Beware Of Fake Offers


DJTalyn's avatar
It has come to my attention that more than half of the job offers posted in this forum are fake. By fake I mean that you will submit your work and never hear from that person again. You won't get paid or receive any kind of compensation. There are genuine offers but they are so slim that you have to be very careful. The 3 main signs of a fake are jobs posted from an empty deviantART account, offers that seem too good to be true and mentions of a company or organization that does not exist. Before taking your time to fill an order, make sure you directly contact the person, research any facts or names mentioned and make out a contract. Contacts are key to any transaction where profit or commercial work is a factor. Trust me, I know better than anyone.
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crazycat62's avatar
I found this web site recently: "What is TinEye?

TinEye is the first image search engine on the web to use image identification
technology. Given an image to search for, TinEye tells you where and how
that image appears all over the web--even if it has been modified.

Just as you are familiar with entering text in a regular search engine
such as Google to find web pages that contain that text, TinEye lets
you submit an image to find web pages that contain that image. "

[link]

At least you can maybe see if an image of yours is not where it should be.
ADMINISTARTOR:

Just my two cents but I would suggest posting a warning to potential patrons that working artists here expect down payments. Then, I would warn every working artist to demand some form of down payment. It doesn't need to be much in order to weed out the fake patrons from the serious ones. Trust me, online it doesn't take much at all. This is a problem that I run into all the time. I had to start demanding a down payment and I hated to do it but you know what? I sleep allot better. I did get less work at first, but I got higher quality patrons because of it. Classy folk, you know? So, I suggest warning potential patrons that they will most likely be asked to pay a $10 down payment to whoever wins their work. This will get rid of at least 40% of them. With paypal available to us all it really won't slow things down at all. Another benefit is that it will allow the working artists to feel better. It isn't easy asking for a down payment. Plus it will make us all look better, over sites that don't require down payments. Trust me, it will. It will attract more serious patrons. Anyway, this is nothing that you would have to regulate or enforce, just a note up there with the others would do.

Otherwise, I'm loving this site!

Just my two cents.
Kooshtika's avatar
It's a cutthroat world. I bite. all these teethses is ubersharp. Watermark is useless. faith and posting the name of annyone ripping people off. then we can unite and destroy the fiend, maby.
bdwfh's avatar
a true shame, sort of makes this forum pointless really... i just don't have the time to play games with these people.

i may return when i am in game mode and flush out the liars for a little fun :)
Chance-One's avatar
I just wanna warn every1 about this "job posting"

This is this guy who post a job posting on here, trying to hire artists.

this is the same person who scammed a couple of people on here by claiming he is an artist but his gallery is from a photobucket account. (those who have seen a thread psoted by someone being scammed by the same guy a few weeks back)

heres a link to a screen shot that i took. I circle a couple of the images that I totally remember and theres no room of doubt that this is the same person.

~XenoKex = scam

here the link evereyone

[link]
Chance-One's avatar
the link to his post


[link]
yosh-dewd's avatar
nice warning....but ..coming from a banned account ? O_o
all-sanjo's avatar
to give you an example from the other side, i have now been fucked over twice. a couple of years back i sent a guy a deposit and never received one piece of finished artwork.

Now, i hired someone to do some artwork for me, her name

KitsuneSyraph

I put a posting back in June. she agreed to the price, and i gladly sent her a deposit of 1/3rd the amount to produce the work. Three months later, i have two unfinished sketches and not a single word from her email or deviant art account despite numerous attempts to contact her.

this 'fake' shit works both ways. when you hire someone and they tell you they are 'quick' and you go 3 months without so much as a single finished page, it just sours you on the experience. people making claims for shit they can't deliver.

So now i have to try and email a bunch of people at deviant art so they can ban her account because this girl is taking money and delivering nothing.
NamiMisaki's avatar
Gosh...I think this one atist is trying to trick me. She has shown me the sketch and I paid her. Then I tried messaging her a few times, but no more response from her. She used to have a few deviations up, but not she took it all down..
She hasn't responded to my emails and chats either. Someone please help! >_< I really think she is trying to take my money D: I just don't know what to do right now. Like this forum said, some may not respond ever again.
To me, if an artist wants to make business, they'll do it and actually respond. GAH >_< I am not liking this one bit.
Something you all may want to invest in. [link]

I'm not even an artist but it taught me a lesson.
darkn2ght's avatar
what do you think of this idea: i submit my work but withhold the crucial last 5 pages before the other party pays me for my work:)?
Here's my question. Through google research the mods here knew about a guy named crazypens that has been scamming people here of their money, he's still a member. Well he just scammed me out of $200 from an ad he responded to here on your pages that I posted. Why is he still a member if you guys knew about him?
Because DA doesn’t have a policy that is in reference to scammers. Spamming, yes. Harassment and rudeness, yes. Fraud accounts, yes. Anything that can harm DA data yes. Outside of that, you are on your own. And there is quite too many scammers to keep tabs on with all the FRAUD accounts going on. I’ve lost a lot of money using DA as well as other sites to hire artists and what I’ve learned is that you have to be more responsible. DA is not Ebay or Amazon-and even they are filled with scammers and frauds. Again C.Y.A. and use contracts. Known scammers will have an account anywhere in the internet.

