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IMO if the scam angle isn't obvious, it's probably pig butchering.
But if the message specifically says they want to buy something from you, I'd be more inclined to guess that it's some form of refund scam, or maybe a con specifically targeting people with a side hustle.
Pig butchering?
Pretend to make friends with someone after a "wrong number" text, eventually convince them "as a friend" to download a "crypto investing" app which actually just siphons money directly to scammers. John Oliver did a good segment on it.
It's just bots bypassing bot filter. Most platforms now restrict activity of new user accounts to combat spam, so bot farms create new accounts, create some spam posts, wait two-three months until these accounts become unrestricted, then post some political ads en masse.
That surely is a thing on platforms but I don't think that's the case here. I don't think you have new user restrictions on AS, and even if you did you don't need to ask about purchasing to achieve that goal. You might as well just send a short generic message saying how cool my work is and how much you like it and leave it at that. There is clearly a hook in my case scenario prompting the recipient to reply, + ambiguous business, and this in turn increases the risk of someone reporting their account. Why risk it if you don't even need a reply in the first place?
The "RandomUnremarkableName + Number" username format is a clear indicator of the type of person that has very low morals and is quite possibly a scammer or worse. Stay clear of those at any cost.
Unless you want to do crime or hook up. (DM me).
In the 2000s I worked in IT and we hosted a spam filter. Back then people would send out seemingly harmless email, about Jack's golf game or the picnic on Sunday, and their goal was to build up their domain's reputation as a legitimate sender. Then one day they'll send out spam and it'll get through the filter until the spam filter catches on and cuts off that domain.
Pretty much every form of these scams is some kind of advance fee fraud. Two more possible avenues:
It's all preying on someone that thinks they got an easy paycheck for work that they've already done, on a populace of artists that could really use said paycheck to pay for food and are thus willing to overlook weirdness or principles. They also tend to pick on newer and younger artists that haven't quite figured out how to run a business yet, hoping that they haven't heard of scams specifically targeted to their sector.
Here, let me pay you $700 for this item that’s worth $500 and you can just send me the extra $200 difference. I have to do it this way because it’s your father's, brother's, nephew's, cousin's, former roommate’s will and I’m just signing the whole check off to you.
Meanwhile the original check is fake and now you’ve lost the original item AND $200 and the bank is investigating you, and not them.
can you legally accept the check and tell the scammer you are gonna wait until the check fully clears?
Yes, but since you deposited a fake check, they’ll freeze all your bank accounts while they audit and investigate you and everything you do.
It’s very unpleasant.
Typically you won't have real people harvesting emails for sale - it's much easier to get addresses in bulk by hacking services and dumping their databases - and you get password hashes as well, which makes it a much better value proposition for the time it takes.
Off the top of my head, a couple of things that it could be:
Thanks! I see, these make sense.