beware of this Instagram scam!!!

They say if something seems too good to be true, waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck it is likely a scam (well, something along those lines).

This describes a scam doing the rounds on Instagram. I like many others have received highly compimentary messages about my work and requests that I sell to the contributer. As with all scams, the scammer attempts to build up your self-esteem and belief that your work can sell for large sums.

The scam basically goes like this;

1. You receive a message from someone indicating they love your work and would like to purchase, requesting that you DM them

2. After making contact they indicate they’d like to purchase as NFT’s, either for themselves or ‘clients’

3. If still interested, they will request that you mint your work as NFT's, likely through a specific NFT marketplace like OpenSea. This requires that you set up an account on the marketplace platform (or they do so for you), and pay upward of $200 for each image as a transaction/’gas’ fee.

This is where it gets murky, as only those who fall for the scam see the result. From what I have been able to determine it appears the goal of the scammer is to get vulnerable artists to mint work, perhaps gaining commission from the NFT marketplace. Others have suggested that such scams may be sent from the marketplace platforms directly, in order to build up their NFT stock and popularity as they vie for market share.

Whatever the reason, there is of course no big sale following the minting of work, leaving the artist out of pocket.

Following is a partial transaction I recently had after receiving such a request.

“I have actually been looking at your works, they are absolutely unique and I’II love to work with you.
I’m a blockchain engineer and web 3 developer for NFT’s OpenSea and Coinbase I run maintenance and data test for other crypto platforms and financial sectors like MT4,Binance and Cointracker.

I can sell your arts to my clients for 10- 25k for each art works and this money goes straight to your own account

here’s the catch i take 10% commission off each sales and I’m utilizing this due to the facts my clients are rich and they are ready to pay huge amounts to buy NFTs

Well first you'd be confirming the payment before giving out your painting and it's safer cause the painting would be in NFT

so the gas fee varies with the amount you wanna sell the work I’d say you can pay $200 for an art and I can sell to my clients for 10- 25k for each art works,

The gas fee is like a fee you pay to the OpenSea to upload your arts on the platform

Well first we'd have a simple account set up for you on the OpenSea, then you fund it with the gas fee which enables us have the works converted and uploaded on the account on the OpenSea and groups, which enables our clients see them and have it purchased”

So in essence the scammer would set up an account on my behalf (and presumably then have full access), and after my paying $200 for each image minted/uploaded they would then sell to their clients. Smells like a duck to me!!!!!!!!!

In this instance communication dropped once I requested that the requester front the gas fee as a sign of good faith.

The safest way to avoid this scam is to treat every ‘too good to be true’ offer as suspect. If you feel the request is valid be sure to do your research - look to gain references from other artists, research company details etc until you are certain you are dealing with a legitimate request.

For examples from others check out this Reddit discussion