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A tale of getting took: A scammer warning
2 years ago
Hello young kiddies and gather around, for I have a tale to tell you of how your dear uncle Darkwing got taken in by a scammer and let my tale of woe be a lesson to the rest of you in the fandom.
Part 1: "Wanna check out my gallery?"
I was PMed on Twitter by an enterprising fellow named Shika_UwU5 who was offering me commissions.
Actually, I'm an artist and I'm looking for some emergency commissions, So I was wondering if you can help me out by commissioning some Character Arts, NSFW Arts or anything related to Twitch Arts or Vtube/VRchat models.
Mate, I have to pay the house rent now and I need $160 right If you give it, I will save myself the trouble
Now, a red flag should have gone up here, and I'll admit, I'm naturally skeptical of anyone who comes up to me wanting money, but I'd encountered artists before that need money for bills, so this wasn't a deal breaker for me like it might be for some folks. They directed me to their art account, @TheKasumi_Arts, and continued the conversation from there.
I ended up commissioning them for a pic of my character Clare, which was delivered to me about a week or so after I paid. (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50832803/) This is an important part of this story: I actually got the first pic, "proving" that this artist would do the work and were trustworthy.
A side note, which will come up more later: the artist really wanted me to pay on CashApp. I did not have an account and asked if I could pay on PayPal, like 99% of the artists I deal with. After much groaning, they finally relented, but they asked if I could pay a little more since Paypal charges more. Another red flag, but not a big one.
Part 2: "Do any of your friends need any art?"
This is the part of the story, in retrospect, I feel most guilty for. I had requested the artist move the conversation to Discord, because Twitter PMs are a pain in the butt to search through for past conversations (you can't do word searches like you can on Discord or Telegram, you have to endlessly scroll up to find old discussions). This was in late January at this point, and Kasumi's story had switched heavily to money woes at this point. They have a kid, their husband left them and they don't know where he is, their parents kicked them out, etc. Because of this, they were asking if anyone else could take some art.
I had recommended the artist to a few friends at this point. I'm not sure how many responded, but at least two of them started getting contacted by the artist (I would not find out until later how often they were begging them for money). But a few of my friends did take them up on it. I was their unofficial herald during this time, trying to get folks to commission them.
Part 3: "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"
This is where my real stupidity comes in. At this point, I had commissioned the artist, but the sob stories continued. They needed money for a medical procedure and they needed it fast and NO ONE was commissioning them. There's a whole bunch of stuff here, and I eventually caved and agreed to pay them in exchange for more art later. Dumbest decision of my life, but I did it. My logic, if you need one, is they'd do art for me for months. Okay, great deal right? The tactic, at this point, has switched from needing money fast for bills to seeing me as their white knight to rescue them.
After the procedure supposedly took place, they were too weak to do any work immediately (this was explained in advance so that wasn't a surprise) but afterward they really started getting pushy about needing more money. At this point, I'm deeply suspicious, but sunk cost fallacy is kicking in. I've already spent so much, I might as well ride this out.
Part 4. "I have a commission job, but I need money to buy back my art tools!"
The artist now told me they had an animation project to work on, but they previously had put some of their computer equipment in hock to pay for bills. They pleaded with me for more money, this time promising me they'd never ask for another penny. This is an important part of the story later. I told them this last one would be a loan, because I already spent enough on art. This was my last payment. They agreed, and they'd start work on my art soon.
It's at this point that I *finally* got my second drawing. Just enough dopamine hit to keep me strung along, I suppose.
Part 5. "Okay, I know I said I wouldn't ask for any more money, but..."
The artist had a new request for me: Can I please give them $5000? They promise they will work exclusively for me for months, and that a family member will give them money later from an upcoming landsale. Yeah, sounds ridiculous right? I completely lost it at this point. When they refused to stop asking, I blocked them. I share this info with my friends who I know was dealing with them.
The red flags were all there: the artist needed money quickly all the time; please send on CashApp; no, they couldn't sign up for government assistance because of whatever reasons, money from outside sources were always coming in the future; and oh yeah, the sentence structure of the conversation was always off. Repeated phrases, etc. Definitely not a native English speaker. Also, the original account, Shika_UwU5, is almost always exclusively asking for commissions and DMs on Twitter. Their time line is always replying to other discussions, offering commission services, etc. They never bring up the owners supposedly medical needs or sob stories, just can you commission me over and over again.
I was originaly willing to accept my losses as a life lesson. More money then I ever wanted to spend, but I'm still fine. Trust me, nothing really hurt but my pride, and more seriously, my sense of guilt that I involved my friends in this and that i could have spent the money on something else.
Part 6. "Can we just talk about this?"
As you can guess, that wasn't the end of it. They contacted me on Discord with another account, pleading to listen to them. Now just so you know, I'm not giving this person another cent, but I decide to hear them out out of idle curiosity if nothing else. They promise they're working on the art, not just for me but for my friend who also blocked them, and they understand my concerns. At this point, if I get any more art, I'm considering it a win.
