I have an Instagram account for my paintings, which is a separate endeavor from Artsology, and in the past couple of days, I’ve received several suspicious direct messages from random accounts asking to buy my original art as NFTs. I responded to the first inquiry, giving her the benefit of the doubt, and explained that I have never made any NFTs, but that my original paintings were available for sale. She said she only collected NFTs, and pressed on about buying my art as NFTs. Her account profile described her as an entrepreneur and coach, so I said “can you coach me on how to turn my art into NFTs so that I can sell them?” She told me the name of a platform she wanted me to use, but there was something about her messages that just seemed off. So I Google-searched her name, which had a unique spelling for a common name, and I got zero results. Then I did a search for her name with “entreprenuer” and “coach” (since she promoted herself as such), and again, no search results. When I told her that I couldn’t find her online as a way to vet her identity, she stopped communicating.
More suspicious messages from different accounts
No big deal, there are always scams running out there, but I found it odd that a few hours after this interaction, my personal Instagram account received two more direct messages from two different random accounts with almost identical wording to the opening lines of the first inquiry. I didn’t reply to either of these, and as I check now to share the wording with you, I see those messages have disappeared despite me not deleting them. My gut feeling is that whomever is running this scam, they seemed encouraged by the fact that I interacted with the first inquiry – and even though I didn’t follow through with it, maybe they thought if they kept sending similar messages, they might get me on the hook with a different account.
Another inquiry with a different offer
Today I received another inquiry, and just for curiosity’s sake, I replied to this one and started a discussion. This time a price was quoted by the “buyer,” although he never said which artworks of mine he wanted to buy. When I told him as well that I haven’t made any NFTs, he kept pressing but his messages were also sending a weird vibe, like it wasn’t a natural flow of conversation. Then, despite saying he wanted to buy my art as NFTs, he then turned around and said that he wanted to pay me so that he could turn my art into NFTs, and offered me a percentage on any sales that he might make. I kept asking questions, and he finally stopped replying.
Beware of NFT scams on Instagram
Considering my personal art profile says nothing about NFTs, the idea that I would get 4 inquiries in 36 hours about buying my art in a legitimate way as NFTs would seem unlikely, and without knowing a whole lot about the process, I’m sure there’s plenty of ways to slip a scam in there. There was another inquiry I received several months ago where the person wrote that his clients were rich and were willing to pay huge amounts to buy NFTs, he just wanted me to pay a “gas fee” to help him convert my art to NFTs and he repeated this over and over again, pay the gas fee, it’s only the gas fee, I’ll show you how to do it after you pay the gas fee. There was nothing logical about the exchange with that guy, so I stopped that chat.
Has anyone else experienced these kind of messages and offers? Is this a scam running through Instagram these days? I had written a while ago about getting attempted scams through Instagram where the scammer tried to flip the PayPal process on me, so maybe this NFT angle is the new scam approach. If you have any thoughts or experiences to share, please do so in the comments section below.
Additional readings:
If you want to learn more about the NFT phenomenon, how it works, and what are some of the most interesting projects in this space, you can check out these resources:
- Are NFTs Worth Buying?: This post explores the pros and cons of investing in NFTs and provides some tips on how to evaluate their value and potential.
- The Heart Project: 10,000 NFTs: This is a collaborative art project that aims to create 10,000 unique NFTs based on the concept of the heart. Each NFT represents a different emotion, story, or message, and is generated by an algorithm that combines various elements and colors.
- Update on the NFT scam directed at artists via Instagram: This post warns about the increasing frequency of scam messages on Instagram targeting artists who want to sell their art as NFTs. It shares some examples of how to spot and avoid these scams.
Only deal with Instagram direct contacts through a third party to protect your details, i.e. Etsy or eBay or your online gallery.
I have similar experiences. One guy asked me to upload on a specific sketchy platform. The other also wanted me to pay the $400 gas fee first. But they both sound completely normal and kind so that’s not a trigger but it’s more the amount of profits they promise and the fees I have to pay first.
I’m in a similar position, I’m a professional artist who has been approached by a lot of people asking to purchase art as NFTs for very enticing sums of money. After talking to some of these people the pattern seems the same as everyone else here. They want you to mint the NFT yourself, to a site that they provide and then they will buy it. My guess is that they are linked to the site and the minting fee is part of the scam and reading what some people said about there being fees to collect the bogus payment it would seem everything associated with the sites they provide is part of the scam. Don’t give up real world money for a promise of money in the future. If it’s too good to be true, it is.
hello Thomas , I have something just like that today ( the supposed buyer… ) offer a very big sume of money ( the same like all other instances before with other supposed buyers. one thins I found in common , was that two of them , ask me for a screenshot of my crypto wallet . do you know why they ask for that ?
sorry , my name is Eduardo…lol
I was approached by a scammer today too, asking me to pay $300 as gas fee, and then he would buy my art as NFT. He offered huge scams, which seemed odd. How exactly do they scam people though using this method?
