Scam?

[Statius]

Never mind.

She's not Russian, fyi. I'm not saying more
1. They don't want anyone to or to even talk about it really
2. They've never said where they are from, but it ain't Russia.

 

[desperado1089]

Either way, I'm done talking about it and her. She decided to be a bitch so I'm pretending she doesn't exist.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Do you go to a haberdasher for your tinfoil hat, or do you buy off the rack?

WTAF is that comment about? You clearly know nothing about @KittyOfSteele as a person or their situation. Maybe think before you post next time.

 

[EmilyMiller]

Either way, I'm done talking about it and her. She decided to be a bitch so I'm pretending she doesn't exist.

You attack them and it’s somehow their fault? Yeah - feels kinda familiar.

Instead of making excuses and saying an apology won’t mean anything, maybe just apologize.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

She's not Russian, fyi. I'm not saying more
1. They don't want anyone to or to even talk about it really
2. They've never said where they are from, but it ain't Russia.

The main reason I don't mention my country still (a couple of you figured it out) even if we've got the head of the government off, is because I've been pursued two years ago only because of bad luck: I had to perform civic duty, and the hundreds of thousands of people who did that either got arrested, or went into hiding. To this day I still don't know if I'm being looked for or not, but I'm not waving my flag all over the place because the two stories I mentioned were not the only things I've done explicitly to criticize my government. I said it before: my social commentary was born during a time where I worked with political caricatures, and I still have unpublished cartoons that only got harsher as the years went on. And, as I said previously, porn is illegal here, though it operates in a similar way as the ban on pornography in Russia: the law isn't really enforced, but it has been used for extortion and sextortion by law enforcement, and it was used to close down a gay porn studio at the capital, and to raid a spa in the central part of the country; both were considered attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, which shows the hypocrisy of the government. I also have a friend who was taken into custody for being a cam girl, and that's mainly the reason I stopped.

The reason I never revealed my country before two years ago is because I've faced this before. I'm sick of people online (mostly my own!) gaslighting me into supporting ideas that ruined my country over the past quarter century because of my identity, I've been called a supporter of the opposite ideals, which also ruined my country when my grandparents were of my age. I've been called a liar because I speak English, as if no one is able to learn a second, third, or fourth language at school. I've even been called a liar because, again, I go against the popular beliefs.

I am a libertine. I don't fit in any category, and I don't want to. My mind is my own. If anyone falls into American defaultism just because I reject the mere thought of a form of Digital ID Verification on Literotica due to the fact that I KNOW how bad of an idea it is because I AM an actual target of my own tyranny, then I'm sorry, but it is THEIR problem, not mine.

 

[desperado1089]

Am I sorry? Yes.

Is it gonna do any good? Maybe, but long experience has taught me it won't.

Please get back on topic, all.

 

[Statius]

The main reason I don't mention my country still (a couple of you figured it out) even if we've got the head of the government off, is because I've been pursued two years ago only because of bad luck: I had to perform civic duty, and the hundreds of thousands of people who did that either got arrested, or went into hiding. To this day I still don't know if I'm being looked for or not, but I'm not waving my flag all over the place because the two stories I mentioned were not the only things I've done explicitly to criticize my government. I said it before: my social commentary was born during a time where I worked with political caricatures, and I still have unpublished cartoons that only got harsher as the years went on. And, as I said previously, porn is illegal here, though it operates in a similar way as the ban on pornography in Russia: the law isn't really enforced, but it has been used for extortion and sextortion by law enforcement, and it was used to close down a gay porn studio at the capital, and to raid a spa in the central part of the country; both were considered attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, which shows the hypocrisy of the government. I also have a friend who was taken into custody for being a cam girl, and that's mainly the reason I stopped.

The reason I never revealed my country before two years ago is because I've faced this before. I'm sick of people online (mostly my own!) gaslighting me into supporting ideas that ruined my country over the past quarter century because of my identity, I've been called a supporter of the opposite ideals, which also ruined my country when my grandparents were of my age. I've been called a liar because I speak English, as if no one is able to learn a second, third, or fourth language at school. I've even been called a liar because, again, I go against the popular beliefs.

