chameleonsynthesis

[chameleonsynthesis]

Spin this wheel first and then this wheel second to generate the title of a YA fantasy novel!

(If the second wheel lands on an option ending with a plus sign, spin it again)

Share what you got!

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From a corporate annual report for CONDEC, the conglomerate owner of Unimation, the world’s first company dedicated to manufacturing industrial robots, July 31, 1969. Via @salem_elzway

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Commission scams: A guide on how to avoid them and find legit artists

Hello! I am writing this guide in order to hopefully help people spot scammers and art thieves, to teach people how to deal with them and to give people ways to actually get real artists for commission work.

For those who do not know, there is a recurring, extremely widespread type of scam where someone will advertise their commissions using stolen artwork, or (sometimes) traced or AI-generated pictures. This started (as far as I know) on Twitter, but it is currently in all sorts of social media (I have found them in Twitter, Instagram, Bluesky and Tumblr) and also on Discord servers, often large Discord servers requiring no invites or that are easy to find through Discord advertisement places.

These do obviously hurt both, the people seeking to buy a commission (who will either get their money stolen, or given a product that is not of the quality that was advertised), and the artists whose work is being stolen, who are not getting the work themselves. It is important for people to learn how to identify these people, and to quickly take action when possible. This post is kind of lengthy, so please press the Keep reading button below for the full guide! (And please do share this post around if possible- This is a very common scam and I have met far too many people who have fallen to it or have got their art stolen due to it, including friends and myself.)

So, how do they work? (in Social media)

In my experience, a lot of these scammers either run multiple accounts or are part of a larger scheme, operating in organized groups that follow similar tactics. They will very often use automated means to advertise en masse. Those in social media will make accounts that post some example artwork, often with a myriad of tags, in styles that do not match (see first example, featuring my stolen art :'')). They very rarely post anything that isn't stolen artwork, or have any actual real following they interact with properly. They will then very often spam heavily through replies (such as it happens in Twitter), posting hundreds of really similar messages in a short period of time. In the second example, you can see an account from one of these scammers that is using automated posts to garner attention, which are shared by similar accounts (notice the same exact wording between the first and third post). The third example (in the Replies tab) shows how one of this accounts replies "Hi" to every single message they get.

They will often seek posts from people who are searching for commissions, answering them (often with a "I do commissions, DM me") or other variants of that. (They often only share their "art" on DMs to not be caught stealing by the original authors.) You can see an example of that on the first screenshot below. On Twitter, Instagram and pretty much any place where you can DM people, they may also come to your DMs, often starting with a "Hello" or something so you answer to them, and then they will suddenly share their commission information (as seen in the second picture).

In any case, they rarely have publicly available commission sheets, and will only disclose their prices on DMs. They may share more stolen artwork in there. From there on, they will often speak in fairly broken English, and try to lead you to commission them. They will haggle the prices if they can- But they tend to be fairly steep, with them going up to $300 a fullbody, which tends to be unusual in people without a fairly established following or popularity.

They will often give you a payment method that does not allow for refunds- Such as sending the money to "Friends and Family" in Paypal. This is actually illegal for commercial work, so if you get an artist telling you to pay them through such a method, please do be incredibly wary: Professionals will use methods that do have an option for refunds.

2. How do they work? (on Discord)

On Discord, they will often enter in servers where there may be a place for them to advertise, or servers available through Disboard and other Discord-community searchable sites. Then, they will often not interact at all with the community itself, but they will jump to advertising channels and post about "seeking for work". I have found out that scammers operating on Discord do only very rarely also have socials, so look out for that. Do reverse searches if you can. Legit artists don't tend to join Discords solely to advertise, so look up "from: [name]" on Discord and check how they have interacted in the server, if they have done that in any way. See the first and second example for an example on how they behave. First example has art from @ydteus (in the second message, the dragonborn's source is unknown.) Second example is from one of these accounts who entered on a Streamers' Discord. Streamers and VTubers are very popular targets for these scammers. Third example (with art from absent_lambeth on instagram, and unknown for the second picture) shows another important point, which I'll explain below.

Many of these scammers do not have solid commission sheets showing examples and prices for them. The third one even mentions "it is under construction", fully knowing a commission sheet is expected. Not every professional artist has them, but most do. It is often expected that people who do commissions will have some sort of Terms of Service at the very least, even if they do not have a commission sheet.

