
She ignored my question about the name of her client and said “I’m from tamps (yes that’s how she spelled it) Florida ma’am” ( Keep in mind the pic of the scammer looked like a girl about the same age as my daughter” ) So she was definitely starting to slip up by the way she was messaging – What 18 yr old American girl calls another young girl ma”am???
I asked again about her client’s name.
She ignored me AGAIN and kept trying to explain about the cheque she was gonna send.
Then she says- Are you near a laptop or an iPad rn?
I ask why
She says that I need a second device to open the email of the cheque she’s gonna send.
I say “I’m not so sure about this”
She immediately tries to calm me down and keep me focused on how to get the cheque opened and what to do.
I’m getting annoyed at this point so I tell her (as my daughter) that “I think I need to talk to my Uncle about this he is a lawyer who works with PWC – an international finance/accounting firm to see what he thinks cause I trust him (and yes- my older brother is actually a lawyer and works at Price Waterhouse Coopers 🙂 )
THIS next message WAS MY FAV – You can tell the scammer is getting flustered cause they COMPLETELYdrop the whole “attempting to sound like a young American girl who is an independent artist” and they say….. (lmao)
“I under your skepticism but I want you to know that in this firm we work according to the policy of this firm so you have nothing to worry about”
Like REALLY?? – I guess this young girl all of a sudden is working in a “firm” ???
It was ridiculous
Ugh, just ugh
But at the same time this is when it hit me, how about all those other scammers sharing this with each other who were/are smoother talkers than mine? Or those dealing with a young impressionable 18 yr old who is flattered by the attention and wouldnt mind some extra cash?
So I basically told her at this point that the jig was up- that I could tell this wasn’t on the up and up – and said what she wrote on her profile about being Canadian and Australian and then telling me she was from Florida made no sense
BUT then the SCARY thing was she sent me a pic of half of a Florida License with the same name as her IG name written under the pic and what looked like the exact same girl that was on her IG profile pic— Of course I still knew it was a scam, but damn they really go all out!!!!
(Now that I think about it, it’s probably real ID from a real girl who also got scammed somehow into giving up some info in order to get a cheque of some sort)
I said it didn’t matter if she was who she said she was, that whenever I (my daughter) has been paid for anything *outside* of regular modelling through her agency (for magazines or clothing brands etc) where her agency takes their percentage and then directly deposits the rest into her bank account— That she gets paid through PayPal-and that it’s the only form of
Payment that protects both people- I told her to look at my daughters second last post showing her backstage with Kevin Hart when he was here on his tour in Vancouver and that they paid her through PayPal for that gig that and anyone can easily pay that way.
They ignored the message COMPLETELY and tried one more time to see if they could redirect my focus back to depositing the cheque
I was about to leave when she sent 6 messages in super quick succession (obviously cut and pasting) detailing EXACTLY how I should open the picture of the cheque to full page resolution and then open my mobile banking app and use my cell phone to deposit the cheque
I said Nope- not gonna do it – Told her my Uncle (my brother lol) said not to etc etc
That’s when I just called them out completely and said “nice try scammer.”
Within 2 mins they deleted all the art pics on their IG – I took screen shots of the messages to share with my other daughters (one of whom is also a model and has an IG account) and by the time I was done amd went to report them their account just said “Instagram User” amd had no pic.
When I let my other daughters know, my eldest said “Yup, it’s a scam Mom, happened to me
too” – She’s the one who told me about the Reddit thread.
My 18 yr old asked me- what’s the point of them wasting time going through all that? I said to her, “Think of it this way, if this is their full time job- and they spend 8 hours a day doing this to countless people every day and get, say, even ONE person to fall for it and send them back that $2000 – that adds up to about $60,000 a month if they work every day of each month.
She was like- “Ohhhhhh, damn!”
This scam MUST be working otherwise they wouldn’t keep doing it.
And think of all the people who are too embarrassed to come forward. – The scammers are counting on that, because they are appealing to people’s egos.
Hopefully sharing this will allow anyone else who was targeted feel better knowing they aren’t alone.
Years ago I used to have a Loss Prevention Company – we dealt with retail theft as well as internal theft and fraud investigations – So I tend to be a bit more distrustful than the average bear, but I’m sure if I was a different person with different life experiences I would have reacted differently.
These people are scum, they take and take and don’t care who they hurt. It’s really sad.
Oh wow they were all over the place with their background there lol. I actually posted in that Reddit thread, but added the link to my blog post and it got removed. I guess it’s not allowed.
And it is really terrible what these people are doing, I agree!
I was talking to a girl, who wanted to use my photo for the Mural. And asking my permission to use it, i was supposed to say Yes and she will go to send me $500 however, I have researched about it and got to know this article. But By mistake, I have shared my email address, do you think that would be an issue?
Don’t worry if you just shared your email address. They can’t do anything but maybe send you some spam mail. 🙂
Lmao they almost got me as I am very fashionable on Instagram, they were pretty convincing & I reposted the check they sent me but they were far to persistent that I send them $100 back of the money and I googled this so it seems they can’t do much unless you actually send them money back.. fortunately I didn’t send them anything back and will be contacting my bank tomorrow to let them know that I deposited a check into my account.
Good! Glad to hear you figured it out before sending them any money.
That’s crazy I just had the same thing happen. I always look these situations up first and they tend to pop up with scam lol. Always look it up as usually someone else will have experienced the same situation
I have just recieved from a Christine on Instagram about the same thing…… I’m now getting emails from several different emails about the fact I haven’t deposited money or sent money to the person for painting supplies….. I archived all emails and saved a screenshot of the account which I have now blocked on Instagram
Sounds like you did the right thing!
this happend to me this morning i asked her for a digital wallet and i got blocked 🙂
Thank you in alerting us !! The moment they replied i felt it was fishy and googled to find this so im not wasting time. I simply
Blocked them immediately so i wont even need to msg further
Good way to handle it!
I ALMOST fell for it today!! I was googling to see if there were scams going on on Instagram before I would send the screenshot and I’m SO GLAD I found this post!! The account that tried the scam is “morgan_steph123”.