I am a libertine. I don't fit in any category, and I don't want to. My mind is my own. If anyone falls into American defaultism just because I reject the mere thought of a form of Digital ID Verification on Literotica due to the fact that I KNOW how bad of an idea it is because I AM an actual target of my own tyranny, then I'm sorry, but it is THEIR problem, not mine.

There is definitely nothing for you to explain or justify; pretty sure we all here in the AH support you and (hopefully) all agree on the verification thing. And I certainly do not wish to bring you trouble or speak of things you do not wish to speak about, I sincerely hope that came through in my post.

Peace.

PostScript: waiting on that anthro spider girl story

 

[onehitwanda]

The main reason I don't mention my country still (a couple of you figured it out) even if we've got the head of the government off, is because I've been pursued two years ago only because of bad luck: I had to perform civic duty, and the hundreds of thousands of people who did that either got arrested, or went into hiding. To this day I still don't know if I'm being looked for or not, but I'm not waving my flag all over the place because the two stories I mentioned were not the only things I've done explicitly to criticize my government. I said it before: my social commentary was born during a time where I worked with political caricatures, and I still have unpublished cartoons that only got harsher as the years went on. And, as I said previously, porn is illegal here, though it operates in a similar way as the ban on pornography in Russia: the law isn't really enforced, but it has been used for extortion and sextortion by law enforcement, and it was used to close down a gay porn studio at the capital, and to raid a spa in the central part of the country; both were considered attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, which shows the hypocrisy of the government. I also have a friend who was taken into custody for being a cam girl, and that's mainly the reason I stopped.

The reason I never revealed my country before two years ago is because I've faced this before. I'm sick of people online (mostly my own!) gaslighting me into supporting ideas that ruined my country over the past quarter century because of my identity, I've been called a supporter of the opposite ideals, which also ruined my country when my grandparents were of my age. I've been called a liar because I speak English, as if no one is able to learn a second, third, or fourth language at school. I've even been called a liar because, again, I go against the popular beliefs.

I am a libertine. I don't fit in any category, and I don't want to. My mind is my own. If anyone falls into American defaultism just because I reject the mere thought of a form of Digital ID Verification on Literotica due to the fact that I KNOW how bad of an idea it is because I AM an actual target of my own tyranny, then I'm sorry, but it is THEIR problem, not mine.

I grew up in a right-wing fascist totalitarian state. Luckily I was too young to know that, and the country had changed by the time I was old enough to realise who I was. My parents were liberal - if quietly so, but even so some of the people they knew or interacted with simply disappeared and never came back.

It's difficult to engage with people who haven't lived that way, and it's difficult for them to see the way their own lives are marching towards what you and I (and others here) experienced. They lack the perspective, just like I lack the perspective of what it was like for people of my parents' generation.

I'm glad you exist. I hope the world will change, even if it's very dark out there right now

 

[nice90sguy]

It's difficult to engage with people who haven't lived that way, and it's difficult for them to see the way their own lives are marching towards what you and I (and others here) experienced. They lack the perspective, just like I lack the perspective of what it was like for people of my parents' generation.

Although I was brought up in two liberal countries, my parents were not -- my mother, grandmother and aunt were the sole members of a large family to escape Nazi concentration camps. My mother's photo album has black-framed pictures of her freinds and family members on every page.

It's a duty for me to prevent "catastrophic forgetting" of those times. But I think talking about "wings" when it comes to totalitarianism is a distraction. I won't say more, this is not the politics board.

 

[EmilyMiller]

FWIW, I spoke to a version of the OP. They were perfectly polite and I wasn’t in need of their services. They never asked me to take the discussion elsewhere or for any PII.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

In the last few days I have been approached, via the chat function, by two people expressing interest in turning my stories into comics. The first set alarm bells jingling, the second sounded the klaxon.

Has anybody else had a simiar experience?

