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Firstly, you should stop sending anyone who approaches you money. They are all most certainly scammers, not actual artists. Once you've already proven yourself to be a viable mark, these scammers will continue to approach you. It may even be that it'a all the same organization or the same person behind it all. Stop sending these people money. -
Howdy! Welcome to our first post in the Scampedia. This is a relatively simple scam that involves the scammer using a legitimate artist's icon and a name that's very similar to trick you into sending them payment for an auction. In this case, they did not reply to me in my second to the last bid, but to a casual comment I made on the adopt on the same page. Thankfully, FurAffinity has clear indicators when the owner of the submission is commenting via the "OP" tag. So does DeviantArt Meanwhile, since the scammer has made a brand new account on FA, they have the "new account" tag. Unfortunately, this scam is also being carried out on ToyHouse and possibly other sites. These may not have the same indicators, so be vigilant before sending money. Click on the profile to check of it's the artist's. Know your artist. Does their auction indicate they only take one type of payment, but you're being asked to send to another kind? Such as the artist is Russian and accepts Boosty or Hipolink, but you're suddenly being asked to send to Paypal? Russian artists can't use Paypal. What can you do to fight back both as an artist or a client? On FurAffinity you can keep new accounts from being able to reply to you or comment on your submissions. Under "Global Site Settings" At the time of writing this, neither ToyHouse nor DeviantArt have ways of blocking new members from contacting you. However, on ToyHouse you can see a user's name change history by visiting their username stats page: https://toyhou.se/(USERNAMEHERE)/stats/usernames If someone is trying to run the scam using the same account, then they will have a lot of very different username changes logged here. If you want to be sure the person who is messaging you is the same person running the auction, you can click on the "Report" button to see their unique user ID. In this case, my UIN is "47055". That will never change. If the UIN of the person who is hosting the auction doesn't match the person who is asking for money, then it's someone else! What else can you do? Always report the scammer to the site they're attempting to scam on. Report the fraud to Paypal directly. They can't scam if they don't have a Paypal account. Login to your Paypal account Scroll all the way down to "Contact" Scroll down to "Message Us" Leave a screenshot and a written report on the user. Paypal will automatically censor any emails or links you put into the chat, but they can still see them. Paypal will then file a report on the user: Thank you to Noahasai for granting me permission to leave his name uncensored for the sake of this entry. He's a wonderful artist, so please give him some love on FA. https://www.furaffinity.net/user/noahasai
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Howdy! Artists Beware is seeking to bring new members onto our team. Only users who are 18+ are eligible to apply as our staff may view NSFW material. Before we start here is the Moderator Code of Conduct. What we need: All moderators must use the moderator discord. This is non negotiable. There is both a desktop and a mobile version. We have to be able to reliably get a hold of you. Availability in the US Timezones. All moderators work in pairs or more, so we need someone who can communicate with the group at large when we're discussing posts. You must be able to handle disagreements politely and courteously. There will be instances where decisions about a beware will be split between your fellow moderators. In that case a vote will be held. You must be able to be comfortable being wrong or having been mistaken. It's ok if you are, but we expect mods to handle these moments maturely and gracefully. You must be able to handle harassment and disagreement from users professionally. We will not tolerate "clap backs" or aggressive behavior. However, we do not expect you to respond to aggressive users indefinitely. We allow mods to leave aggressive users "on read". Users who cross the line via threats or harassment will be banned. Estimated working hours varies. It can be a few minutes worth of work per day, or sometimes a few hours per week. It's entirely dependent on queue load. Potential moderators do not have to field user questions or moderate comments if they don't want to. We are looking for queue moderators primarily. Queue moderators will still have to deliver Revision or Rejection notices. You must be able to keep the contents of the queue and any PMs you receive confidential. Failure to do so will result in your immediate removal from the team. Some notes: Given how the site's notification structure is set up, you will receive a lot of emails. Every submission and comment is emailed to all staff. Most of us have AB only emails for this purpose. Previous moderation experience isn't required, but it is helpful. We will walk you through how to use the site's moderation system. What to Expect: Individuals who are chosen will be interviewed, and then will enter in a training period with the other moderators via Discord. During this period, if there's more than one of you, we will ask that work be limited to the times a senior member is online. Once the training period is over, then you are free to work in any pair or more at any time. Please fill out this form, and the applications will be open until May 15th, 2024. To apply comment to this thread. Your replies will be screened, thus invisible to everyone but current staff. Length in Artists Beware: (How long have you been a member, including Livejournal) Hours of Availability: (The hours you will best be able to do queue work. Make sure and denote what time zone.) Previous Experience: (Have you moderated before?) Other Items to Know: (Are you a commission artist? Fursuit maker? Fluent in another language besides English?) Best way to contact you?: (site PM, discord, email, etc.)