Yay! So glad you found this post and they scammed one less person 🙂
Just ran into this scam myself by someone impersonating Rositsa Ivanova (fleur_josephine32).
I thought the initial dm was sketchy and did a Google search and found this article. I sent them a screenshot like “yeah I’m not interested in your scam”. And of course they were like, “no no.”
The real kicker was the idiot posted a story video highlight of themselves, a Nigerian man smoking with the Lagos, Nigeria location tag on. XD
I then screenshot that and was like “is this not you”… safe to say they dipped and I think deleted the account. (As of rn I can’t find it on any of my backup accounts on Instagram).
Glad you found the post! I always think it’s funny when people send it to the scammer 😆
Oh my gosh thank god for this post !! I was just on Instagram where this came up as well! I told her I would let her paint me for free and she proceeded to tell me I needed to get compensation for it to prevent a lawsuit so I said “it should be enough that there are messages of proof I do not want compensation and that I am allowing you to paint me.” I told her my husband is a lawyer (I don’t have a husband) and I kindly declined her offer when she asked to send me money ($3000 and to keep 500 for myself.) I would have fallen for this since I have lots of followers it would not be uncommon for this to appear as something realistic that I would get asked.. however the girl sent me the same messages twice and after telling her I was advised to decline her offer per my “husbands” request lol, I was left on seen
Wise advice from the imaginary husband, Lol!
I got a message! I didn’t realize that was a scam, after the final moment, she asked for my real full name and my bank, and I felt something wrong, then I google” painting scam on Instagram”. Luckily, you post this article and at the top of the web, your sharing saves many people who suffer this scam, including me! I really need to say THANK YOU!
I immediately decided to tell my story as a warning on my YouTube, I would like to have your permission to share this article link in the info section and some crucial parts of conversations in the video, hope everybody tells everybody, to block these scam !!!
Hi, Yes are definitely allowed to share the link! The more people that know about this, the better. Thank you for passing on the word and helping to get it out there.
My daughter was falling for it today, until I stopped her. IG name is pandit_2 and goes by Sara. Ugh! I reported it and told my daughter to as well.
Good job 😊
I almost fell for this before I realized it was a scam. They were pretending to be some girl who does paintings and wanted to pay me $400 for a $2500 painting.
After they asked for my name, my bank, and then my phone number, I said it sounds like a scam, and they gave me some huge story about how they’re a well-intentioned person who “doesn’t try sh*t.” I told them “send me a photo of you holding a piece of paper with my name on it” and they tried to distract me and ended up sending me a formal-looking contract that said they were going to use the painting in a LA art show sponsored by UNIVERSAL STUDIOS. I just laughed at him and told him to get a job and he blocked me.
Good thing you didn’t fall for it!
Yup. This one is still floating out there. I got the first complementary message and looked at the profile. It had two dozen pieces of art so I accepted the message but once the second message about the mural and client paying got sent my alarm bells went off. Blocked the account and reported the scammer.
Good move!
They have my face, half of my full name, and my country. Should that be an issue? I accepted the deposit but have not sent anything. What should I currently do?
The issue would be with the deposit. It’s a fraudulent check, so you need to notify your bank if you’ve deposited it in your bank. It will eventually be caught even if it clears first.
It happened to me recently and I didn’t realize it was fake untill after I deposited the check and it was pending in my bank account. I tried to send her money but it was getting denied. Then I realized this might be a scammer so I googled this article and blocked the person. I already gave them my phone number and name and email. They kept messaging me with death threats and going to call the FBI. I blocked them and blocked them from my email. I called my bank the next day and told them what happened they couldn’t do anything till the check I guess was cleared but the person I spoke with said he put a note saying it was a fake check, and it should go away i. A couple of days. I also requested a new debit card to be safe so they can’t make withdrawals out of my account to be safe. I’m going to the bank in person today to see if they can take that check out of my account. I also reported everything to the FTC like they said I should do. I’m so scared because I didn’t know it was a scam till It was too late.
It sounds like you took all the right steps to protect yourself afterwards! People have sent me screenshots of the threats they send. They are pretty terrible. But don’t worry about that, they are threatening people that live all over the world and they certainly aren’t in all those places. Block and ignore them.
Thank you I appreciate it and that’s exactly what I did I went to the bank today and they said I did all the correct steps and reporting it and get a new card and telling them in person. They said the check amount will be removed and I won’t be charged anything. I was so scared.
That’s good to hear that if you catch it in time, you are ok with the bank and don’t owe any fees!
Hello, I was contacted yesterday. At first I thought it was cool that someone wants to collaborate with me. But when I start asking questions about the details of the project, I wasn’t given a straight answer. So when I started asking questions, they would never give me a straight answer. When the scammer told me about the clients name, I searched it up. And the scammers profile and the clients profile were exactly the same. Each lettering, each emoji, everything. It was like it was copied and pasted and it probably was. I never gave them my name, my bank and that other information because it seemed fishy to me. When I searched “art mural collaboration scam” up on google, this article came up. And it was about the same thing that happened. Thank you so much for the articles information. I reported, blocked and restricted the scam account on my phone.
Glad to hear you looked it up and found the post!
Hey! I got contacted by an account like this, clearly they had hacked into someone’s account! It’s sounded too good to be true, so I decided to do some research and came across this page! These scammers also follow people you may know so I will now be warning those who may fall for it! Really appreciate post like these❣️
Thank you for letting me this post is still showing up and helping people not get scammed! ❤️
Someone named Taylor Barnes_arts contacted me on instagram about using my pictures as a painting for someone. Wanted my permission. The scammer said, “The person is interested in getting an anonymous mural this time. Rich folks, hahaha.”
Do not believe them!
Thank you for posting this! This just happened to me, I started asking questions like why does your client want a picture of someone random and not of themselves? What are you going to do with my picture once you paint it? Why aren’t the other people you used on your page tagged? And they blocked me after that 😂 I never even got to the rest of the process. I was skeptical because of the whole payment and credits thing anyways bc I knew I would have to give them information in order to get paid and thats never a good idea.
Good thing to be skeptical! You were right 🙂 Thanks for letting me know you found the post.
