Hey guys let me tell you about advance fee scams

I hope y'all are familiar with these in this day and age, especially my artists out there, because they're incredibly common.

About half an hour ago I posted a drawing and tagged it #artists on tumblr, and very quickly received this comment.

My scam radar went off immediately, due to the generic blog name and lack of any emotion in the comment, but I decided it might be an entertaining venture so I dmed them. They asked for a drawing "of these", and sent me a random selfie. I got the details and told them it would be $15, and they promptly offered me $300. At this point I know it's a scam, but I play along for funsies and give them my paypal. Shortly, they send me this image for "confirmation" (I blocked out my email)

And they began to insist that I checked my email. I looked in my spam folder and found the following email.

This is fake. This is not a thing. And the "you're to refund the $200.00 back" is the scam. They send vaguely official-looking emails at you to "prove" that they sent you the money, then have you send them $200 (or however much the scam is for). Then, surprise surprise, you're out $200.

I continued to play along for a bit, and in the second email "Paypal" told me that I had to refund the $200 before they could "credit the $300 to my account", along with these lovely threats.

And yeah, it's silly. But it's not silly if you don't know and get scammed. So. Spread, please! And thank you very much to @mlaurel for the opportunity to get these screenshots.

This is a variation on a much older scam that often results in the victim being out money and also out whatever they were selling. It goes something like this:

- victim posts an item for sale on craigslist or w/e

- scammer contacts asking if a check is ok

- scammer then asks if they can write a check for more than the agreed-upon price and for the seller to give them the overage back as cash, often with some excuse about it being an out-of-state bank, they don't have a card and need some cash for something else, or whatever.

- scammer gives check, gets cash and item, and bounces

- guess what the check does, too

ANY kind of structure where you supposedly get money but have to give some of it back to someone should twig your scam radar, frankly.

Reblogging because some people need to refresh their scam radar, or start building theirs. I see far too many people fall for traps, and don't dare say for a second "this will never happen to me" because all it takes is a momentary lapse in judgement.