I Got Scammed So You Don’t Have To (Character Illustrations Gone Wrong)

26 thoughts on “I Got Scammed So You Don’t Have To (Character Illustrations Gone Wrong)”

1. Hi Mandy, I had those scammers coming to me on Discord, and reject them on the spot as I never search for illustrator! I glad you didn’t hired her!

2. I’m so sorry this happened to you, but I’m so glad you figured it out before paying anything!

3. Girl, I think we’ve all been scammed at some point or another in our author journey. Sorry this happened to you

4. I’m glad you caught on before you got in too deep (ie: paid any money!!). But this story is really a sad one because this scammer is not only stealing another person’s art, but they are making things that much harder for legitimate newly-beginning artists. I can see a real, legitimate person who is trying to launch their business reaching out to writers to offer services just to gain experience and to populate their portfolios – maybe offering to do work at a reduced price for the free publicity. But now we all will view any approaches or cold-calls warily, as we should. You’ve actually given some good tips on how to prove to others that you are NOT a scammer – like providing legitimate invoices and making sure to tag clients or people who have been willing to give you a shot. And to always offer references. I think, too, being able to show your process is really important. As an artist, I always keep and scan my initial concept sketches and the various rounds of changes so that I can demonstrate that the work is my own rather than AI or stolen from another person. I would be absolutely willing to share something like that with a person who was considering hiring me for my services as a way to prove my legitimacy.

   1. Unfortunately in my experience 100% of DMs are scammers. New artists should use methods other than cold messaging in my opinion.

5. Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I’m so glad you reached out to the original artist whose work was being stolen to report it. Both of my daughters are artists. It stinks that sharing their work online makes them vulnerable to theft.

6. So sorry you had to go through that, but thank you for sharing your story so others can know what to look out for! I’ve seen a ton of scammers pop up on my socials, especially lately. The most recent was one who commented on one of my Bluesky posts with “are you an author?” Upon a closer look, they are calling themselves a “professional beta reader” and charging for their services. Didn’t even know that was a thing 😒

7. That scammer is incredibly delulu. As a commission artist, too, the invoice thing is so important. Never pay an artist through anything but an invoice. Do not pay through ‘friends and family,’ which you can’t dispute. And the amount of scammers cold calling for commissions is so bad right now. My fanfic account gets several ‘oh I love your story, pay me to turn it into a comic’ scam messages a month.

   1. Ur point is valid but how do you pay someone who doesnt have paypal working in their country and only recieves payment through a friend in USA. Im speaking from experience here. I’ve been doing commissions for foreign clients in the USA but cos paypal doesnt work in my country had to use a friend to recieve my payment after i finish the work. In such a situation i can only share invoice but but cant recieve the money directly from my clients.

   2. Every DM for services I’ve ever seen just screams scam. I will never say yes to an unsolicited DM

   3. @@tochukwuobu9566does your friend take the payment from the client in PayPal and then send to you? That works. Or is there a similar service that works internationally?

8. Thank you so much for sharing this. As an Indie Author I need to know information like this.

9. Im so sorry this happened to you I’m am so glad you caught this! It’s happening in so many areas…. Even in crochet, knitting, author’s writing, what happened to you. Even our phones listen to us and I’m sure AI has bots take what they hear and other countries can even get into the “ coding” of analytics, etc. I’m so disgusted that there is no 100% way to protect ourselves, yet they can keep getting away with it. It’s possible that the person also has people she knows who does this with her. I’ve come to point now that I trust nobody unless I truly know them and can verify it. You gave such wonderful tips to look out for. I’ve also learned this week that many phone numbers that begin with 844 area code are scammers as well. And they look you up before calling to get your name and address to offer a service. The scammers are getting worse and AI will soon be doing more. Also Question everything to protect yourself. Great job, Mandi, for protecting yourself.

10. OMG – I have some stories – one of which literally happened today! Perfect timing! Another red flag I just experienced – They have a portfolio, all in the same style. When you tell them the style you want doesn’t match their portfolio, they suddenly claim they can match any style you want. When this happened, I asked for a client list. Nope. Okay then.