Hi, I received an offer to buy my art as NFT. But I had to upload my art to a specific market called Meta Base NFT. I paid for the gas fee (I suppose I shouldn’t have) 150 USD. The item was listed for 0.06 ethereum which is around 70 USD, which I couldn’t change in the platform. Somehow the guy bought the art piece at 3000 USD. Now to “get” that money, I have to pay other 500 USD. If this is a scam, it is simple, you pay real money and they give you a bunch of nothing.
Why did you have to pay $500 to get your money?
Wow … Did you ever get anything for it? I keep getting messages some from people with bad English. Now it is has changed and it’s from people with good English, good conversational skills and legit on their instagram page says under their name “I buy art as NFT”
All of these stories are the same issues I am experiencing as an artist of Instagram. I haven’t come across anyone who has gone through with the entire process to see if these people are legit or not. I ignored most of the offers because when I checked their gram account they did not look legit. 40 followers, 3 post, etc. But this last buyer actually has thousands of followers but her account is private. I am still hesitant because of this up front gas fee.
I just got asked to upload 4 black and white photos that I have on Instagram to a specific site he’s offering $16,000 for the 4 of them, so I started googling NFT scams and found this platform.
They are working for these NFT platforms. Trying to make money off desperate artists.
Thank God I found this article. There’s a lot of accounts who keeps sending me messages about NFTs, that I should make an account. Thank you!
Just Googled this: they set up fake mint sites, take your “gas” money and then the site and your money disappear. Just tell ’em gas is $3 a gallon, LOL.
Lol!! Good one. Thanks, been getting these same scam messages all week on IG too.
I had the same experience on Instagram. They sound off and kept avoiding my “what designs would you like to purchase” questions. When they send them to me finally they also send a website that isn’t searchable. They offered 2.5k per design. I got excited but I thought I should check more about NFT scams and that’s how I found this article. Thank you. Be extra careful, if anything seems off or too good to be true, it is probably a scam, better safe than sorry.
The guy who wanted to buy my art to turn it into NFTs quoted me 4 ethereum per art work (approx. $5,200 USD value, according to him, although the value fluctuates plenty). I asked him several times how he came up with this valuation, and he never answered my question – like you said, sounds too good to be true.
I get offers too all the time. I made an opensea account and its all free, you just connect a wallet and you can start selling stuff. I always send MY links to these guys but so far always, they say “oh I have this website”, or “pay this gas fee”, blah blah blah.
Best thing is to ignore. I’ve just had another offer and the account seems legit but I will still apply the same process to this guy too.
I got 3 offers of these offers to make my art NFTs to be purchased on Dec. 26, 2022. Each one offered more money. Final offer was equaled $50,000 for 4 images. Too good to be true! They told me which ones they wanted by screenshot. Website searches were not available. Found scam alert when searching if safe on websites and found out they were newly created and not to be trusted. Weird to get 3 offers in one day.
Same for me. Although one of them said I should upload them to a site and she will buy 4 that she had picked out … at $5000 each. This insane. She didn’t ask what I want for the work. She just offered that huge price. The other said they will guide me through a site and the method, which is obviously a scam. But I’m not sure how the other one is a scam. I’m sure she won’t end up getting them and paying that much, but I can’t work out how that one is a scam. I know people buy NFT art thinking they can flip for more, but she is offering $5000 for 4 pieces each. Which is insane because they are illustrations not even what I call real art/fine art.
Best way to shut them down is to say “I’ll take $1000 instead of $5000, but you do all the uploading and converting into NFT” etc.
Yeah I got a guy asking to buy my stuff, I was quoted £500 for 3 pieces plus P&P. He then offered me $4700 dollars each if bought as an NFT. If he isn’t a scammer, he’s the worst businessman in the world. But after reading all these, and looking at the absolute dog sh** website full of AI artwork he linked me to, it’s pretty obvious he’s a scammer.
What happened?I just got an offer of 5000 to sell 10 of my pieces…Insane
Yep, same here – just got offered 7ETH per image for 5 images. Can’t figure out what the hook is as it seems to be going through OpenSea.
Also had an offer for 5 ETH each for three pieces. He wanted to go through OpenSea which is a respected platform but I can’t wrap my head around the risk of him not buying them if I post them, since I will have to pay a minting fee.
Do you think it’s just a ploy to generate minting revenue?
I have just been offered 7000 for four works via Instagram. They want me to put them on some site I have never heard of. I suggested open-sea, and they came up with some flimsy reasons not. I will put them on the open sea and see what happens. You can put up without gas fees if you use polygon.