You stated that you Googled the scammers. Good! Always Google. Investigate. Ask for references. Make sure the references are legit, not some okie doke fan that says “She’s good!” You may say “wow all that to commission an artist?” if your money is worth it, then yeah. I’ve learned this the hard way making bad decisions that cost me over a lot of money. So serious screening has made hiring artists a lot easier, so I don’t complain about what DA do or doesn’t do – in that category. Because it combs out the riff raffs. But if you still get shafted- because it happens-you can go to sites where you can post your complaints and get advice and moral support. Like “Artists Beware” in livejournal.

In the end there is always someone going to try to put one over on you. Especially on the net. DA’s primary goal is for Artists to exhibit their work. Job Forums is just, hey whatever. If they removed the thread altogether the DA site wouldn’t hurt much. And people would still go to these artists requesting commissions. So if they don’t feel they have to police scammers there is nothing you can do about it. They’ll warn you on how to avoid scammers, submit links to contracts. They’ll offer advice on what to do if/when you do get scammed. And that’s it.

-So get contracts
-Interview
-Research, Research, RESEARCH.
-Get Good References
-Try Another Site Altogether if You Are Not Satisfied.
-Report Phonies To Appropriate Sites.
jonbalaos's avatar
I have received a commission work from MajinTenshinhan to do a Dragonball Z fan art featuring Tenshinhan versus Piccollo. I haven't finished the piece yet. Do any of you have info of this person or have worked with him back in the past?
heglys's avatar
I get a fake offer.
The name of the guy is Nior Jones.
His email is: dessertcouturelabel@gmail.com
So if this guy request something, refuse. I make a job for him and never received anything.
And watermark is defective...
See the job here: [link]
What you have to do is request 50% of value paid before...
bailey-is-a-robot's avatar
then what's the point of having this section? why are their fake offers?
The point of having this section is to inform and prepare you. What you do with the information is up to you. Why are there fake offers? That's life, not just DA. People are going to try you in life. So read these testimonies and learn what you can from them. What can DA do about them? Apparently nothing or else they would have. Maybe they don't believe its their responsibility, who knows? You'll have to look up their policies on that. In the mean time, you have to take responsiblity in chosing who you do business with. Its a much as a risk as anywhere else. Ebay and Amazon make it their business to try to stop frauds but they still keep coming. Your best bet is CONTRACTS. Contracts, Contracts, Contracts.
bailey-is-a-robot's avatar
Kizziesama's avatar
I suppose I shall post this minor ranting here since it relates to the way things are on the Job Offers forum :aww:

I'm finding more and more titles to be misleading on what it is they're looking for... Meaning I'm seeing more people putting "Professional Logo needed" yet it is followed up by "pay is $30"...
For those that are not aware, a professional logo ordered from a graphic design firm can cost up to $2K :nod: The most I've received for a logo design (read: a single logo drawing) was $700. DO YOUR HOMEWORK! Make sure you know how much the work you're doing is worth; that's one step in preventing getting ripped off, artists! Make sure everything is written out (how you're being paid, how much, and if you can, paypal records of payments). And watermark your work and send low res samples!

As for those hiring, you're not all sleaze. And I see artists ripping employers off :( You keep thorough records as well. Make sure you come up with a contract and you both read through it and agree on it, keep all emails, and PAY IN INSTALLMENTS! Give half up front, and half when completed if you are uncertain of an artists reputation for getting work done.

Also, there are those that say they are a studio or enterprise when it is really just one person that thought of a neat little alias for him/herself :roll: I am a solo artist, I DO NOT call myself "Kizzie Co." or "Studio". If I put something like that on my resume, and handed it in to a large scale company, they could mistake me for part of a whole, and not the whole itself (meaning they could assign me a workload for a studio, under the assumption that saying Co. was literal, and not a snazzy gimmick :no:) DO NOT say you are a company/studio/enterprise unless you really are. That can land you in a bad position.


It is so easy to be on the losing end, but it can be just as easy to avoid the likelihood of being on that end :)
I understand the artist's frustration but this can go both ways.

Obviously this is an art site so it should protect artists. However, there are artists that get paid and don't deliver...

It's sad to see threadsmade to solely protect artists and not the buyers. It's way to bias.
Also you might want to look for a third party witness. I know, A little extreme, but then this is the internet, right? And don't just look in DA. There are other great art sites that even have good/bad references on artists. That can help you as a buyer.