Scam commissioner : Lightness7

[floravola.livejournal.com]

WHO: Lightness7

WHERE: Through Furaffinity and Paypal

WHAT: First he sent me a note asking me for a commission.
I accepted it, and he payed me the 22 of April with paypal for 40€
I've completed his commission within 9 days, he was happy with it.

WHEN: From the 22 of April to now

PROOF: Screenshot of the notes for the commission : http://fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/226/d/6/proof_1_by_floravola-d7v3nq2.png
Screenshot of the notes for the "refund" : http://fc09.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/226/f/c/refund_by_floravola-d7v3nqc.png
Paypal screenshot : http://fc02.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2014/226/d/5/paypal_by_floravola-d7v3npw.png
Emails I've sent him : http://fc06.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2014/226/f/5/mail_by_floravola-d7v3ok8.png

EXPLAIN: Though a month later, on May 22, he asked for a refund on paypal and I couldn't do anything about it, I asked him about it.
Apparently he told me he got his credit card stolen and that I'll get the money back.
I've sent him a note some days later, but he never replied.
I noticed he wasn't active on Furaffinity anymore after this, he probably left the site to make another account.

I've sent him two emails with his paypal adress asking him to refund me, but he didn't reply to me there either.

The 21 May he got his money back, and I had 40(+16€ of fees) to give to paypal.
The money in my account was -56€. I had to get it back to 0€.

I phoned to paypal to know if I could get the amount refunded, but since it's no physical good, they can't do anything about it.

What he probably did was to issue a refund because his credit card was « stolen », I checked with couple artists and he did the same to them.

And he was found active on his account 2 weeks ago from now, but I still got no words from him.

Current Mood: Still waiting

Comments

[niimou.livejournal.com]

Uuuugh what? No!

If his card was stolen the bank or whoever would have had him flag which transactions he didn't make so they don't go grabbing money back from the wrong sources. I call BS. It's probably a little late by now, but did you send the notes regarding the 'refund' to Paypal?

[floravola.livejournal.com]

Well, some people use the excuse of stolen card, when it hasn't been even stolen, to get back the money they sent through Paypal.

I phoned to Paypal about the "refund" but they can't do anything.
The bank is the one taking back money
They have a seller protection, but it only works if it's shipped object with tracking number

[niimou.livejournal.com]

That's what I mean, I think they lied about it 'cause otherwise the money wouldn't have disappeared.

[mazz.livejournal.com]

Mass chargebacks should flag Paypal against the payee not rip off the artist.

-_- I hope you get your money back, keep contacting paypal with proof of notes saying they said they'd pay you back. I've seen some digital artists get their money back by showing proof of that sort.

[floravola.livejournal.com]

Well in most cases they protect more the buyer than the seller

Well... I thought about this but maybe this is a bad idea
The commission I did was an adult one, and Paypal doesn't allow transaction for +18 material
So the evidence would just put me down

[yarbro.livejournal.com]

You could always give a physical copy of the commission by a disk or something then add the tracking ID.

That might help.

[floravola.livejournal.com]

Well I was thinking about what to do to avoid being scammed that way

And yup, I thought of sending a print or a CD with a tracking number to be protected
Though of course there's the shipping price that's up to pay for the buyer

[snobahr.livejournal.com]

Factor s/h into your commission price.

[zackfig.livejournal.com]

this sound like a very feasible way to get rid of many charge backs that have sprung recently.

so many kids that want art for free >=/

[doggiy.livejournal.com]

This is actually a really good idea!

[blaze-ignitus.livejournal.com]

Forgive me if this seems spiteful and/or full of schadenfreude here, but I've been waiting for something like this to happen with/from him and am glad to finally see him posted on here. This isn't the first time he's done stuff like this in the past to other artists but it was more where the artists wanted payment after a certain stage in their work but, since they had worked with him in the past, they trusted him and finished anyway. He dragged his feet with paying them for, oh....I think it was two-three months after the piece was finished?

In both of those cases it was for a husband and wife duo of artists who both do their own commission work. I actually had both of them as contacts and at one point I saw him in another artist's stream getting a stream commission from someone. Not a big deal, normally, but that same night I was talking to them and they mentioned how he was delinquent with payment. That's when I brought up the fact he was buying something from someone else, despite having told both of them he didn't have the funds yet to pay them.