That bullshit finally made it's way here? Yeah those are scams. The shit has been a plague on FanFictionNet and ArchiveOfOurOwn for like two years now.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

lol well this is exactly what I’m trying to say here when someone is genuinely working in a proper and professional way scammers often copy their approach and misuse it for the wrong reasons. For example if a real artist reaches out to people in a certain way dishonest individuals might imitate that same method to deceive others.
I’m not saying that I’m the only real one and everyone else is fake there are many genuine people out there but unfortunately when scammers copy their style it can damage their reputation as well. This happens everywhere in every field

My advice is to go about it another way. Coming to folks in these times with rampant scammers is liable to get you cussed out, and there's little to convince you're legit. I know I'd cuss you up and down if you messaged me, because these scammers piss me off.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

No, the one I received is not a spam bot, they sent me a sample of one of my stories and explained the process. Probably the same one a few others mentioned seemed legit.

You know people who aren't just shit posting?

Some are spam bots, some are scammers, who use other folks art, or AI as a portfolio. I've heard people say they fell for it and got AI "art" back, or their money stolen.

The first time I ran across one, he asked to make a comic with one of my fan fics. I was like sure, sounds nice. I thought somebody actually liked my shit. He said he was working on it and had a template, or something. I said cool. He said I had to pay such and such for his work, I told him I'm not paying for something I didn't comission, you asked me if you could, I didn't comission you to draw nothing, I could draw it myself, if I wanted it that bad. We went back and fourth like that, with him essentially trying to gaslight me into thinking I asked for the comic. This was via twitter about something I have on a fanfic site.

 

[Angela_Draws]

My advice is to go about it another way. Coming to folks in these times with rampant scammers is liable to get you cussed out, and there's little to convince you're legit. I know I'd cuss you up and down if you messaged me, because these scammers piss me off.

Mmhm i understand But aside from that how else could i approach it? I always think differently each time so that no scammer can take advantage. Right now, I explain the process to people, and there is no money involved at this stage a scammer wouldn’t even understand this because they don’t know the work so how could they explain it? I make a comic script of their story to show them how I would do it, and only if they’re interested does the work start with their permission nothing is done without consent

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Do you go to a haberdasher for your tinfoil hat, or do you buy off the rack?

You don't seem to realize there are countries that will lock you up for what you write? It's not paranoia. Well it's justfied paranoia. There are countries that ban AO3 due to the porn, and some users use a VPN to bypass filters and hope they don't get caught. Russia and China are two good examples of this. There is so much on here and AO3 that many countries claim is obscene, such as queer themes and sex. Some of these places are starting to ban VPNs. C'mon now, where have you been?

 

[desperado1089]

You don't seem to realize there are countries that will lock you up for what you write? It's not paranoia. Well it's justfied paranoia. There are countries that ban AO3 due to the porn, and some users use a VPN to bypass filters and hope they don't get caught. Russia and China are two good examples of this. There is so much on here and AO3 that many countries claim is obscene, such as queer themes and sex. Some of these places are starting to ban VPNs. C'mon now, where have you been?

I understand that. I apologize for it. I wrongly assumed that the person was American, and I have no good reason for doing so, and I fully admit and own up to that. But apparently the juggernaut has been unleashed and I am only partly able to slow it down for like, less than a second. As I said, this is the internet and people's opinions (especially negative ones) are immutable because they feel that the person on the other side of the screen is never someone they'll have to see IRL so they don't bother to give them a second chance or accept their apology. I have yet to see anything in this instance that proves me wrong.

I would appreciate it if we all stayed on topic and stopped beating the proverbial dead horse. I can only repeat myself so many times before I throw my hands up. But let me do so one more time: I am sorry. I fucked up. And I admit it.

Now can we please move on? Or is this the part of the forums where everyone is a punching bag?

