This piece of art cost me 162.5 HIVE by my best calculations. A good two thirds of it is very obviously some other piece of art that's been photoshopped in as a background. It was weeks in negotiation to get it, and even then, it wasn't what I was hoping for. I had hoped that an honest transaction would convince the artist that work was more rewarding than trying to run a con on people.
I was wrong.
As for why I call this particular scam "The Eternal Sponge" - it's because they're always soaking up your money. Aussie humour, dear readers.
How it Works
- Appeal to the mark's mercy and charity with a sob story
- Offer something in exchange [generally art]
- Plea for more money to make the exchange happen
- Add excuses to pleas for more money until the mark runs out of money, patience, or both
My Story
I was contacted by someone who shared the Peakd Discord asking if I could help them. They only needed 10 HIVE to pay for milk for their "daughter". They offered art in gratitude. I hadn't unlocked my Crypto wallet at the time, so I figured some of my funds could do someone else some good. And -hey- why not commission some art? It's a dream of mine to become a sort of fairy godparental to needy folks online and this was a chance to live the dream.
I sent them 100. My mistake.
Now, cool hint about human nature. If someone bails you out of dire straits and then some, there's usually an intense sense of gratitude. Even if it's something along the lines of "OMG you didn't have to send that much," and emojis to match.
Not a peep.
What I got instead was a plea for more HIVE. 5 HIVE to pay for pencils and they would get right on with the art. So they said. Having some experience with arting, I sent them 50 HIVE, and because I didn't know how to check about these things at the time, I sent it twice.
Again, not a word of gratitude nor an alert of honesty. An honest person would have refunded the excess.
Now hang on, you might be saying, that's a total more than you said that piece cost. What's going on? I'll get there, I promise.
At this point, I'd unlocked the chain of transfer that gets me access to my funds and I have a slowly-collapsing bathroom to fix, so I was less than likely to just keep throwing money down a seemingly bottomless pit. So it was more bad timing than anything when the plea came for five more HIVE to cover the cost of scanning it.
Did you catch that fishy odour? I know I did. By now, according to the exchange rates at the time, this individual has not only paid for milk and medication, but also everything they could possibly need to do any kind of art at all, including firkin oil paintings.
I'll be the first to put up my hand for being a suspicious old sod. Given my extensive history with people pulling cons, I think my paranoia is justified. So I said I was willing to wait as long as it took to get the art.
Ergo, the test. I said I needed time to work out if I could afford it on top of my imploding bathroom situation.
Then the conversation turned sour. Not just emotional blackmail, but screencaps of my Peakd wallet and accusations of lies and fraud. Charming. Talk about projecting so much you could run a movie theatre franchise...
They also threatened to destroy the art they had if I didn't pay up. I was not falling for that. I made it clear that they could do that and I would not give even half a shit. I was done.
They added a ticking clock, including when the office closed [telling detail? I dunno] and that they couldn't do anything until the following Monday if time ran out. I gave them the 5 Hive they demanded and crossed my fingers.
Blessed peace for a weekend, but I was sick to hell of this entire deal by then.
Monday comes, and they're asking for more. I told them, in no uncertain terms, that I knew what they were doing, how much they had conned me for, and what it was worth in their local currency if they actually lived there. Put it this way, the only country in which you need four thousand of any denomination to pay for milk is firkin Japan. They told me to look at a different exchange facility and -shocker- it was millions. So not only have I bought milk and medicine, a full-equipped art studio that includes a scanner, but also a new home and car.
The whole, "you gotta screw a lot just to survive" excuse isn't holding much water.
Therefore, my ultimatum - provide what I paid for and learn your lesson... or I tell all and your further chances of marks is lessened by 787 of my followers.
On went the virtual waterworks. Please don't be violent, please don't be mad, I'm just a single parent trying to survive oh no I think I have Covid... yaddah yaddah yaddah.
I made it plain that they would not get one further red cent out of me until I received the art. Further, IF they showed signs of changing their ways, they would get a benevolent recommendation from me.