11. Sorry this happened to you, and thanks for sharing ! This is what I love about the online writing community, legit members who share their experience and also remind us to be vigilant.

12. I met the woman I plan to use for my character art in person at a book con! So I think I’m all good 🤞

13. What’s scary with AI that if real artist, who knows how to draw well digitally, uses AI you won’t be able to know it regardless, cuz they can paint over it. Personally knew such artist, she was quite popular and I wish i didn’t delete our dms and exposed her, but I was so sick after she scammed me out of 2k that I simply deleted it to stop the pain. She befriended me and I helped her out with multiple things and even decided to commission her for character art. In 6-7 month she did NOTHING. I was understanding, cuz she all the time brought up excuses, like how she or her pet were sick e.t.c, which, side note, I’m now not even sure were true. Last straw broke when SHE had the audacity to send me link to a project she made art for…when she supposedly were so sick she couldn’t draw anything, clearly only for me, yet she did draw for a project that would pay her sale percentage later. It was a huge project and she was main artist for it and was working on it in those months she gaslighted me, so I’ll probably don’t charge back her (+ pretty sure you can’t charge back after 6 month). At that point I fully realised that she scammed me and that I’ll never see my money back or art she owed me. She also showed me couple of art she was doing for her stuff, she generated AI prompts and drew over it, making it “real”, what a trash way to do, making people pay for AI art unknowingly.

14. It’s the cold calling without looking at my profile, not saying ‘Hi Devon!’, or reading any of the latest posts. Because if they did, they would know that I, in fact, don’t need an editor, cover designer, or character artist 🙄. I will not work with a cold caller, period. Thank you for sharing your story!

15. Made my own cover. No character art so people can imagine themselves in one of my characters. Not a stellar designer, not a stellar author. But I was okay with just getting my story out in the world. Thank you for your wisdom. I have learned a lot from you and one of your fellow YouTube authors in my journey. I also found a great editor who has a stellar reputation. I am happy keeping things small and manageable for my world.

    1. Thank you! I don’t like character art 🙂 I don’t want to see myself, but the way characters look in my head is often wildly different from what the character artists make and quite frankly I like mine better 🙂

16. Hi! I’m a fanfiction writer (and also on fictionpress) and everyone else on there gets those scams all of the time. They are really super, super annoying. 😔 I’m sorry you’re dealing with them, too.

    It irritates me that they prey on everyone, including the authors who just want to write their books and be seen. Glad you’re safe. Know you’re not the only one. Hopefully soon, we’ll be able to take down these stupid scammers completely.

17. “I don’t know enough about illustrating” that’s okay, you’re still correct. A real illustrator will set up their digital canvas at a good/high resolution in the first place.

18. I’m glad you never sent payment. And yes, the impostors are running rampant lately on social media and email for me. You bring up a good point: if I don’t talk about it in a video, I’m not doing it. I didn’t even think to say that. Well done!

19. I had this exact thing happen to me with an artist who reached out to me on X. I was in need of new cover art, they had a website and Artstation profile and their prices were very reasonable. Maybe a bit too reasonable. I started going back and forth with them and I was about to pull the trigger when I asked them to get on a call to go over the specifics of the cover. They told me “do to technical issues on their side they would not be able to get on a phone call.” Immediate red flag. So I did the same thing you did, reverse image searched her work and found it on two completely different X profiles. Also, she had a full book cover including author in her portfolio so I found that author’s website and set them a message explaining the situation. She told me who her cover artist was and gave me a link to their website. Definitely not the person I’d been talking to.

    1. I never say yes to anyone who reaches out to me. If I need cover art, I’m going to seek it out. Almost anyone who DMs you is a scammer 😢

20. I had one person in Instagram follow me then started bugging, “When are you going to hire me, when, when, when.” Then would ping me and when I ignored the person or I say, “I don’t know when I might need character art,” they whined, “Aren’t you my friend? You promised.” It’s like one of those psycho girlfriends some guys complain about kind of clingy crazy. I never promised anything ever. She jumped and assumed.

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