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client Beware: Amtrask / BlenheimSpaniel / AmethystRomano
James commented on Starful's record in Client Bewares
Fantastic news!! -
Changed Resolved to Yes Changed New Leaf to No
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Good news! Do you consider this resolved?
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The absolute audacity of this artist to claim you're not being patient when you were out of Paypal's refund window. If you're that hard up emotionally, then refund. That's it. It isn't that I'm not sympathetic. I've been there myself. Our previous owner was my best friend, and there was a time I couldn't do anything after she passed. I ended up refunding my queue. Your clients aren't free loans nor charities. This artist is swiftly ending up on our frequent flyer list, and the fact that you're not the only person they're asking for loans for rides from is worrying.
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Changed Resolved to Yes
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James changed their profile photo
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Changed New Leaf to Yes
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Howdy! You're welcome to leave a comment on the post at any time. And also we've started a New Leaf program in which we will mark your bewares with the "New Leaf" tag if you've gone more than a year without a submission against you. We just ask that you contact one of us administrators with a list of your bewares so we can apply the New Leaf tag. Also when contacting us, please let us know if you want us to boost on our socmeds that you've earned your New Leaf status.
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So it can be tough given the nature of Boosty. Filing a chargeback will get your account closed and doesn't guarantee that you will get your money back. You can, however, get a refund from the artist but it would have to be supplied voluntarily. You would have to convert your boosty account to a creator account, and then they can send you your money back. Unfortunately, that doesn't solve the issue of them simply not seeing your messages. One final option would be the messaging feature on Boosty. Some artists have it on. Some have it off. It's located on the profile page for the artist. You can also comment on any posts that they have provided they have a public post that you can leave a comment on. Boosty emails comments, so unless they're also not checking their email, they shouldn't miss that.
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Has your message on FA been read? In your outbox it will have a gold envelope if the message has been unread.
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HOWDY EVERYONE, we're back! We are both a little premature and late all at once. Sadly, due to real life circumstances we weren't able to complete everything we set out to do before relaunch, but we did complete a lot of it. First and foremost, we're welcoming two new members to our staff: @MonicaVix and @AndorDrakon! They're strictly queue staff members, so please don't send them DMs. Second, thanks to the concentrated efforts of @MonicaVix, we are happy to announce that the archiving of the Livejournal Community is finally completed and tagged. - Posts that did not adhere to our current standards were NOT brought over, but they are archived in the Livejournal and over on a mirror at Dreamwidth. - If you have an update to your post, please fill out a comment on said post or fill out a Help Ticket to contact a member of staff. Third, we will be retiring the Advertisement system. We are grateful for those who chose to support the site in this manner, but due to lack of overall use, we will no longer be accepting advertisements. Instead, we are looking to use these spots to uplift services and members of our community that we feel could use advertisement space. Instead we will be opening up a merchandise shop where users can nab stickers, t-shirts, and other such things designed by myself or other members of our staff. All proceeds will go towards site operation and maintenance. This was one of the items I was unable to get to due to time constraints, but it will be introduced at a later date. Fourth, you may notice a few extra databases in our menu! Introducing: ✨ Scampedia ✨ Because individual scammers change names often, we rejected posts concerning them. Not only would trying to keep up with these individuals be impossible, but more like them will fill the spot of every individual who was "taken down". So, in order to combat this, we've decided to establish a database that instead shows scam examples submitted by you, our readers. Please keep an eye out on our social media accounts for when we put out calls for examples of scams. Site Help and Ticket System Two new items on the menu are the "site help" and "ticket system". Site Help is a collection of articles that will aid users in how to use the site, contact staff, and how to conduct themselves while here. Meanwhile, as the third party software we are using is retiring the Support Ticket system, we've decided to enact our own. Currently it cannot accept posts from those without an account, but our DMs on twitter and my site email james @ (url) are still open to guests to email us. New Leaf Program Do you have a beware on you? Or is there a beware on someone you know? Have you or they resolved their posts and been out of trouble since? Introducing our New Leaf program. Bewares by those who have been out of trouble for a year or more are welcome to send us a message to our ticket system indicating as such. All of their posts will be granted the New Leaf tag, showing that they have turned over a New Leaf. Admission into the program will be handled on the honor system, and you can lose your New Leaf designation if we receive a new beware on you. This both encourages clients to come forward and bewarees to resolve their posts. To qualify for the new program you must: - Have all pending bewares marked as resolved. - Must have had no reports in one year. And lastly, you may have noticed that we have a new site theme! Wow!! Updates to it will continue as I have time, but the majority of the updates to the layout is completed. If you have any suggestions, comments, concerns, feel free to leave them below.