How do I use polygon? Did you ever get paid?
There is now a Lazy Minting facility on OpenSea which means the gas fee is paid by the purchaser on making the purchase, which is better for the artist. However, looking closer you still need to mint one item for an average of $250 before lazy minting kicks in. OpenSea is a reputable company so I can’t see how a scammer would access my $250 from OpenSea? As long as they don’t have access to your wallet like MetaMask I can’t see how they could scam you – please someone correct me on this as I get bombarded with requests, some seem very plausible, but most are offering huge sums. Clearly, they have no conventional interest in your work – they just want to sell on using more smoke and mirrors to make a profit on what they have bought from you? If anyone has made some real money from this it would be great for us artists to talk to them – rather than feel stupid!
Also for me. Absolutely the same. I asked her, if she already sold other artist’s art as NFT. She said yes and I asked her to connect me to them, to learn about their experience. She did not answer anymore.
Hey Mim,
I had the same issue just yesterday and I was curious as you are, so I went through with it and uploaded 2 artworks each 5ETH on opensea. I send the dude the link and am waiting. I was so curious, what he’s going to pull 😀
So then he answered with a screenshot of an error. He stated that I should contact opensea and sended me something like a code, that I should add to the support. And he gave me an email address: openseaio@gmail.com :’D
At that point I didn’t answer anymore, because it became too much work, but I’m guessing that sooner or later the person behind the creative email account would have asked me to give more information about my wallet, so that they would have had direct access to my crypto wallet. I suppose that’s how they work, but I really didn’t want to go in further.
And I am an amateur artist who was offered 6ETH for two pieces … seemed a tiny bit overvalued, HaHa … I guess the Nigerian Letter scams aren’t working anymore.
What do you mean the Nigerian letters don’t work anymore, as a Nigerian prince, I’m offended.
omo it’s our people o. Lol. The owner of the account that sent me this same nft scam message on Instagram is from Nigeria posing to be a white lady. The unfortunate fellow is following some Nigerian artists which first gave him away and the account was opened in Nigeria according to Instagram’s location. The account’s name has also been changed once.
Hahaha
I had the same offer. Also asked to use Opensea. I was also contacted thru Instagram. I know there are nowadays some guys that buy to resell for even bigger amounts of money … is the first time in history that so much art is being sold and also for big amounts? I would like to understand how the scam works if you have an account in Opensea, what can they do?
It’s called pump and dump. It’s an auction format They have fake accounts and they start bidding and they and their army of bots and real people bid against each other until real buyers jump in. Then when a real buyer or two or few jump in they close the auction You pay the gas fee and they abscond with the crypto. These things happen often on OpenSeas there’s a lot of Art fraud on there even though the site is legit the crypto markets are not regulated nor centralized. It’s merely contactless contracts and when all the boxes are checked on both sides then the crypto exchanges. NFT scams are more crypto scamming than Art scamming.
I just got a,similar offer. What is the catch???
Me too … what kind of bad people target artists? I think they use REAL people’s insta accounts, ones who don’t post very much, they hijack them. So the person looks real, like a retired banker, then they ask to buy four or five NFT’s from you and send you to OpenSea or a dodgy NFT site.
How do they get money from you? I think that after you have spent over a £1000 minting your NFTs on OpenSea, the scammer asks you to pay them fees to get the money paid to you. The artist would pay the fee because they have invested £1000 already. Perhaps they buy them for a lot less than they promise and then make you pay them to get your original money back. I think it’s a way of laundering large amounts, the money the artist sends them can look like a legitimate transaction and is therefore spendable as laundered cash. REPORT THEM TO INSTAGRAM! Don’t just block them, it’s easy to do.
Please can you kindly explain this to me? I am in the same situation.
I don’t know what the angle is, not sure how this scam works, but there’s plenty of people trying it. I just got another “offer” yesterday of $10,000 USD per art work, 6 in total, if I would just convert them to NFTs. I texted the person that I would be happy to sell all 6 of the original works for only $1,000, and they insisted that the offer was $60,000 for all 6 only if they became NFTs. I then told the person they could save $59,000, buy the originals for $1,000 and then they could make them into NFTs on their own and sell them for whatever they wanted. Still no go … they insisted that I had to make them into NFTs on the platform of their choice. Considering the complete lack of logic in these negotiations, there’s definitely a scam at play, just not sure how it works. Come on, really … they’re that anxious to convince me that they’re ready to spend $60,000 when they don’t know me or the value of my art?
The one reached out me refuses to use OpenSea, they are directing to some unknown sites to “mint” or asking fees and photos to mint for the artist, and then supposedly will buy the NFT.
That sounds exactly like what happened to me in my comment above about the person who wanted to pay me $60,000, but only if I converted my art to NFT. She also refused my suggestion of using OpenSea, and instead insisted on me using something called “Ravo NFT,” which I had never heard of.