No less than 30 minutes later, they're switching the conversation back to needing $5000. This person is absolutely incorrigable. They will not take a hint. No matter how many times I tell them I'm not giving them any more money, they plead for more. So now, here we are. I feel the need to name names in this case because the person was just so relentless about wanting to soak me for more money.
I have no one but myself to blame for falling for all this. Like a lot of dupes, I didn't think it would happen to me. And when it was happening, I was in denial because I wanted to believe there was a logical explanation for it. But there's not: this person is either a con artist or a gold digger, and they will use any story to wring money out of marks: upselling commissions (Can you please take the more expensive option?) sob stories (I need help! No one will help me!) and shaming tactics (You're hurting me by not giving me money)
I've attempted to get my money back through the app, minus the money for the few times she actually provided the art. Hey, I paid for them (boy, did I pay!).
So take this as life lesson for others: if you're a regular commissioner, be skeptical if you get out of the blue commission offers. I'm not saying everyone is a scammer, but just know that the ones who are con artists are specifically targeting furries and other folks on social media who post their commissions regularly. That's a calling card for these types of con artists that you have money to spend.
The person I've been dealing with:
The Twitter accounts:
https://twitter.com/Shika_UwU5
https://twitter.com/TheKasumi_Arts
Discord accounts:
Kasumi#4151
Artisty~kasumi~#8012
Austin jack#3922
CashApp account:
$techcuber (name: Mohsin Sethi)
APRIL UPDATE: Two things of note here. (1) I was not able to get the money back, both CashApp and my credit card's fraud department basically said, in the most diplomatic way possible, they couldn't prove it was fraud and it was my fault for falling for it. I knew it was a long shot, still, it would have been nice to get the money.
(2) The person is still contacting me. They have several more Discord accounts (all predating their contacting me, so who knows how many people they've pulled this on) and each time I blocked one they'd contact me again. It's tiresome. Oh, and get this: now they're claiming the person who scammed most of the money from me was another person they foolishly gave control of their account to, and that person had SCAMMED them too. And since they're so scammed and everything, they really need more money now!
They did finally finish (or got another artist to, mostly likely) a friend's commission, but it was not worth the amount of money he paid for it. This person is always wanting multiple hundreds of doillars for commissions, and then turning in work that you could very easily get from some beginning artist offering $50 slots. This would be like someone begging you to pay them hundreds of dollars to eat at their restaurant, and they finally seat you months later, they give your a candy bar for your meal. This is one step above just running off with the money as far as I'm concerned.
Part 1: "Wanna check out my gallery?"
I was PMed on Twitter by an enterprising fellow named Shika_UwU5 who was offering me commissions.
Actually, I'm an artist and I'm looking for some emergency commissions, So I was wondering if you can help me out by commissioning some Character Arts, NSFW Arts or anything related to Twitch Arts or Vtube/VRchat models.
Mate, I have to pay the house rent now and I need $160 right If you give it, I will save myself the trouble
Now, a red flag should have gone up here, and I'll admit, I'm naturally skeptical of anyone who comes up to me wanting money, but I'd encountered artists before that need money for bills, so this wasn't a deal breaker for me like it might be for some folks. They directed me to their art account, @TheKasumi_Arts, and continued the conversation from there.
I ended up commissioning them for a pic of my character Clare, which was delivered to me about a week or so after I paid. (https://www.furaffinity.net/view/50832803/) This is an important part of this story: I actually got the first pic, "proving" that this artist would do the work and were trustworthy.
A side note, which will come up more later: the artist really wanted me to pay on CashApp. I did not have an account and asked if I could pay on PayPal, like 99% of the artists I deal with. After much groaning, they finally relented, but they asked if I could pay a little more since Paypal charges more. Another red flag, but not a big one.
Part 2: "Do any of your friends need any art?"
This is the part of the story, in retrospect, I feel most guilty for. I had requested the artist move the conversation to Discord, because Twitter PMs are a pain in the butt to search through for past conversations (you can't do word searches like you can on Discord or Telegram, you have to endlessly scroll up to find old discussions). This was in late January at this point, and Kasumi's story had switched heavily to money woes at this point. They have a kid, their husband left them and they don't know where he is, their parents kicked them out, etc. Because of this, they were asking if anyone else could take some art.
I had recommended the artist to a few friends at this point. I'm not sure how many responded, but at least two of them started getting contacted by the artist (I would not find out until later how often they were begging them for money). But a few of my friends did take them up on it. I was their unofficial herald during this time, trying to get folks to commission them.
Part 3: "Help me Obi-Wan Kenobi, you're my only hope!"
This is where my real stupidity comes in. At this point, I had commissioned the artist, but the sob stories continued. They needed money for a medical procedure and they needed it fast and NO ONE was commissioning them. There's a whole bunch of stuff here, and I eventually caved and agreed to pay them in exchange for more art later. Dumbest decision of my life, but I did it. My logic, if you need one, is they'd do art for me for months. Okay, great deal right? The tactic, at this point, has switched from needing money fast for bills to seeing me as their white knight to rescue them.
After the procedure supposedly took place, they were too weak to do any work immediately (this was explained in advance so that wasn't a surprise) but afterward they really started getting pushy about needing more money. At this point, I'm deeply suspicious, but sunk cost fallacy is kicking in. I've already spent so much, I might as well ride this out.
