&quot;Artists Beware&quot;

Heya, I Approved this - would you mind editing all those smaller email caps into 1-2 images? They're all important, but it'd be easier to read through them on a single image, thank you!

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I tried to, but the way he e-mailed me, he used like a brand new e-mail letter instead of just nesting it neatly like gmail does. I'll see if I can get them into smaller quantities.

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No probs! If not, don't worry too much about it. I can see how them not nesting would be a huge pain in the butt though.

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eveshka.livejournal.com

One thing they can do is go to a grocery store and buy a prepaid Visa/Amex with cash and mail that to you. I have an underage customer who commissions beaded jewelry from me, and because she is underage, she can't open a Paypal account.
I run a tab for her, and she mails me prepaid cards with the amount loaded onto them. I pop her jewelry in the FedEx, and we're both happy.

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hm, interesting. I never thought of that route. The only thing that threw me off with this guy is that he's apparently 30 years old, which kind made me double take about the parent thing...I would figure he would have a bank account in his name instead of it rerouting to his parents like he said?

Also, apparently to some people on tumblr, he's done this sort of thing before.

Edited Date: 2013-09-12 12:42 am (UTC)

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ljmydayaway.livejournal.com

Could it be possible that he might be disabled, and so under the care of his family members? That's... kind of the only thing I can think of that would make that make sense (unless he's just lying about his age).

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That could also be a possibility, but I don't know. x_x

http://alecmadeablog.tumblr.com/post/57422772540/woo-todays-my-30th-birthday-now-3

He seemed pretty chipper posting about his age here.

I know it's just $30, but I just get a little peevy when it comes to payment. I recently had another chargeback filed against me with another customer, but thankfully, that got resolved quickly.

(screened comment)

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kerstin-orion.livejournal.com

I'll go ahead and screen this for you since it's a link to an unrelated dA page. :)

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aerospiritual.livejournal.com

It might be a cultural thing? I have several very good Filipino friends and their grandparents tend to be the principle financial[and parental to a degree] managers for their adult children and subsequent grandchildren. I mean. One of my friends' mom still gets a weekly allowance from her mom/his grandma and any sort of major expenditure is discussed beforehand and only done with permission from the grandparents.

[edit]I was a dumbdumb and took the linked Tumblr in the comments for his page- I have no reading comprehension, obviously.

Edited Date: 2013-09-12 07:42 pm (UTC)

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intervivos-2.livejournal.com

It happened to me too. I'm not sure he's a scammer, because he's commissioned me before and paid for it, and that never got a chargeback (I hope it doesn't come back somehow), I think he might actually just be having some problem. It's still pretty annoying either way.

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mistresswolf.livejournal.com

"It takes a while to set up a bank account."

... What? It took me like, 10 to 20 minutes.

(deleted comment)

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mistresswolf.livejournal.com

lol Yeah a week I'd say is fair. It takes a few minutes at the bank to set up the account, then PayPal can take anywhere from 3 to 7 days (depending on your country) to make the "2 small deposits" to verify your banking info.

XD A month. pfft.

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poizenkat.livejournal.com

ahh for my wife it actually took about that long. She had to call them a few times, too.

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Would it be out of line to ask him for an update on when he's going to return the funds that were taken out of my account every week? I don't mean to sound paranoid, it's just that I get extremely anxious when it comes to chargeback issues with paypal.

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Personally, I'd think that's absolutely reasonable.

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ansitru.livejournal.com

I find it all very ... over-the-top sounding, with the excuse they gave you why the charge-back was filed.

"They (parents) threatened to take me to jail [...]"

From the Tumblr-screenshot. Am I the only one who found that bit to be incredibly difficult to believe?

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I don't find it difficult to believe. He's apparently a notorious liar. I actually had to block him on skype for harassing me for like 3 days straight. I've also had a friend warn me about how he harasses other artists (sometimes to a point where they up and delete their tumblr) for fetish art and gets upset when they decline. He also told me that people have confronted him about his harassment and he blames it on his (twin) brother he apparently has.

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ansitru.livejournal.com

Yeesh. Time to give my block-function some use today.

But what I meant by it being incredibly hard to believe is the fact that his parents would take him to jail for spending money. I just ... don't see how or why that would happen.

They could be angry, yes. But taking their son to jail? Too outrageous for me to believe.

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Yeah, you would think! But sometimes people have odd relationships with their parents, I guess.

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Woooah. O.o

I don't suppose you have any screenshots you can share? Conversations over Skype are logged even if you took him off your list and blocked him. All you gotta do is look for his name on Skype again.

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Would that be appropriate to post here?

Also, I'm noottt sure what his skype name was, but I might be able to find chatlogs with my friend warning me about him.

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sigilgoat.livejournal.com

A friend warning you about a user isn't something we'd like posted. It's hearsay and not really appropriate for the community.

EDIT: It's not appropriate to be used as "proof" of behavior, since it's more in the lines of "he said, she said" and we try to avoid that whenever possible.

Edited Date: 2013-09-12 11:53 pm (UTC)

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Okay, I figured. Which is why I asked. Thank you!

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I know for next time now.

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Yes, I also got duped out of my money as well. He says he's going to be paying all the artists he commissioned for back. I really find that hard to believe, but we will see.

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oby.livejournal.com

If I'm not mistaken, isn't his filing a chargeback essentially telling Paypal that you committed fraud? Just like it would be if he filed for a dispute/chargeback with a brick-and-mortar bank or credit card?

If that is the case, I would throw this kid (and his "parents") under the bus for filing false claims. It's one thing for him to owe you, but it's quite another thing to pay then claim it was fraudulent in order to get one's money back.

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OP if you haven't done it already, I'd file a ticket over FA. I don't know about getting the money back, but if he gets suspended from FA then he won't be able to scam artists from there anymore. From what I've seen before on here, chargeback complaints are taken very seriously.

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I'm permabanned on FA, so I couldn't file a ticket over there even if I wanted to. x.x

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Whelp. Kinda ruins that plan, huh?

What about the other artist who got charged back? Did he start a ticket?

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I'm not sure myself. I'd imagine so.

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I can't because FA is currently in read only mode for like 48 hours. I will when it's done though.

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Yeah, I made that comment before I realized that FA's in Read Only mode. It's good to see people take a firm stand against scammers which is why I love this site.

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I don't think it would hurt to ask.

*edit* Gaah. Meant to reply to Mel's last comment. x.x

Edited Date: 2013-09-12 09:19 pm (UTC)

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http://sonicdash.tumblr.com/post/60951159674/dont-do-a-commission-for-sonicdash-he-is-a-scammer

-_-

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I didn't think I'd need to use this particular reaction image today but... LOOK AT ALL THE LIKES!

I am appalled at this.

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mekania.livejournal.com

Soooo his claim is:

-He had his own money
-But used his parents paypal (in secret which is an excellent idea)
-Parents found out
-Threatened jail time so he filed a dispute
-Can't pay you back right now because he doesn't have a job. Where did the original money come from then?

Is there any way at all you can get on the phone with paypal and fight this? It is not your fault that the parents (if that's true is the name on the account different from his?) gave their son access to an account that they didn't want to be used.

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http://samrosemodblog.tumblr.com/post/61040320749/finished-commission-for-sonicdash-55

This was just posted on his tumblr today. I contacted the artist about the issues we have had with him lately and they said they had been paid in full already. I'm really hoping they don't get a payment reversal too. :/

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vellacraptor.livejournal.com

If that is recent, you may be able to try and call paypal and notify them that he is indeed using the paypal ToS to scam people. If what he is saying is true abut having no money/paypal to pay people back, yet at the same time commissioning more art, it's clear he's a scammer 100% at least to me. :/

Actions speak louder than words--at least it'd be worth asking PP.

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corghi.livejournal.com

Honestly, this sounds like one big fat scam. I think he's doing this on purpose. If he has no job, has no source of income, how can he afford $30-60+ on multiple pieces of MLP art? He denies stealing money from his parents, but by using his parents PP, he obviously must be?

It looks like he waits until the art is complete, then files a charge-back, and getting free art out of it. I'm pretty sad people would go out of their way to scam people online for artwork..

I'm sorry you got scammed. I'm going to be skeptical and say you won't be seeing that money..

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Yep. That right there is exactly what it looks like!

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http://sonicdash.tumblr.com/post/61090443967/psa-my-plan-to-repay-others

I'm starting to feel like I probably won't see that money back either. e_e

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You know what? I believe it's a scam. Unless he has some sort of disability, there should be no way that he's this irresponsible at 30 years of age.

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oceandezignz.livejournal.com

This is not a warning, but a very stern suggestion to steer away from this kind of speculation (re: 'some sort of disability'). This is toeing the line of making some really uncomfortable commentary and its not something we encourage in A_B.

Thank you.

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Yeeep. :/

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