The Professor Scam

Photo by Yan Krukau on Pexels

The Hook

Someone messages you claiming to be a professor or a grad student. They say they came across your art and want to feature it in a class presentation or their thesis. No money is offered here. The flattery is the whole pitch, and for a lot of artists that’s more than enough to get a reply.

The Build-Up

Once you say yes, they send over a Google Form or Google Doc, sometimes a link to a site made to look like a school portal. They ask you to log in before you can see the assignment details or upload samples of your work. It all looks routine enough that most people don’t think twice before typing in their credentials.

The Steal

That login page isn’t connected to any real school. It’s just a copy of the Google login built to capture whatever username and password you enter. The scammer now has access to your account, and there was never a presentation or a thesis to begin with.