I’m frustrated and dismayed at the number of scams I receive daily. They grow and become more sophisticated every week. I’m amazed to see how bad people can be ripping off their neighbors…As I’m fed up with daily scams reaching my inbox, I’ve listed the top 5 email scams here. Unfortunately, they grow disproportionately, and I keep adding the new ones to this list.
When you’re new to these messages, it’s easy to get scammed, but when you get several similar ones in a day, it becomes much easier to spot, report, and block them on Instagram! Below you find the screenshots from my direct messages and comments scammers leave on my Instagram account. The sad part is that these scammers target artists they want to take advantage of because we’re naïve and trusting and want to sell our art.
#1 Using your credit card to purchase stuff online
This scam is new to me, as I see orders placed on behalf of a credit card holder with a false email, name, address, etc. Such orders get refunded by me when they’re brought to my attention. Unfortunately, there’s no way for me to know this beforehand. So, always check your credit card statements to see if you made the purchase or not.
My credit card info and identity have been stolen before, and I see that these people try to open bank accounts or purchase stuff online using my information…
#2 Calling you on behalf of a large company like Google, Mailchimp, Amazon, etc!
A well-versed, English-native person can call you on behalf of a large company like Google or Mailchimp, asking for personal information. Depending on the scammer, they might want to hack your Google account or crypto wallet, or something else. Please, be vigilant and don’t give out sensitive information over the phone!
#3 Asking you to promote a well-known brand
I’m getting these new types of scam emails, asking me to promote a product on my site and YouTube channel. They start with a simple message, like you see below, but the next one will contain a link to a zipped file with documents, so they say. Don’t download and open such zips! You’ll get viruses installed on your computer, to say the least.
Some scammers are very elaborate. Recently, I got a professional email from DuoLingo, but they asked for the same thing: to open a zipped folder. Don’t do it! Block and report the scams!
“Hello!
I came across your channel and thought you might appreciate an opportunity to partner with a beloved brand like Toblerone. You might like the idea of sampling Toblerone live and sharing your genuine reaction. Our iconic triangular chocolate has been a staple in many households for generations, and we’re proud of our commitment to quality Swiss ingredients and a recognizable taste that’s hard to resist.
We’re open to collaborating in a way that feels authentic to your channel and audience. Whether you’d like to try Toblerone on camera, share your thoughts on our unique shape, or showcase our chocolate in a creative way, we’re flexible and willing to adapt to your vision.
We’re also open to discussing partnership terms and rates that work for you. If you’re interested, please let us know, and we can set up a time to chat. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Ella | Toblerone”
Here is another one:
Hi, I’m Ethan from the Nikon marketing team. We’re big fans of your creative projects and believe there’s a great opportunity for collaboration. Your creative style really matches Nikon’s spirit, and we’d be happy to discuss potential partnership opportunities with you. We’re looking forward to teaming up through a sponsored segment in one of your upcoming videos. In particular, we’d love to explore:
· A short intro ad
· A post on your channel YouTube
· Your creative input – your creativity is what matters most!At Nikon, we focus on making partnerships easy and flexible, ensuring that any integration feels authentic and engaging. We’ll provide essential creative assets, while giving you the creative freedom to incorporate your unique voice and style. As part of this partnership, you’ll also have the option to choose barter products from our lineup—such as the Nikon Z6 III, Nikon Z fc, or Nikon Z250
I’m keen to talk further and knowing your opinion on how we can customize this collaboration to match your goals. Excited to hear from you soon!
Sincerely,
Ethan
Nikon | Media Partnership#4 Buying followers scams.
There are two kinds of scams. They either sell you followers for your money or provide you with a service selling “real and engaged” followers. The result is that you spend your money, and all new followers disappear from your account amazingly quickly. In the first instance, you buy ‘engagement,’ but the engaged followers come from bots of India and Pakistan. It’s a scam that won’t give you real followers.
