{"id":21792,"date":"2023-04-19T16:10:14","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T00:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/news-15523\/"},"modified":"2023-04-19T16:10:14","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T00:10:14","slug":"news-15523","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.palada.net\/index.php\/2023\/04\/19\/news-15523\/","title":{"rendered":"Instagram scam promises money in exchange for your image"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re seeing a number of complaints<\/a> on Reddit and elsewhere regarding a scam which flares up every so often. It’s called the “Muse scam”, and targets users of Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Let’s hear from one of the Reddit posters impacted:<\/p>\n

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An artist approached me on Instagram asking if they could use one of my photos for their up and coming project at a legitimate art museum. The profile looked good too. Actual photos of the person messaging me and photos of their work in a well laid out time line as well. I told them they could use my photo but they had insisted I needed to be paid in order to show the museum the proof of my consent. And that my payments were through the museum as well. I was a bit uncomfortable but they assured me everything was safe and even showed me screenshots of other people doing this as well. I thought “what could go wrong?”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

What could go wrong, indeed.<\/p>\n

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Then a third party started messaging me after I had given the artist my phone number and full name. The messages were coming from an email. They quickly pressured me into doing a mobile check deposit and that everything was legit. It all happened so fast. I didn’t even have time to fully think it through but I guess that is exactly what they want. I did the deposit.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

“Luckily” for this person, the payment amount in this example ($100 for art supplies) is not typical for this scam, and significantly lower than usual. The most common approach involves the scammer sending you a check, often in the region of $2,500. This is supposed to be your “payment”. From this, you’re supposed to take something in the region of $500 and forward this money on to the artist for the cost of materials. From another recent Reddit example<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Someone said that they’ll want some muse for an art thing, and so she send me a check of $2500 to pay me $500 with the remaining $2000 sent to her. Is this a scam?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is indeed. At this point, if you pay up then you’re $500 down from your own money. You also have a check pending against your account. After a few weeks, with the scammer long gone, the check will eventually bounce and you’ll absorb the cost of the remaining check money from your own finances.<\/p>\n

Some of the scammers also include attachments with their messages. Some recipients were convinced they’d received some sort of malware and have, in extreme cases, formatted their device<\/a> just to be on the safe side.<\/p>\n

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She sent me an email with an image of a cheque, I stupidly opened the image and 5 seconds later my email closed the image and sent it to my junk folder. I checked windows virus protection and it said threat detected, I tried resolving the treat but the button wasn’t doing anything, so I promptly shut down my computer and unplugged my router.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

This scam is all a spin on the much older fake check scam, covered in detail by the FTC<\/a>. Some of the variations include:<\/p>\n