Send Me This, Send Me That

Send me this story.” “Send me that story.” “Your art is so amazing.” “Do you sell your work?” “Send me this drawing.” “I am interested in buying this.” These are examples of baiting tactics scammers use.

Does this look familiar? This is one of the newest scams spreading across the internet. Villainous entities create social media accounts and relentlessly target artists and other creative people. They come after writers and artists, knowing their targets are in pursuit of recognition and exposure to become successful. They understand how badly we want to be discovered or to land that golden ticket.

I have been seeing this more and more. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok are the most popular sites they use. I have reported many instances. The problem is that these two platforms don’t seem to care. The reports indicate that the entity has not violated any community standards. Both platforms fail to protect us from these crimes. Instead, they choose to protect the criminal.

I posted some art I created and shared it across all my social media. Within an hour, I was inundated with messages asking me to send them the piece. “Send me this.” “Send me that.”

When it first started happening, I thought I had hit the jackpot. I was going to have my work seen. Hooray for me. The problem is, the second you send them something, they hit you with the hook. “I would like to buy your piece digitally. Do you know how NFTs work?' I did not at that point, and one of the scammers explained it to me. I then went to Grok and asked what NFTs were. Grok explained them and also said it is a widely used scam tactic. I went back to the person soliciting my work, informed him of what I had found out, and the party disappeared. No account found.

That was all I needed to know. I have been refusing any advances. I manage a cooperative collaboration of small-time artists each month, and I warned them about it. I warn all artists about this because many have been approached and were unaware that this was going on. Initially, I believed the scams were only targeting artists, but recently I have seen them escalate to writers. My written work has been targeted even more aggressively.

Yesterday, I posted my daily article. I write a piece each day for Medium, Paterson, Substack, and Vocal Media. I then share the work from each of those platforms across my social media accounts. Within an hour, my Instagram account received 20 requests from scammers asking me to send them the piece. I usually respond by telling them they can view the work on any of the sites I just named with a click of the link. That doesn’t stop them.

There were three parties in particular yesterday who crossed a line. I had been asked by these three to send them my work a couple of times over the past couple of weeks. They all asked me again yesterday, and I just said no. I told them to go to the sites where the articles are posted and view them there. Then I blocked them.

I went about my day, and when I checked my social media, each of the three had multiple accounts with the exact same profile picture and name, all requesting the same thing: “Send me this post.”

I took a deep breath and then went on a hunt. I clicked the entity’s name to open their profile. My suspicions were confirmed. The account was very new, and a pop-up message said the party had recently changed its name and its account 25 times over the past couple of weeks. That was telling. It is really concerning when I can clearly see a scammer and unusual activity on a profile, yet the platform hosting the scammer cannot. But what do I expect? Meta only cares about Meta. If it makes them millions, they don’t see any criminal activity.

So what are NFTs? NFTs are non-fungible tokens that represent digital art, writing, collectibles, and blockchain assets. They are similar to Bitcoin in that they are considered a type of currency, but they are not tangible currency. You can’t see them. You can’t touch them. So, are they even real? Maybe, maybe not. Mostly not. What is real is that they exploit people.

The scams are varied in form and technique. The scammer creates an NFT collection and markets it heavily through one of their multiple social accounts. They approach the targeted victim and entice them with promises of fame, fortune, notoriety, and continued success. They aggressively solicit the artist, making it seem that not getting involved and declining the offer will cost them the opportunity of a lifetime.

The scammer offers a contract that most targets do not read or have an attorney review. Funding is always required for the privilege of having them promote your work. The required payments are usually small to begin with, but increase as they tell a victim that more is needed to solidify the funds and client contracts. They gain trust by showing a person that others are involved and are invested, by showing confirmation from purchasing clients, and by having a site where you can see other works that are participating or have had success in the scheme. It is all fake.

They purchase NFTs with your money, show you proof, which makes you want to continue investing in your future. They look legit. They are not. They continually collect funds, sometimes in the millions, and then disappear. They cash out the NFT funds they have purchased, or “sell off” their assets (your work), and then close all their accounts. Then they disappear only to create a new entity and scam others. How do they cash out when there is a contract guaranteeing your protections? They have the small print that you have not taken the time to read or have a lawyer review. It allows them to sell off your assets and cash out the NFT or blockchain funds. This is just one variation of the grift.

