#fanfiction scam

[rjalker]

but yeah psa, the fanfiction scam of people messaging you like "oooh I love your art I was so inspired won't you comission me to make art for it?" has ramped up like x5 over the past month so, like, be suspicious of any over the top reviews you get for fanfiction where the person gushes about how they want to do fanart for you now.

sometimes they don't even mention the fanart, they're just trying to bait you into messagine back and then they'll try to get you to comission thme

it is 100% a scam. I've gotten 3 or 4 oer the past few years.

over the last month alone I've gotten 8 of them. and then I turned off the setting to let people private message me on fanfiction.net to make them stop

most of the accounts doing it are empty accounts, but some of them it seems like the scammers have hacked actual writers who have been inactive for a while, unfortunately.

some of them are even so lazy that they'll literally send you a message saying "I really loved your work in [insert title here] it was so inspiring"

they literally forget to edit their own copy and paste script before sending it.

[ebitchwriting]

So I just got these two DMs through Fanfiction.net, and I've been harassed by pet scams and Humalog scams in the past through Tumblr before and all the scam bells are going off. Are there fanfiction scams going around? Specifically concept artist scams?

I'm honestly more baffled this is through Fanfiction.net than anything, maybe it's because they don't have a "registered users only" lock like Ao3?

[darthnell]

This could be a long shot but. Does anyone on here belong to any ffn communities that also have discord servers? Any fandom. Im wondering if anyone else is also having major issues with scammers/spam accounts (both on FFN and in their discord communities. Like the accounts migrate from ffn pms to discord servers via invite or however). Huge issues for my community rn 😭

[droewyn]

PSA for Fanfic Authors

There's a very common scam going around right now. Not sure if it's hitting Wattpad, but these messages are definitely going around both AO3 and FFN:

I'm gonna talk to AO3, because that's where I live. These are most often guest accounts, but lately people have been getting them from registered users, as well.

You tend to get a paragraph of generic compliments that don't actually reference your fic in any way. Or, if they do, it's extremely broad: "Hey, I love how you portray the relationship between Blorbo and Blorbette!" That could be about literally any fic in the ship tag.

Then you get into the hook. "I'm an artist, and I would love to collaborate with you to bring your work to life!" And, since getting fanart is one of the highest compliments an author can get, you get excited and agree to privately message the person on Discord or Insta.

Then it turns out that they're a commission artist, and they would like you to pay up front for them to create that art they're so excited about. I've seen people report being asked for US $200 - $300 on average. Once you've paid them, one of two things happen: Either they simply ghost you entirely, or you get sent a piece of shitty AI "art".

Real commission artists don't need to coldcall random authors. They generally have a backlog of several months. A real commission artist will also generally ask for partial payment up front, but that's usually a token, basically a deposit. You should expect to see progress drawings, as well; sketches, and drafts, that you should be able to approve before the design is finalized. A real artist will work very closely with you to ensure that you're getting the art that you want.

If you get one of these scams, and it's from a guest user, click the Spam button, and delete the comment. If it's a registered user, report them for violating the TOS (spamming, monetization) and then block.

If you fell for one of these scams, contact your bank. You should be able to put a stop payment on the transaction, and recover your money. You can also contact the cash app (venmo, paypal, etc.). Even if you received AI crap, that is not what you paid for. You were paying for genuine art, and receiving anything else makes it a fraudulent transaction.

Stay safe out there!

[ultraviolet-ink]

An Important Warning:

On November 1, 2024, I received the below comment on one of my fics. I had replied to it, believing it to be in good faith. This person, Leaona Colin, as seen by the Ao3 comment chain and discord profile below, directly messaged me under the guise of discussing my fic, and the conversation was normal for the most part

The conversation started to change into an attempt to strong arm me into commissioning them directly (something that unfortunately does happen through a desperate measure) for an animation project. I had believed, in my naivety, that this was just two artists workshopping ideas until they had mentioned this being a "paid collaboration". Please note that I at NO POINT made any indication of wanting to make a commission or anything of the like. For the full context, I will link our discord conversation in its entirety

At this point, the conversation started to change to the commission, and in my own personal awkwardness/fear of being perceived as rude, I played along because I honestly did not know what to do next. The way that this person has approached me feels like a MUCH bigger red flag than the insane price they came up with. It would be one thing to come into my direct messages and say "hey, I'm an animator and I'm wondering if you'd be interested in commissioning me to draw [scene] as a paid commission", however what I went through was a bait and switch. I had gone into this thinking I would be entering a casual conversation about my fic, about the story, and about my writing process, but that pretense was very quickly dropped after the above polite small talk

Mind you, THIS is the animation that they seem to be requesting between 1800-2200 USD for:

I had debated whether or not I should include the video, but I feel that it is important to bring up due to the insane price and the information that @baratrongirl helped provide me with due to her husband's own experience in this industry (thank you SO much Richard!!)

