Scam emails and avoiding fraudulent ‘clients’ Free

Getting an email from a potential new client in your inbox or via your website contact form is exciting – but before you respond, it’s a good idea to read over the email carefully and take a moment to look into the client.

This is good practice with all clients. Understanding your client, their needs and the scale of their business is important to your negotiations with them. But not all enquiries that appear to be from a ‘client’ are legitimate, and doing your research also makes it easier to catch scams.

There are different kinds of scams out there that target illustrators. Some imitate client commissions, some involve NFTs, some will seek payment from you for ‘promotion’ – the tactics that are used will change over time. When you get a new enquiry, slow down, and consider it carefully before responding.

10 Red flags to look out for

Seeing one or two of these does not necessarily mean the email is a scam – but you should be cautious if you notice any of these red flags.

1. A lack of information about the client online, or email addresses that appear inaccurate (not using the company’s real URL)
2. Very recently created social media accounts, perhaps with an unusually high number of followers, but very few posts.
3. Poor grammar, or use of language that does not obviously pertain to illustration.
4. Appeals to sympathy, or ‘guilt trips’ – a professional client should not do this.
5. Generic requests – does the commission clearly relate to your portfolio, or does it feel irrelevant to your work?
6. Up-front payments – of course you might agree a payment schedule with a client, but if a client is insisting on sending you money before you begin work, this can be a warning sign. Payment for illustration is typically made after invoicing, when the work is complete.
7. Lack of negotiation or discussion of licence and fee – is the client too good to be true?
8. Refusal to adhere to your payment method, asking to pay you by cheque or bank draft.
9. Galleries or annuals where you are charged a large fee to be included.
10. Promises to split income with you “when the project is successful”.

Overpayment scams

You may have received an email recently that looks something like this:

Warm regards.

Nicholas Wood“

Or maybe:

“Good day, My name is Wrenley, I’m an academic event organizer and I’m hearing impaired, i hope you treat me like any of your other customers and my disability doesn’t affect our dealings.

I got your contact details online, I need the service of an artist or illustrator/cartoonist to work on a project for an upcoming workshop, I’ll give the idea of what I need to be illustrated/drawn and you can get back to me with the price to get it done. I’ll pay your fees up front if you want. Please get back to me for more details.

Warm regards.“

This approach tends to involve a client who is ‘hearing impaired’, perhaps intended as a problematic appeal to sympathy, but also possibly to offer a false reason as to why you won’t be able to speak to this client over the phone or via a video call.

This appears to be an overpayment scam, though there may be other end results. An overpayment scam is where a fraudster poses as a client, and makes payment for goods or services, usually by cheque, draft or credit card (though there are versions of this that involve PayPal). After making payment, the fraudster gets in touch with you, to tell you there has been an error and they have overpaid, before requesting an urgent refund. After the refund has been issued, the original payment does not arrive or is removed from your account – the cheque or draft will bounce, the credit card payment was fraudulent, or the PayPal payment receipt is a fake.

NFT Scams

You may have received a direct message or email asking you if your work is available for purchase as an NFT. If you are not familiar with NFTs, or if you have not minted any NFTs before yourself or with a legitimate client, then it’s worth being cautious.

Non Fungible Tokens (NFTs) are one of a kind digital artistic assets that use Blockchain technology. If you do not have a good working understanding of NFTs and the Blockchain, we’d recommend doing some reading around the subject, including our resource on the topic, before deciding to get involved. A lack of understanding can mean you are less likely to differentiate a scam from a legitimate enquiry.

Some approaches offer high fees or large profits within a short space of time. It can be flattering to be approached out of the blue with a generous financial offer, but you should remember that unfortunately scammers often rely on this sense of flattery to tempt illustrators.

There are a variety of scams out there that involve NFTs – some directly target an artist, and some are aimed at people purchasing NFTs, but may involve using an artist’s work.

Be wary of emails or messages that ask you to sell your artwork as NFTs on the sender’s recommended NFT trading platform. Always research the person contacting you and the platform, look at transaction histories, user reviews, and recent news articles.

Never give out personal information without being sure it’s safe to do so, and never share your cryptocurrency wallet private key with anyone.

Impersonating Organisations

We’re aware of some scams that are fraudulently emailing artists posing as a real life client or organisation. We remind remembers to be diligent and in addition to looking out for the red flags above, to double check the email address the correspondence has been sent from is an official email address of the company and that the contact details check out. Best practice would be to block and report any scam messages.

Remember, AOI members can always email or call our helpdesk if you are unsure or suspicious of an enquiry. The helpdesk is open Monday to Friday, 10am-4pm.