Ah this just happened to me today too! I got as far as sending them my name email and bank name but as soon as they asked for my phone number I found this article and just said I’m not interested anymore and blocked/reported them. Hopefully they can’t do anything with that info other than maybe try to email me with a check, but I’ll definitely just block any emails they send me and do nothing with that check.
Honestly debating changing all my accounts that use that email as well and just deleting the account based on those scary stories above!!
Some of the mural scam people get very threatening, but they don’t seem to be able to do anything but that! It would be a good idea to change your e-mail associated with your bank though.
Thanks for sharing it, I’m a 22 year old girl and I immediately understand when someone wants to scam, as soon as I received the message I immediately blocked it, the profile is “linda.toffler_” please report!!
Unfortunately, there are many people who don’t know how to immediately recognize a scam, even older people, so surely this post will help them. Also with the new instagram update the message had ended up in the “offensive/unwanted/scam hidden requests” section.
That’s good news that it is being filtered now at least! One small step to getting rid of so much scam activity.
Thank you for this post! I received this today from a @greg_artstudion, I thought it was fishy from the start. My partner works as a threat researcher and thought the same thing. Reading your post confirmed it 😊
Glad you were able to find the post and confirm your suspicions! 🙂
I can’t believe I almost fell for this. I am a teenager and was so happy they thought my pictures were pretty! I gave more info like my name, number, and email. I hope they can’t use it!! My parents told me that it was a scam and I was shown this page. Literal life saver. I told the girl she was a scammer and she kept trying to convince me with fake screenshots of people that got the money. I told her “I talked to her clients” as well as “told Instagram manager the story” which I didn’t haha. But how could you do this like seriously. And they target more teens because they are more gullible to fall for it! Don’t trust maddie_jerome_10. Stay safe!
I’m glad you found out before you got involved with the check fraud or sent any money! I know it’s a let down to find out it wasn’t a real offer though.
I fell for this today 🙁 both me and my friend did. My check didn’t clear yet and I didn’t send them anything but I did deposit the check. And then I contacted my bank and they said they can’t do anything until the check clears. But I’m so worried now. I’m going to the bank tomorrow to cancel my card and get a new one just in case :(( my friend sent them money back and then they sent her videos of people getting killed
OMG they sent her videos of that?? That’s awful! It sounds like the crazy threats are getting worse.
You are doing the right thing to go to alert the bank and then get a new card.
Thankfully my bank closed it all out and I don’t have to pay anything, my friend has to pay 3k back into the bank I feel so bad for her because she’s poor and doesn’t have the money
Glad to hear your bank got it squared away. Sorry about the friend! That’s terrible.
My son fell to a trap yesterday. I told him that it might be a scam but he kept on defending her that the artist is legit bec of sending some screenshots of her paintings and convo from her other clients. So I ended up helping him to deposit the cheque on my account but I told him not to send any money yet until verified. Today the money is already in my account until I read this thread. So I phoned by bank to verify bec I think it is a fradulent transaction I told, so they said they will put the money on hold until verified. Scary!!
I’m glad to hear you called the bank and they’ve put it hold. I can assure you, it is a scam unfortunately!
I don’t accept the check or anything cause it seemed too sketchy but I did tell them my bank name, email and phone number, is that bad? Can they hack anything with that?
No, they shouldn’t be able to do anything with that. They could try and login, but would have to guess your password. But they are looking to steal money by having you send it to them, not by hacking your account.
I just came across this scam. They actually commented on one of my post from a couple years ago saying they wanted to use my photo for inspiration for there clients mural. When I dmed them I immediately asked why it wasn’t a scam and they told me because I would be receiving money. I continued to ask more questions and learned that there supposed clients name was Johnson Bryan. Which flipped (Bryan Johnson) is an actual famous artist. At this point I knew it was fake and reported them. Just in case anyone comes across a savannah_spish71 please now it’s fake. Thank you for sharing your story!
And thank you for sharing your story and the name of the scammer! The more people that report them, the better.
Hi so I unfortunately fell for this and had send them money… what do I do now… they have my full name name of my bank and email.
Make sure you contact your bank and let them know you were a victim of fraud! They aren’t after your info, they just want to money you sent.
This has just happened to me. The account name is artof_jaydenkaleb. At first, I thought it was legit because the account seemed real (the scammer had photos published back in 2014).
But what made me suspicious was the way I became a third wheel between the scammer and the client. Why won’t the client directly send the money to the painter? Also, they both sent me the exact same instructions (with identical typos) to deposit the check. I found this REALLY suspicious.
“Once you have the front and back images of the check in your email
Then you open up the front image of the check to a fulll screen on your laptop
Then Login to your bank app on your mobile phone
Then You select the mobile deposit feature on the app and follow the instructions”
Full with 3 l’s? The exact same double spaces? Weird….
I called TD Bank (which was the bank written on the check to make sure it was legit and because I was hesitant and they told me it was a scam. Now I’m afraid because I gave the scammer my name, bank’s name and email before I realized it was fake.
They are after the money you send, not so much the personal info. It’s much easier to have you just send them the money then try to hack into your account.
You should be fine to just block all contact and don’t deposit the fake check.
hello! this happened to me as well! the scammers email address is @davidenderson999@gmail.com and the instagram account of the scammer is @__martha.marcel. the instragram account does indeed have old photos from 132 weeks ago.
The account they are using was most likely stolen and belongs to someone else, that’s why they have older photos on there. Hope you didn’t send them any $$.
You did the lord’s work by posting this. I nearly fell victim to this vicious scam this week. They were not able to get money from me, I caught it by that point but it has left me completely traumatized because I received death threats in texts and videos and also graphic images of dead bodies. I don’t know all of exactly what they sent me because my absolute hero of a husband went through my phone for me and also went through everything to give it to the police for me.
I didn’t sleep for nearly 30hrs after it happened, still having a hard time sleeping and eating. Thankfully, the police and have taken it seriously as a “threat to kill” crime and have had me complete a statement and said I may be asked to appear in court. Even though my husband is way stronger than me he is a bit traumatized by what he saw and read and will need to speak with a therapist or something.