I have reported the comment to Ao3 and I have reported the profile to Discord itself. This is a warning to fic authors and other fan creators to please, please, PLEASE, be on the lookout and to stay safe. I have also learned of a recent scam in Ao3/FFN comment sections where a wave of commission scammers use stolen or ai art to promote themselves and either make of with the money or send some sort of ai art. There hasn't been any mention of anything for animation, but it is very much possible that the scam is evolving, more info about this can be linked below r/FanFiction: PMs on Fanfiction.net offering me commissioned art r/AO3: Great, the art scammers are now being registered users r/AO3: These comments are starting to be an annoying trend

[memelovescaps]

I've received similar messages on FanFiction, counting on 8 in the last month.

Be aware!

Ao3 writers, beware a new scam going around

This user left this very generic comment that not only promotes paid commissions out of nowhere for no reason (against ao3 ToS), but the instagram they linked back to was unrelated to the person who left this comment. A quick google search led me to the the ao3 reddit which showed that I'm not the only one who received this sort of a comment. You can report this sort of comment to the ao3 team, or otherwise, just delete it.

[sweetiepie08]

Hey I got this comment on one of my fics this morning and it looked pretty sketchy. Anyone know anything about this?

Update: I have reported this as spam, but please keep spreading this to help fellow fanfic authors.

[thenerdyindividual]

Y’all I think another fanfic scam is going around.

[img id: a message from account avawhite inviting me to sign up for ifanfiction.com]

ifanfiction.com is a real site, but when you investigate it, there is a home page stating that their most popular genres are BTS, Werewolf, Billionaire, and Mafia using AI art as cover photos for the genre. It claims that there are 100,000+ stories published with 100 million readers. However if you try to click on any of the genre title cards, it doesn't take you to any actual writing. They also claim to have "professional editors", "fanfic community", and "work respected". The logo they used for fanfic community was a head with AI written inside it which does not inspire confidence.

Going to the authors page, there are a few paragraphs about what the benefits of writing for this site which sound like they were written by AI. They say you can also publish original fiction on that site and they will give you “fixed royalty share and bonuses from the income”. They make sure to say that all fanfic is free on their site, but later claim that users are paying to use the site. The only way to sign up as a writer is to either email the address in the screenshot above, or if you go to author.ifanfiction.com. However upon poking around the author page, there was no TOS. There also does not seem to be a sign up page to be a reader.

I followed the link to their facebook group, and found that there is only one member who is the admin. There are no posts, and the group was not created until December 14, 2023.

I investigated the tumblr that messaged me. This is what their blog page looks like.

As you can see it is blank like a bot page is. I also checked out their likes. There were only two and both were fic collection posts. They follow 8 people, 7 of whom have updated in the last day and the other updated a month ago. So it’s clear that they are active accounts which is likely how they were followed.

All of this seems really sketchy. I make no claims as to what the site is actually attempting to do, but it seems like it’s a combo of email phishing and AI scraping. I would not recommend trusting this site with any of your work, fanfic or original.

[jaegerisim]

ATTENTION TO AO3 WRITERS! IF U RECEIVE THIS MESSAGE OR SIMILAR DO NOT CLICK!!! IT'S PROBABLY A SCAM TO HACK UR DISCORD ACC

You can probably know by how the ACC is deleted, the username and the <<" ">> they used.

REBLOG TO SPREAD!

[16woodsequ]

FFN Spam Alert

I've gotten several spam messages on Fanfiction.net recently and wanted to spread the word. All of these messages followed similar patterns of someone claiming to be an artist, who read my work and is thinking about making art for it. These messages always mention a fic by name, in an attempt to seem more legit.

Examples:

This person actually sent me two messages about my Forest of Apple Trees fic, both worded exactly the same. Here's another from them:

More signs of spam is the person's profile:

The profile only has links to the artist's accounts, no stories, favourites, or other things to indicate this person really uses FFN and really wrote that message.

In all likelihood, this person is using a bot and a script to farm messages to try to get people to go to their profile and follow the links and commission art from them.