3. What do they do?

They scam you. You may never get any art from them. You may get traced art, or art that is not of the quality they advertised, because the art they used for promotion wasn't theirs on the first place. Or you may get an AI-generated picture, too. In either way: You will find yourself with +$200 less in your pocket and no way to seek a refund. So, it's very important you know how to spot them BEFORE they scam you. I have known people who have lost their money

4. How do I actually spot them?

Simply put, they do not act like normal artists would. Let's make a handy list of suspicious behaviours to look for, though.

Most people who draw commissions won't directly DM you unprompted to ask you to pay them for work. If you get such a DM- Report as spam and block.

Most of them don't act like bots, either. If you're on Twitter or similar pages, seek for extremely repetitive posts, hundreds of Replies in their Replies tab that are copypasted or very similar. If you see that, report as spam and block.

Reverse search is sadly very unreliable nowadays, but it does not hurt to try. A lot of them will modify the picture so it doesn't show in reverse search, but try it- And seek if it links to a different account with a different name.

As an ESL, I hate to say this, but the grand majority of them have really broken English, so look out for that. Not every person with broken English is a scammer, but it is something common amidst them. You will notice they fail to communicate general information. Try to ask them for Terms of Service, for example: They will probably be unable to provide you anything (if they do even understand you.)

You will rarely find them on your own unless you frequent specific tags, such as "commission" or "openforcommission". Or even using completely unrelated tags in their posts. I found one of them using a tag about someone's death to cop violence on their anime art. These people mostly only interact with their fellow scammers, but not with artists you'd find through other means.

As mentioned above, they won't provide you a payment method that allows for refunds the grand majority of the time. If someone tells you to send them money "as friends and family" in Paypal, or through something life Ko-fi's donations (although this one is rare), do not pay them. This is a general advice: Do not use payment methods that do not allow refunds for people you don't know.

Ask them for a commission sheet, a webpage, their Terms of Service and other things. Professionals should be able to provide at least one of these, usually.

5. What do I do if I find out they have stolen art/if my art has been stolen?

If you have found stolen art, let the original artist known ASAP if you can find them. Ask for help from friends if you cannot find them.

If you're the artist, DMCA claim. Every page has it, it is required for them to have it. If you search "dmca form (and the website's name)", it should show up. Bsky only has it in mail form right now, but it's there. A DMCA claim is a Copyright claim, and as long as you can show that you posted your picture somewhere before they did, you can do it. The form may seem scary, but it is not all that much. They will ask for your legal full name, address, a mail + a telephone, the url of the post stealing your art, an url to where you posted it first, and to sign/agree to some terms. DMCA claims tend to be processed swiftly (in about a day) because websites can get in trouble if they allow for copyrighted content to be stolen. And you actually do have rights to any picture you have created without needing to trademark it or anything.

You may also want to ask your friends to help you report the account and/or posts. Often, reporting it for spam will give you the best results. DMCA claims will take down the offending posts, but sadly, reports in most major places are rarely taken seriously, but they may limit an accounts' reach or auto-flag it as spam in DMs, so it is still a fairly effortless option to follow. DO still DMCA claim them though.

6. Where do I actually find real people to commission?

Your best bet is through other real people. Let me explain some good methods for this.

Do you have friends who are artists? Ask them if they have commissions open, or if they know other people who take them. Artists almost always know other artists, and they can quickly find you someone you can trust.

Did a friend of yours get a commission? Ask them who was it from if you like the style, and they may be able to get you a link to their social media!

Do you follow artists for any sort of content you're interested in? (General art, fanart/fandom stuff, people you look up to, etc). You can check their work first and see if they have commissions, or if they share art from other people, and then check those.

Scammers really don't partake in fandoms or have art-related posts go viral (some get some follower-begging bait going viral, but that's it). Chances are that, if you found a cool art in your dashboard or timeline, it is from a real artist.

I think places such as VGen need verification for artists and have ratings. I am not personally experienced with it, but you may want to check that out.

You can always ask people to double check with you if you found someone but are doubtful about them being legit. If you are part of any community, do ask there! If you have artist friends, tell them! A lot of artists are acquittanced with the scam issue.

I have seen people do lists of artists available for commissions in places such as bsky, too. These can be an option, but always do verify that the people doing the list in the first place do seem like an actual person.

Ending notes

This is a very long post, but I really wanted it to be very thorough. I would greatly appreciate if you could share it around, as it is a very widespread issue that not many know how to identify. If you do find out scammers in Discords, please DM the servers' admins and link them to this post so they can get banned, in order to prevent scamming and art theft.