To anyone this happens to- REPORT TO THE POLICE! Then your bank. It is IS a crime. Do not go through it alone.
Thank you for sharing your story! I am sorry to hear you were a victim of the more vicious scammers. You can see here in the comments that they send death threats regularly to people. I know it is rattling, but please don’t let it affect you too badly, as these people do not actually follow through. They are empty threats from desperate scammers. It would be on the news if they were actually doing these things. But it is still good that you went to the police and they took everything seriously. These things should be reported!
Got a message about this on my graphic design page. Ended up having my bank account closed because they overdrafted my account and they are sending me pictures of dead bodies and saying if i dont send them back the money they will kill me and my family. Should i just block them and ignore it?
Definitely block them and then you can ignore it, or report it to the police. They probably can’t do anything about it, but at least it’s on record. Unfortunately the mural scammers seem to be the worst with these threats, but they are just threats.
I was just scammed by an artist like this. They said they employer would send a cheque for $500. They needed photos to do the mural which I sent 2. They have my phone number , email and what bank I bank at. I wasn’t as quick thinking as you to give a fake. Though I was skeptical in the first place of the whole thing. I blocked on insta and deleted the text when they sent one to me on what’s app and blocked them. I also reported the insta. I am really scared now and don’t know what to do.
Sounds like to you don’t have anything to worry about. They have some personal info, but not enough to really do anything with. As a precaution, change your bank log-in and add two-factor authentication if you can.
i got this same kind of msg today and i was like REALLY? and even asked why would he choose my post😂then i calm down and thought it was too good to be true and this whole check thing was a lil weird, since i need to give my personal information. so i googled “instagram painting fraud” and saw this blog and like “yea i know IT’S A FRAUD!” thank you for sharing your experience and help me keep my money. Have a great holiday!🥳
Glad you found the post before they got your $$!
Hello, this just happened to me.I deposited the 2000$ check and only 1000$ went through to my account and they claimed I would get the or 1000$ tomorrow. I knew this was now fake and didnt send them the money for the art material. Does the check bounce for the amount it was. For instance mine was 2000$. I didn’t send any more for the “materials”. Are they going to get more money out of my account? Or just the money 1000$ I received.
They shouldn’t be able to take any money out of your account, but the bank will probably take back the $1000 once they figure out the check is fraud. You need to call the bank asap and let them know what happened, otherwise you are stealing the money from whoever they got the bank info from in the first place to create the bad check.
I usually don’t respond to forums, but this website is so important, and I want to spread the word. I was sent a follow request by @annikasprings.arts which looked like a real art account. She told me she would use me as a muse, and I would be compensated for it. I wanted to see if it was a scam, so I pressed on. She chose a picture from my account, and I was close to sending her the actual photo, but something told me to keep asking questions, since, in high school, I was really involved in art. The first red flag, was when she said her art was going to be at a show/ sale exhibition at a music festival. I don’t know about you, but when I think of a music festival, I don’t think about fine art being there. Then she said I would receive $500. That was the second red flag enough for me to search on Google for potential scams, then I found this page. From then on, I messed with her a bit, asking if I could be sent the money electronically. She made some stupid excuse that the first payment needs to be a check. So I said I don’t accept checks from strangers (which is partially true, but it’s weird). She kept reassuring me it would be ok. I realized it wasn’t going anywhere and it could potentially be dangerous I blocked her. Thank you for this website, and everyone’s stories. They saved me!
Glad to read that you didn’t go through with it! 😊
Glad you didn’t go through it. I unfortunately did. And lost out on money. However I got I touch with my bank and they are investigating it. They said that they can’t make any promises that I’ll get my money back which was 400.
I hope you can recover your money!
Back in March 2023, I received a message from someone, out of the blue, regarding wanting to create “an amazing mural”, using my work as inspiration, for a client. Yup, it was the friendly neighbourhood scammer. I let them run their schtick, claiming how their client was going to pay asap, send a cheque, blah blah blah. It never got to the threatening phase, since I basically left them on read when they mentioned the cheque. However, the fun part here is that the account is still active on Instagram. This profile is actually impressive, with the amount of stolen photos and artwork, that they have posted up on their feed. The name they were using with me was Sarah Williams (sarah_art3213). If you get a message from that account, do not give them any of your information and block them.
Thank you for sharing the info! If it’s still active, then they are still busy scamming people I’m sure.
I just got this on Instagram dang it I wanted my picture painted. 🤣🤣 Felt fishy though so I googled thanks for making this.
It does sound like a cool offer! Sorry it wasn’t legit. Glad you found the post 🙂
I got a couple of these too was smart enough after they told me about a check then to my non surprise I became very popular and got 3 different messages from different acccounts
Glad you didn’t fall for it!
Hi, they’re trying to scam me using my pictures, but she says she will deposit $300 via PayPal in a week, she never asked me for my phone number or other info, not yet
I wouldn’t continue to communicate with them. They aren’t going to send any money.
Same someone by the name Sarah woods and sw motions just reached out to me and said her client would send a check for 500$, they “just need” my name … then they “just need” my email….then they “just needed” what bank I use etc 😭 I too wanted my selfie painted
aw, I’m sorry it wasn’t a real offer! Sounds like you figured it out before too late though.
We just got the same request from a Sarah woods. @ember_impress (S Motions)
i cashed it and then realized it was a scam and they had someone text me gore images saying they were an assassin and were going to kill me if i didn’t send the money im so scared and idk what to do
I’m sorry you got the scary ones! Block them and don’t worry about the “assassins.” It’s all just threats and a lot of people commenting have gotten them. I have another post on the steps you need to take if you’ve been a victim of this scam: https://geekmamas.com/2023/07/09/what-to-do-when-youre-a-victim-of-a-check-fraud-internet-scam/
do you know the instagram account’s name ? So I can block and report it. I was scammed too. They even sent threat messages and a gore video. I was scared too, but don’t let them scare you. They’re just trying to get into your head.
