Recently I received a message on Behance that a certain company wants my illustrations. They rebrand an online casino and need 20 illustrations for an interior design project. Everything was perfect: they will pay good money, they want my style.... except one detail - they will pay in crypto. Hmm... Why not I told to myself. 

We started to negotiate. They were happy with everything and wanted immediately sign a contract with me.

I asked if they needed a test illustration. They say only if I need it. When the first illustration was ready they were delighted, no corrections were required.

We signed a contract and I started to work.

In contract they asked me to register in one special web-site for crypto exchange. I made a wallet there and send it to them. They put a half of money there as a prepayment.

I thought they were 95 percent not scammers.

If I would know back then that this 5 percent was important. When I tried to take money from this web-site, they asked me to confirm and put 250 dollars in my wallet.

And I did it...

I had a very bad feeling about it. 

After a few days the web-site asked me to pay 1000 dollars of ensurance... 

Here I understood everything.

I worked for almost two weeks, 100 hours a day, without days off. My hand hurt from drawing. There was a very tight deadline and I was still wondering how I could make it in time.

For this moment 3 illustrations and a few lines are ready. I will put them here, so my work is not completely useless. 

Let this stupid story be a warning for you.

P.S.: Be aware of Thomass Mann in Behance (afterwards he deleted our conversation and his profile from the platform), Laura Grossman in Telegram (black and white profile picture of very sad woman)

Thank you!