▲ 22 r/FanfictionNet
On the subject of scammers.
From what I can tell you, Fictionpress isn't doing anything about the scammers anymore because I got the above message.
That said, let's break down why the message is a scam:
- They sing praises of the fic, but they don't say what, exactly about the fic they liked or, at least, they aren't really specific. And that is if they even reference the title of the fic.
- Related to the aforementioned, their messages tend to be some kind of scripted, often with grammar and spelling that differs (in the images, a little) from their subsequent messages.
- Apparently, they've been reading the scammer lists on the forums, as they don't always mention their discords right away but, however, they will ask for your other socials so they can message you there. Relatedly, this also shows they might not have read your profile because they would have a clue as to what your socials might be if you've listed them on your profile.
- While the name isn't shown here (because I ain't trying to get in trouble with Reddit), I will point out that these scammers are NOT creative with their names, either picking the most "western" sounding names or names that were more consistent with 2000s or 2010s FFN uses, never really in-between.
- Their profiles tend to be blank. Sometimes, they have a PFP but, mostly, they tend to be blank, likely not even a single sentence telling you something about themselves. Now, admittedly, some people are extremely private but it tends to noteworthy if they have a PFP and nothing else. On that related note, when they do have a PFP, that image tends to not to be searchable through visual search, something that indicates the pic is either AI schlop or was stolen from a source has long vanished from the interwebs. On top of this, they tend to be people who've recently joined.
- In terms of their socials, if they actually have any, you search the usernames they've given and nothing comes up or, if it does, it just goes back to their FFN account.
- If you find their art, it's either stolen from someone else, it's actually AI schlop, or both. A potential red flag to this is how their art style might be all over the place, on top of it being titled "Commission" and the information being very minimal. Granted, a lot of artists do have varied styles, a "range" if you will, however, what sets the scammers apart is that most artists, even with variation tend to have some consistencies.
- Prolly should have said this first but these scammers are most likely not bots, considering that, at times, when you call them out on it, they can and do converse with you. On top of this, to even log into FFN or its sister site, Fictionpress, you have do a CAPTCHA.
Hope this helped.
u/Blood_Oleander — 4 days ago