I almost fell for this! I decided to look into it last minute and after reading your article realized I was being scammed. They sent me the check through my email but I didn’t do anything after that, they only have my name and email. I blocked them on insta and changed my gmail password. Is there anything else I should do? Should I be worried? Thank you for informing us, I feel dumb for almost doing this 🤦♀️🤦♀️🤦♀️
Don’t feel dumb! You can tell by the comments that many many people have fallen for it. It’s so easy to get sucked in when somebody makes you feel good, and it’s exciting have someone want to use your images for art work.
It sounds like you’ve done what you can do, the only thing now is just to keep an eye on your accounts for the next week or so for anything fishy. You should be totally fine though!
Hi. Should I be worried. I almost fell for this and I just received a cheque in my name. I sent her my name and email address already but I bluntly refused to give my phone number. What should I do next please? I just got a cheque and I’m glad I saw this post right now
As long as you do not deposit the fake check, you have nothing to be worried about. I also got the check but did not deposit. They will start threatening you, but just block them. I never heard anything from them again after blocked.
its happening as we speak, i knew it was sketchy and they’re on tiktok too. I think its a group of people not just one account. They’re rushing me, and they tried to log into my tiktok account – asking me to send them the code and asking for my number and such. I’m just being firm with them – i always find it fun to act stupid with scammers until they get frustrated.
Yes, it does seem to be a group of people and not just one account. Have fun frustrating them! They deserve it, lol.
They’re on Snapchat right now. I didn’t trust them. Glad I was right.
Snapchat too? They are everywhere!
yes! now on tik tok
They are everywhere now!
I can’t believe I thought someone random wanted to draw me lol but it did seem fishy “I kept saying I don’t need to get paid you can keep all the money” and they kept insisting i get paid for this portrait 😂 but the photo in this article is the script the person used in me too
Well it sounds like you at least didn’t go through with the check scam part! I hope!
so if I did follow through with the check, just because I wanted to see if it would go through, but I didn’t give them anything back am I fine as long as I’m cautious, or am I screwed?
The checks are fraud (faked with stolen account info), so when it is eventually discovered by your bank, the funds will be removed from your account, and you may be assessed a fine for the fraudulent check if you haven’t notified your bank. Knowingly depositing the fake check without notifying the bank would be considered a check fraud crime on your part as well.
So it could be very bad if you don’t let the bank know and tell them it was a check scam. You can leave out the part about knowing it was fraud and just tell them you discovered it was a scam after the deposit.
I fell for this scam and already paid 400 because the rest of 2600 will be sent on Tuesday. I’m so disappointed in myself.
oh no! I’m sorry to hear they got you with this one.
the moment i left her on seen and she wrote me back “ma’am?” i knew it was fake 😂they speak like robots, it’s a giveaway. if there’s nothing i have to do, why keep contacting me when i said i was interested for free. what more is there to say?? the messages i got where verbatim of what was said in those screenshots lol
So my sister fell for this, she is joining the army and they found that information and told her they will fire her. They said they will close her bank account and hack her social media. I told her to change passwords on everything. Should she be worried still?
Tell her not to worry. They are just threats. They told me they were sending the FBI after me and that I would lose my job and my bank account. Just make sure she changes her passwords on everything and notifies the bank!
I felt for the fake cheque but I still didn’t send her money back. It felt way too weird. I’ll contact my bank for this. I’m scared of what might happen.
I also really wanted my picture to be credited. Sad to know there’s a lot of scammers in this world
Contact your bank right away and make sure you block them on everything. They can send some really nasty messages when they don’t get the money.
I just received a DM on IG from Sarah Michaels, same scam. I figured it was a scam, but I didnt know what they were trying to scam me into. Not wanting to waste time going back and forth with the scammer, I googled it and found this. Thank you for posting this, very helpful! At one point I told the scammer I’d have to check with the model and get her permission for the painting and that I wasn’t home. She replied “Its not a problem whether you are home or not”. I was just playing along, having fun. True sign of a scam/scammer is when they are rushing you to make a move.
Very true! They want to get things done fast as possible. Glad you didn’t waste your time (and $$) and googled 🙂
I just ran into this scam, accepted the money but before I sent them anything I knew this sounded hecka fishy. I didn’t sent them any money but they were sending nastyyy messages. Is that pretty normal would you say? I contacted my bank to have the checks disputed and taken out of my account
Yes, if you look through the comments here, you’ll see a lot of people have gotten very nasty messages, even death threats and photos of dead people as threats. The mural scam people are the worst or all the scams go as far as this type of harassment. But that’s all they can do, so block them on all accounts and you’ll be fine.
I got one from Justine Cham, I thought it was weird right away but I wanted to play along and see where it goes. Great news, I’m getting two $500 payments this week lmao. They asked if they could use my pics and I was like yeah whatever and then they told me about the money and I knew right away it was too easy to be true. Haven’t responded yet to them because I’m not sure how far I want to take it… Once they started giving me details and talking about their “client” it was pretty easy to see the deal would be fake because they don’t have a very convincing account or any other social media/websites that are linked to the Insta account they’re messaging from. Also, only one of the pictures on their account has an artist’s signature, while the others are conveniently taken from angles that block out the signed corner. No artist getting paid that much for one portrait is going to have an account like that and no other accolades on the internet lol
Glad to hear they didn’t fool you!
HEY ALSO BLOCK AND REPORT @Lordofclout33, otherwise known as Elizabeth. I kept insisting she could use my image with my consent and of no charge to me. She was like “You need to pay me” huh???? “I will send it to your bank and you will pay it back to me for the painting and supplies. ” … Your client would be sending the money to you for one, and two why are you sending me a check when I said I don’t wanna be paid, and third and last of all I don’t use banks and you keep insisting on me using a bank for you to get paid by the client ????? As an artist myself, I’m for damn sure the client pays the artist directly online or in person. + emailing checks??? You just don’t do that???? Like???
Thank you for sharing the account! Im going to start posting them all here so people can see them and stay away.
mary.an2960 is another Instagram account you can add to your scammer list. She works with Crystal Quinn and Kathy Matty matthykatherine@gmail.com
Thank you for sharing the info!
