Sometimes I notice things. (Patreon)

A new month and a new round of blocking fraudulent accounts. Fortunately I'm not getting dinged much this time around. 

However in the process of going through and block folks I noticed something. Almost all of my patrons use artwork or some form of graphic design for their icons. Those of you who do use photos of yourself, well lets just say don't quit your day jobs to become professional portrait photographers. And a small handful have the generic Patreon avatar head.

What I noticed as I was blocking the accounts was 3 things:

1. They were all pledges of $1.

2. They all pledged in the 2nd half of the month.

3. The thing that caught my attention. All of them had neat, clean, properly lit, portrait or group shot photos that looked like they taken from some stock photography site. These were not selfies. 

I have read recently that one way to check whether a social media account is real or is just a bot, sock puppet, or pro troll is whether or not they've changed the default avatar icon on their acccount. Perhaps this is a way the scammers are trying to beat the system?