It should have been a big red flag that they don't have any public galleries other than Twitter/Bsky and Artstation. They reached out to me on Bsky with the whole 'Please pay me to draw for you' scam (This was before I became aware of that; I fell for their 'I'm poor and need money' story).
Another big red flag is the fact none of 'their' 'art' has any kind of consistency in style - And most of it isn't signed or watermarked.
Next big red flag should have been when they insisted I forward them the money instead of sending me an invoice - I have to see if I paid for 'goods and services' or not, but I'm unlikely to get a refund.
Fourth big red flag was them constantly upping the price on me - They offered to draw it for $30, and I said I'd buy it on my next paycheck. That came, but then they said the $30 was a limited-time deal and they asked for $40. I said whatever and paid that. Then they offered to draw a background, which I thought would be okay - Until they then asked for another $30 to draw it. They showed me examples (that in retrospect were undoubtedly generated) and I figured they looked alright so I paid it too. And most recently they've tried both goading me into buying another picture before the first one is completed, and tried to ask me to pay for shading or something (I forget what, and I don't feel like looking right now lol).
They've been at "I'll have an update for you soon" since mid-December, even after multiple requests for updates since then, so I'm probably just going to cut my losses, show a human artist the picture, and have them draw it legitimately for me. It's a nice pose; just a shame it almost certainly isn't real art.