They still tried to beg for more but my response was "good luck with that" as I emptied my wallet towards Binance for stage one of my complicated-but-secure funds transfer process.
Then they tried to claim their computer had to be wiped and they had nothing to give me. I'm still not giving you anything and your rep is on the line, my sweet poflo. Act or out come my biggest guns - telling a story.
What I wanted - a head-and-shoulders portrait of my Tiefling Monk. I provided the full-body portrait as done by me:
...and an example of the portrait type I wanted:
What I got was this:
And the picture I used at the start of this article. Kind of impressive for a desperate effort and -hey- I initially wanted to help someone in dire straits. Having better art for my D&D games was mere icing on the cake as far as I was concerned.
So I paid an extra 120 Hive as thanks with a slightly acidic message about putting all the costs up front or else look like a scammer. This was a warning.
A warning they did not heed.
Because less than an hour after the transfer went through, I got them begging for another "job". I wasn't going to be strung along like that twice. So once more I begged off because of my own disasters and said I needed time to think about recommending them. Mostly because I was pretty salty at that point.
I did not get time. I got more begging. They needed just a little more to pay the rent [Poflo, you can afford a mansion by now...] and get more medication. I had miscalculated my transfers and all that I had was 1 HIVE. Which I gave with a "This is the end of it" message.
Nope. It had to be at least three HIVE or it couldn't transfer properly [At this point I was within squeaking distance of saying "Well refund it if it isn't any good to you" but I didn't] and could I just send them the value in HBD?
Finally. At last. I put my foot down. No. Absolutely not. This was the last straw and why I started the whole Scams of My Life series to begin with. I figured I might be able to write all of this without dissolving into malevolent destruction by now.
I'm still salty. That much is evident here and now.
The Worst Part of it All
This entire concatenation of woes is entirely plausible. There could be a desperate single parent just trying to make ends meet. They could need to spend literal millions on everything they need [like yikes, how did it get that bad?]. They could need all that medicine and all that milk and all that rent and so forth. I know up close and personal how expensive it is to be poor.
The problem is, I have no way to verify any of it. I mean, beyond looking at their blog and taking a peek into the messages left by other bloggers on here. If there's a lot of angry messages about being scammed, maybe believe that they're going to be a Sponge.
They could be a star-crossed starving artist fighting the slings and arrows of circumstance. They could be sick. They could have all these worries and woes. But having a Sponge make all these claims just sours the waters for any honest person trying their best.
Thanks to this artist, I have lost a lot of faith in the people who need, but I could help. Thanks to this event, I have to be suspicious of anyone else who comes to me with their hat in hand. Thanks to all of this noise, I have to check and make sure that it's not another Sponge looking to soak up everything I have.
I was willing to be charitable.
Not so much any more.
Thanks a bunch. [/sarcam]
[Art by @marshallmustang ]
You were a hell of a lot more patient with them than I would have been.
because I'm so bloody cynical the sob story wouldn't have even gotten past the first sentence as I would have immediately blocked if in a bad mood or just completely ignored them otherwise
Damn I feel like I should review my commission prices, at the time I set them I (very deliberately with method to the madness) made them a little bit high given my skill level (at least compared to other people on dA, actual professional artists charge much, much higher) but now I feel like I'm seriously undercharging XD
I'm used to paying US$400 for book cover commissions, so this was kind of in my ballpark.
I had also hoped to have a teachable moment, but some people refuse to learn 9_9
Sounds like you're used to working with pros; glad you didn't actually break your budget, I was getting worried for a sec (and from a quick skim perhaps bkf was too) XD don't really need additional idiocy when dealing with disasters.
I do hold myself to Pro standards even when Indie Publishing. But yeah, I'm not doing this twice.
Scammers try that all the time. I"m sorry you've been scammed out of so many HIVE coins. :-(
Won't get fooled again.
Your post is reblogged and upvoted by me. It is a good post. Thank you @internutter