I NARROWLY AVOIDED BEING SCAMMED—OR DID I?
“Hello, my name is Evan. I’m very impressed by your talent and style, and I’m interested in purchasing a piece of your art. Are you currently selling any of your work?”
This is how it began, with a message on Facebook Messenger. It was the kind of message that got my little artist’s heart pounding with excitement.
I can’t be the only artist in the world who would want to learn more! The offer could be legitimate, right? I got a legitimate offer on Facebook Messenger once, so I know it can happen. And of course I would never give out any personal information unless I was certain it was safe.
I told Evan I have several paintings that are available, and I would send him photos of them.
But he told me he already had three artworks in mind that he had seen on my Instagram page.
He sent me the images of the three he wanted. Only one of them was still in my possession, and I told him so.
It was at this point that he told me he was not interested in the physical art, he wanted to buy digital copies.
I grew even more excited. This meant I wouldn’t have to go to the trouble of packaging and shipping the paintings! Even more exciting, he told me his budget was £1350 per artwork. That’s about $1720 for each image of an piece of art whose original price was less than $1000. Wow!
Was this too good to be true? It was time to consult with my art buddies. I knew my friends in the Tennessee Watercolor Society would have some good advice. I visited the TnWS Facebook page and described the situation. I received so many friendly, cautioning replies, and I learned some more about what was going on:
Joel was a trader in NFTs, or non-fungible tokens.
Not all NFT trades are scams, but many are.
Many of the TnWS members either knew someone who had been scammed, or they had been scammed themselves.
My favorite reply, repeated by several people, was: “Don’t do it, Jan!”
Only one person gave me a somewhat positive reply, and hers was something like: “Your work is so good that this offer may be legit. I would get a lawyer!” Her reply sent my hope-o-meter up for awhile, but I soon decided she was probably just giving me a nice compliment. The members of the Tennessee Watercolor Society are very supportive of other members and their work (which is one reason I love the society).
So did I take all the advice and instantly block Evan?
No. Because I tend to be a little stubborn, I wanted to get some more expert advice. Evan seemed so nice! And he knew how to spell! How could he possibly be a scammer?
So where was the best place to get more expert advice? Reddit, of course!
I found a subreddit called r/NFT. And I posted my question with the title: “Is this nice guy trying to scam me?” I described our interactions and was gratified when I received many thoughtful and explanatory replies. Thank you, astute Reddit geeks!
Here are some of the things I learned from these obliging authorities:
If I have a big enough fanbase, I can digitalize my artworks and try the NFT way myself. A buyer can re-sell the NFT of my work and gain a percentage, and this would raise the value of my art. Apparently I would also receive a percentage every time the NFT was sold.
They said I should not trust Mintgate, which was the site Evan said we would use to mint my art and start the purchasing process.
NFT deals are performed not with dollars, but with crypto! Oh man.
You begin with a “Wallet” in which you put crypto, then use the Wallet to begin your relationship with the ?? site.
You can be scammed when you try to get your money out of your Wallet and discover you have to pay something in order to withdraw it.
Here are some of the trustworthy marketplaces they recommended:
Every person discouraged me from pursuing the deal—except for one jokester who wrote:
“Dude. Yes. It's totally legit. Go for it.”
This made me laugh.
In the end, I decided not to do the deal with Evan. People advised me to block him, but I wanted to end things with a semblance of politeness. My last message to him read: “I have been advised not to do this.”
Then I held my breath. There was a part of me that was hoping he would come up with incontrovertible proof that the deal was legit, and eventually I would become a star in the NFT world.
He simply replied: “Hmmm, by who?”
This was not satisfactory.
But I was still a little pumped about learning how to do these deals on my own. How hard could it be? I began to read about NFTs, NFT marketplaces, cryptocurrency, and how not to get scammed. My reading ate up several hours.
Finally I remembered I would rather put my hours into painting than into a new uncertain project.
Maybe someday I will seriously look into NFTs, but for now I will follow the advice of one of my Reddit advisors, golden_eel_words, who wrote:
“Just step away from it, honestly. There's no money to be made here. NFTs were big a few years ago and there's still a small crowd of people trading them, but the current state of NFTs isn't great. It's a volatile thing where newbies are at high risk of getting scammed. I don't/won't recommend being involved in crypto (and especially not in NFTs) to any of my friends and family because of that, even though I've spent nearly a decade in this world.”
What a nice person.
But why does the title of my post end with: “OR DID I?” That’s because there is still a part of me that insists on thinking: “Maybe it wasn’t a scam after all…” If that is the case: