It is sometimes hard to identify a scam, especially when it involves payment with a check. We are all wary of promises to pay electronically and to provide our bank account numbers for direct access to our bank account (well, we all should be).

A new scam being reported to the FTC is targeting young adults who are active on social media. The scam begins with a message that someone likes your photo and wants to pay you to use it. To do so, an artist will make a rendering that can be used for different purposes. Then they send a check and tell the victim to deposit it, use some of it to pay the artist with a gift card, money order or wire transfer, and keep the rest.

The check looks real, and the victim deposits it. Then, the victim sends the “artist” the amount required to paint the picture. By the time the bank identifies that the check is fake, the victim has sent the money to the artist, and the artist is gone. The victim is then responsible for a bank fee for the fake check and is also out the amount of money sent to the “artist.” The FTC has resources available to assist with preventing these scams. According to the FTC, “If someone you don’t know sends you a check and asks you to send money back to them or to someone else, it’s a scam. It’s best to only deposit checks from people you know and trust.”