Hi I just replied to a message right now that says “Hello,I really like some of the posts on your profile and I’d like to use one of ‘em as my muse for a painting I wanna work on for a client and if you’ll let me you will of course be compensated” And for the check part, it’s the same LOL. I never knew that this would be a scam! I’m still playing along on the messages lol. Didn’t give any information
Glad you figured out it was a scam! Feel free to share the scammer’s Instagram profile name here.
Wow.. I just received the same request and similar messages. The first thing I did when I got a chance to was look up ‘artist painting a Mira of me scam’ this is what I found and it’s spot on. I retired her and blocked her
Good move! Glad you found the post.
Thanks for the article , such an odd scam. I am just trolling them saying dirty nasty things to them hitting on them now and they are not very happy with me LMAO, while they are taking “a couple of weeks to complete my painting”….. This account messaging me is named weta qlia , so warn about that one as well. These people are the worst kind of human beings.
I agree, they are the worst! Glad they didn’t get you.
@bertyymerlene This Instagram account is the scam too!! Just want everyone to know and hopefully there will be no more people got scammed.
Thank you for sharing the scam account!
Yes ! Thank you for sharing this to us. I just blocked and reported the account.
Yeah I immediately blocked this person. I was like I don’t know you!
Good job 🙂
I just got the IDENTICAL messages from @sarah_mccoy_12. Assuming its a stolen account from an actual artist because there are tons of portrait paintings on her profile.
I took your advice and filed a report with the FTC, but it said they cant respond to individual reports, they just keep the data in case the person gets caught
Thanks for helping others with this article – it confirmed for me that it is in fact a scam.
Glad you were able to find the post and not get scammed 🙂
Man, I fell for it. I should have looked it up before. I knew something was fishy but since the check sort of went through I thought maybe it was real. But then she said she was going to send another $2000 and I would get 1,000 from it which at first she said $500 so then I was like as heck no, it’s a scam. I blocked her on insta and I blocked her phone number as well. I will be contacting my bank to let them know that was a fraudulent check. She also kept trying to rush me and would say “dear.” That’s how you know it’s weird.
Yes, they are heavy with the use of “dear” and always in a hurry! Hope everything goes ok with the bank.
Thanks so much for this. I got one of these and glad you posted this so I could stop it before it got worse!
Glad to hear you were not scammed!
I received the same exact message from rochelle_art65. I played a long for a little bit but felt like it was a scam. I haven’t responded again. I will probably block and report to IG. Thank you for posting this.
Glad you found the post. Please do block and report!
Please block and ignore @inkedcreation__ as well if they DM you!! This just happened to me, I had a weird feeling but gave him the benefit of the doubt, until he mentioned the check being written in my name sent to me email, lol. But his profile is actually very convincing, it looks real/legit, and there weren’t spelling and grammatical errors in his messages! Although they did pretty much match the script shown here.
Thank you for sharing your experience!
Just happened to me right now by a @samantha_lise112 almost fell for it until the “You’ll recieve the check” 🚩🚩 red flag alert. And when I questioned her why she isn’t receiving the check she said she had a bank dispute on her bank account and didn’t want MY pay to be affected! Went to Google and found this! THANK YOU FOR THIS POST MA’AM 🫡
It all sounds great until they get to the part about the check! lol. Thanks for sharing your experience..
So I got caught in this further than I wanted and already took the check and sent some money back. Can I call the bank and have everything just canceled? I’m scared what will happen
Yes, you need to call the bank asap and let them know what happened! The sooner you notify them, the better.
Just received request to use my pic from “raphael_noahgallery”. Not falling for it, but man I’d love to act like I was since I’m laid up recovering from surgery. Sounds like a good way to kill time. Lol
You could definitely string them along for a bit, lol. But some of them do get really nasty. You’ll see if you read the comments here that some people have gotten scary photos and threats from the scammers.
Oh no! This has just happened to me! I can’t believe I didn’t look into this! Someone by the name of mariah_art075 asked me for this! What do I do if I have already deposited the check(s) and paid someone 400!?!??
Sorry to hear they got you! You need to call the bank and let them know you are the victim of a check fraud scam. If you wait until the bank discovers it, you may owe additional fees.
Read this post for more tips on dealing with it: https://geekmamas.com/2023/07/09/what-to-do-when-youre-a-victim-of-a-check-fraud-internet-scam/
I called them already. My account is frozen and I will have to reset it on Monday. 🙁 people suck 🙁
Yes these scammers do suck, they are terrible people!
also the account erin_.barberr did the same thing to me. WATCH OUT. I will be calling my bank today to cancel right away.
Thank you for sharing the scammer account name!
I got my scan message on Tik Tok. She pushed me over to IG fast. I was an art minor in college and smelled fish as soon as she said she was going to do an oil painting and mail me my “copy” within five days. Girl didn’t even research how long oil paints take to harden enough to be stable enough to ship, even then if it’s thick it may never actually dry. This was at the very beginning of the convo, so I did a quick search to see if this was a new scam or if it’s been around. That’s where I found your post! So now that I knew this wasn’t a new scam, I had a little fun.
If this was a new scam I wanted to give out fake info to get more detail on the scam to post about it and warn others, but you’ve done it already so thanks ♥️
She was sooooooo mad at me by the end of me asking questions and wondering how she was going to get paid or if I had to sign contracts, etc. I of course went off on her, called her a scammer, and used some choice words when she got to the point of pretending she was going to move on and get a new “muse”. Reported on both IG and TT and blocked. Another good day reporting scammers 😂
Glad you found the post! This is the first time I’ve heard of them going after people on TikTok! Sounds like they are branching out.
Thank youuu so much for this. I knew it was a scam and still proceed, foolish me. I looked into this last minute, and they got me and now I will be contacting my bank asap.
Glad you looked into it even last minute. Hope you can get it squared away with the bank, and be sure to block the scammers and report their profile. Feel free to share their account name!
Got the same EXACT message!!! Almost fell for it but didn’t get past actually sending me a “check” through email. Thought it was too good to be true and just found this after a quick google search. Got a little info out of me but had a gut feeling and now I’m here.🤦♀️ Account Name: smith_art12. Under the name Tommy Smith. Already reported and blocked so now just waiting to see what happens.
