This series of posts comes with a peculiar backstory; it is the result of this artist being scammed by a user from Indonesia named "Skibidi Jonggol". Long story short, the agreed payment was 40,000 yen, but the scammer has only paid half of it and then he fucking dipped.

The artist has explained the story in his or her other fanbox page, which I've included in the artist's commentary section above. It also contains all the screenshots of the chats between the artist and the scammer in question. For convenience, I've provided DeepL translations of the story below.

Emphasize on this part: "Because my dealings with the Japanese client had been sincere and smooth up to that point, I sent him the finished front illustration before receiving the final payment, which gave him an opportunity to disappear."

So I'd like people like this to please stop doing this shit. Please stop making an embarrassment out of the rest of us Indonesians. As if being one isn't embarrassing enough already.

Edit:

List of PSD files:

• Dakimakura.psd (mirror)
• 立ち絵ラフ2.psd (mirror)
• 正面図.psd (mirror)

Sucks what happened to the artist. The artwork is good too actually. I have commissioned many times from a small handful of artists, and I only had one that didn't hold up his end (I only occasionally messaged once in a while about updates), waited for almost a year before I said forget it, he was welcome to keep the money as I counted it as a loss as he at least did a draft. But I'll give him credit, he did refund me. Another artist I commissioned a few pieces from dipped on me after a while of not responding to my questions if there were any progress to a request of mine. The difference though was that he didn't want to take payments anymore, though I was still willing to pay at the time, but I never sent him any money, so no loss for either of us at that point.

I take my own requests seriously, and it is a big risk for an artist to accept installments for their work. In my case, if we ever agree to an installment of sorts, the artist is more than fine to withhold the final piece(s) until payment in full is complete and I'll never complain about that, nor should anyone really.

At least on the bright side, the artist did get some money out of it, but it sucks that they never got the other half. I'll have to follow their fanbox and stuff and see what else is there. I do like good art.

Fhtagn said in comment #2575992:

This series of posts comes with a peculiar backstory; it is the result of this artist being scammed by a user from Indonesia named "Skibidi Jonggol". Long story short, the agreed payment was 40,000 yen, but the scammer has only paid half of it and then he fucking dipped.

And this is another reason why, really, anyone who does contract work over the Internet should be sending their clients invoices. Any payment processor worth using will have invoicing features (I know for a fact that PayPal does); any that doesn't have such features isn't worth considering. There are at least five major reasons to do this:

• You don't have to rely on your clients doing anything in particular on their end; even if they're not trying to scam you, there's a nonzero chance that they'll make a mistake that costs you money. An invoice forecloses on that possibility: as soon as your client receives the invoice, their only options are to either pay it or not.
• Also, with PayPal specifically (I can't speak for other payment processors), there are options for your client to pay the invoice, even without an account.
• In most jurisdictions, a printout of an invoice counts as a receipt for tax purposes (you should be reporting your proceeds from such work as self-employment income, and if you're not, why aren't you?); a printout of an email chain may not. (Also, keeping track of any fees your payment processor charges is a good idea, as they count as tax-deductible business expenses.)
• Assuming you properly and completely filled out the invoice (which should include your business information, a detailed, line-by-line breakdown of the goods and services rendered that are covered by the invoice, and the full terms & conditions of your arrangement with your client -- including the specific terms of delivery), all of that information will be entered into your payment processor's system as a matter of record. That way, if your client disputes the charges, and the processor mediates the dispute, they won't be able to lie about the terms of the arrangement (which can potentially turn a long, drawn-out process into an open-and-shut case in your favor).
• By paying the invoice, your client warrants that they've read, understood, and agreed to its terms & conditions; most jurisdictions recognize this as a legally binding contract, which (again) typically works in your favor if they escalate the dispute. (It also helps to always refer to the commission by its invoice number in subsequent communications, to make it crystal clear what you're referring to.)

Now, it's entirely possible that you'll have to submit multiple invoices for commissioned work (due to, e.g., your payment structure or local laws). This is fine; send as many invoices as you need. Just remember to include a line item for everything covered by a given invoice, and make it crystal clear in the description that each invoice represents partial payment for a larger commission.

This all sounds like a lot of work, and it indeed is, but if you ever end up in a position to benefit from it, you'll be glad you did it.

Alanis, killed by a scammer