A suspected scam ended in a positive spin for a local artist.
Russell Thomas, owner of Birdsong Studio in High River, recently took to social media to share his experience with what appears to be an attempted scam.
It started with a fairly innocuous message requesting a portrait commission.
A person, claiming to be from Edmonton, commissioned a portrait of their German Shepherd and included a picture of the dog.
After a day's work, the painting was finished, but Thomas says things started to seem fishy soon after.
"I did the dog portrait and realized when it came time to talk about payment, that I had fallen into a scam. There are certain red flags that pop up that will tell you 'Oh boy, walk away from this situation as quickly as you can,' and it quickly devolved into that. It was the first time that a scam had been attempted with a commission request, so that was new."
His initial reaction, says Thomas, was to share a laugh with his social media followers and move on.
First commission that turned out to be a scam. The supposed dog owner said they were from #yeg. Maybe true. Probably not. Lesson learned. #highriver #okotoks #yyc #ymm pic.twitter.com/gN8rLukHRv
— Russell Thomas (@rvthomasart) August 24, 2024
That's when he received another message, this time from someone he was already acquainted with.
"I just started laughing to be perfectly honest, it was just absurd. Then I made a post saying 'Looking for the owner of this dog,' kind of tongue-in-cheek. But what happened after that was really quite a positive thing. One of my really great clients from up north saw the painting and she said 'Oh my gosh, that looks exactly like my dog that I had about 20 years ago, and I'd like to buy it.' She did, and we then turned around and donated the sale proceeds to the SPCA in their community. It just seemed like the right thing to do to take a bad thing and turn it into a good thing," says Thomas.
Coincidentally, the person who initially commissioned the painting said their dog's name was Rex, which turned out to also be the name of the dog formerly owned by Thomas' client who offered to buy the portrait.
Another person reached out to buy a print of the painting, and there are plans to donate those proceeds to an SPCA as well.
For Thomas, it was a valuable lesson he's hoping to pass on to other artists and creators.
"It's a lesson learned for me but it's also a warning to other artists because, for whatever reason, we tend to be the target of scam schemes. It happens at least once every couple of weeks, where someone tries to do something, usually via social media. When they don't give you the right information or sometimes their English isn't great, sometimes that's a flag. There are different flags you have to watch for. So, for other artists, be very cautious."
With scam attempts being so common for artists, Thomas says it's good to develop a mindset that allows you to see the silver lining in these situations.
"In my 10 years of being an artist, when something is not so good, if there's a way to turn it into a positive story, take the opportunity to do that. Don't take things so seriously. That's why I laughed when I realized I'd painted something for a scammer because it had never happened before and it was kind of amusing, though frustrating at the same time."
With that said, he does recommend staying wary of particularly outlandish offers.
"Don't get overenthusiastic when you get a private message from Willie Nelson saying he loves your work, because it's probably not Willie Nelson. That has happened, by the way."
Thomas' account of the attempted scam can be read on his website.