This is really annoying because the message seems to be awesome for a few seconds, only to really just be an advertising scheme.

If you get messages like this, do not respond, do not click on their links. You can email support@fanfiction.com and use the subject line [abuse] to report spamming. (I've already reported this person, please don't do it yourself, and don't go to their profile to harass them please.)

If you are an artist who thinks this is a good way to advertise, please stop.

[azu1as]

HI TINN ITS ME PITTY 🙇‍♀️🙇‍♀️

i was wondering if youre still open for prompts… and if u are can you write about pbss somehow tranported to current mount hua, and everyone is confused af and just watches pbss and divine dragon interact (and maybe argue) with each other

PITTY HELLO ♥✨♥✨♥ yes i'm always open to prompts !!! im literally rotating rotmhs in my head 24/7

this first half was actually born from another prompt by mei on discord but I want to build on it, so dumping it here 👍 HAHAHA

»—————————–✄

The Plum Blossom Sword Saint lets out a ragged breath, his vision rapidly fading. His sword falls from his hand and soon after his body follows.

"...Mount Hua..." he mumbles, aware that the only thing left that awaited him was the cold claim of death.

He dies. And in the next second, he blinks up to a clear sky, the dead bodies that surrounded him gone.

%%%

Dawn had barely broken when an incessant banging against Mount Hua's gates and shouting started and broke the tranquil silence, rousing several disciples.

"OPEN UP!" Someone barks out from the other side. "Fuck. Fuck. Shit. Open this gate right now!!"

Un Am frowns at the lack of manners and respect being shown by the source of the shouting. He reaches the gate and pulls it open. It takes Un Am a bit of effort to ensure that his voice sounded cordial, "Hello, we aren't accepting any visitors this ear—"

Un Am cuts himself off as he takes note of the state of the man in front of him. The man's robes and face were crusted with dried blood despite a lack of any visible injury. That is, if one ignore his lack of an arm.

It still didn't explain the amount of blood he had on his body that was free from any wounds and visible scars.

The man's eyes were bloodshot and trembling. Un Am, even from afar, could tell that there was something deeply wrong with this man. He seemed unconscious of the way he emanated a manic aura; there was a charged sort of energy surrounded him that made an instinctive part of Un Am grip his sword handle in response.

The most notable and unexplainable part of the man, however, was the blood-stained plum blossom embroidered on his chest.

"Who...?" Un Am finds himself unable to react to the man's speed and freezes in place as the man grabs him by the lapels of his robe. He pulls Un Am towards himself and grits out,

"What. Happened. To. My Sect."

%%%

Baek Cheon was quickly ushered into the Sect Leader's residence the moment he returned with a few others from their last excursion to Xi'an.

"What's going on?" He asks.

Elder Un Geom, for a lack of a better word, looked harried. His face twists into a grimace. "It's a bit complicated..."

Baek Cheon doesn't know how he should feel about that response.

Surely, it couldn't be too terrible. After all, their sect was still standing and they did leave Chung Myung behind to stay on Mount Hua as he and the other chosen second-class disciples only had to deliver some goods and tokens to their subsect. Their youngest wouldn't let anything dangerous happen on his watch.

Baek Cheon tries to probe more information. "Before you pulled me away, Baek Sang mentioned something about a guest...?"

"We aren't quite sure of the specifics either, I'm afraid. But the man claims to be one of our ancestors from over a hundred years ago."

"An ancestor? Was he able to verify the claims?"

Un Geom nods. "I've never seen someone weild our plum blossom technique with as much power as he did."

If that was the case, then maybe their supposed ancestor could help them develop and improve their sword techniques even further by teaching them more about the skills that have been lost through time.

"Isn't that a good thing then?"

"It should be, but Chung Myung..."

Ah. Hearing those last three trailing words did not promise anything good.

When they finally opened the door to the Sect Leader's residence, they were greeted to the sight of a soulless Hyun Jong slumped against the wall, a freaked-out Yoon Jong who seemed to be torn between jumping into the fray and throwing himself out the window, and—

"WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO BEAT UP OUR ANCESTOR, YOU BRAT?!"

Their ancestor and Chung Myung pause in their positions as they both turned eerily similar pink gazes towards the two new entrants.

Chung Myung had the end of their ancestor's ponytail pulled towards him and scrunched up in his fists. His knee pressed against the older man's chest and neck while his jaw was unhinged as he was clearly attempting to bite the man's single arm.

