VengeanceZ

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

Who: VengeanceZ
His Website Pages:
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vengeancez/
https://www.weasyl.com/profile/grandvision
https://inkbunny.net/Grandvision


Where: http://www.furaffinity.net/view/9594264/ - NSFW

What: Prepose Commission with Applejack from MLP:FIM
Bid was £3000

When: 1/3/2013

Proof:
Screenshots will be Provided below




Details:
Along with regular commissions, I've been doing Prepose/YCH auctions on furaffinity to help pay for some of my wedding expenses, as I'm getting married this year to Ebonyleopard this Summer. In the link provided above (Next to Where), I was holding a Prepose auction for Applejack from My Little Pony: Friendship is magic.

It runs off smoothly, until I noticed Vendeancez posts a bid of £600, which roughly translates to almost 1000 USD. So I ask him if this was a real bid, as that seemed a bit of a large bid in itself; I also told him what £600 translates to in American money. He says he was legitimately bidding, so I allow it, and I place him as bidder in the lead with £600 / $975.

He asks if he won, so he could pay and I'd start on the picture asap, but I told him that there's no auto-buyout, and that he'd have to wait until the auction ends (which would be tomorrow on Saturday). So in response to that, he drops down a bid of £3000, which rather shocked me, which made me curious as to why he was in such a hurry to make this auction end with him as the winner, so I PM him about it; he says that information is classified, which made me kind of suspicious, but I don't like prying in other people's business. I basically told him that 3000 pounds equates to nearly $5000 and asking if he's aware of that. Conversation linked below:

http://imageshack.us/a/img832/1616/usercontrolpanelfuraffi.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img543/1616/usercontrolpanelfuraffi.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img715/1616/usercontrolpanelfuraffi.png
http://imageshack.us/a/img39/1616/usercontrolpanelfuraffi.png

As you can see, the end result of that transaction..
So I report him to the FA admins, and post a warning about him on my journal on FA. He gets suspended for three days, and fearing that someone else might try and pull that stunt on that auction, I closed it early, giving it to the previous person that was in the lead, Avalon487 with a $450 bid. This whole thing was just confusion, with a troll/scamming bidder to try and cause confusion and disrupt the whole auction process.

Other Screenshots:
http://imageshack.us/a/img255/889/ychpreposeapplejackbyka.png - NSFW
http://imageshack.us/a/img692/2876/ychtrollscammeralertkay.png

Comments

[theredangel.livejournal.com]

What a terribly annoying waste of your time. :( I'm sorry it happened to you.

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

The flipside is that the person with the last highest bid agree to pay what they bid, so, it's all good. It's still gunna put a large dent in my wedding expenses. ^_^

[lackoflollies.livejournal.com]

Oh, WOW.

[kerstin-orion.livejournal.com]

It is unfortunate that someone would feel disrupting an artist's livelihood was a great way to have some fun.

[radiocatastrophe (from livejournal.com)]

Wow, lol, nothing I can really say. Though I understand "he's only 18" comment. I can vouch that some folk in their teens can generate that much money as my boyfriend did stocks since he was 12 and gathered himself a small fortune by the time he was 18/19.

[onesteptwo.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I got attitude from a security guy at an airport about how I managed to pay for a trip from Canada to England by myself at 19. Good paying job with next to now bills, so sue me.

[kasuned.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad this got posted.

This guy is known for being a troll before (complaining on places where artists are conducting business, and stirring up trouble in general), and the fact that he took it to an auction was unacceptable.

I haven't seen the notes until now. I am just... stunned at the part where he admits trolling.

Good god, beware well warranted. People like this make my freakin' head spin.

[aerospiritual.livejournal.com]

Really glad to see this got posted here.

Fake bidding is just such an incredibly obnoxious thing to do.

[drone-dragon.livejournal.com]

And the immaturity bar just dropped something fierce.

[marblestheskunk.livejournal.com]

That is awful. I am really sorry this happened.
How rude and immature.

Thank you for the heads up, hopefully this will help other artists if he does pull this stunt again.

[pinstripedtiger.livejournal.com]

I remember that guy. He got snippy on an adoptable sheet I submitted.

What a jerk.

[pinstripedtiger.livejournal.com]

I thought about that as soon as I posted it-- sorry for namecalling.

[timelapsedecay.livejournal.com]

Saw this post coming!
Sorry this happened to you, Kayla :C Excluding as much profanity and name-calling as I can bear, his behavior is absolutely appalling.

[nessa san (from livejournal.com)]

What's disgusting at how people are praising him for what he did. As far as I know that people who make false bids like that can be reported and result in a ban. I'm sorry that this happened to you I will surely block this guy from buying and bidding on my collab account >:

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

Yeah I blocked the people that encouraged that kind of behavior

[thaily.livejournal.com]

This is what passes for trolling these days? I am underwhelmed.

