Customer Beware

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

WHO: Erk Gloom
Also Known as: Erk Gloom/Erk the Crux/Erk the Hyena, Kantir/Kanaconda, Kantir Anaconda, Incaren, Qwhilla, Possat/Possatboi/Zero the Possat, Aneurysm, etc.


EXPLAIN: Okay, this is quite a strange situation I've gotten myself into. I had previously done art for Erk Gloom. Things went well, he paid promptly, but was a little impatient. Nothing too bad, and I liked working with him because I got to be creative with a lot of the works he commissioned. Over time though, he started getting mad when I refused free art. Increasingly he was rude and snarky in conversations as well.



Later, he reposted some of my work on Inkbunny, I allow this under my TOS, but customers must credit me as the artist and link back to the original. He did not credit me, and after I asked him to fix this he did go back and edit a few, but not all of his posts. When I asked him again to edit the remaining posting and he ignored the requests and I was forced to ask a mod on InkBunny to edit the remaining postings. (Around this time is when our friendship ended.)

Sometime later, Erk posts some additional old works he had commissioned, but not put in his gallery, in these posts not only was he not crediting me, he outright slandered both myself and my work. This is where things got taken too far, its one thing to forget to link back because every artists’ TOS is different, but to outright slander someone is another matter. I managed to get the works removed from InkBunny after going to a moderator.

A few days after the indecent on InkBunny I got a private message on Inkbunny from someone named Moonjava. I had previously gotten permission to draw her in a few pieces of art for Erk, though sometime afterwards she messaged me privately on FA telling me she was not friends with Erk any longer and doesn't want me to draw her anymore, and to remove my drawings with her character, or edit them and remove her name from the post. I did the latter, she was fine with that. She didn't seem to want art of any of her characters at all according to her FA profile.

Which is strange because 'Moonjava' on Inkbunny messaged me right away asking for art of her character. She also 'knew I was having an issue with a certain crux and she wanted to help work things out between us.' At this point the matter was private and no one else aside from myself, Erk, and a few of my close friends knew about it. So I messaged Moonjava on FA to confirm that the message I got in InkBunny was indeed from her. Turns out it was not her that sent the note, but instead it was Erk pretending to be her. Here's proof of her note, sadly I didn't get screenshots of the comments on InkBunny, and since then the Erk and Moonjava accounts on Inkbunny have been deleted.

Here's a cap of her note:


Soon after I had talked to Moonjava, I got a note from the user Spotz on FA saying that I had drawn a character of his without permission.The image in question was one of the ones Erk had commissioned, and when providing references he claimed to own the character. I apologized to Spotz and much like Moonjava, we worked out editing the pic instead of deleting it. I had one previous experience with Erk about this kind of stuff, but I sadly lost the note in the FA note leak a while back. He said the artist gave me permission to colour the piece, but I found out he lied about it, so for any future works I made sure to ask the artist/character owner/etc just to be safe.

Here's proof from Spotz about the character thing.



Since Erk got banned on Inkbunny for impersonating Moonjava, he has been harassing me. He's sent me a few messages on AIM that I ignored, and is posting really rude things about me on the site Canv.as. There's no doubt in my mind that this is him posting this stuff, even with it being posted anonymously, there’s no one else who holds any sort of grudge against me. I took screenshots of what I could, but I since had to leave for work so probably missed some of the crap he posted.

http://pics.livejournal.com/tornaderman/pic/0003zcaf Here's a link of one of the caps I got from that.

I really don't know what to do in this kind of situation, so I am just continuing to ignore him and his hateful attitude. If he had credited my work and complying with my TOS when asked politely, I wouldn't have asked for for moderator assistance to get my works edited or deleted from his gallery. I don't really want to talk to or associate with him at all, I would have let him put my art back up if he had just apologized and credited my work, but now after the impersonation, the character theft, and ridiculous amounts of harassment, honestly I just never want to hear his name ever again. His actions, especially the lying and harassment are completely uncalled for. I'm submitting this beware so hopefully it doesn't happen to anyone else, as well as a warning to be careful since he lies about characters he wants drawn, and will impersonate people to try to get art anyway.