If you have any question or you need someone to help you verify an artist being legit or a scammer, my DMs are open for that too. I have talked about this a bunch in other places and I am fairly experienced with these cases, and I would be very happy to be able to lend a hand and find you an artist, if you do need the help. Thank you for reading!

[chameleonsynthesis]

Feels like the digital equivalent of cold reading. Throw out vague generic bullshit and let the audience fill it in for you.

Only now thanks to massive data scraping the shit can be incredibly specific instead of nebulously vague.

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Mantoida maya (the Little Yukatan Mantis) babies are excellent ant mimics and I love them so much. There were so many out today, on a central Florida wander with Bugfriend. An'tis 🥹

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Different Art Commission Scams

Since more people might be curious about this, I'm gonna put it all in a post instead of replying as a comment. The art commission discord I'm in explains several scams linked to a commission in some way.

=> In short, the goal is usually either: private data, phishing, free art, or selling art as NFT.

You can find screenshots of these scams in action in the Art Commission server (too many images to upload here). I'm copying the explanation directly:

Fake paypal scam / Phishing via Invoice link

These scammers will message people asking for a commission, specifically for a commission of their daughter/son/pet for 500$. After successfully baiting their victim, they will ask for paypal email just to send a fake invoice that has a phishing link attached to it. Usually the email will be put in "Spam" section.

Digital check scam / Personal Info Scam

These scammers will message people for a commission but when asked for payment will ask to pay with a digital check. They will proceed asking for confidential information, such as name, surname and bank information.

"Actually, I am a… scammer" / Fake artist scam (?)

These scammers message people out of the blue using small talk phrases, such as "Hi!" "hey how are you?" or "hi, can i ask you something?". After exchanging a couple of messages with a user they waste no time and send this kind of message: "Actually I am a digital artist and I am looking for commissions, I can do 3D Models, Digital Art, Paintings, Banners, Graphic Design,... [the list goes on and on] ... lmk if you are interested so I can share my portfolio?"

"I want you to draw XYZ.."/ False Payment Screenshot

These scammer approach you with the lure of false hope that they'll commission you and accept any rate you offer them. They'll ask for your email and try to pay you via friends-and-family and send you a false screenshot that they've sent the money. If you receive an e-mail from Paypal informing you've received payment, please watch more closely as it's not from the official Paypal e-mail.

NFT Scam / Enquiry via Art Station / "Is this piece for sale?"

These are scammers who will email or message artists looking to buy an already existing artwork from their gallery. The artworks these scammers receive are forwarded/sold to NFT projects. These are not legitimate buyers but rather huge scam businesses. It is best not to interact with such messages, especially from unknown users even if you are doing it as a joke. Your information will be marked and they will keep flooding your DMs/email box. We advice everyone to just block these accounts and move on with their day. These scams usually happen on social media, like Twitter/X and Art Station.

Art Theft / Personal Info Scam

Anyone who gives away too much personal info unwarranted is likely a scammer looking to get personal info or art out of you for NFTs/AI/posters/etc. - similar to the ‘draw my child/pet’ (not my child/pet) scam where scammers bomb artists with photos and don't pay. To state the obvious, watch out for strangers online and don't doxx yourself by accident.

"Commission of my [family/pet/etc]" / Alternative Payment & Phishin scam

These scammers will DM you asking for commission information/ask for the commission straight away. They will specify that they are willing to spend the whole budget on just one commission of their relative/close person/pet. Usually the budget exceeds your own prices to easily manipulate people into agreeing to this request. However, they don't need the art, as they will ask you to sign up for their alternative payment method. The link is either a phishing link or an actual website that is hosted by these scammers to get a hold of your personal information information. This scam is more common for Instagram, Facebook and Twitter/X but Discord is no stranger to these scammers either.

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Melting Lamps by kumbhglass

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@onenicebugperday

Stag Beetle Backpack • KruKruStudio

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Ndea

(nauclea xanthoxylon)

Also known as golfball apple

If you remember the African red peach (nauclea latifolia), the ndea is one of its siblings. We all know how different siblings can be and fruits are no exception to that, because whereas the African red peach loves the dry heat of the savannah, the ndea prefers things a little more wet and swampy. African red peach is considered the more flavourful of the two but the ndea is still considered valuable for its fruit. Tasting somewhat like an apple paired with the texture of a pear, the fruits are about the size of a peach and contain numerous seeds even smaller than those of a strawberry. The plant often bears fruit within four to five years and they're often found in orchards. It is practically unknown outside of its native range and only sold at local markets.