Hi, I also got similar messages of buying the artwork with 5 ETH. He asked me to open an Opensea account and upload the image and then send him the link. The Opensea site didn’t ask me to pay anything. It mentions no gas fee. What I don’t understand is how do they get money from us. If at all he buys the art from Opensea link, how does he get money from me? I have to admit that I don’t understand what ‘minting’ means. But I just can’t get my head around how they will get money from our account. Can you explain please?
After you send him the link he will show you a screenshot of some kind of error, and will ask you to write to support and send you the mail of “that support.” If you send a mail to that direction, they will answer fast and will tell you that you have not gas for the transaction. Alongside that information, they will send a wallet address so you can deposit real money to cover that gas. There is the scam. If you refuse to contact that “support” they will pretend they contacted them and send you a screenshot of the “support answer” … saying the same b.s. that you don’t have gas.
I checked it. The gas fee is charged during the purchase, so it was not charged for just minting a new NFT. However, then the merchant pretends that he tried to buy but failed. Sends a fake email from opensea (screen), where it says that the seller has too little ETH for the gas fee. Then he sends you an e-mail address (pretends to be opensea support, in fact it is e.g. on Gmail, but it should be @opensea.io), so when we’re writing to this address, we pass our address to them, and they probably send our a link to the transaction, coded similarly to opensea and probably steal money what we have in our crypto wallet.
BTW … I get a couple of scammers texting me on Instagram every day. There were over a hundred of them.
Same here. Several people contacted me. One wanted to pay £1500 per artwork (3 in total) while my price was less than that for the 3 of them. Then a weird conversation about the payment through an app I don’t know. When I requested a regular wire transfer, the communication stopped.
Another one want to buy things that are not actually an artwork, but part of it (they didn’t even read the description) so I directly asked about the payment method, if she used bizum or wire transfer … and again the communication stopped. So yes, Instagram is full of this kind of scams (including the PayPal one). I do not reply to them anymore. Be careful!!
This is certainly a scam. I have 6 such “buyers” at the moment, but I just play with them asking them so many questions, so they get confused and quit. In the end I report them to IG.
These are all scammers. All have similar profiles, 4-5 stupid posts and thousands of followers. That is not real. They all try directing you to dodgy NFT platforms, when you check them, they have a phishing warning by Trust Pilot. The idea is to lure you, paying first a small amount for gas fees, to an address they send you. They call this gas fee deposit. Then if you pay phat, they will ask you to pay for initial gas fee, which is more. After that they probably will disappear. These are low profile scammers from Nigeria or somewhere there. Check the IG profile, where it is originating from. Anyhow, the scheme is more or less identical. If you tell them you had reported to Interpol or FBI cyber security and fraud department, if such exists, they get scared most of the time and close their IG accounts. However then come back with a new account. Be vigilant and suspicious. Never trust if someone dm you with a flashy offer like 5k, that is what they use, to have you interested. Beware, there are many of these lowlifes. Seems that is now a trendy scam around.
Why do so many artists even for a second believe this is true?
Simple. It’s because they’re desperate.
If they have billionaire clients willing to pay thousands for a digital pic, then why can’t those billionaire clients pay for the minting process as well? That’s what I asked them. I even offered to knock the price of minting off from their offer to buy. If they legitimately wanted your art work and were legitimately wanting to spend five, six, seven thousand dollars on it, then they would also help you have it minted. They won’t, but if they do, then it probably is real.
People are actually spending thousands on little goofy digital pics. The deal is that it costs four hundred dollars to have it minted (at least), and then it sits at auction until someone promotes it enough, generates an audience, etc. It’s like paying to have your art displayed at a gallery. However, you as an artist do need someone else involved in the process. All they are doing is charging you a fee somewhere in the process of having your artwork minted. Minted artwork can be worth thousands, but you don’t need someone else to do it for you and you shouldn’t be spending thousands of dollars to mint your artwork unless you have thousands of dollars in which to create art. Imagine you are spending the money on “digital paint.”
Hi, I am an art student from India and I got a comment on one of my art posts from an account just how you described it with no identity proof, she is labeling herself as an “Enthusiast” and “Crypto Artist,” she started the conversation and seems interested in buying my art to turn them into NFTs and offered me 9000 dollars for 5 of my pieces and I not sure if she is a scammer of a genuine NFT trader.
Seems like the same scam we’ve all encountered. Just the fact these people are all encouraging non-NFT artists to convert their art into NFTs (as opposed to just shopping for NFTs that already exist) would seem to be a red flag.