EDIT: I got this message from him on AIM today after he found the journal.
"(4:51:40 AM) gecrux: just thought I should let you know I found the livejournal post you made about me. Im not going to harass you, but you should lay off giving out additional info in the comments unless you want to egg me on :3
(4:53:11 AM) gecrux: I suppose I should give thanks for inadvertently reminding me about my incaren account on inkbunny, though. now I can finally get back in touch with the artists that I was cut off from. the ones that don't suck, that is.
(4:54:46 AM) gecrux: anyway, have a nice night and enjoy your $300+ that you've wrenched from my fingers.
(4:55:31 AM) gecrux: and by the way, I could slander you more, but there's no point to it because it would just prove your insidious little point and make me look like the bad guy all over again."

Since this posting, I had also gotten another note from a user who I had drawn for Erk without knowing. I've apologized and taken down the work in question, though now I can't help but to worry more of these characters he claimed were his are actually other people.

A friend had also linked me to these posts from Erk regarding the situation.
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/empa/5cd2ef04.png
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v466/empa/1f74781c.png

I also just got this lovely comment where I have this entry re-posted on my personal journal:


Then he went and deleted and re-posted this comment:


He also posted a thread about me, after claiming he wouldn't bug me to make himself look bad, then turned around and posted the comment warning me to block him, then changing his comment around.
https://forums.vivisector.org/index.php/topic,539.0.html He also clearly admits to the impersonation of Moonjava, where he had previously denied it.


He also despises my art so much it's still his AIM icon, as I've noticed since he's still messaging me. He also is apparently still keeping me on his buddylist or checking on my status just to get an attempt to pester me it seems like.

Again, I've not said anything directly to him since the the Secondlife Drama happened where our friendship ended, aside from asking for credit before just going to a Mod on Inkbunny about the whole thing. I'm not outright trying to make things worse, most of these postings he's made about me were linked to me by friends. I'm still sticking to ignoring him since I'm sure he'll wear himself down soon enough.

I hope this is finally the end of things. I've nothing left to say to him. I'm glad I was able to give this warning, I'd hate to see anyone else have to deal with him and his actions. I hope it helps.

Comments

[sigilgoat.livejournal.com]

That's tough...I would suggest sending him maybe one more piece of correspondence as a Cease and Desist order, and then after that, continue to report him if things pop up, but don't speak to him anymore.

Without a reaction, he SHOULD spin himself tired until he finds someone else to mess with :/

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

yeah, I've been ignoring any contact he's tried to make for a few months now. I'm just a bit fed up so I thought I'd post here. I'll try your suggestion though, sounds like a good idea.

[stormslegacy.livejournal.com]

o.o That's really nuts.

I'm always concerned when a third-parties' characters get involved. It's really hard to make a judgement call sometimes. I had never thought that people might try impersonating others to mislead artists.

Thanks for sharing your experience, I take this as much as a lesson in what can go wrong as a beware.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeah.. after the first time he said 'this is okay this person said so', I found out the hard way he lied, so I asked everyone after that myself to be safe.. Though when he just started claiming they were his I didn't know :c Pretty awful stuff.

[tech-rex.livejournal.com]

I'm glad you made this. He has a history of this behavior, the same exact antics got him permabanned from FA, but there was so little publicity not many people are aware just how...unhinged...he is.

Go with with what Sigil said, and silently build up a good defense with screenshots, links, ETC so if it ever comes to either legal issues or recieving harassment from 3rd parties, you can defend yourself.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, he's been banned multiple times on various sites for this kind of stuff. I have more wacky things he did but they were not really related to this so I didn't include them.
Dunno why I put up with him for as long as I did.

[spotzwastaken.livejournal.com]

Avoid this guy at all costs and just hope and pray he never gets a boner for you. I'm the one who's character he lied about and said was his own. I've had pretty good luck just ignoring him, he hasn't tried talking to me in 3-4 months and very sporadically prior to that.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

I hope I get lucky enough for him to leave me alone. I've not responded to any of his messages/troll attempts/etc in months. bleh!
Sucks what happened to you though :c Thanks for letting me know, glad we got everything worked out!

