Is there a "pro tip" out there somewhere that offering to illustrate people's fics for money is a good "side hustle"?

Over the last few months, my FFN account has been inundated with dozens of private messages from "fans" claiming to be "inspired" by my "wonderful story" to create illustrations of my fic. For a small fee, of course. I don't think I'd gotten a single FFN DM in a decade before this, and I must've had 40 of these since January.

Genuine question: why the sudden wave of scammers? Is there a pro tip floating around that suggests specifically charging FFN writers $$$ to steal one of their scenes, chuck it into Midjourney, and then email them the schlock? Has anyone else been experiencing this?