Ugh.
One of the downsides of running a business which is advertised online is that periodically someone will try to take advantage of you. Which sucks, but, you know, it comes with the territory. If you pay attention and have some limits/standards, you can avoid getting burned.
But it's still disappointing.
Who wakes up and decides to impersonate a deaf person (they also claimed to be in the ICU elsewhere) just to try to rip someone off?
Anyway, two things to take from this:
- If you find or sell work online, be careful. If something seems off or weird, trust your gut and ask lots of questions. In this case, the person didn't seem to really be reading my texts, and of course the actual scam, wanting me to funnel money for them. (For anyone who hasn't seen this before: they want to send a check or credit card payment which takes a few days to clear, but you have to send someone a money order immediately. By the time their payment comes back as fraudulent, your cash is gone.)
- If you are one of my clients who found me online, without the benefit of a friend's referral, thank you so much for your trust. I'm very aware that hiring a photographer is always a huge act of trust (that they will carry through with their promises, that their product will be of the promised quality). Giving that trust online is an even bigger leap of faith. It means the world to me, and nothing is more important to me than delivering on that trust.
I won't say something like "this ruins my faith in people", because it doesn't. Almost everyone who reaches out to me is not only who they claim to be, but wonderful people that are a pleasure to work with.
Y'all are great.