Emails out of the blue...are they real?

randarrington

So, as I've said before...I'm really not great with social media thing. Since I work more of a corporate type gig, I've never really explored freelance or anything and I'm always a little leary of people that contact me out of the blue. Today I got two emails and I'm not sure if they're real or not.

The first one:

Hi Rand Arrington,

I really hope you’re doing okay in the commotion we’re dealing with right now.

I really enjoy your style, so I thought I’d contact you. I’m the founder of T-post, the world’s first wearable magazine, and I would love to see you sport the brand. So, if you like what we’ve done, just hit me back and I can hook you up with a free shirt/magazine so you can try us out for real.

www.t-post.com

I hope to hear from you soon.

With respect.
/Peter

Peter Lundgren
Founder and Editor-in-chief

T-post
V. Strandgatan 5
903 26 Umea
Sweden

Site: t-post.com
Instagram: @t_post

and the 2nd one:

Kianoosh Zarabadipour kianooshzpr72@gmail.com
5:17 PM (2 hours ago)

to theMightyRand@gmail.com

Hi Randy Arrington! We loved your work in Artstation!
Rockstar Games is inviting 2D or 3D artists (freelance) to collaborate in creating characters for our upcoming game “GTA 6”.
As a 2D or 3D artist you will create amazing and adorable characters for an greatest game. Our players will fall in love with your characters, literally!
Your characters will become an important part of GTA 6 explosive stories.
Our expectations from the candidate:
Online (remote) job / freelance, hourly pay.
Over 1 year experience as a 2D-artist or 3D-artist
Experience and examples of creating characters
Photoshop skills
Availability for online communication on a daily basis
Main tasks:
Creating characters in our style
Interaction with Art Team Lead on task setting, feedback
Ability to work independently and produce high quality illustrations within given deadlines
Creating neat and well-organized work files to facilitate sharing & shared access to the files (e.g. naming all the layers, using layer compositions, etc.)
Examples of works: https://artstation.agency/CCb8 (password 2022)
For further communication check out the examples of our works and send a reply (CV + examples of your works) for this position to agency@rockstar.foundation

I feel like such a curmudgeon not being more trusting of people.....

Any thoughts on these?

Asyas_illos

@randarrington unfortunately people have become more conniving so it’s arguably ok to be a little distrustful of random emails. If these are something you are interested in do some homework on them if it’s not toss ‘em. I got a few bogus dm’s through Instagram that I thought would be good “practice” but they weren’t really a direction I wanted to go in so I opted out and I’m glad because they turned out to be scams.

Mia Clarke

It’s a scam, I’m afraid.

It sucks that we cannot be more trusting online, but I think it’s the smart thing to always proceed with care when you get these unsolicited requests.

MarcRobinson

@randarrington hi mate, I got the exact same email (the second one you listed) a few days ago. Seems like something dodgy is going on. Stay safe!

Nyrryl Cadiz

@randarrington that 2nd one is 100% a scam. First they want your characters, then they want an illustration? they want 2D or 3D but they only require Photoshop literacy? It’s also weird that they require 1 year experince but did not ask for a link to your portfolio. That website address too! they can’t even make a convincing scam

As for the first one, world’s first wearable magazine? How? What even is that?

I tell ya. These scams are getting more stupid as time goes on.

randarrington

Thank you very much everyone for the feedback. I can't for the life of me figure out what these people get out of all this....or why they're crazy enough to target artists....it's just weird all around.

Mia Clarke

@randarrington I think, and I might be wrong, that by getting an artist to create art they tie them to the scam more efficiently. If you spend time creating something that you're proud of and that you've incorporated in your dreams, I think that makes you less likely to pull back even when the red flags start flapping. So normally, if someone you don't know asks for your bank details, or asks you to return a surplus on some accidentally too large cheque, you wouldn't do it. But if you want to believe that the person asking you to send money their way is going to help your art in any way, you might chose to ignore the red flags and send money anyway. I think ths is why the commission scams are so effective...

There is also a reason why the letters are misspelled and unprofessional, but it's not because the scammers don't know how to spell. It's to weed out the least gullable people at an early stage, so that the next part of the funnel gets people in it who have displayed a willingness and a tendency to overlook red flags, which, from a pure business perspective, is a very good way to up their conversion rate and spend most of their time on people more likely to fall for the entire scam. It's cynical and disgusting all the way down.