@maddieanonymous's post on Artfol
, 27 y/o
, awkward beanHi! Someone, I need some advice!
Anyone who's ever done commissions, I would be grateful!
I recently opened an Instagram account for my Art, I haven't posted much there yet aside from some sketches and a digitally drawn cartoon beetle.
After I posted the beetle I got a follower who then messaged me and asked if I was available for commission.
I said I'd been Considering it but I'm still working on getting things 100% set up and asked what they were looking for.
They said they would like a cartoon portrait of two of their cats and they would pay a $100 for each and they would like to pay the whole amount upfront before I do any of the work.
I said I'm still working on getting a business PayPal account set up to accept payments, and they replied that they have a charge back currently pending on their account and they've been advised to use checks until it's resolved and they would send a digital check to my email address.
I was a little wary of that, but digital checks are a thing that exists, so I said I guess that would be fine.
They asked for my email address and my name(which makes sense) and the name of my bank(which made me a little more wary
idk I've never done this before). I just thought it sounded a little more than a little bit scammy, my mom said it sounded scammy, I tried to look online for information and most of it said it sounds scammy, that they don't need the name of your bank and they're asking so they can pose as your bank to steal from you. But other things said they DO need the name of your bank so now I'm even more confused and unsure than I was before I researched it
Does anyone else have any experience with this kind of thing? Is it a scam? Have you ever dealt with a situation like this that turned out to be legitimate? What should I do? Please helpMay 25, 2023
Anyone who's ever done commissions, I would be grateful!I recently opened an Instagram account for my Art, I haven't posted much there yet aside from some sketches and a digitally drawn cartoon beetle.
After I posted the beetle I got a follower who then messaged me and asked if I was available for commission.
I said I'd been Considering it but I'm still working on getting things 100% set up and asked what they were looking for.
They said they would like a cartoon portrait of two of their cats and they would pay a $100 for each and they would like to pay the whole amount upfront before I do any of the work.
I said I'm still working on getting a business PayPal account set up to accept payments, and they replied that they have a charge back currently pending on their account and they've been advised to use checks until it's resolved and they would send a digital check to my email address.
I was a little wary of that, but digital checks are a thing that exists, so I said I guess that would be fine.
They asked for my email address and my name(which makes sense) and the name of my bank(which made me a little more wary
idk I've never done this before). I just thought it sounded a little more than a little bit scammy, my mom said it sounded scammy, I tried to look online for information and most of it said it sounds scammy, that they don't need the name of your bank and they're asking so they can pose as your bank to steal from you. But other things said they DO need the name of your bank so now I'm even more confused and unsure than I was before I researched itDoes anyone else have any experience with this kind of thing? Is it a scam? Have you ever dealt with a situation like this that turned out to be legitimate? What should I do? Please help
May 25, 2023#isthisascam
#artcommissions
#needadvice
#help
#commissionartists
Comments
I have no gauge for this kind of stuff, because I'm a dinosaur who doesn't trust online commerce of any kind, so the paymo's and the venpal's and everything else is off limits to me 
. So I would defer to the others on here who know more about how these things work. But always be wary of anyone you don't know who is needing that much of your info for any reason, as a general rule. Also, I'd be happy to give you a follow on Instagram.
. So I would defer to the others on here who know more about how these things work. But always be wary of anyone you don't know who is needing that much of your info for any reason, as a general rule. Also, I'd be happy to give you a follow on Instagram.•
You need to realize that if you just made a new account somewhere, you won't be getting any legitimate commission requests for a good while. Anything out of the blue is 99% chance a scam.
Anything with the word charge back is an automatic red flag.
Anything with the word charge back is an automatic red flag.
•
•
Agreed with meli, that's a scam. Do not trust anybody that:
×Shows up so suddenly wanting comms you don't even offer yet.
×Comes at you with a price instead of asking you how much it would be.
×Is willing to pay all upfront with no proof that the work is being done.
×Has problems with their digital bank and instead of waiting, wants to use some strange payment method.
Nothing, much less some cartoon pet portraits, is this urgent.
Prospective money and the ego boost of having a commissioner can blind us, keep a cool head, nothing is this urgent, nothing is this important.
And they're unwilling to wait, because sob story or whatever, block. A decent person will understand you backing out of this situation.
×Shows up so suddenly wanting comms you don't even offer yet.
×Comes at you with a price instead of asking you how much it would be.
×Is willing to pay all upfront with no proof that the work is being done.
×Has problems with their digital bank and instead of waiting, wants to use some strange payment method.
Nothing, much less some cartoon pet portraits, is this urgent.
Prospective money and the ego boost of having a commissioner can blind us, keep a cool head, nothing is this urgent, nothing is this important.
And they're unwilling to wait, because sob story or whatever, block. A decent person will understand you backing out of this situation.
•
•