 

[M_K_Babalon]

The main reason I don't mention my country still (a couple of you figured it out) even if we've got the head of the government off, is because I've been pursued two years ago only because of bad luck: I had to perform civic duty, and the hundreds of thousands of people who did that either got arrested, or went into hiding. To this day I still don't know if I'm being looked for or not, but I'm not waving my flag all over the place because the two stories I mentioned were not the only things I've done explicitly to criticize my government. I said it before: my social commentary was born during a time where I worked with political caricatures, and I still have unpublished cartoons that only got harsher as the years went on. And, as I said previously, porn is illegal here, though it operates in a similar way as the ban on pornography in Russia: the law isn't really enforced, but it has been used for extortion and sextortion by law enforcement, and it was used to close down a gay porn studio at the capital, and to raid a spa in the central part of the country; both were considered attacks against the LGBTQ+ community, which shows the hypocrisy of the government. I also have a friend who was taken into custody for being a cam girl, and that's mainly the reason I stopped.

The reason I never revealed my country before two years ago is because I've faced this before. I'm sick of people online (mostly my own!) gaslighting me into supporting ideas that ruined my country over the past quarter century because of my identity, I've been called a supporter of the opposite ideals, which also ruined my country when my grandparents were of my age. I've been called a liar because I speak English, as if no one is able to learn a second, third, or fourth language at school. I've even been called a liar because, again, I go against the popular beliefs.

I am a libertine. I don't fit in any category, and I don't want to. My mind is my own. If anyone falls into American defaultism just because I reject the mere thought of a form of Digital ID Verification on Literotica due to the fact that I KNOW how bad of an idea it is because I AM an actual target of my own tyranny, then I'm sorry, but it is THEIR problem, not mine.

I think I've heard you bring up similar before, and putting certain things on blast on a message board, especially one on the site of evil, somebody could see it, somebody from your country, or somebody else with a vendetta, or pettiness could somehow report you. Trust me, not all americans want that digital ID shit, these government fuckers wanna push. And the only way we win is if the right people push back. If not, they win either way whether we lay down and obey, or abandon the sites and/or the sites they don't like to begin with, or pretend not to, shuts down. The Texas senator, who's probably conservative, does not care that PornHub blocked their state, niether does our liberal senator Andy Beshear gives a shit we're blocked in Kentucky, too

 

[M_K_Babalon]

I understand that. I apologize for it. I wrongly assumed that the person was American, and I have no good reason for doing so, and I fully admit and own up to that. But apparently the juggernaut has been unleashed and I am only partly able to slow it down for like, less than a second. As I said, this is the internet and people's opinions (especially negative ones) are immutable because they feel that the person on the other side of the screen is never someone they'll have to see IRL so they don't bother to give them a second chance or accept their apology. I have yet to see anything in this instance that proves me wrong.

I would appreciate it if we all stayed on topic and stopped beating the proverbial dead horse. I can only repeat myself so many times before I throw my hands up. But let me do so one more time: I am sorry. I fucked up. And I admit it.

Now can we please move on? Or is this the part of the forums where everyone is a punching bag?

I tend to reply as I read a thread, so I didn't see the replies to you. I can assume you were joking and not trying to be malicious, so I'm not taking it to heart.

 

[BeechLeaf]

Mmhm i understand But aside from that how else could i approach it? I always think differently each time so that no scammer can take advantage. Right now, I explain the process to people, and there is no money involved at this stage a scammer wouldn’t even understand this because they don’t know the work so how could they explain it? I make a comic script of their story to show them how I would do it, and only if they’re interested does the work start with their permission nothing is done without consent

I would refer you back to Katie_Mae's post #45 on page 2. She said a lot of things that make clear sense. I do incline to think you're legit (a scammer would have given up rather than arguing back), but you need to be specific about why you liked that one specific story, showing that you genuinely read it and appreciated it and chose it, not 'oh you're such a good writer', which you could say to anyone. And second, be up front about the money, which scammers bring in at a later stage. You slipped in 'paid', but you need to be explicit: 'If you like my free mock-up we could come to an agreement later where you pay me X for the full thing.'

I'm not saying any of this would work better, and probably most people will still read it as a scam, but go back to what Katie_Mae said and think about it.

