The NFT crypto world promises artists to mint/sell their work via blockchains and make $thousands even though their original work is more or less worthless, or worth a couple of $hundred if they're lucky!
Now my wife, Dutch artist, Liesbeth Johnson-Kampen, just happens to be a quite remarkable, talented artist, and me believing solidly in her art decided to be sucked in by so-called art lovers on social media, X-Twitter to be exact, promising to mint Liesbeth's work via Open Sea (largest NFT platform on the planet) for $thousands with an enormous return on their investments and for Liesbeth too!
STOP!!!
Gas Fees are required to sell NFT's on NFT platforms, OK, no problem, that I understood, then I was asked via Email to pay the gas fees up front. Okay, I did that via my Metamask wallet (wallets are needed to sell or buy cryptocurrency on NFT platforms) via a so-called exchange bank, no problem. Then I was asked to pay an Open Sea commission fee,10%, and a so-called excrew fee all via Emails from 'Open Sea', which I attempted to do only to be blocked by our Dutch exchange bank, Bitvavo, who discovered a ' DODGY SCAMMER' fiddling with the transaction,WOW!
To exacerbate the whole SCAM, I was then asked to pay the USA/IRS (inland revenue) fee of 1.5 ETH (roughly $2000 bucks) up front again and via Email! So I contacted my second exchange institute called, Binance, after protesting to these two buyers about up-front payments, I asked Binance and Open Sea official support desks to research all transactions only to find out if the whole thing was a double-whammy SCAM!
JACKPOT!!!
FAKE Open Sea Emails, FAKE NFT wallet addresses provided by both buyers, FAKE Binance Emails, FAKE Twitter names and accounts were discovered and even a FAKE OPEN SEA CONTRACT which we signed!
Okay, we got away without too much collateral damage, the $s that were transferred to the FAKE NFT wallets, bye, bye, no chance of recovery, who cares, they can have it and drown in it! But please, to all amazing artists out there, please be aware these damn SCAMMERS change their colours like chameleons, continually creating FAKE Emails that resemble the original ones, amazing! They continually offer innocent artists $thousands to buy or mint their NFT's; don't fall for it, it is all a fucking SCAM!!!
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!
I fell for the shit and got out without too many losses, but I am sure Liesbeth Johnson-Kampen's fellow fab artists have lost a lot more being sucked in by these fucking PLAGUE SCAMMERS!
How beautiful it could have been if only these f'ing SCAMMERS were genuine and the world could enjoy such fabulous NFT art like below!!
But there is still HOPE! Fab painting by Liesbeth Johnson-Kampen called HOPE!
Les, I am so sorry about your experience. The internet has opened the world for criminal advancement. I believe in face to face commerce, cash in hand and maybe, only one middleman fee. Success in the future for Liesbeth and you.