Another Scam to watch out for!

[kirsten-mcg]

Hey everyone. I just wanted to let you know about a scam email I just got. I had never seen this one before, so I wanted to share it here. There were a couple oddly phrased sentences in the email, so I did a quick google search, which confirmed it as a scam. I'm going to copy and past the original email, as well as the 2nd email below. Watch out if you get anything similar!

"Good day, My name is Gilbert Barillas , I am an academic event organizer and I'm hearing impaired, i hope you treat me like any of your other customers and my disability doesn't affect our dealings. I got your contact details online, I need the service of an artist or illustrator/cartoonist to work on a project for an upcoming workshop, I'll give the idea of what I need to be illustrated/drawn and you can get back to me with the price to get it done, I'll pay your fees up front if you want. Please get back to me for more details. Warm regards. Gilbert,"

I emailed back, asking for more details on the job, and got this response:

"Thank you for your interest in this project.
These illustrations are to be used for a presentation in a Workshop coming up soon, the title of the workshop is
"PANDEMIC: PRECAUTION AND PREVENTION.
The attendees are students between the ages of 15-17, I require your service to illustrate the under-listed scenarios and please make it horizontal (Landscape) presentation, Cartoon styled, coloured images but plain background.
The illustrations should fit on a standard letter size - (8.5 x 11") and delivered in PDF format and I want exclusive right/perpetuity to the images, also note that these illustrations will be handed out to the participants in a printed form, also want the illustrations to paint the vivid picture of the theme of the workshop.
The delivery date for the submission of the illustrations is 8 weeks.
Below is the outline of the scenarios to illustrate.

"* A group (not more than 7) of young and old people in a queue and social distance.

• A group (not more than 7) of male and female health workers wearing a mask.
• A group (not more than 7) Maintain a safe distance from others (at least 1 metre)
• A group (not more than 7) Washing their hands using soap and water.
• A group (not more than 7) Getting vaccine
• The cemetery with tombstones and a caption that says " Died of Disbelief''
• An elderly woman taking the vaccine sitting on a chair.
• A sick female patient on a hospital bed in a hospital setting.

"My budget for the job is $850 per piece, let me know if that's fine.
If it's not please get back to me with the price quote and what would be your preferred mode of payment? I'm proposing a certified bank draft, a cashier's check or bank certified check considering the amount involved. I look forward to reading from you soon.
Warm regards.
G Barillas. "

I'm going to email him back and tell him that this project goes against my personal values, and I don't want to participate.

Be safe everyone!

[lpetiti]

@kirsten-mcg Interesting that they're using ideas (such as 6ft apart) that haven't been used widely for a while...

Oh man I'd be trolling them. "We should make them 7 ft apart, or 4 ft apart".

I saw an illustrator tell a scammer "no my rate is 10,000 per illustration delivered to my PayPal account and any overage amount I will glady accept as a tip, not send it back to you"

[jenn]

@kirsten-mcg thanks for taking one for the team by writing back to them and sharing the results!

[Melissa_Bailey]

@kirsten-mcg I also got that email a couple of months ago.

Having some experience with the hearing impaired and Deaf community, the fact that they came right out and said they were hearing impaired in the first sentence tipped me off that they were a scammer. That is not something that most hearing impaired or Deaf people would do, as most do not consider themselves disabled.

Yeah ... this is a scam.

Great that you're alerting fellow artists. And also stringing them along so they're not spending that time scamming someone else!

[Nyrryl Cadiz]

@lpetiti lolz. I recently received the same message. Asked for 10k upfront and all they said was "really?"

I need to find a better way to waste their time

[Michael Angelo Go]

@kirsten-mcg

Got the same message weeks ago. The one detail that made me sus was the 'I hope my disability' isn't an issue. Like why would it? We're communicating via email not verbally.

Edit: To provide photo.

[kirsten-mcg]

@lpetiti haha that's hilarious!

[kirsten-mcg]

@Melissa_Bailey That's a good point! I did think it was kind of odd that they mentioned being hearing impaired and specifically asked me not to discriminate against them. Warning bells lol!

[kirsten-mcg]

@Nyrryl-Cadiz Haha good for you! I did that to the last instagram scammer I encountered. "I charge $5000 for portraits."

[kirsten-mcg]

@Michael-Angelo-Go haha yeah, I had the same thought. I'm pretty sure when we're communicating via email they would't even need to mention being hearing impaired lol!