In the past 24 hours got two NFT “offers,” one offered $15,000 for three. Wow. I’m glad I found this site. I think I’ll reply saying that for half the price I’ll courier the original artworks to them 🙂
4 different scammers with similar messages have approached my account. When I threatened them to send their account on IG to the FBI Fraud department “to check them out,” they blocked me and disappeared. Red flag alert.
I just got another request from someone with 0 posts, 0 followers, and 0 following, whose profile describes “buying bulk artworks at good pricing.” I just blocked them without any response, it’s such a predictable joke at this point.
I had 2 inquiries on IG offering to buy my art as NFTs, the first guy was very pushy and identified 4 pieces offering in the range of $4500 per piece, I told him I’d have to investigate what and how NFTs work. He was very pushy and I eventually told him I wasn’t comfortable with selling my art as NFTs and that people can just appreciate it on IG. He pushed a little more claiming I could make upwards of $16k to which I replied no, I’m good thanks. Much as I need the money as an artist something just didn’t sit right. The next day I got another similar offer for $12k for 4 of my drawings. I again said no thank you. It just reeks of scam, I don’t know if any artists have actually taken up these offers.
Same here! But I believe we have to defend ourselves and report the sites we have been “lured” to! I’ve been from a non searchable “Synccraft live” which I’ve been asked to pay up front gas fees payable through a wallet they own! I’ve been offered 2000 USD for 3 pieces=total 6000 USD. Refused to purchase for less the original artworks and even less through open sea!!! The second one was even more outrageous, offering 7000 USD a piece for 6 works. Same pattern – no originals, no open sea. Beware! No free cheese but the one in the trap!!!
Thank you for this very illuminating response.
My experience today sounds pretty much identical to yours, same site Syncraftlive ( I suggested using Opensea, he said no as his wallet had been hacked into there) and also offers to purchase 3 of my Insta artworks at $2000 each ( I think Australia dollar in this case, but not sure, as he said he was from Sydney). I have left it “hanging” at the moment and haven’t got as far as offering the physical originals instead at a much lower price (my Insta items are little more than quick doodles which please me, and some of my followers). Says he will talk me through the process…
I am receiving the same bothering NFT messages in my instagram from random (looking like real) accounts. 3 of them just this week. It is obvious that there is a scam campaign targeting us artists.
I’m a full time watercolor painter with over 4000 posts on my instagram account. I get hit by these NFT guys several times a week. Despite my “NO NFT” page caption they do it anyway. I’ve started messing with them. I tell them I’d be glad to do business but for new relationships I require a Venmo cash up front payment of $1000 and I tell them go make the payment and then we can talk. They vanish. Other times I just get so mad about the whole thing I just rip them a new one, and enjoy doing it. They all use the same wording and I just get so sick of it I could scream.
I’ve just had a similar experience and a fellow Artist (who’s more knowledgeable about crypto/NFTs than I am), directed me to this page. I’ve had a couple of messages, latest offering me £2500 for a drawing. It smelled like a scam of course and too good to be true. I hadn’t been able to see how they could extort money out of me through this method but now I have read the above comments, I can see how it might progress to that.
Wait till you hear this, I have been getting lots of compliments on my art and NFT buying offers, this one guy approached really nicely, had over 10k Instagram followers, nice family pics, looks like a decent guy, living in San Francisco, says he is an engineer of some sort involved in NFT … but he has a price to introduce me to a rich buyer, a 20 year old something with lots of expensive toys, cars and houses who pays up to 40k per art … his cut is $500 per artwork and 20% commission that I have to pay … the balls on this guy, I asked if we can chat over the phone, I said I have a toll free number, he says he’s busy first but he caves and said we can do SnapChat, 1st red flag. So he starts chatting, but I saw the number was not US or Canada, so I pressed on the phone button to hear his voice, he avoided picking up few times, but picks up anyway, he is barely 20 and with British accent, he says he is visiting Manchester for a “soccer game” … red flags all over the place, nothing was matching, so I blocked him everywhere.
I get quite a few of these. They mostly offer very large amounts of money to buy my art as NFT. Then they give the link to a website. I always tell them I don’t make NFT art and that’s when they usually get really pushy. One of them told me he had already used my art and wanted to know where I lived. They don’t back off either when you tell them you know its a scam. Very creepy!
I had a guy “from Norway” follow me and messaged me asking if he could buy my art and mint it as an NFT. His account was all professional photos that drew attention to his Rolex! Blocked and – after reading this forum – reported.
Hi, so glad to find this site. I’m just a hobby artist and in the last day have had 2 people contact me about selling my art as NTFs. They send me screenshots of the art pieces they want and sent me prices too good to be true. I spend a lot of time researching NFTs and then asked each one which platform they would want them on. One said OpenSea … the other person was dodgy and kept saying he would guide me and I would need to send screenshots. So I’m assuming both are scams in some form. I would be interested if anyone who actually went as far to try and sell an NFT and had any success (not relying on the scammers that contacted them).
