Beware: Phaet/Heml0cke/Orange.Pekoe/Momo

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

WHO: Phaet/Heml0cke/Orange.Pekoe/Momo

WHERE: (most all links have NSFW content) https://inkbunny.net/heml0cke (Where I ordered my commission) https://inkbunny.net/phaet (New account) http://furaffinity.net/user/orange.pekoe/ (current FA)
DA: http://phae-et.deviantart.com/
Tumblrs: http://momochiismagic.tumblr.com http://momoismagic.tumblr.com http://phae-et.tumblr.com
Inactive FA accounts: http://www.furaffinity.net/user/rubunny http://www.furaffinity.net/user/ii-nkwell
There could be more, but those are the ones I've seen.

WHAT: a $20 flat colour picture of my character Aero dressed as the character Draculaura

WHEN: I contacted her the 27th of April 2013 after she had emergency rent commissions. She was paid on the 28th. I still have not received my artwork.

PROOF: I have links to journals and to screen shots in case she deletes anything. Inkbunny has fuzzy dates, but I did the best I could at making as exact dates as possible.



I saw a journal listing emergency commissions, so I decided I wanted art from her. My close friend Iviv offered to pay for it for me since he gets a lot of art drawn by me, and I agreed. I handled all the details and he handled the payment. I now notice she never listed me in her queue. https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=81059 ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/3324/3324_1000.png )
The price chart was deleted, so I sadly can't list or screen that. I contacted her via Inkbunny notes and worked out the details. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/2754/2754_1000.png )
It was paid for by my close friend Iviv on the 28th of April. He sent $20.90 to her. Just a note, she does list her e-mail publicly in journals, so I didn't blur hers out. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/4453/4453_1000.png )
I'm not sure which came first, as Ink Bunny has fuzzy dates for journals. Around June, she took and finished some commissions ahead of her queue and promised her first batch drop offs. https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=86080 ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/5044/5044_1000.png )
I note her for an update on the 17th of june. She says that she's sketched my commission and that I am immediately after a large commission ahead of me. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/5895/5895_1000.png )
She takes more commissions, but none of these have been done, to my knowledge. https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=87437 (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/4265/4265_1000.png)
In July, I ask for another update. She tells me she has a problem commissioner from the new batch and mine is coming soon. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/6387/6387_1000.png )
Late july, she makes another mass drop off post. I express excitement to see mine, but also notice the comment above me that someone else is trying to get ahold of her for their art. https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=89533 ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/5242/5242_1000.png )
There was no mass drop off, or any art being posted at this time. I wait a bit and in august she promises yet another mass drop off because she's moving. https://inkbunny.net/journalview.php?id=95391 ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/5379/5379_1000.png )
By now, I am getting discouraged and suspicious about all these mass drop off promises without seeing any art posted, so the 9th of August, I contact her again. She claims my image was done, but she had to redo it because she rushed through. She explains that she's been down about her art because of something another client said to her. She promises to send me my image before the mass drop off she had planned. I do ask if I could post it if she doesn't drop off like she said she would again. I get a bit more optimistic. However, she never mails the picture. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/6493/6493_1000.png )
On the 29th of August, I note her again, but it is still not responded to. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/6787/6787_1000.png )

I find out through another Artist Beware, that she has a new handle she hopped to. This made me a bit upset. She didn't inform me as a client about this. I did find that she posted a shout on her own page. Her gallery is now at https://inkbunny.net/phaet (http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/3899/3899_1000.png )
The profile of her page claims that everyone is finished and will get their art. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/3487/3487_1000.png )
on the 5th of October, I send her a rather to the point note. I am very unhappy about the turn of events. As of writing this, it has not been responded to. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/3688/3688_1000.png )
On the 7th of October I e-mailed her. I decided to ask for a refund if she can not provide the art. Iviv and I agreed on the date of the 12th to give her before we start working on a charge back. As of writing this, it has not been responded to. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/6965/6965_1000.png )
I have left a shout on her new account to contact me. I see that I'm not the only one. ( http://ic.pics.livejournal.com/aerotheacrobat/18321648/5787/5787_1000.png )


EXPLAIN: I commissioned Heml0cke to draw a picture of my bat Aero cosplaying as Draculaura from Monster High. I'd seen that she had previously done commissions and her prices were very good. My close friend paid for the commission, as he likes to get art from me in exchange and let me deal with the details. I feel bad that this happened on something he paid on for me :/

She took on commissions after mine that were finished during a stream that I watched. At the time, I didn't think much of it, so long as my picture is finished. She gave several promises of "Mass drop offs" of her commission work, but never posted a thing. I asked for a few updates, but was given excuses and promises of "soon." She was featured on artist beware recently, and I learned that she had a new account and that she had several inactive accounts and names. This was unsettling to me. I sent her new account a note, and then sent her an e-mail. She claimed in her profile that the art was completed. I asked for the art or a refund to be sent to me before the 12th of October. That day has come and gone with no response. Iviv has contacted paypal on this and did try filing a dispute on the transaction. It was past 45 days, but they are now looking into her account. Hopefully more will get in contact with paypal about her.

Comments

[muttmetal.livejournal.com]

I checked around on all the profiles you posted of her and every single one of them hasn't been updated in 3-4 weeks (not even her personal tumblrs!). It seems her claim of "going dark on the internet" after the 20th of September is true so far, and very, very worrying.