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Rules for Participation and Commenting The following rules are for all users to follow. Failure to do so will result in action taken against your account. The goal for these rules are to keep Artists Beware as a constructive and a valuable resource. Bewarees should feel welcome to comment. Commenting Rules 1. Comments are to remain professional, constructive, and on topic. We are not a drama site. No name calling. No unnecessary hostility. Non-business related issues are off-topic. (We don't want to hear about anyone's personal drama.) Transphobic, Homophobic, and Racist language will result in an immediate ban. Well wishes such as "I hope this gets resolved, OP!" are ok, but please see the "dogpiling" section on using the like feature. 2. No excessive personal information or bewares in the comments. This includes, but is not limited to: Financial situations. What someone is spending their money on. Personal disputes. Attempts to guilt trip artists / clients due to personal matters. 3. Dogpiling will be handled at moderator discretion. Do not wait for moderators to steer the comments back in the right direction. If you see many comments sharing the same sentiment as you, please use the like feature instead. 4. Do not pressure submitters over how they want their beware resolved. If a user expresses that they do not want X or Y in relation to their transaction please do not force the issue. 5. Do not imply a beware does not belong here or that the submitter should delete it. Queue mods moderate submissions. If it's in Artists Beware then it belongs here. Users do not have the ability to edit or delete their own posts. 6. Questions or comments in bewares directed at staff will not be approved. We understand that users may feel the need to justify a comment if a moderator responds to it. Moderator responses serve to keep the comments focused and in compliance with Item 1. Thus, responses or comments meant for staff will not be approved. Please PM one (1) staff members with questions, comments or concerns. 7. No self advertisement in bewares or advice posts. 8. Do not backseat moderate. Queue mods manually approve comments, so do not chastise other commenters. If a post needs the tags updated, feel free to PM us! 9. Moderators will not approve an alternate alias unless it's 100% confirmed. No: "similar styles". No: "types the same". Yes: Same email address. Yes: Same art. Yes: Same characters. Yes: Same full name. 10. Users who spam/ harass Bewaree's with links to their bewares will be banned. We do not condone harassment. Let the original poster (OP) contact the bewaree in question. First offense will receive an official warning. Second offense is an official permaban. When Contacting/ Responding to Moderators 1. Please choose one (1) moderator to contact with questions. It's ok if you don't understand the instructions we've sent or need clarification! We will be happy to help you. Questions should be only directed to our PMs or Twitter DMs. Do not contact moderators on their personal accounts. 2. When responding to a Rejection Notice rude or abusive behavior will not be tolerated. For Revision Notices: We will give you clear instructions on what to fix. The items in your rejection notice are not up for debate. We will reject your post again if you do not make changes. For Rejection Notices: We will outline the conditions in which you may resubmit. If there are none, then your rejection is final. Zero Tolerance Policy: You will receive a permaban if you curse at, threaten, or harass our moderators onsite and/or on their personal offsite accounts. 3. The Report Content feature is for inappropriate content that requires immediate moderator attention. Don't respond to Rejection Notices, Revision Notices, or Mod Comments via Report Content. Report Content will be disabled by an admin if this feature is abused. 4. Bewares are not deleted. If you have proof the contents of a beware on you is false, hand over the information to one (1) Administrator. There are two options: Tag reversal, or complete deletion. See "So I've Been Posted to Artists Beware, Now What?" Legal threats will result in your account being banned from this site, all social media sites, and all communication ceasing. We will expect communication only via your legal representative. 5. Moderator action is final. Arguing with us will not reverse the decision. "Mod Shopping" aka contacting a different moderator will not reverse a decision. Actions Taken Against Accounts 1. Polite reminders are not official action against accounts. If your comment was not posted, then you aren't in trouble! If a moderator responds to you with a "reminder" you aren't in trouble. Moderators keep the comments focused, clean, and streamlined. 