Scamming a photographer

A photographer, you ask? Why not; I mean, plenty of others are scammed everyday, so why not a photographer? Of course, I am being ironic here: a sad irony, helpless in front of what some morons throwing bricks at your existence. Someone’s deliberate attempt to fuck up your life, when life’s hard enough as it is, no matter who you are or how you earn you earn your daily bread.

Short version of it: I got a message on FB’s messenger from someone appearing to be an art dealer or artist. The message was brief: I would like to buy some of your photographs, would you sell? And the message was accompanied by a gathering of 9 of my film photographs, both colour and bw, obviously copied from my website. No introduction, no hello, nothing.

I was initially very surprised, pleasantly at that too; any and every photographer (I guess) would be tingled by such offer. The ever present need for validation would enter in overdrive, which is perfectly understandable. However, being me, I checked the profile: it was empty, bar for two images and a very unclear profile photo. No activity, no conversations, no postings. Looked a poor attempt to someones professional identity.

I decided to go along with the conversation, so I asked what exactly is she wishing to buy, and she said she wants to purchase my 9 photographs as NFT. for the price of US $ 2600 each, paid by in crypto currency. I have heard about this type of scam: the buyer, after initial offer, instructs you to purchase a crypto currency wallet on a website, usually belonging to the buyer. Allegedly, it would appear that you are paying some amount in order to get an account for the payment to be processed into, therefore establish your virtual wallet You upload your NFT’s for sale and wait for the purchase.

One of two things can and will happen: either the sale never take place, and you were scammed by (uselessly) buying the wallet or apparently crypto money were paid into your wallet, but to actually get them you’ll need to purchase a release fee. Of course, once you did that, no one answers anymore and your account is blocked.

At this point, I declined her offer and turned off the conversation, blocking the so called buyer.

There you have it, in a nutshell.