Good job reporting and blocking! Glad you find the post before you accepted the check.
Just got hit with this scam from Instagram user @lynley__paintings_ !! Same exact messages, I almost fell for it because her Instagram account appears local to my area with tagged photos and everything. But I’m thinking whoever’s account it was got hacked. Just told the scammer since she lives a town over from me, we can just meet up so she can give me my $500 in cash 😂 Thanks for the warning!
Glad you looked it up and found the post! And yes, you are right- they use hacked accounts of real artists to fool people!
I found one exactly like this, their name is Jasmine.blocker000 just the name alone had me a bit suspicious lol
That is a really odd username! lol
I feel so stupid right now. When I first got the message I thought it was legit. As of rn I’m pretty sure they have access to my personal info and they won’t stop sending me threats that they will arrest me and flag my account. No money was ever sent, Zelle is amazing and blocked the transaction. I’m never going to listen to anyone on the internet I don’t know.
Block them every way you can! They can be really nasty with the threats, but that’s all they are. They told me the FBI was coming after me and I’d never be able to get a job again, lol.
And yes, don’t ever trust anyone online without researching them first!
Thank you for this info, thankfully I was able to lock my bank account before any transactions went through. They’re still texting me through, they’ve contacted me through 5 different numbers as of this far. Scams are dumb.
5 different numbers?! That must be very annoying! Good luck blocking them out. I hope they run out of numbers soon, lol.
Same here. I got a lot of messages from unknown numbers and some threatened me and another was pretending to be a lawyer of the scammer. I had to get my phone number changed to make it stop.
Just got that today. Wanna get my profile pic for mural. I am glad I found this post, almost give my name out. Only given out one of my email that has no connection to any of my personal info. And for the people who still have doubt. If a stranger encourage you to get money for a thing that you felt unreal. Don’t even let that get into your head. Just block it ASAP, or they can see your followers and try on them instead.
Good advice! Glad you figured it out and blocked them.
This actually happened to me this week. This Instagram account texted me out of no where and paint it and at first I did think it was scam and I told her, but she told me that I can trust her and said not everything is a scam and she’s done this for 8 years. So after we chatted for a while I decided to give it a shot. So she told me what to and asked me to give her my phone number and asked me what bank I have so her sponsor can text me and email me the checks to me to send half the payment to her and keep $500 like she promised. So when I did that the sponsor texted me and sent me the checks one by one and I went into my bank and deposited them one by one. After I did that I told them I did that and sent some screenshots like they asked and I texted back the scammer from instagram and she asked me to send some money to her supplier so the supplier can buy some art supplies she needed to do her project and I did. After that all I had to do was wait until the checks got deposited into my account, but a couple hours later I started to get a bad feeling and started to think this was scam after all. Because who would have so much money ? So I called my bank and told them to cancel the deposits and they did and after they did I texted back the scammer and told her what I did. When I told her about me canceling the deposits she got pretty upset and asked me why did I do that and I told her my reason and told her I wanted my money back. So we talked for a while and she told me that I made things a little complicated for her to finish her project and that I should’ve trusted her and not have cancelled the deposits. After another chat I started to feel bad and decided to go back on the project and she sent me a picture of what she has done. It was very pretty and she told me to send another payment to another random from Apple Pay and i asked why and pretty much it was like a apology payment I guess and I decided to go along with it. After I did that she told me her sponsor was gonna email some checks again to deposit in my bank and when I got them I did what she said. The next day I got a email from my bank saying that they cancelled the deposits and shut down my deposit history. When that happened I told them all about it and told me not to worry and they said they would send my money back today. But o wasn’t sure how because I didn’t have cash app. So I asked the scammer if she could send it to Apple Pay and she said she had Apple Pay, but she had to pay for her card. So she asked me to give her a little money to help and I decided to do it just to be nice and get this done with and have my money. She told me she would texted me if her Apple Pay works and she was able to send my refund, but she never did and I started to text her and tried to call her, but she never replied back me. The next day I texted her and told her I felt and she started to get upset with me for what I said and got offended pretty much. But she promised me she would send my money this time and I asked how and she asked me if I had ID me account I think it was called and I said no. So I told her I would create one so she can send my money back ASAP, but while I was doing that I was having trouble and told her. So she texted me that her agent would help me and when he did he asked to send me a picture of my state ID and SSN I sent pics of that for him, but I was still having trouble making my account. I texted the agent and told him what was going on and we started to chat a while until he started to ask me some questions that were a bit too personal and I told him I needed a break and the last thing he told me was “Okay but lemme tell you if you really think you could block me or stop talking to me then you will hate it for yourself” and when he said that I started to feel threatened and scared. That’s when I finally realized that this was definitely a scam now. So I blocked the instagram account and the numbers that I sent money and messages too. At first I tried to fix this myself by tasking my friends for help, calling and ID me and talking to my bank. Pretty much they all told me to tell my family and see if they would help me and I’ll be honest I was too scared to tell them because I knew they would be so disappointed, but I had no choice because I know I couldn’t fix this myself. When I told my family they were all very mad at me, but they were there by my side to help take care of what happened to me. I had to make a new bank account and called social security and get things sorted out from there. I even had to change my phone number because I started to get No Caller ID phone calls and scary threatening messages. Like one said “The artist that I blocked has paid to kill you. So for your safety you better not do something stupid like call the cops.” And another message saying I better text back and pretending to be a lawyer of the scammer. They even sent me a video of someone shooting someone. I started to get more scared that they would come after me and my family. So I showed the messages to my family and they could tell right away that video they sent me was a fake and that they were trying to scare me. So after I got everything taken care of and got my new phone number I definitely learned that scammers are being more good at scamming people like me and scaring us to get our money. I gotta be more careful and you all should too. I won’t lie I haven’t got much sleep ever since I got scammed and I would even have nightmares 😣. My family and people from the bank would tell me that this just doesn’t happen to me. It happens to everyone. They were trying to make me feel better and I’ll admit I did feel a bit better, but this gonna take me a long time to heal from. I just hate it when people use me and all I want to do is be kind to others. This was pretty traumatizing experience for me and I’m still upset with myself. But I definitely learned my lesson and have to learn to get off my phone and spend more time with my family. Also be careful who I become friends work online. So please watch out for that scam and be careful on who you’re friends with online. I don’t want you all to make the same mistake I did 😞. I lost $300 from this scam and couldn’t get any of my money back.
