Greetings, everyone, BlueUmbra here. I make this journal cause I recently escaped from a scam/fraud that started on Deviantart. I write those lines to share with you my experiences and also to warm you.

It all started by a message of someone contacting me on deviantart comments and chat. They said they reported my account for fraud by mistake and that I should contact a deviantart admin to prove my innocence. They shared a fake message from this so-called deviantart admin, asking them to contact me, explain the situation. Then I should contact the deviantart admin on discord and tell them a report number, to identify the mistake.

That was the first red flag. Naively, I thought it wouldn't take too much time, so I made the mistake of copying the discord admin name and asked for a friend request. I got fished at this moment.

The so-called deviantart admin was writing in a strange way. Instead of typing in the chat normally, he was copy/pasting text with colors and style effect, with letters in all capital and colored, everything in a blue background box. That was the second red flag. As if this guy got all the texts ready for the scam.

Next, the person I was chatting with asked me, in order to prove my identity, to send to them a copy of my last bank activities. They said they are not asking for personal information (yet) and that I can blur all names and personal infos on the documents. That was the third red flag. To prove they were real and a good person, they even sent me a portfolio link, showing me the account of a so-called admin person, working also on deviantart.

After I sent them the redacted documents, they asked me to use my phone, activate discord and share my phone screen. That was the fourth red flag. I was starting to feel uneasy, like a danger is coming.

Finally, they asked me to go to my bank app, open it and do some operations. That was the 5th red flag. I started to panic, my heart was racing and an alarm was yelling in my head.

The final red flag was a message in discord, telling me, in all capital, that thanks to their "system", they found a fraud activity on my bank account and that I needed to do a temporary transfert. This is the moment that I stopped everything. I stopped the phone screen share, and I blocked this deviantart admin on discord.

I called my bank and asked them to quickly block my current bank card. I told them everything that happened and the bank operator told me that since I didn't give the scammers any code, nor any transfert, everything should be ok. But you can never be so sure. Better safe than sorry.

This whole event felt so unreal and the worst part is that at the beginning, it all sounded normal. I am still panting and trying to get my sh*t together to calm down. Be on your guard, always verify everything. If this type of scam/fraud happen to you, contact real admins and deviantart first before doing everything else. It could save your life and your money.

BlueUmbra out.