Draper teen warns of new social media scam hitting Utahns

DRAPER — Connor Bradshaw thought he had a shot at making a little extra scratch when one of the teen's photos caught an artist's eye on TikTok — an artist eager to use it for his next project.

"He was like, 'This is a cool photo. Can I draw it?'" Connor recounted of their conversation.

The artist offered him a cool $800. All he had to do was to deposit two checks and send some money back for the artist's supplies.

"He wanted to send some of that money back through Zelle," Connor said.

It's known as the muse scam, or the artist scam. Those checks? Fake! When they bounce, the bank yanks back those deposits from Connor. He's out all the money he sent. If that's not rough enough, it's a joint account with mom and dad.

"Hey Dad, I messed up," Connor said of the moment he told his dad about his experience, "because, I thought the money went through."

"You know, that's not comfortable to kind of admit what happened," his father, Lance Bradshaw, said.

They've since looked back at the missed red flags.

"People offering money with no prior relationship — you have no idea who that person is," said Lance Brandshaw. "People asking for money to be sent back to them. Scammers are not just trying once but multiple times — can be pretty persistent in trying to get money however they can."

Both Lance Bradshaw and Connor hope this experience helps other teens immediately spot when they're getting scammed because the bad guys won't hesitate to rip anyone off just because they're young.

"I just felt like defeated like, knowing I fell for that — knowing they got me," said Connor.

Fortunately for Connor, his bank caught on and called him when he tried to send the money back via a different app. So, he didn't lose money, but it was tied up for several weeks during the bank's investigation.

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