2. Official warning notices come from the built-in warning system. They are visible on your Profile Page. After three (3) official warnings you will be permabanned. 3. Temporary bans vs. permanent bans. Temporary bans are issued at moderator discretion if a user is becoming too heated. They are not permanent strikes unless indicated otherwise. We need you to take a breather! A permaban is when a user reaches three (3) permanent warnings. Very poor behavior will result in an instant permaban. Permabans from Livejournal have not carried over. You are welcome to comment/ post again with a clean slate. 4. Contact one (1) Administrator to Deactivate your account. Deactivation does not remove your content. If you wish for your email and username to be scrubbed, let the administrator know. Moderator Code of Conduct Violations All moderators are to adhere to the Moderator Code of Conduct. In the event a moderator is violating these rules please contact one (1) Administrator.
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Artists Beware Moderator Code of Conduct The Duties of a Moderator All moderators listed on the Staff Page fall into one or more of these categories. Below are the ranks for moderators and what their duties are: Queue Mods - Review incoming bewares for adherence to the Submission Guidelines. Queue mods may opt out of being Comment Mods. Comment Mods - Watch the comments and forums for inappropriate activity. Review incoming comments on bewares. Comment mods always double as Queue Mods. Administrators - Work both comments and the queue. Handle back end and technical work on the website. Are responsible for direction of all other moderator categories. Official owners of Artists Beware. Special Moderator Categories The following moderators are special ranks and do not field general user questions: Forum Mods - Assigned to a specific forum, or may be a general forum mod. They do not have access to the queue, nor have the ability to moderate comments on bewares. Web Admin - For technical issues only. You may contact an Administrator to forward any problems to the Web Admin, or you may contact @Alex Wright. Please note our web admin also moderates comments when necessary. Other Staff Categories Helper - Paid individuals hired to help Artists Beware temporarily. These individuals are not moderators. If you see a Helper working, they cannot help you with site issues. Once their tasks are complete, they will be reverted back to their original status. Artists Beware opens for Helpers on our Twitter account at a rate of $16.50 USD/hr. We hire in 3 hour shifts. Code of Conduct Artists Beware has volunteer staff. Due to the nature of the community we ask that all moderators adhere to the following Code of Conduct. 1. Moderators are to remain professional and polite even when users are not. We will not tolerate name-calling, cursing, or repeated snarking. 2. What happens in the queue and direct user communication stays private. Always. We are privy to medical, personal, and private social information sometimes. Leaking of this information to the public will result in an immediate dismissal. 3. Moderators are to be in good business standing with the community. Moderators are not exempt from bewares. We understand that life happens, and a singular beware is not an automatic dismissal. Yet, if poor business behavior becomes a consistent issue we will ask the moderator step down. 4. Moderators should be able to handle disagreements with fellow moderators gracefully. Sometimes a beware will not be cut and dry, and will need extensive discussion. Mods who are out-voted must handle themselves with grace. 5. Moderators are expected to be unbiased when moderating the queue. There will be a time when the bewaree in queue is a friend or someone close. A beware will never be rejected on the basis that the bewaree is a friend, family member, or partner. If a moderator finds they can't be unbiased, they may sit out discussion on the beware without penalty. Moderators may speak their personal opinions on bewares granted they follow Item 1. 6. A moderator's outside behavior should foster trust in the community. Artists Beware submissions can have sensitive information. Our users put a lot of trust into team members. Moderators who hold racist, transphobic, and/ or homophobic views are not a good fit for the team and will be let go.