Even when caught in his lie by the two he continued to make excuse after excuse, like saying that he believed he had either lung or throat cancer due to secondhand smoke in his home, etc. This was about a year ago now, actually, at around this same exact time. They did get their payments but he is blacklisted from their services.

Really sorry that this happened to you, Flora. This is just incredibly horrible behavior for anyone to engage in.

EDIT: Actually, if you look at his favorites, it DOES show that he is still active. His most recent favorite was done on August 11th. At this point he's flat-out avoiding you.

[norsepaw.livejournal.com]

Found his weasyl, it got the same name as his FA name just incase people want to block him.

Artist Commissioned by Lightness7 (EmzieTowers)

[emma “emzietowers” taylor (from livejournal.com)]

I was commissioned by him too (EmzieTowers on deviantART/Neifs-Commissions on FurAffinity), and encountered the same problem.

On 8th June '13 he sent me an e-cheque for a flat-colour commission which would take around a week to process. As I'd recieved an email from PayPal notifying me of this I thought I'd get to work on the commission and had it completed in time for his payment.

Unfortunately the hacking happened in which PayPal, as a result, stopped any more transactions on his account until it could be resolved. I sent him a note explaining that the e-cheque he sent had bounced due to being un-authorised payment, and so I asked when he was able to re-send it.

He replied that he couldn't use the current PayPal account, nor make a new one until the issue with his bank had been resolved. He also said that the hacking had apparently occurred 1st June, which was a week before the e-cheque had been sent.

He last noted me in February '14, and approached me explaining that artists had been on his case and that he couldn't afford to pay them either at the time due to bills and personal problems.

As well as this, he claimed he had some dollars in his PayPal which he said he could pay to me but it was nowhere near left what he owes me ; he had about $2-3USD where he owed me about $37-8. Me not wanting to get the amounts owed confused, I replied with that he could pay me in full as and when he was able.

So I gave him the benefit of the doubt and with wanting to show understanding, told him that he should get himself sorted out first before getting on to paying me. He has promised he will pay me back but sadly I am yet to hear from him since this note in February. And looking at this article here, I feel the chances of it happening slimming, especially since this artist's problem had happened much later than mine!

As far as I know he still uses the Lightness7 account on FA occasionally to favourite items. He also has a Weasyl account, which had not been updated since May '14.

Hope this helps the thread poster in reassuring them that they're not alone with this problem. If proof is needed on my side, I'm more than happy to provide screenshots.

I hope we all get this resolved soon!

Re: Artist Commissioned by Lightness7 (EmzieTowers)

[blaze-ignitus.livejournal.com]

Another artist hit by him? That makes four now that I'm familiar with! This is too much of a pattern to be a coincidence. Same song and dance too! And to my knowledge neither his gallery, scraps nor favorites have been updated since August the latest. This is certainly becoming an issue.

Re: Artist Commissioned by Lightness7 (EmzieTowers)

[emma “emzietowers” taylor (from livejournal.com)]

His deviantART account (Hero58), has definitely been active as lately as 9th November, seeing how he replied to someone about his birthday.

I also sent him a note about outstanding payment on November 16th, which has also been read according to the dA system (the note will be in bold if the note is unread, or go back to normal once it's been received and opened on the other end).
So I know he's read my note at least as lately as the 16th, but is simply choosing to not respond to anything regarding commissions and owed money.

The whole situation is making me so angry the more it goes on and I don't know what I can do to get the money back. I just want what I worked for and I seriously hope no-one else will have to deal with this person in a way that myself and other artists have done. If it's a lost cause I will be going ahead to warn of him publicly. If it's a case of losing my money to warn future artists and make them aware, so be it.

Re: Artist Commissioned by Lightness7 (EmzieTowers)

[blaze-ignitus.livejournal.com]

I say post it. It seems that, at this rate, it is a lost cause based on what information you have provided. The more people see his shenanigans, the less likely someone will be taken in by him.

[thedevilcorp.wordpress.com (from livejournal.com)]

Great site!

