So potentially a new wave of bot DMs - artist accounts who DM you with a variant of "Hi I hope this message finds you well. I want to use your pictures/profile picture as a reference for an artwork project". Had 2, very similar wording. Anyone else seen it? - ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

aptshadow.bsky.social • 27 days ago

So potentially a new wave of bot DMs - artist accounts who DM you with a variant of "Hi I hope this message finds you well. I want to use your pictures/profile picture as a reference for an artwork project". Had 2, very similar wording. Anyone else seen it?

Comments

jesperhaglund.bsky.social•27 days ago

Not exactly, but a definite uptick in accounts who follow me and immediately DMs to ask "how are you?"

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah, haven't had that one in a while but there was a real plague of author accounts doing that a while back, several of which were impersonating real authors not on BSky.

cynde.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yep twice already

pematson.bsky.social•26 days ago

I got one. I asked for details re what photos and what art project, and they sent me a photo I'd posted on Bluesky a few months ago and said they wanted to use me as a muse, and they'd pay me. I hadn't responded to that yet.

aptshadow.bsky.social•26 days ago

It's a bank scam.

josephtafur.bsky.social•26 days ago

I know

akari09.bsky.social•27 days ago

I've gotten a bunch on DeviantArt. I usually reply with why should the client pay you to recreate my work when they could just pay me 🤷‍♀️
They don't like that answer lol

funart1.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, I got one of those.

They always make me realize I would be bad at crime because I simply can not figure out the scam. LOL

amyraehill.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, got one yesterday

princejvstin.com•27 days ago

I know of someone who got it, yeah.

nezza.net•27 days ago

I had it as a hidden reply tagged as spam on a couple of photo posts.

jrheisler.bsky.social•27 days ago

Turn off DMs, never think of it again

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have them follower-only. It is useful to be able to chat to bona fide people.

kakavian.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, had this on Insta a few times too

dreaitch.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes: I got quite a few when I first joined, but blocked them all and haven’t gotten many since. Wonder whether it’s an attempt to get permissions for material to train AIs?

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

According to https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1ccb9wj/instagram_artist_scam/ it's a money scam. Ironically AI art theft actually makes us more leery of this sort of contact at the moment, I think :)

dreaitch.bsky.social•27 days ago

Weird!

I can’t quite understand how most of these scams make enough money to bother with, but I guess they must?

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Sometimes they're angling for bank details or access. But I have seen some crazily complex and specific scams for relatively small sums.

dreaitch.bsky.social•27 days ago

Right? It just seems like so much work. Maybe whoever is behind it makes enough at scale?

askquestionsfirst.bsky.social•27 days ago

A lot of this stuff can be automated. And if they're in India, it doesn't take much American dollars to make it worth it

tomsbrown.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yup.

theriverjohn.bsky.social•27 days ago

I got one on Instagram! It was a nice ego boost until I discovered the scam

jdwillhite.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah, I got one of those last week. It's just a scammer looking for another moron to fleece.

reconnectsreiki.bsky.social•27 days ago

yes, seen it openly in other artists' replies

hailseitan.bsky.social•27 days ago

Sounds like some Open AI attempts to get you to sign away your shit.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

I can't think for a moment why they'd bother to ask, rather than take, in that case. I was assuming there was some manner of financial fake payment scam involved as well, but you may be right.

hailseitan.bsky.social•27 days ago

There might still be some legal loopholes they're afraid of... and you have a level of reach they might fear, for now.

sinalana.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah, no, that's nothing to do with openAI. Asking permission has never been their MO & makes no legal sense anyway, and I guarantee you they couldn't care less if 500,000 people gave permission - that's a drop in the ocean of what they already have.

mzedkr.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, it's ultimately a fake payment scam.

josephtafur.bsky.social•26 days ago

Yes

jdpopham.bsky.social•27 days ago

No, but my look is so generic I often seem familiar to people on first meeting and am just as often forgotten by those I've met before.

And I'm not even English.

lucyfarleyartworks.bsky.social•27 days ago

What’s the scam? Try to steal your artwork?

programmerlily.bsky.social•27 days ago

They usually want you to put money up to cover costs

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1ccb9wj/instagram_artist_scam/ This looks to be it. It's a money thing, not even about art.

jen1.bsky.social•27 days ago

Y. I followed an account that looked legit but then they dm'd me with that nonsense.

jen1.bsky.social•27 days ago

It looked like a variant of a scam where they offer to pay you so they either need your bank info or are going to overpay then demand a refund. Auto block.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

That would make sense. A shrewd move to target the notoriously wealthy artist set...

programmerlily.bsky.social•27 days ago

I've had this happen to me three separate times only let them get very far once

anangryopossum.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yeah its at least a year old

briansconverse.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have my DMs turned off. Tired of bots.

midniteflounder.bsky.social•27 days ago

sounds like AI feeding

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Apparently a money scam, according to sources. As others have pointed out, AI doesn't ask permission.

midniteflounder.bsky.social•27 days ago

true that, thanks for the warning.

teawhilewriting.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have seen this from writers too. I had one with a mid-list writer's name dm me "Hi, how are you doing" immediately after I followed back and then liked the last 10 of my posts so these bots can be harder and harder to tell!

jenreadsrainbow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yep. I ignored it.