Part 4. "I have a commission job, but I need money to buy back my art tools!"
The artist now told me they had an animation project to work on, but they previously had put some of their computer equipment in hock to pay for bills. They pleaded with me for more money, this time promising me they'd never ask for another penny. This is an important part of the story later. I told them this last one would be a loan, because I already spent enough on art. This was my last payment. They agreed, and they'd start work on my art soon.
It's at this point that I *finally* got my second drawing. Just enough dopamine hit to keep me strung along, I suppose.
Part 5. "Okay, I know I said I wouldn't ask for any more money, but..."
The artist had a new request for me: Can I please give them $5000? They promise they will work exclusively for me for months, and that a family member will give them money later from an upcoming landsale. Yeah, sounds ridiculous right? I completely lost it at this point. When they refused to stop asking, I blocked them. I share this info with my friends who I know was dealing with them.
The red flags were all there: the artist needed money quickly all the time; please send on CashApp; no, they couldn't sign up for government assistance because of whatever reasons, money from outside sources were always coming in the future; and oh yeah, the sentence structure of the conversation was always off. Repeated phrases, etc. Definitely not a native English speaker. Also, the original account, Shika_UwU5, is almost always exclusively asking for commissions and DMs on Twitter. Their time line is always replying to other discussions, offering commission services, etc. They never bring up the owners supposedly medical needs or sob stories, just can you commission me over and over again.
I was originaly willing to accept my losses as a life lesson. More money then I ever wanted to spend, but I'm still fine. Trust me, nothing really hurt but my pride, and more seriously, my sense of guilt that I involved my friends in this and that i could have spent the money on something else.
Part 6. "Can we just talk about this?"
As you can guess, that wasn't the end of it. They contacted me on Discord with another account, pleading to listen to them. Now just so you know, I'm not giving this person another cent, but I decide to hear them out out of idle curiosity if nothing else. They promise they're working on the art, not just for me but for my friend who also blocked them, and they understand my concerns. At this point, if I get any more art, I'm considering it a win.
No less than 30 minutes later, they're switching the conversation back to needing $5000. This person is absolutely incorrigable. They will not take a hint. No matter how many times I tell them I'm not giving them any more money, they plead for more. So now, here we are. I feel the need to name names in this case because the person was just so relentless about wanting to soak me for more money.
I have no one but myself to blame for falling for all this. Like a lot of dupes, I didn't think it would happen to me. And when it was happening, I was in denial because I wanted to believe there was a logical explanation for it. But there's not: this person is either a con artist or a gold digger, and they will use any story to wring money out of marks: upselling commissions (Can you please take the more expensive option?) sob stories (I need help! No one will help me!) and shaming tactics (You're hurting me by not giving me money)
I've attempted to get my money back through the app, minus the money for the few times she actually provided the art. Hey, I paid for them (boy, did I pay!).
So take this as life lesson for others: if you're a regular commissioner, be skeptical if you get out of the blue commission offers. I'm not saying everyone is a scammer, but just know that the ones who are con artists are specifically targeting furries and other folks on social media who post their commissions regularly. That's a calling card for these types of con artists that you have money to spend.
The person I've been dealing with:
The Twitter accounts:
https://twitter.com/Shika_UwU5
https://twitter.com/TheKasumi_Arts
Discord accounts:
Kasumi#4151
Artisty~kasumi~#8012
Austin jack#3922
CashApp account:
$techcuber (name: Mohsin Sethi)
APRIL UPDATE: Two things of note here. (1) I was not able to get the money back, both CashApp and my credit card's fraud department basically said, in the most diplomatic way possible, they couldn't prove it was fraud and it was my fault for falling for it. I knew it was a long shot, still, it would have been nice to get the money.
(2) The person is still contacting me. They have several more Discord accounts (all predating their contacting me, so who knows how many people they've pulled this on) and each time I blocked one they'd contact me again. It's tiresome. Oh, and get this: now they're claiming the person who scammed most of the money from me was another person they foolishly gave control of their account to, and that person had SCAMMED them too. And since they're so scammed and everything, they really need more money now!
They did finally finish (or got another artist to, mostly likely) a friend's commission, but it was not worth the amount of money he paid for it. This person is always wanting multiple hundreds of doillars for commissions, and then turning in work that you could very easily get from some beginning artist offering $50 slots. This would be like someone begging you to pay them hundreds of dollars to eat at their restaurant, and they finally seat you months later, they give your a candy bar for your meal. This is one step above just running off with the money as far as I'm concerned.
But a couple weeks later, someone else from the same server tries to contact me. I just ignore the contact attempt. Their profile also lists them as an artist.
Then today, another one out of the blue, this time with no points of contact at all. I just silently dismissed the friend request again. But it feels like there's some sort of pattern going on.
In any case, I got flooded with PMs on Twitter all around the same time asking me to hire them for commissions, so something I posted in January must have triggered the scammer signal. Like Kasumi, the art style in these peoples galleries differ wildy, which I now know means they're basically a fraudulant "broker" who takes your money, hires a real artist to do the actual work and then just pockets the difference.