I do use it, but only in certain instances. I never pay an artist I've not visited before with it, only artists I've had dealings with before and only when it's $20 or less (usually), or if it's a donation rather than a payment.

But yeah, especially if it's not an artist that you know you can trust and have had regular dealings with, unfortunately you never really can trust everyone. There's a lot of good hardworking and trustworthy artists, and it's sad that there's scammers out there at all to give them a black mark on the community, but it needs to be taken into consideration. If you want to be nice and 'pay the fee' you just need to use the Pay Friend option to see how much the fee would be, then make sure you go to Pay for Service and raise what you're sending by a little more than the fee you saw to cover it. That way, you're still technically being protected while also covering the cost of the fee.

And I'ma shut up now.

Yeah of course there are exceptions, true artists with lots of background with its viewers and even yourself. But here it's mostly about those suspicious accounts without any new art, or a several months gap with the last one.

That's unfortunate, but the threat is real and people got tricked into it. That's why it's better to spread the word this way, but still thanks for your consideration and your understanding in the matter.

Ive never comissioned before and this is one of the things that makes me wary of doing it online. You dont know who can or can not be trusted.