Congrats on getting married by the way, glad you still managed to sell the auction to a decent bidder.

[namelessimp.livejournal.com]

Exactly. Kyla even caught him before it with her suspicions anyway, so it's not like it came out of left field and the artist believed him anyway. If he was trying to "troloolol look how cool and edgy I am" it was a failure in many ways. Wasn't even good about it, ahah.

[lem0ntrees.livejournal.com]

Blocked him when you posted that journal. What satisfaction do people get out of doing stuff like that?

I'm glad your other bidder was cool with it, though. Good luck on your wedding!

[poizenkat.livejournal.com]

hmm I told a friend not to take a commission from him. I hope she doesn't have any issues considering she didn't listen to me.

[glaciers.livejournal.com]

what a waste of time, I'm sorry he bothered you :/

congrats on your marriage, I wish you and your SO all the best!

[ansitru.livejournal.com]

I have many names in mind for this person, but to keep it nice I'll refrain from sharing them. I'm really sorry this happened to you, though it is good to see that Furaffinity took action.

As soon as the site is back up (maintenance at the moment, it seems), I'm blocking his sorry ass. o n o

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

I'm just curious, but does anyone know FA's stance on "call out" journals? It seems like in the past, they've come down hard on even legit ones like the OP's. :/

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

FA doesn't allow call out journals really (They're usually filed under harassment no matter what). However, they're starting to be more understanding of situations where there is proof of wrongdoing, and the moderator Bazeel is working with this community specifically!

[thedarrdarr.livejournal.com]

Hmm, couldn't you write something that would legally bind them to pay whatever amount that they agree to in the auction? That way if a troll tried something like this again, it would backfire once you start hunting them down for the money. Or would that be too hard to pursue?

[shukivengeance.livejournal.com]

Auction bids ARE a legally binding contract in themselves afaik, though I'm not an expert on the issue and welcome correction.

[sintocat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, no. Who the heck gets their jollys out by getting someones hopes up just to stomp them out? Good beware, blocking him. Sorry this happened to you girl :/

(frozen)

[jurann.livejournal.com]

What makes people think that FA is a good place to try to host auctions? It's not an auction site, and it's notoriously full of trolls. =P This doesn't surprise me at all - in fact what does surprise me is that this doesn't happen more often on FA auctions. Admins on FA don't have -any- policy, power or system to police auctions and sales on their site.

(frozen)

[sbneko.livejournal.com]

I've used actual furry bidding sites, and like most people, the reason we don't use it is because people barely use it. And saying things like "well if you guys used it anyways, more people would use it" doesn't help when you really need the money. Fact of the matter is, people interested in bidding prefer FA and you need to accommodate that if you want to sell. I've done journals asking my watchers what they prefer, pretty much none said bidding sites.

If I make an auction on FA, I get loads of bids, if I do it on an actual bidding site, I either get none or barely any.

Things happen, you do get trolls and fake bids, but I don't see it nearly often enough to risk making so little cash. Even here, there was a fake bid, but it worked out fine. There's always the last bidder to go to.

[bazeelphooka.livejournal.com]

Mel-The-Hybrid,

I sincerely apologize for this being handled inappropriately on our side of things. Another admin was apparently not informed that I personally handle all issues of this nature, and because of this went above me to take care of the problem themselves. I am currently working towards a more suitable resolution to this, but I cannot guarantee anything, as I need to clear it with higher first. I have made my displeasure with this situation well known to the other staff, and I assure you that this will be handled appropriately in the future.

Update!

[bazeelphooka.livejournal.com]

Mel-The-Hybrid,

This user has been alerted to this post, as well as additional punishments levied against his account by administration. Again, I apologize for this issue.

[mel-the-hybrid.livejournal.com]

Thanks for working hard on my behalf!

[copper-curls.livejournal.com]

Beware very well warranted, and thank you! I've blocked him on FA and Weasyl.

[kwolf13.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the Beware, it is noted. What a horrid waste of time on both sides, I'm sorry it happened.

Honestly, why was he only suspended for three days? I'd think that'd be perm-ban worthy, whose to stop him from doing it again?

[bazeelphooka.livejournal.com]

This was handled inappropriately by another administrator who was not aware of my involvement in the issue. I've taken care of it since then.

[crazyhusky.livejournal.com]

Sorry its a bit late, I've have also had trouble with this user on several accounts, mostly him posting trolling or hateful remarks in my submissions. I have deleted the comments in my submission, but I always keep a pdf file or image of stuff before hiding it.

here is pdf of one of the times, from one of his moments
https://www.dropbox.com/s/h0q6zj4hgrde3ci/Two%20Red%20foxes%2C%20one%20Fennec.pdf (NSFW)
later he continued his little trolling rampage on IRC with one of the users. I alerted a mod on FA of his random behaviour but nothing happened...

[grandvisionx.livejournal.com]

That wasn't even a troll. That was just a joke.