Scam? Seems like it could be? (Thanks to anyone who gets through this, haha)
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So, I received this email.
Email #1
"Hello Jeremiah
My name is Lisa I am an academic event organizer and an Apraxia patient. I got your contact details on Behance. I need the service of an artist or illustrator/cartoonist to work on a project for an upcoming workshop. I will give the idea of what I need to be illustrated/drawn and you can get back to me.
Warm regards"
I told her I was interested and wanted more info.
Lisa's first response
"Thanks for your interest in this project. These illustrations are to be used for a presentation in a workshop coming soon. The attendees are students between the age of 15-17. I would love if you can illustrate on paper and I pay for this services which will be in a few days.Well I don’t know how many hours it would take to get all these done. These are the illustrations.
- A group (not more than 5) of young and old people in a queue and
social distance.
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A group (not more than 5) of male and female health workers wearing a mask.
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The cemetery with tombstones and a caption that says “ Died of Disbelief”
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An elderly woman taking the vaccine sitting on a chair.
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A sick female patient on a hospital bed in a hospital setting.
I have preference on how large it should be, I will prefer the illustrations should fit on a standard letter size(8.5 x 11”)
- it should be a pen as well colored.
I have a budget of $200 per piece of the illustrations, how long will it take for you to get it ready?"
I then asked if digital would work for her and if she could Venmo or other cash transfer system me with a payment in the middle after the first 3 images were completed.
Lisa's second response
Okay Jeremiah, you can do it digitally and let me know how much it will cost for you to print it.
"I’m sorry, we won’t be able to pay half of the fee but will get your full payment available before courier will come for pick up, I will like to see a draft so that I can get approval from my boss and we will proceed with your payment of writing you an Electronic Bank certified check and all you have to do is deposit yourself using your bank app and once the check is cleared we can schedule mover to pickup."
To those seasoned in Illustration requests, is this a scam? There's poor grammar and spelling mistakes, and an odd request for physical media but they also attached a sketch of what they were looking for and it seems genuine? Any thoughts on how to proceed?
Thank you so much for any feedback!!
Jeremiah -
@Jeremiahbrown there was something going around here a while back regarding scams and I vividly remember the use of the name apraxia, I would ditch contact with them.
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Yeah that is a scam going around, I was the one who posted about it. The "apraxia patient" is one of the tells. They say that so they have an excuse not to talk to you on the phone.
My understanding is they have been using the SCBWI mailing lists. But I had one find me on my kickstarter project too.
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@Jeremiahbrown Seems fishy to me, especially if they are trying to appeal to you by mentioning that they got a special condition.
Every time I encounter a scammer, they try to appeal to me trying to convince me that they are an "old woman", a "god believer", or they "got a disease".It's upsetting because usually people that suffer a special condition or disease feel ashamed to tell other people about it, they want to be treated normally, they don't go around flaunting that they got a condition.
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@Asyas_illos @Carey-R-Drake @Eliana-Bastidas Thanks for the great info! I Bummer that it's probably not legit. On the plus side, it will give me more time to work on my email response to the Nigerian prince that just emailed me (I'm going to be a millionaire!!)
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@Jeremiahbrown
Remember to share your contacts! We all want to be a millionaire too -
Man they're getting creative and seemingly legit. I'm glad you caught on before you got too far in.
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Boo! I hate these people not only for scamming artists but also to give people with the actual condition a bad image.
Imagine that one day an actual legit organization working on actual apraxia research needing illustration work, they'll be having a hard time getting genuine response from the keyword alone. Haiz. Anyway good thing you dodged that bullet!
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@Jeremiahbrown Usually when they say they're willing to pay the whole thing upfront my red flags go up. The certified check is also a red flag. I'd flat out say you only accept payments through Venmo and other apps like it. They will probably resist and that will be your answer.
You could also go with things to see how far they're willing to go, while also conning them out of wasting someone else's time. Let them send you the check that I guarantee will "accidentally" have over paid you.
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@Jeremiahbrown Ha ha ha I was hoping there was a prince out there waiting to hand out millions... I would have signed up.