It is really unacceptable that she's been stringing you along like this since April. Thanks for the beware; have you thought about contacting other InkBunny users about having them write up an AB post too?

[munemunenyo.livejournal.com]

Several artists including myself have been urging her clients on Inkbunny to post bewares about her. It's unprofessional as an artist to keep customers waiting this long if supposedly the art is already done and just needs to be uploaded.

[muttmetal.livejournal.com]

Good to know and I sincerely hope something comes out of it, whether it's more bewares or her finally making an appearance and saying what's up!

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

I was giving her time again after the scheduled drop off date, since I believed she was going to give me the art. She created the new account and posted the new art after her going dark/drop off date. Finding that out was the last straw for me. Not sure where she disappeared to afterward.

I've thought about going to others, but not sure if that would be counted as spam. I'm very terrible at these sorts of situations, sadly.

[munemunenyo.livejournal.com]

Several of my friends are still awaiting commissions from her; it makes no sense that she hasn't uploaded them if they are indeed finished. Beware definitely well-warranted.

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

She's told me mine is finished or almost finished a few times. Your friends might want to try contacting paypal or making bewares as well. :(

[munemunenyo.livejournal.com]

I've talked to them numerous times, but I think they're under the opinion she's being genuine and they feel like they're okay with parting with their money if it goes to a "good cause" even though I've explained to them to the contrary. :/

One friend will hopefully be putting one up in the future so I'm glad I at least got through to one of them. Hopefully Paypal can freeze her account if enough people complain about her scamming ways.

[sunshine-sweets.livejournal.com]

Oh goodness, this is very worrisome. I considered myself a really good friend of hers and I also commissioned her a while back in March before she disappeared. I too wasn't told when she moved accounts and found that very surprising.

I've had a lot of users contact me about Momo but unfortunately I'm in the same boat.

I've sent her a few messages myself all to which have not had a reply. >: I do hope she gets back to everyone soon.

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

I'm really sorry. :( I really hope she comes back and resolves the issues.

[sunshine-sweets.livejournal.com]

Oh golly dear, I am sorry too. I've been contacted many-a-time by her commissioners asking about her to to be honest, I have no idea where she is.

I've been trying desperately to get a hold of her about these issues but to no avail.

Please know that if I do end up getting a hold of her be it on skype or text or by any other means I will be keeping others informed. >':

[teekchan.livejournal.com]

There is an artist Momo on FA, maybe the tag should be changed to their full name, as to not cause confusion?

http://www.furaffinity.net/user/momo

Unless this is the same person.

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

I don't think that is the same Momo. I've seen her go by Momo in streams and on her Tumblrs so I included that name. D: I guess that does make it a bit confusing given how many names she ended up having.

[sunshine-sweets.livejournal.com]

The link above is not the same Momo. Though it is a tad confusing due to the numerous usernames, she honestly preferred to be called Momo while being a mod on our PPM tumblr, as well as by her friends and during streams.

She also signed some of her work as 'Momochi' if I remember correctly

I hope that clears up the confusion a bit!

Edit: I misspelled her signature, but it's corrected now!

Mod Post

[arphalia.livejournal.com]

Erf, yeah, I can see how that could get problematic for this Momo on FA. I'm gonna hit up the other mods and see if we can figure out what to change it to. :)

Re: Mod Post

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

I hate to be a bother, but would you mind adding Heml0cke to the tag? That's the user name most people on Inkbunny bought from, including me. Also Phaet seems to be her new common name. It might help others find the post.

Re: Mod Post

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Please understand that we only have so many tags, and that each tag has a strict character limit. It's pretty much impossible to add every name people might have, and we can only do the best we can with the limitations we have. We're going to try to update this particular tag, but we simply can't include every name she's hopped from.

Re: Mod Post

[aerotheacrobat.livejournal.com]

I completely understand. I only asked so those who currently have commissions can find the tag easier with the current names. I know it would be impossible to add them all with how many she has. Thanks so much for updating it!

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

We have updated the tag to reflect her current, active (well, in a sense of the word) names. Unfortunately, we simply can't include all the names due to tag character limitations, but we did the best we could.

[trunchbull.livejournal.com]

since the tag starts with artist-phaet, for tag [artist-phaet/heml0cke/orange.pekoe], why not create another artist tag that starts with artist-phaet and add the new names like /momo/momochi each time you run out of characters for the previous tag? As long as it always begins with artist-phaet, you should be able to keep it organized.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

LJ has a hard limit on the amount of tags a community can have, therefore we only tag artists with their most currently known user names because if we started to tag every alias some artists have ever gone by, we will run out of tags for others.

[torinir2.livejournal.com]

Why not have a master alias post? It'd be easier to manage for those featured individuals that like to have 20+ accounts, and wouldn't strain the tags.

[neolucky.livejournal.com]

That's just a lot more time then most volunteers at AB are able to give, some of these scammer folks make a new alias every 10 minutes and most of them are not in use for taking money either way.

So, instead we stick to the most current 3. Now if all aliases are taking commissions, then a comprehensive list in the POST itself would make sense, and we've done so for a few folks. Thats more up to the OP to include them however.