1david123.bsky.social•27 days ago

So the request for my nude was not legitimate?

shellyp.bsky.social•27 days ago

Not that one but a bunch of others & it's getting annoying

jacobclifton.com•27 days ago

I did & I googled "artist scam Reddit" & immediately got my answer

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Ah - yes, I see it. Thanks.

kenofseattle.bsky.social•27 days ago

My DMs are off for a reason. Always off.

wipjenni.bsky.social•27 days ago

Not in DMs, but seeing more bots in the past 24 hours than the past week and a half.

pat0615.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes I blocked immediately. I don't have any interesting pics.

peterrayallison.bsky.social•27 days ago

Interesting and thanks for sharing - I am writing an article about the ethical issues of Al.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

The fake author plague we had a month ago was definitely AI. I engaged with a few and it was this weird meandering conversation that never really had a point. Wanted to collaborate with me, then asked me what sort of thing I wrote. Never quite incoherent but very wrong vibe from the start.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have also heard that a lot of the accounts impersonating real authors were trying to offer authorial services - presumably critiques et al.

peterrayallison.bsky.social•27 days ago

There seems to be a constantly evolving partnership between AI and social media, which has had some distasteful results.

Not sure anyone has fallen for the scams yet...

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

I suspect that aspiring writers being offered mentoring by what they think is a published author will have handed over significant sums. I remember how desperate I was back in the day. Enough that I almost ended up going Vanity/

nilsvisser.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, I got those and they left me wondering if I had become insane, no point whatsoever, or else standard Indie interview questions that felt really fake.

scribeofhades.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yep. Any further questioning by me has been met by ghosting. I think they are trying to get something resembling permission to use your images for AI. "Reference" is the sinister word here.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

It’s a money scam apparently.

tvt1999.bsky.social•27 days ago

That's fucked up

ladyboater.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yes, I had one but not in DM, on one of my posts

aretezayin.bsky.social•27 days ago

100% I haven't gotten it here because I'm a nobody but on my DeviantArt account I get that like at least once or twice every few days. It isn't even subtle. I don't really understand their endgame. Typically it was crypto scam shit to what end? Are they expecting me to give them money? For what?

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

There was some suggestion of remuneration/credit so there might be some sort of money scam - it seems elaborate for that, but I've seen some mad complicated scams for relatively small sums of money. There are ways of making payments then cancelling that can screw you over through the banking system.

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Or it may genuinely be AI scraping trying to manufacture consent, though since when did they even bother.

aretezayin.bsky.social•27 days ago

Yea... this is just the chats, which are a fraction of them. The DM ones I just instant delete. I just gave up trying to respond to any messages similar. If it's someone who was actually interested it would at least reference the piece they liked.

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aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Holy crap. Honestly suggest you report either messages or accounts as bots/scammers. BSky team seem to be reasonably proactive in banning.

aretezayin.bsky.social•27 days ago

Just to be clear that's my DeviantArt chats. If only I could be that popular. Internet notability is weird and often platform specific until you reach a level of celebrity that people follow you off platform. 45k watchers on DA is pretty respectable. But that's rookie numbers to any TikTok thot.

aretezayin.bsky.social•27 days ago

It just occurred to me the reason I know I have got so many than is shown here is that admins must have caught them and removed the account. Just goes to show how much still got through then!

angellozan.live•27 days ago

Happens a lot to my artist friends.

thefilmcanary.bsky.social•27 days ago

Spotted a couple turning up in other threads, reported them immediately.

joabaldwin.com•27 days ago

Common scam, but I have gotten real ones of these from people who just wanted to use some of my photos for sketching references, no scam involved. Of course, those didn't include any mention of payment or anything else—once you see that, block.

ktmulvaney.bsky.social•27 days ago

With the additional creepy “you’re such a beauty” shit the bots somehow know to send only to women…

aptshadow.bsky.social•27 days ago

Ugh.

scottmsinger-art.bsky.social•27 days ago

Never invite the vampire into your house

mzedkr.bsky.social•27 days ago

It's a commonly known scam. In the r/Scams subreddit they refer to it as the "muse" scam. Block and ignore.

simonearth.bsky.social•27 days ago

"an artwork project" lol

p5ych.bsky.social•27 days ago

I got one of these, I asked for details and they immediately sent me two variations on the same message.

rainstitcher.bsky.social•27 days ago

I have experienced that as well. Not sure what the angle is but there's definitely one there.