Since December 2022 I have been receiving the same offers as all of you. I get 2 to 3 offers every day from profiles that just send a red flag signal. All photos uploaded in one or two days, no tagged photos of them, no real comments, all red flags. I don’t sell NFTs so our conversations are short but they keep coming back.
I still don’t understand the scam? I just feel that something is not OK with these offers. Thanks for this post!
I just had someone reach out to me asking if my “arts” were for sale. Figuring the wording was because they were foreign, I told them I have a site were I sell merchandise with my art and gave them the link. She then noted she wanted the digital image files so she could convert to NFTs and resell. Needless to say I went off on her about copyright infringement, and her response back was that she was an NFT artist and would only buy an NFT, noting I would have to mint my art and then sell her the NFT. She said she understood copyright laws and was not asking to steal the images, she wanted to legally buy the NFT of the image. To be honest the whole NFT thing is a bit hinky to me, but she noted she’d be willing to pay 3eth ($4,700) each for 6 of my pieces. Although that was enticing, I told her I needed to do more research before I went the NFT route with my artwork. She seemed OK with that and noted if I decide to make NFTs to let her know. I thought that was it, but she contacted me again today and I told her once again I wasn’t interested at this time. Although she was surprised, she said she understood. Hopefully that’s the last of it. At no point though did she offer to “mint” my art for me, she only wanted the NFT after the minting. Was it legit, don’t know, but for now, I’m not going down that rabbit hole.
I’ve dealt with one of these just today! Some woman carrying on about how she wanted my work as NFTs. She went around my questions about procedure, trying to reassure me that I’ll learn everything along the way. Said that she could only pay me with crypto currency and I should trust that I’ll learn everything I need to know. I can’t get involved in something you’re refusing to explain to me! Anyway, eventually I explained that it was too much of a risk given her reluctance to explain details to me and that I was no longer interested in her selling my work.
I get several requests to sell my artwork as NFTs every day. They often use exactly the same wording. If you look at their Instagram pages they inevitably have about half a dozen posts, all posted on the same day, purporting to show the “collector” with a powerful motor car, on their yacht, in front of a bank of computer screens showing their stock rising etc etc. If you ignore them, as I do, they never come back with a second inquiry, despite loving your work so much they want to buy it as NFTs. It’s also interesting the way they have 1000 followers despite only posting six images, none of which have been “liked.” If you have a look at some of their “followers” they too appear to be fake: again you’ll see a small collection of random photos all posted on the same day.
I have been offered $6500 for each of 4 original paintings if I sell them for NFTs. I guess scammers need to make a living too. When it sounds too good to be true, it definitely is not true!
My scammers created an account with the personal photos of an anchor on ABC, which of course I didn’t know at first. In the intro they used the same words as a well known, founder of a web 3 community only with a different name that gave no Google search results. At first it was convincing. That they can simply steal the private photos of someone else and create an account is pretty creepy by itself, took me a while to find out whose photos they were using. But because they wanted to convince me they posted one, showing the news anchor with music celebrities and I was finally able to find the real person and name on Google. They are getting smarter and more brutal…
Had my first NFT inquiry today. His account only had 9 posts but 4.7K followers. He said he wanted to purchase five of my paintings as NFTs – strange thing was, the images he chose happened to be the last five I had posted (with two being almost identical). Strange he’d not chosen from the other 210 images. Claimed to be a ‘private collector’ and said he wanted us to be business partners and wanted me to start the NFT process the following day! In his profile, it shows him on a yacht in a tropical paradise. I asked him where he was based and he said the UK. I commented that his profile looks like he lives in the Bahamas … he replied that he did. Really??? Both????? Then he referred to me as ‘Mrs Julie’ so that was the final straw. He’s been blocked and I’m back to trying to sell my work the normal way.
I just use them to my advantage when I post – they keep me relevant with their hungry scam comments, lol, so, cool, I’m artist enough to appeal to scammers, maybe I’ll grow in real followers soon LOL!! I simply ignore them and let them skew the algorithm to my favor.
The same has happened to me. It is a scam and it is disgusting. Report them on Instagram, not just block them. It is very easy to do and you do it anonymously. Let’s have Instagram do something about this.
Please start outing these scammers if you have been ripped off! Best disinfectant is to shed light on who the scammers are, profile names, and how they were able to rip you off. What websites are they sending you to? What processes did you have to follow? What made you finally suspicious? etc…….
Sometimes I think they’re very transient – they might set up an account, use it briefly, ditch it and then create another – exactly for that reason, so they don’t get outed. But yes, sharing info to help artists not get scammed, all for that!
