Drew Maijin Lewis, Imaijin, Maijin The Artist, 5 Signs of Scam, Review Trolls, Fraud Graphic Designers Must Be Prepared for in Business?
I truly love honest my customers and clients! My name is Drew Lewis, aka Maijin the Artist, and I run a freelance graphic designer website maijintheartist.com, and I own a graphic design and brand agency, imaijin. Although, it is common to hear reports of consumers being scammed by the deceptive practices of shady companies, it is almost NEVER reported that consumers engage in scamming businesses via reviews, complaints, and fraudulent activity using several techniques, which is prevalent in the graphic design and art industry. For freelancers and agencies, if you are in business long enough, you will encounter some level of scammers, scam artists, review or complaint trolls, or succumb to criminal-minded fraudsters — and it is unacceptable that graphic designers, concept artists, and illustrators accept this kind of consumer behavior as par for the course. All creatives need to be educated on what to look for and how to look for it when they are trying to make an honest living online/offline as a freelance artist or running an agency business. To be clear, I am not referring to prospective customers or clients, you are employing hard negotiation tactics to get a cheaper price or engaging in reconnaissance to shop for the best deal. This article is intended for scam artists and bad actors who are intentionally looking to defraud and scam your business to steal your work, rip off your services, and scam hard working creatives out of their value.
5 Signs a Customer or Client May be Scamming A Graphic Designer’s Business
Many graphic designers, illustrators, and concept artists have reached out to me through my freelance website at Maijin The Artist, and my Agency website via IMAIJIN, and they’ve all had the nearly identical questions… what are the tell-tale signs that they are being scammed by a client? Or maybe what are the early signs a prospect may be scamming your graphic artist business?
1) Scammers do not want to discuss the business arrangement nor have any telephonic or video conferencing meeting. Most scammers want to keep everything via text message or email at the start of communications. While having text or email messaging is standard practice once the project commences, due to the need to document and record accurate information, it is a red flag for a prospect to do this before the parties are introduced. Every participant in a business deal once to get a feel for the other to ascertain if the business relationship will be beneficial.
2) The most common type of fraud and scam for graphic designer businesses is called “Friendly Fraud.” What is this type of fraud? and why is it considered friendly? Unfortunately this type of scam or fraud is committed by menial consumers, customers, and clients who target businesses to steal product, services, and ultimately the money owed to the graphic designer after they’ve upheld their end of the bargain by delivering all the services or products to them. By my estimation, most consumers are aware of a technical loophole or weak provision in banking policies where the cardholder can file a dispute with their bank and within moments steal their money from the merchant/seller account and make off with the products, services, and value they received during the course of the project, while the merchant/seller must spend weeks collecting evidence they did the work for the client, and thereafter waiting another few months for the bank to decide who wins the dispute. Meanwhile, the customer or client has been using the money they ripped off from the business as a line of temporary credit or loan, while the merchant/seller lost the money, and may never be able to recover it. This is both bank fraud and consumer fraud. It is an easy and unsophisticated form of fraud and meant to “protect” the consumer from bad merchants and sellers, however, many consumers have grossly abused this consumer power, legitimizing stealing from hard-working professionals, and it has resulted in a multi-billion dollar LOSS for businesses across the country… and it really should be reformed by the banking industry in some form.
3) A customer or client may decide to scam or defraud your graphic design business by changing the scope of work in the middle of the project. These scammers may try to coerce the designer to expand the scope of work and blackmail you with threats of defamation, slander, or libel on various review websites to cause you/your company reputational harm. Consumer scams have/are using the review sites as a way to bully or blackmail businesses into doing their bidding even if its outside the terms of contract or service they initially agreed to.
4) Scammers will not want to pay any money upfront before they start the project. Graphic Designers typically showcase their web portfolios and testimonials to educate the prospective customer or client on the skills and capabilities of the designer. Despite this being available, a scammy minded person will claim they still are not sure you can achieve the job, in lieu of all the past evidence showing you could get the job done. The scam is to get free work from the graphic designer and pretend like they dont like the work, then turn around use it anyway. Or some scammers may even pay a small portion of money upfront just to get the basic mockups from you, which I’d argue is the most important part of a project, because it is a representation of your ideas and concepts. Then the scam and fraudulent criminals will take your ideas and give them to an inferior artist or designer to recreate or finish at a fraction of the cost. In other words, they steal the work and steal the money designers are owed.
5) Fraudsters or Scam experts do not want to sign any contractual agreement prior to starting the project. My mother told me when I was in my early teens to never do business or anything business-related without a written contract. If my 12 year old younger self knew to involve signed agreements in all professional engagements? I am certain prospective clients/customers would know that this should be standard practice, unless those prospects do not want to document their promise, which is a tell-tale sign of a potential scammer.
The sheer scale of graphic designers, illustrators, and concept artists I’ve conversed with over the years on Reddit, Pinterest, Quora, Behance, and Dribbble, about how they’ve been scammed or ripped off by fraud customers and scammers is astounding. I’ve heard scary stories about how their clients never intending to pay for the work, made empty promises of “exposure,” breached the terms of their signed agreement, and the list goes on.
Although it is challenging any time you come across any scam, fraud, or negative scammer. All designers should love all our honest clients, because we are honest business owners who chose this creative profession to bring our passion for design to the marketplace and serve our customers to the highest level. Never let a few bad actors and scammers stop your love or your devotion for excellence in this marketplace.
-Drew Maijin Lewis
also known as Maijin The Artist
I run a graphic design and brand illustration agency named IMAIJIN.