Their ancestor in turn had his one hand closed around half of Chung Myung's face, trying to push him away. His legs were wrapped around Chung Myung's lower half in an inescapable hold and he seemed to have been gearing up for a headbutt before Baek Cheon and Un Geom interrupted them.

"You want me to call this brat my ancestor?!" Chung Myung shouts out as he renewed his attempts to bite the man by roughly grabbing onto the base of his ponytail.

"I'm one hundred years older than you!" Their ancestor grits out as he unashamedly bites Chung Myung's arm. "You disrespectful descendant! Back in my time—"

"'Back in my time', my ass!"

"You...!"

Off to the side, their current sect leader lets out a pitiful moan of mental pain. Baek Cheon would comfort him if he didn't feel the same amount of psychic damage as he watches his youngest sajil and ancestor continue their childish scuffle, rolling on the floor and uncaringly biting into each other like they were both five-year olds.

Later on, after tempers have cooled and everyone (read: Chung Myung and their ancestor) had managed to settle down into a tenuous truce, Hyun Jong turns a tired, but respectful nod towards the bruised man, "May we know this ancestor's identity?"

"Hm?" Said man absently rubs against the embroidered plum blossom on his new uniform. "Ah, I supposed you would know me as the Plum Blossom Sword Saint."

They would have expressed their shock and surpise, but they get easily distracted by Chung Myung's mocking scoff as he rolls his eyes in response.

[oh-no-its-bird]

I feel like theres been more "wow your fic is sooo cool btw I do commissions and you should totally commission me heres my socials" comments left on fics lately, but maybe that's just in my head

[sunnylighter]

Posting this because I'm mad, but I really want people to stop soliciting me on fanfiction.net. These are just some of the ones I've been getting lately. I have done everything short of blocking all notifications from there entirely, which I don't want to do because some people still there actually still read my stories and give nice reviews. I want to keep interacting with them. I also get the occasional request to beta-read someone's fic, and I enjoy doing that as well.

But recently only 1 in every 10 messages from there were actually from people who like my work and want to talk to me about it. Instead, I keep getting messages from these fuckers and their copy-and-past little sales pitches. Usually, it's in PMs, but the most recent one was in a review of my fic. Considering this particular comment was on chapter 1, I highly doubt they actually read my fic. You can tell from how their messages are so similar and yet despite claiming to have read my fics and that they were great, they fail to mention any details about them. Were the characters portrayed right, if they like a plot twist I put in, a particular moment that was especially sad, or funny, or got them hyped? Nothing. Just, 'Hey, I like your work, buy my shit'.

I'm not even sure if there are real people behind these accounts. The account pages are usually pretty empty aside from linking their profiles on other sites, and maybe a handful of random favorite stories or authors. And all of them were new accounts started in late August of this year. Honestly, I'm pretty sure a lot of them are bots or some kind of scam. I wouldn't be surprised if any 'art' bought off these accounts were just made with AI.

Whatever the case, I don't trust it and really advise against anyone buying from these people. If you want commissions based on your fics, please research and reach out to artists yourself instead of giving money to these annoying snake-oil salesmen.

I love fanart of my fics. I greatly appreciate anyone who chooses to make fanart of my fics, and adore seeing it so, so much. But if I ever decide I want a commission, I will reach out to you, not the other way around. If anyone knows more about why this is happening and how to get them to leave me alone, please let me know.

[darcymariaphoster]

Hey, I don't really use ff.net anymore, but I'm not deleting it or anything like that. Recently, I've gotten these two messages:

And they just feel fishy to me? I was wondering if anyone else has gotten anything like this on ff.net or ao3 and what your take is? Clearly not going to respond to either of these, especially if I'm feeling weird about it. But I'm just being curious.

[thewatcher727]

Warning: Scam messages on FanFiction

Word of warning to anyone on FanFiction. There are a group (or maybe one person with different accounts) trying to get others to pay them for commissions. It's all fake, they are not actual artists.

[dragon-stones]

Been getting some comments on my Fics on ao3 from that art scam that's going around. I almost fell for one, but luckily, I got some buddies on discord that helped me.

I'm getting tired of these comments. I've only gotten a few and deleted them, but it's disrespectful to the authors. We create these Fics for free and writing takes time, a lot of time. Most, if not all, of ao3's authors don't have money to pay for fanwork of their Fics. If an author does have money, their commissioning an artist they TRUST!

I just needed to vent about the situation. Fic writing takes me and others a long time and being asked to pay to have some fanwork done pisses me off.