The "Pay to Unlock" Scam

Photo by Kübra Aydın on Pexels

The Hook

It usually starts with flattery. A stranger reaches out, tells you your work is incredible, and says you’re clearly undercharging for it. Then comes the number. Instead of your usual rate for a piece, they offer something way beyond it. Maybe you charge $50 for a headshot and they’re offering $500. The math never quite makes sense. Artists are used to being underpaid, so an offer that finally respects their time feels like a relief instead of a red flag.

The scammer isn’t trying to be subtle here. They want the number to stand out. They want you thinking about what you could do with that money before you’ve thought too hard about who’s offering it.

The Build-Up

Once you’ve agreed to the commission, the scammer starts laying the groundwork for what comes next. This is the part where they introduce a complication that sounds completely reasonable on the surface. Maybe they say their payment processor requires the recipient to have a “business account” to receive large transfers. Maybe they claim their bank flagged the transaction and you need to verify your identity through a specific portal before the funds can be released. Sometimes they’ll even show you a screenshot of a “pending transfer” to make it look like the money is real and just waiting on the other side of some paperwork.

The story is built to feel like a normal, if slightly annoying, administrative hurdle. Nobody loves dealing with payment processors, so when the scammer frames this as just another one of those hoops, it doesn’t immediately register as suspicious. They’re patient here too. They’ll answer your questions, reassure you, and keep the conversation friendly so you stay invested in seeing the deal through.

The Steal

Eventually you’re told that in order to “unlock” the funds, you need to pay a fee. It might be framed as a registration cost, a tax, an activation charge, or a deposit to prove you’re a legitimate seller. Whatever the label, the request is the same: you send real money out of your own pocket before you can supposedly receive the payment that was promised to you.

There is no payment waiting on the other end. The fee you send goes straight into an account the scammer controls, and once it clears, the excuses start. Maybe another fee appears. Maybe the “processor” claims there was an error and needs another payment to fix it. Eventually the scammer stops responding entirely, sometimes disappearing outright, and other times pivoting to play the victim themselves, acting frustrated or hurt as if they too got scammed by the payment system, which can leave the artist feeling guilty on top of everything else.

How to Avoid It

The best defense here is recognizing the pattern before you’re deep into it. A stranger offering far more than your normal rate, out of nowhere, is not a stroke of luck. It’s a setup. And no matter how the request is framed later, the rule is simple: you should never have to pay money to receive money you’re owed. If someone asks you to cover a fee before releasing your payment, that’s your signal to walk away, no matter how convincing the story around it sounds.