Sorry to hear it sounds like you got one of the scary ones!
I did 😣😞, but I changed my phone and got a new bank account. So I no longer get those calls or texts anymore. I have to say this was the most traumatizing thing that ever happened me. But I’m gonna try not to dwell on it and move on. I’m glad that I found some people on here that been through this before too and understand.
You are definitely not the only one! They have done this to a lot of people. It’s terrible.
It is terrible 😞. I had times that I thought that I was wrong for assuming I was being scammed, but after the end and getting those threatening messages I knew for sure it was scam and got everything taken care of. I had to change my number, call my bank and social security and explain what happened. I feel better now that I gotten this taken care of and blocked and report the Instagram account.
Sounds like you took all the right steps to protect yourself!
Yeah 😌 ! It’s all thanks to my family. They helped get through this and get this taken care of. I’m so grateful to them 😊.
We get that kind of scam on Deviantart too. I suppose it happen on every media that allows you to share your drawing…
This is the first I’ve heard of it on another platform, but that makes sense!
unfortunately I was approached the same way. This is how I handled it. Keep an eye on how this person goes about this so that you can spot discrepancies if you are ever approached the same way. Since I cannot add screenshots, I have copied and pasted the messages.
from supposedly an Aria Riddler, 1.1k followers and has only 3 posts on the account.
Them- Hey, I really like your profile and your face, I would make such an amazing mural out of it! If you don’t mind you could be my inspiring muse for an art project(the authenticity of human facial emotion and expressions) plus you will totally get paid for it as well
me- Absolutely. I do art as well so you are welcome to paint/draw or whatever me. ☺
them- Thank you for your reply! I was really looking forward to working with you. I was thinking about using your profile picture for the Art piece if that is fine by you?
me- Yes absolutely ☺
them- I would like you to send me the picture if you don’t mind
me- Yep. I’mma go find it really quick *image*
them- I would be doing an oil on canvas , 50cm x 50cm portrait painting using your face as my inspired muse for reference. I’ll send you a soft copy of the art work when completed.
(suspiciously small?)
me- Alright. I look forward to seeing your work. ☺
them- I’ll make sure I do a great job!, I’d like to discuss payment terms now if you’re ready.
me- hm. What are you thinking?
them- My Client would be issuing you a check for $2500 while your cut from that would be $500, I will use the remaining to get the Painting materials and also take the remaining profit for my service. Hopefully, that should be encouraging enough 🙂
Me- I am sorry but I cannot accept. You do not need to pay me to paint me. You are welcome to do it for free. However I will not be accepting any checks or anything like that. Nor will I be the one to pay you anything, seeing as you are the one who approached me. I am aware of scams that use these same tactics and I will not allow myself to fall under the same misfortune as others. I appreciate you wanting to paint me and you are welcome to do so if you still wish, but I will not be accepting any checks or pay you for your requested work. Unfortunately it is scams like these that make the art industry a very difficult profession and I will not be lured into a scam. Thank you for your interest. I hope your work goes smoothly. Goodbye
i have not received any further messages from this person. Be mindful of any offers you get weather that be artistic or business offers. Even though they seem good, usually the truth is it’s too good to be true. Stay safe out there folks. ☺
You handled it very well! Looks like they realized you were not going to be fooled and moved on.
I recently got scammed unfortunately i sent the money due to i was scared because the checks were ” credited ” to me so i admitted was scared. i was told to send $300 to the artist or client if i didnt deposit the check . i never did mobile deposit a day in my life this was my first time ever ! i couldn’t sleep . to the point i had to come clean to my friends what’s going on! i feeling much better! i reported it to my bank now i have to get account! i had to pay overdrawn fee for $510.18 which i paid for. i learned my lesson . i’m usually veryyyyyy aware of scammers and never give out my personal information ! i genuinely thought someone was interested in painting a picture of me until i realized the person was hacked ! they tried to scared me and say they have picture
, name and phone number ! Thank God i got my mental back i’m not scared any more this shall pass
Thank you for sharing your story. I’m sorry to hear you got scammed, but glad you told your friends and the bank! You did the right thing with that. The best thing now is to move on and learn from it.
Now calling me to make amendments . they want to give me all my money back. i’m blocked them ! i want a new number and start off fresh .
Good! Do not trust them.
I have contacted my bank account after I scanned some checks that came from a similar message conversation such as this, changed the passwords even. And they told me that they will not continue the relationship with me, and closed all of my accounts and I’m unable to open a new one. I didn’t realize it was a scam until I looked at the checks against after sending it to my bank, and the address doesn’t match the institution of where it comes from. I’m completely devastated about this, and I have nowhere to go, because of this mistake. What should I do?
It sounds like you just need a new bank. One bank not working with you is not going to stop all the others.
Open a new bank ! start over again sometimes it’s good start over again and be extraaaaa cautions now! i know your feeling! but everything just fine! but this in the past you live and you learn
Hey. I’ve just fallen victim to one of these scams. They said they wanted to use one my pieces for a mural their client commissioned. So I naively said yes. The client sent three checks to me equaling $1200, and asked me to send $200. By the time I realized it was a scam, the checks had already been processed. I called my bank to let them know and they canceled my debit card, so that’s safe, and I never gave them any banking info or account numbers. I also have to wait to file a claim because my bank is closed for veterans day. The check money is still in my account. Will it go back to the if the checks are reversed? They are threatening to press charges. Are they bluffing? Please help me. I’m scared. I’m on the verge of crying. I don’t want to get in trouble. What do I do?
If the money is still in your account, then it will go back to the bank and you will be fine. The scammers cannot and will not press charges. They will threaten you however, so block them any way you can so you don’t have to deal with it. The scammers are most likely in another country as well. Just block them and move on, lesson learned.
They are liars they can’t press charges !! they trying to manipulate you. BLOCK THEM .