I propose a revenge on the scammers! I started doing it recently. I do not waste my time, I just play dumb, asking them to give me the explanation how to do it. I have a series of ready messages/answers like these “I do not understand, please explain it step by step!” , “I want to sell, but I do not know how to make NFTs”, “Please make screenshots with explanation where to click and what to write!” “I keep on getting some ERROR messages on my screen” “Why don’t you explain that to me?”…. Make them work hard hoping that they have found the fool, as long as possible, tire them and let them feel the disappointment!
Let’s make the scammers crazy! That is what I started doing. I play dumb, I say I am interested, and ask for their help how to do the whole process. Make them work hard thinking that they found a fool, and get a disappointment at the end! I do not waste too much of my time, I have a series of ready comments/answers/questions.
-Yes, I am interested, I am just not familiar with the process of making NFTS!
-Please explain how to do it, step by step!
-It does not work, could you make the screenshots with it on windows 7, 10, Mac, Iphone, Ipad, Android…
-I keep on geting some ERROR warnings!
-Why don’t you explain it to me in a simple way?
-You did not explain it well…Did you change your mind in buying my NFTs?
-Could you, please, come over here and help me do it, I’ll make you a discount of 1000$ on 3 of my -NFTs!
-You did not help, could you put me in touch with an artist you bought an NFT from?
Same story here, but the scammer is asking me to set a metamask wallet first. I find it fascinating so I am trying to keep the conversation going and see what they come up with, but instead of answering my questions, he is keep pressing on setting up meta wallet so we can proceed.
Was approached by two of these accounts telling me they wanted to buy my art as NFT. Checked their account info and it said it was registered in Nigeria.
Also now a third one, “mother, enjoy life” with a brown haired woman and private account, offering me 7300 for four pieces. Probably a scam. I told her she could buy original pieces and she then started arguing why NFT is good and that it will expose me to a larger audience. I guess it’s a scam.
I’ve got an offer about selling art on zerosea NFT…. I have no idea about this platform. Is it good or not? If I want to sell my art as NFT, what can I do? Suggest for me, please.
Message 1
‘I invest in small promising projects, when they are at the bottom, on which big money can be made in the future, I understand that you need capital to grow. I will pick one of your nft. I hope you are a serious seller and you will invest this money in the development of the project, if the project develops, I will be ready to allocate additional money, OK?’
Message 2
‘I’ll pay 4 eth. I am in the process of AML verification to buy your NFT using Opensea Secure transaction. I need an e-mail address from you.’
E-mail (from secure.opensea.io@gmail.com)
‘Congratulations, your item sold !
You successfully sold your NFT for 4.031 ETH on OpenSea.
How to get payment for sold NFTs ?
You must receive a unique QR code from the buyer. The seller must scan the unique QR code with their device camera to access the OpenSea Secure transaction page. Once the wallet is connected, the merchant must be successfully verified in order to receive the buyer’s payment.
Once the transaction is complete, you will have the sale displayed in your OpenSea account.’
Message 3 (with QR code)
‘I’ve passed the AML verification. Scan it and open transaction page in your browser. They should send an email with information about the purchase, note that the email can also go into the SPAM folder.’
Blocked him and reported to Instagram.
Our arts organization posts images of artists and artwork from our different activities and events. We have gotten similar DMs from accounts that want to follow us and then request we sell them random artwork on our page as NFTs. I believe just about all of them are scams. I never engage with them. They are relying on engagement to gain your trust.
If your gut tells you something is off, trust that feeling and keep your guard up.
After reading the above article, I did a search to learn more. I found this article that pretty much covers the main NFT scams: https://www.cloudwards.net/nft-scams
Hope it sheds some light.
Thanks, this is helpful information!
The scam goes on, now they try to make you to scan the QR code, don’t do that, it’s malware.
P.S. The most funny thing some scammer offered me 100 ETH for one piece of my art ahahha
Be careful guys
Hello everyone. the topic is still the same, but my question may be new. Due to a fake offer, I opened an account on opensea and found out that when I upload a picture I have to pay a gas fee. I canceled the account, but I’m afraid that the debt will remain somewhere. Is it possible that the debt will catch up with me?
I got contacted by two different scammers too. I think they work for the NFT platforms, and work to get suckers in and pay a fee to make the NFT. Oldest trick in the book, waive a bag of gold in front of the nose of someone while you pick his pocket with the other hand.
To nip these guys in the bud and let the NFT platform separate a real interested party from a scammer. Mint your art at Opensea using the “Lazy Minting” method. Basically, you don’t pay the Gas fee upfront, it is deducted from your profit when your piece sells. When someone asks to buy your art as an NFT on Instagram, you just direct them to Opensea. If its a really interested buyer you got a sale, if its a scammer they’ll move on to the next target.
Just to be clear – DO NOT mint on the platform of their choosing and DO NOT pay anything to them upfront.