In the second instance, Instagram scams involve service companies. Service companies like Trusy Social masquerade as legit companies, but they are not. Trusy Social claims to provide a service to accelerate Instagram growth by delivering “real and engaged followers that are not bots or fake accounts” with ” hyper niche targeting”. This service claim was written on the front page of their site. I tried their service in February-March 2022. After I started a 2-month subscription to their service, I did see a boost in activity on my posts. However, these were done by fake accounts. Trusy also added fake followers, not the real ones, as was promised. Those new followers began to disappear daily from my account when I stopped monthly payments. Every such account stated that the “user is not found”. In a few months, I was free of all fake followers, losing all the money I paid for zero real followers. While I thought I paid for a plan to get real engagement, accounts, and followers, I got a bunch of fake accounts that left as quickly as they appeared. Btw, there is no expert advice or hyper-niche targeting of users either. None. The only true promise was a responsive account manager so that my emails would be answered quickly. I paid using PayPal, opened a case, and lost it because their policy said that the company ‘provided me with service’. So don’t fall for something that can’t be true. Don’t pay for followers.
#5 Art collectors interested in purchasing your art as the NFTs
These are incredibly annoying scams. They offer you good money to purchase your art as NFTs. They send you to a website where you need to make your NFTs, either paying for them so they can purchase the NFTs from you, or connecting your wallet, and they steal your money. Block and Report such accounts! The NFT is the real thing, but the market crashed last year with the stock market crash, and now Instagram is flooded with these NFT art collector scams.
There’s another version of the same scam. They invite you to a crypto trade.
#6 PR firms selling you PR service, writing an article on a big news site like LA Weekly.
The problem is that their writers don’t really work for the company, and at best, you’re buying an expensive spot in an article that may appear as a sponsored ad. My guess is these articles don’t stay up for long either. The cost of the spot is over $60,0 according to Mogul Press’s outreach specialist! But if budget is an issue, it’s just $450.
#7 Buying art as an anniversary gift
I’m also getting emails that look like this:
“Hello There,
My name is Stefany Lee from Miami Fl, i actually observed my husband has been viewing your website on my laptop and i guess he likes your piece of work. I’m also impressed and amazed to have seen your various works too, you are doing a great job. I would like to purchase ” Blue Lily Dream, colored pencil drawing $2,300 ” as a surprise to my husband on our anniversary. Also , let me know if you accept CHECK as mode of payment.
Thanks and best regards. Steffany Lee“
These are fishing scams. They want to send you big checks for your art. To make it short, you won’t be able to cash this check because it will bounce, and you might spend around $200 paying for shipping to a nonexistent shipping company they ask you to ship through. That’s how they make money…Collecting $ from artists…
I’m also getting messages from ‘lightworkers’, palm readers, Illuminati people, etc. All of them try to scam you out of your hard-earned money!
#8 Hacking your account
Finally, I’d like to warn you about various apps that ask you to log in using your Instagram, Facebook, or Google accounts. Many of these apps take your login information and hack your account! Be super careful because you can lose your account in no time, and these social companies don’t restore them. Install a two-step verification for logging in. At least you decrease the chance of the account hacking this way.
My Facebook account got hacked because I logged in to INShot photo editing app using my Facebook login. I had to change my login several times a day, being notified of suspicious activity after that. They broke into my account in the middle of the night anyway, took my money, and posted and advertised on Facebook on my behalf. The scam doesn’t stop here.
Hackers who hack your account pretend that they are you and try to scam your followers via direct messages. I got messages from a few accounts I followed, and they asked me to go to a specific site or give them my phone number, or vote for them on a weird site. These messages sounded strange to me because I knew the people whose accounts got hacked. It’s easy to get caught in this if you’re not vigilant about the scams.
I’m going to update this post with new scam alerts in the future. I hope that you avoid falling into a web of horrible people who prey on artists to scam. If you’d like to share your scam alert, reach out to me on Instagram.
If you’d like to check out my work, go here: visionary art for sale.