NFT scams often target your online wallet. You give them access, allowing them to take funds as needed for the project. Then they drain all your accounts. Fake websites are created to look legitimate, like Open Sea, which gives you an exclusive airdrop site. You connect your wallet to them to receive funds. Emails are created with a sense of urgency, then require a quick transaction signature, which actually gives them approval for all NFT-related actions. Once you have signed it, the scammer has implicit approval to transfer automatically from your wallet to theirs. You lose it all.

NFT scams mask themselves in many ways. Some offer free items by impersonating celebrities and giving away a lifetime of benefits or items. You are led to a site to connect your wallet to the trusted celebrity site. When you have done that, you are prompted to verify the account (some small fee may be required, possibly for tax or shipping). When you provide the verification, the funds are not taken and sent directly to them.

Sometimes these criminals offer products through a marketplace. They sell artworks or written works as originals, but they have actually counterfeited the artist’s work or written pieces and passed them off as authentic. They impersonate the artist or writer and sell off “their” work. The sites used to buy, sell, or transfer funds are extremely good at appearing legitimate. Again, they tie to your wallet for the purchase, drain your account, or charge you to your limit, robbing you of your money.

Whatever the tactic, they are creative and adept at tempting you into committing the crime. They offer huge amounts of money via blockchains like Ethereum (ETH) to buy your work or entire collections. This purchase requires that they have a place to send your windfall. Once again, the wallet is linked to this scam and has consequently been drained.

Blockchains are used primarily because once a transaction is initiated, it cannot be reversed, disputed, or refunded. Blockchain transactions and entities are anonymous and irreversible. Period.

With the popularity and widespread use of AI, the faking of companies, websites, celebrities, and curators has become commonplace. There is no policing, and anyone can create anything, no questions asked and no verification of identity required. You do not have a chance against them. The more you think you know, the less you actually know. They adapt at lightning speed and become harder to distinguish from the authentic.

Tracing or tracking down the perpetrators is nearly impossible. The activity originates in a variety of countries. Countries in Southeast Asia, India and Southern Asia, Nigeria (already active in many celebrity cloning scams), East Africa, China, Russia, Western Europe, and the Middle East are all involved. You might think you don’t have to worry about someone from England trying to buy your work, but think again. They use “trusted” people and countries to lure you into believing they are legit.

All of these nations have very lax internet controls. They have a very limited ability to police such activities. Let’s face it, some of these countries don’t care. They already know their people engage in criminal activity and don’t care. I imagine they may even encourage it. Think about the fact that some of these countries relish our demise and benefit greatly from American money going to them. We are losing millions and millions daily to nations that want to harm our people and us.

No one is safe or exempt from criminal scams. From lonely women seeking romantic connections with “the unattainable” to struggling authors, writers, and artists, the field is ripe and full, and the yields are abundant. For the scammer, there is little to no downside. They risk nothing and reap only the rewards of crime. It makes for a very difficult addiction to overcome or stop. Why would they?

I would like to appeal to my writing and artist friends. I am appealing to all women and men who are lonely and in need of attention and affection. Nothing you see, read, experience, or are offered on the internet is real. Not one thing. If you put that in your head, you are less likely to fall into despair. Trust no one. Only trust people you know in person, and even then, question and verify. It is only going to get worse. AI is a nightmare and a tragedy in real time.

If anyone comes to you with a business transaction, report and block the solicitor, and consider it a win. You have saved your life savings and hard work from certain disaster and theft. There is no pot at the end of that rainbow, just a grave. There is no fame, just obscurity and poverty. There is no celebrity romance, just a broken heart and an empty wallet. There is no curation of your creativity, just theft of the soul you poured into your craft. The Guggenheim Museum of Art, or any gallery, would not solicit you on social media, offer a contract online, or pay in NFTs. Publishers, magazines, and literary journals do not troll social media platforms to discover talent. They use specific sites for that, not Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or any other social media.

Success comes with tenacity and hard work. There is no guarantee of when, how, or whether it will ever come. I will not materialize on any of your sites. Trust that is true. It is.

Social media platforms are not going to protect you. They have left it to “buyer beware” and “see nothing, do nothing.” They are not your friend. Do not trust them to vet anyone. They don’t and won’t.

#socialmedia #Instagram #Meta #Tiktok #Threads #popculture #scams #PSA