Same happened with me. There were offers ranging from $5.500 to 7 Eth. On checking their profiles, all of them had changed their names several times in the last 90 days. Thanks for this post.
I’ve been approached by a few different accounts about turning artwork into NFTs and although I was completely uninterested at the time, I now understand they were all most likely scams.
I am however wondering if getting into creating and selling NFTs legitimately is a worthwhile thing or not? Is the whole thing a scam?
I am an amateur photographer who sells prints at my neighborhood art show and sometimes online mostly to people I know offline. I’ve been getting a lot of those requests too. I’m automatically suspicious of anything tied to crypto including NFTs. I’m happy to sell a digital print through my shop and they can use it as an NFT but keep me out of crypto.
I post a daily photo. I’ve noticed however they aren’t even selecting my best photographs for the prints they want as NFTs. If my thought is why would you want that shot, when the one I posted earlier in the week was 10 times better, I don’t think you’re legit.
happened to me as well. They offer a heap of money, ETH in my case and if converted would be like 5’500/pic. But of course I should pay first and use a site they are proposing. It was Opensea in my case, never heard about it.
I mean this is an easy case: Anyone offering me a fantastic sum of money for my photos, when professional agencies do not even offer 1/10 of it, it cannot be real.
Yesterday I was offered $700 for my photos as NFT.
Scammer:
Hello, I love your photos
They look very beautiful
Are they available for purchase?
…
I was looking to purchase these photos as NFTS for my upcoming audition. I have a decent budget to cover up for any inconvenience
I have a budget of $700 per photo, does that work for you?
I replied that I don’t have any experience with NFT.
Scammer:
It’s easy to create NFT on marketplaces like camseas.com It’s easy to convert the photos to NFT in this platform.
Then I asked the scammer to telle more about the audition.
Scammer:
It’s in an upcoming event but i will be presenting some nice photos which will be available in my profile where people will bid for the photos. The audition is to create awareness about my photos which will be available for purchase.
It sounds too good to be true.
There’s also a really crude scam where they target “physical media” artists as well (painters / illustrators) – by sending DMs and then offering to buy artwork via PayPal.
They quote an amount, and then come back saying the minimum PayPayl transaction fee is several hundred $ / £ more than that.
So they propose to pay this larger amount, and then ask the artist to refund them the difference afterwards.
My friend had this happen, and the guy kept messaging saying “can you send my refund?” and that he’d paid the full amount already.
Obviously there was no original payment received, and my friend realised this was all BS, and sent him nothing – neither money or artwork.
It’s a low level scam, designed to target the naive and desperate, and those unfamiliar with the way online transactions work. So it was easy to spot. But some people may well fall for it.
I’d advise not using “big” hashtags on your posts, like “artist” “newart” etc. as they almost certainly do searches using various tags, to pick up artists. Those tags with millions of entries are a waste of time anyway.
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This is happening to me right now. Her name is ANNALISE BRUNO9 . Wish I could up load a picture that she is using. Cause I bet this lady has no idea her picture is being used. I would feel so bad if my photo was being used like this. Also it could be her. wants to pay me over 7 000 $$ each for at least 5 of my pieces… but first i need to go this site sea cape com . stupid me, i went and made an account.. didn’t put any money in, cause i dont have ETH. I said why dont I post one, you buy it for the 7000 then Ill have the money to mint the other… her response was that she needed a whole set so she could auction it off. she had so much detail… what she could auction them for… how much percent i could get.. It would be cool if this was real.. and yet to think someone wants to just steal from me and has no care in the world what is going on in my life. There is no Love your neighbour anymore. I also had the pay pal scam. Someone wanted to buy a painting for 400$ okay..( I have bought paintings for that in the past..Had them shipped to me. Love them to this day. ) He sent me his “address”. Got an email that 400$ was put into my account. went to my account… nothing. then get a message that my paypal isn;t set up for large funds. and that they need to send me more money… WHAAT?? you want to send me MORE money? Insane… But this nft scam is harsh. Of course you want people to like you art. heck if they love it even better. But Why steal from the starving artist. why? Its cruel.
I have read a lot of stories about people losing money to investment scams. I too have been a victim of this scams. I lost about $50k Bitcoin last year, i searched around and tried to work with people, unfortunately I was scammed as well. This happened for months until i came across fundsretrieval1@gmail.com they came to my rescue and all my funds were recovered.
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I was contacted on Artstation 3 days straight by different person. All of them sweetly liked my art, same scenario as in previous posts. Artstation has changed portfolio UI, where now an email of an artist is visually available on the first page. Comfortable for potential “clients”… They offered me 2 eth per work, although I had artworks for sale on marketplace for lower price of course. They wanted them as NFT. I replied that I don’t deal with NFT and I didn’t hear from them since.
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