Is there a Digital Comic Scam Going Around?

NFT scammers are well known around here on Deviant Art. They contact you every other week or so to tell you have amazing your work of art is and how they will pay an arm and a leg for it to have it turned into an NFT on their non-standard dodgy trading platform (which they probably run themselves) as opposed to using say OpenSea.

But there is another form of scammer, the Digital Comic book scammer. They contact you in different ways to tell you how amazing your stories are. Here is a quote from a recent unsolicited Note I got:

"I hope all is fine with you! The story you provided truly touched me, as I work as a digital artist on commission. Working with you to make it into a digital comic would be amazing. I am certain that we can come up with a budget that is affordable and beneficial to both of us."

Notice how it is entirely devoid of context? No mention of specific stories I have written or what part of the story they enjoyed. It is similar to NFTs. These are written in generic and flattering terms so they can be sent out in bulk like any other spam

You look at their profile and it looks exactly like an NFT scammer profile: Very recently joined Deviant Art. Basically no followers. Almost no art liked and gallery of their "own" images which looks totally random. There is nothing in the gallery that suggest a portfolio or someone serious about making digital comics.

But here is the issue: I am not 100% sure if they are scams. Only 90%. They could be desperate artists hurt by the rise of AI Art. I once interacted with one of these "comic book" artists. She did actually send me work related to my story.

But here is the catch: It was not any good. In fact I would say this is likely from one of the many AI services which offers the ability to create comics from text. I think these "comic book" artists may actually deliver work to you but it will simply be poorly made AI comic book work.

This is something in evolution. I don't think AI tools today are really good enough to make good comics. The scam is to charge the rates of an real comic book artists while getting an AI to do the work for you at express speed.

The reason I suspect these to be scammers is that I notice when you make it clear that you are not interested, only want to pay for smaller amounts of work or similar they go into classic scammer mode arguments:

1. I am alone. I have no friends, just my passion for art.

2. Rent is due and I really need this to make it through to next month.

3. My mom hates me and kicked me out.

4. It is close to birthday, Christmas or whatever and I need a little extra to get presents for my family

These are just examples, but scammers have stereotypical stories. Either they live successful lives, running their own business and dressing in designer clothes. That is when they need to convince you to invest with them. Or they are poor starving artists. One of my favorites guys to hate, Andrew Tate, played this game. He wrote the stories for the web cam girls he trafficked and chained up. He wrote sob stories to the men they had to act in front of to take all their money.

Typically they rely on male propensity to empathize with cute women in need. The artists I interacted with at some length, definitely played up the cute girly vibe.

What I hate about this is that it breeds cynicism towards other people and distrust. Exactly what we need less of. I do think we should in fact care more for each other and be more trusting. But that is undermined by scammers who are infecting the whole internet.

I do not think you should end up as a cold hearted cynic but rather keep some simple rules in mind when interacting with people:

1. Are they flattering you way more than you deserve?

2. Are they looking for friendship or something more?

3. While many people do have sob stories, the people who are real generally don't try to leverage their story after short interaction to get money out of you. In many ways that diminishes their whole story.

4. The way they complement you, is it entirely generic or actually specific to you and your behavior, personality, achievements or work? If you are suddenly the most interesting and fun person without having said much of anything then that is a red flag.

I have pondered why I never really get scammed despite being a naive Norwegian always accused by foreigners as being too trusting. Yes, I then to think better of people until proven otherwise, but I think the magic ingredient to avoid getting scammed is humility.

In a culture such as my own where honesty and humility is valued, someone who barely knows you suddenly showering you with praise and complements is immediately suspicious. If you don't have an inflated ego, then you will not easily fall for the attempts of others to suck up to you and seek manipulation by stroking your ego.

There are many good things about having a strong self confidence but one problem with having a too developed confidence is that you easily fall for people stroking your ego.

That is my experience in real life: Be real when making friends. I have become friends with people I characterized in very negative terms, because I guess they knew when I said something positive about them it was the real deal. I wasn't sucking up.

I have dealt with several narcissists in life and learned some ways to see through their fake charms. narcissists tend to flatter you. But here is a way to expose them:

1. Are only offering your praise when it benefits them? If something good happens to you which has negative impact on them, will they still be happy on your behalf or act very negative?

2. Praise tends to be very shallow. Little effort was put into actually seeing you and your qualities.

3. Posessive. Narcissists want to be the center of attention and are not happy when you enjoy time with someone else.

So let me give some examples. Maybe my wife get to go on a conference or some nice trip. It is not a benefit for me as I need to take care of the house and the kids. Yet, I am happy on her behalf. I know she will get some good time. A narcissist will not be happy about this, because they get no benefit.

They are upset each time you got to the gym. They are not happy for you that you get to stay healthy and feel good. It is no benefit for them. They are deprived of attention from you that they typically want all the time. This is typically in a relationship. I know people who are in relationships with narcissists having these experiences. I can relate as I had a long time friendship with a narcissist.

Anyway, sorry this was about scammers, but it made me think of how we relate to each other and trust. And I really don't want scammers to ruin your ability to relate to others and trust them. Instead learn to observe the red flags.

And if you are not sure, make sure whatever deal you make has absolutely minimal financial implications. I can be willing to stay loose $5 to give someone the benefit of the doubt. But I am not loosing $50 over it.

Any trade or deals should always go through well known sites. Don't trust links they give you. Google up sites or services yourself. Do background checks. When using a payment service, Google and learn about ways in which scams can be done. For instance there are scams where people will say they accidentally sent you a bunch of money and ask if you can sent it back to them. Meanwhile they contact the payment service to cancel the original pay to you. In other words you paying them was never necessary. Tricks like this has to be examined. Find out to what degree payments can be canceled or retracted.

I have used crypto currency personally when I don't trust people because such payments cannot be canceled. If they sent you a crypto payment it is final. They cannot undo it.