🍑 Reblog to share a fun fruit and to increase sample size! Check out even more interesting fruits here or in the list of all polled fruits. 🍑

[chameleonsynthesis]

decentralize and clean up your life!!!

use overdrive, libby, hoopla, cloudlibrary, and kanopy instead of amazon and audible.

use firefox instead of chrome or opera (both are made with chromium, which blocks functionality for ad-blockers. firefox isn't based on chromium).

use mega or proton drive instead of google drive.

get rid of bloatware

use libreoffice instead of microsoft office suite

use vetted sites on r/FREEMEDIAHECKYEAH for free movies, books, games, etc.

use trakt or letterboxd instead of imdb.

use storygraph instead of goodreads.

use darkpatterns to find mobile game with no ads or microtransactions

use ground news to read unbiased news and find blind spots in news stories.

use mediahuman or cobalt to download music, or support your favorite artists directly through bandcamp

make youtube bearable by using mtube, newpipe, or the unhook extension on chrome, firefox, or microsoft edge

use search for a cause or ecosia to support the environment instead of google

use thriftbooks to buy new or used books (they also have manga, textbooks, home goods, CDs, DVDs, and blurays)

use flashpoint to play archived online flash games

find books, movies, games, etc. on the internet archive! for starters, here's a bunch of David Attenborough documentaries and all of the Animorphs books

burn your music onto cds

use pdf24 (available online or as a desktop app) instead of adobe

use unroll.me to clean your email inboxes

use thunderbird, mailfence, countermail, edison mail, tuta, or proton mail instead of gmail

remove bloatware on windows PC, macOS, and iOS X

remove bloatware on samsung X

use pixelfed instead of instagram or meta

use NCH suite for free software like a file converter, image editor, video editors, pdf editor, etc.

feel free to add more alternatives, resources or advice in the reblogs or replies, and i'll add them to the main post <3

last updated: march 18th 2025

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Ever since Mario introduced Peach to video games, she's been hooked ever since😌 In fact, more times than not, it's Peach who will insist on a video game date night where the two will play with or against each other for hours into the night❤️🩷

Here's the reference that inspired this piece🤭🤭

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Pinkglow Pineapple

(ananas comosus 'rosé')

Not to be confused with ham

If you're tired of the same old boring yellow pineapples, the Del Monte company has the solution for you; pinkglow pineapples, grown in south-central Costa Rica. These pineapples have been genetically engineered to 'produce lower levels of the enzymes in conventional pineapples that convert the pink pigment lycopene to the yellow pigment beta carotene' meaning that the pineapples stay pink. Lycopene is also what gives some other fruits and vegetables, like watermelons and tomatoes, their pink or red colour. Why they decided to do this? Beats me! The only information I can find about what led them to this discovery is that it was a happy accident, after which they pursued the pink pineapple.

They're supposedly less sour and more juicy than regular pineapples, with the added benefit of the tingly feeling that you often get eating a pineapple being absent. It took them sixteen years to perfect the 'Jewel of the Jungle', with the first ones commercially available in 2020. They ship the pineapples (which are only available in the US and Canada) crownless, under the guise of sustainability claiming they replant the crowns. I've seen regular pineapples being sold crownless in supermarkets too, recently, so I'll leave up to you to decide whether that really is about sustainability. Considering I won't be able to get my hands on one I can't say whether it's worth it, but I'm honestly fine sticking to 'regular' pineapples, looks aren't everything.

🍍 Reblog to share a fun fruit and to increase sample size! Check out even more interesting fruits here or in the list of all polled fruits. 🍍

[chameleonsynthesis]

LINK: tinyurl.com/oldgaySF

I'd like to share with y'all a project I've poured my heart and soul into over the last couple of years: a database cataloguing every single older queer science fiction book I've managed to track down, consisting of just over 200 titles with LGBT characters/themes & by LGBT authors, spanning over a century (1880-2000) 🚀

The database can be filtered by representation, subgenre, whether the book is currently in print, and more; additionally, it includes my own ratings & brief thoughts on the ones i have read, if anyone needs a suggestion on places to start! (or feel free to shoot me an ask for a more personalized recommendation)

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I had a dream where Windows Update rebooted my computer and when it came back it was just a black screen with a Copilot button in the center.

No taskbar, no Start button, no icons. Just Copilot.

I clicked Copilot and it typed out, "Welcome to Windows! What do you want to do today?"

I typed, "open tumblr" and it crashed.