My Experience with Lightness7/Hero58

[emma “emzietowers” taylor (from livejournal.com)]

Okay I posted a journal on deviantART about this but now I feel I can do so here.

Name: Lightness7/Hero58
Where to find him:
deviantART: :iconhero58:
FurAffinity: www.furaffinity.net/user/light… and www.furaffinity.net/user/hero5…
Weasyl: www.weasyl.com/~lightness7
He may also have accounts with connections to the name 'Wedger' as that is one of his OCs, but I have not found anything else for that as of yet.

Here's what he scammed me out of:
Commission Type: Flat-colour, two characters
Price: £23GBP (around $35-6USD)
Start Date: 12th June 2013

8-12th June, 2013:

Hero approached me on FurAffinity asking for a commission, which we discussed, finalised and he paid for. I accepted the payment. He sent it through on the 8th June via e-cheque (which I assumed would be okay at the time rather than instant payment, since we'd done this before with no problems).
http://sta.sh/0bgtn03fdpd

I then received another notification of the cheque clearing.

http://sta.sh/01zd8biw65gs

I got the commission done well on time and had uploaded it to FurAffinity and deviantART, but now it has since been deleted from both websites. I still have the .psd file and the original client notes for the commission in question if that needs to be backed up.

30th June, 2013:
I received an email from PayPal claiming that the e-cheque payment being processed and sent to me could not be completed.

http://sta.sh/08uhpmdnuff

I later discussed this mishap with Lightness, as can be seen below.

http://sta.sh/0zls138v6pd

Aww, promises are nice, aren't they? Well, when they're kept, anyway.

1st February 2014:
I sent Hero an email regarding being updated on the payment he owed me. Surprisingly, he did get back to me.
(Notes: The st.ash link would have linked to the above screenshot, and the public uploads of the commission in question had been deleted, both on FA and dA.
I also need to note that the boxes with '---' around them are quote boxes and his replies to my previous messages).

http://sta.sh/02g9kumufsnw

Me being as naive as I was, allowed for him to carry on a bit longer without paying. Even more so, I didn't even ask for him to update me or let me know possible dates, so I didn't hear a single word from him after this update. And look at the whole friendship thing! Nice, isn't it? And I WONDER who was possibly shouting at him?

16th November, 2014:
After no updates since February I decided to try and fish for an update.

http://sta.sh/01bwczteynjv

10 December, 2014:
After hearing nothing back from Lightness, I had then sent him more notes about the commission payment, asking for a deadline and making him quite clear of the consequences of him failing to pay what was owed. I did this on both FA and deviantART.

http://sta.sh/0jfsmc0zfz8

I may have been a little hot-headed with the note, but I was at my wit's end. Over a year of not being paid, moreover being ignored for the work I put into what I made for him, bothered me immensely, as I'm sure it would most people.

But anyway, the deadline for his payment was 1st January 2015, at 6pm. Which he obviously failed. I did debate being nice yet again and stretching the deadline for a month, but I decided 10+ months of no response on his side was enough. I was being nicer than most landlords with that timeline!

And what do you know, I know he's read it because look!
http://sta.sh/01h8sp53ty6o

FA has a system where you can check your outbox and see if your notes are read. Clearly he's seen it on at least one of his accounts and yet fails to address it or ignores it completely.
Though we do not know the date of when he's read it, it's clear that he has been active on his FA account from at least 10th December onwards.

As of 29th December, he has blocked communication with me. Not a big surprise.
http://sta.sh/0dr6sk1phi0

So in conclusion!

He didn't pay, he has no intention of paying unless you bully him into it, and unless you want to work with someone who will evade your notes, lie to your face and give you a rain-dance of guilt trips, DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THIS GUY. YOU RISK LOSING MONEY AND IF YOU SO HAPPEN TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH HIM, YOUR TRUST WILL BE HURT.

Re: My Experience with Lightness7/Hero58

[emma “emzietowers” taylor (from livejournal.com)]

Oh I should point out that the st.ash links are part of my deviantART and so will lead to screenshots of the conversations I had with Lightness, etc. If this is a problem let me know.

Re: My Experience with Lightness7/Hero58

[dragontripmon.livejournal.com]

I really think you should have made a seperate beware on this not here since it would be added to his tag on here.