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Mmhm i understand But aside from that how else could i approach it? I always think differently each time so that no scammer can take advantage. Right now, I explain the process to people, and there is no money involved at this stage a scammer wouldn’t even understand this because they don’t know the work so how could they explain it? I make a comic script of their story to show them how I would do it, and only if they’re interested does the work start with their permission nothing is done without consent

I don't know, I don't sell my art. But given your responses here, and the way you talk, as if english isn't your first language, and you talk the way these art scammers and phone scammers do. I'm just gonna assume you are one. People make fan art all the time, even of folks fanfiction without permission. As much as it sucks to here, commision artist get noticed through exposure, and then folks come to them, and comission work, as far as I know. Either way if you are [doubtedly] legit, or a scammer your defensive nature isn't gonna get you customers or victims.

 

[Angela_Draws]

I don't know, I don't sell my art. But given your responses here, and the way you talk, as if english isn't your first language, and you talk the way these art scammers and phone scammers do. I'm just gonna assume you are one. People make fan art all the time, even of folks fanfiction without permission. As much as it sucks to here, commision artist get noticed through exposure, and then folks come to them, and comission work, as far as I know. Either way if you are [doubtedly] legit, or a scammer your defensive nature isn't gonna get you customers or victims.

Okay no worries its fine let people think whatever they want In your eyes if i am a scammer so be it I’m not forcing anyone to work with me whoever wants to get work done will get it done and whoever just wants to argue here will argue and yeah English is not my first language everyone knows this everyone who knows me knows it You haven’t learned anything new about me XD lol

 

[M_K_Babalon]

Okay no worries its fine let people think whatever they want In your eyes if i am a scammer so be it I’m not forcing anyone to work with me whoever wants to get work done will get it done and whoever just wants to argue here will argue and yeah English is not my first language everyone knows this everyone who knows me knows it You haven’t learned anything new about me XD lol

Those things are true, just like nobody knows you here.

 

[Angela_Draws]

Those things are true, just like nobody knows you here.

Ennnn lol thats your thought a lot of people here know me i just dont want to mention them here. well I don’t care whoever wants to think whatever let them think i give full permission to think what they want say what they want it won’t make any difference to me

 

[MrPixel]

But aside from that how else could i approach it?

By not taking the approach you're taking. Given your dialog here, you've lent enough indication that your offered service is legit, but that doesn't excuse that your use of the private message capability on a number of e-publishing sites violates their "no spam" rule. Call it anything you want, but what you are doing meets the very definition of spamming, unsolicited text messages offering a product for which you expect to be paid. Your "free sample" is known in the trade as "foot in the door," inducing guilt for refusing the service after work was done.

While I'm here... you assume too much about this audience. We're writers, the vast numbers of us publishing electronically on free sites. No money involved. Plus, if we were to pay for you to create illustrated features of our work, where is the market for it? How would we recoup the cost? I dare to suggest you have it backwards. If you, say, request permission to produce such a work from our story, the risk is entirely yours - you probably know the market for this artwork. We don't.

As to your assertions where this site and adult sites writ large should require verifiable online identification - forget it. I have a different take. Sure, the overwrought parents of our society have concerns. However, since you're in the UK, you possibly have stringent laws regulating the gathering, use, and dissemination of personal information. We in the US do not, thanks to legislative manipulation by many, many US-based technology companies. There are numerous bad actors who openly and surreptitiously collect personal information and sell it to pretty much anybody.

Plus, there are the concerns about literary erotica publishers perceived as an adjunct to the online pornography business, a perennial target with shady business practices that is difficult to defend even for legitimate adult consumption. You underestimate the degree of Puritanism that pervades the US, and handing over personal information to an otherwise anonymous provider of adult content? No. Just no.

So, suggestion: if you're truly interested in adapting a story for an illustrated novella, approach it as "I liked [your story] for [reasons], and think it would be a real winner in illustrated form. Can I possibly get your permission to use it? If I manage to sell it [on some medium], would you be interested in receiving [some percentage of gross]?"

 

[M_K_Babalon]

So, suggestion: if you're truly interested in adapting a story for an illustrated novella, approach it as "I liked [your story] for [reasons], and think it would be a real winner in illustrated form. Can I possibly get your permission to use it? If I manage to sell it [on some medium], would you be interested in receiving [some percentage of gross]?"

Which is about how the scammers go about it.