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

~

[genkigami.livejournal.com]

Oh god he sounds completely psycho. All this over asking for credit? Holy shit.

Thanks for the warning, sorry you have to put up with this.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

yeeeah.
the reason why we aren't friends in the first place is pretty wacky too. He kept joking/threatening to copybot [make a copy of] an avatar I have on Secondlife so he could fuck it... which I am not okay with and had asked multiple times for him to stop 'joking' about it. I got fed up and he got really mad when switched avatars when he came around so he didnt have a chance to steal my av and take yiff pics to blackmail me or whatever he wanted to do :l

I dont even

[greenreaper.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry this is continuing to be an issue for you. Sometimes people get such a sense of entitlement that they think you owe them something, and then when they find their beliefs do not accord with reality, they go crazy. If you have any more problems with this on Inkbunny, let us know.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

I think I'll be okay on IB now, but thank you :)
His main account was banned/deleted, though his https://inkbunny.net/IncaRen account is still up but seems inactive.

[skiota.livejournal.com]

I hate these kind of people because they make both the commissioner and the artist take the extra step and verify permission. I'm the kind of person that likes to get gift art for people or couples art etc, so it sucks that one person makes people (understandably!) weary.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeah :c I'm always worried when I get commissions that use others character or are gifts or etc. After posting this I had another person message me saying that I drew their character without permission for Erk D: I feel awful.

[china-kitty.livejournal.com]

The guy sounds very obsessive and grudgy against you. It's sad how people would act this way over something as mundane like asking for credit and you don't deserve that kind of treatment.

I had someone who is like that too and like you, ignored his messages hoping that he'll stop.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeah, this is the most bizarre situation I've ever encountered. He's not tried contacting me for a few days, after the post on canvas I haven't seen or heard him. I'm kinda worried things will get worse for a while if/when he sees this

[marus-puppy.livejournal.com]

Holy cow. Is he a member of any site other than IB?

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

He was banned from ib and fa but is still on da and so furry. I'm actually pretty sure he has another alt on fa but I can't get enough evidence to prove it, and has an alt on ib (incaren). He goes by a lot of names and variations, like I listed above.

[synccoyote.livejournal.com]

He's done this to my girlfriend, too. And has obsessed over her to the point where blocking him was a lost cause. He came back on multiple FA accounts, and I think he's back again, but still no evidence to prove it.
He will also insist that people not wanting anything to do with him anymore is everyones' fault but his own. He will latch onto and obsess over you if you so much as be nice to him.

DO NOT TALK TO HIM. D:

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeeeah, I learned the hard way I guess. Sorry to hear about your girlfriend :c.
I'm pretty sure he's on FA too, I've seen an account with a very similar fave/watch/interest history.

[kriscynical.livejournal.com]

Ugh, GOD, impersonators... I have experienced this and it is a huge pain in the ass.

When I first joined deviantART in January of 2004 I posted maybe 12 of my pictures before going to bed only to wake up the next morning to find my entire gallery cleaned out by the admins under the pretense of them being stolen and a bunch of comments on my front page calling me a thief. It turns out somebody had been on DA for four months prior to that completely impersonating me. Not only had they posted over 250 of my pieces but they were also talking to people as me, commenting on artwork as me, critiquing people as me, and even copying over my LJ entries to their DA journal.

People didn't believe I was the real me until I drew something as proof and posted it and even then I still had to go a step further for others. The impersonator deleted everything on DA and left a journal entry saying "too much theft -- off I go" with a link to my professional website, basically getting away scott-free. I had to put a notice on the front page of my website saying that person was an identity thief in order to fully prove that I was me. It was a MESS. :|

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Wow, that's awful D: Sorry to hear about that mess.

[xitokii.livejournal.com]

Seriously, this guy needs to stop harassing her. This sort of harassment wound him up permabanned from SL, twice.

Paid account or not on DA, they'll still ban him

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

He's been banned many more times than that on SL. He's gone through like 6 or so names on there since I've met him. His copybotting is what ended our friendship anyway, you think he's learn after that and the bans, but nope.

He's trying to harass me on aim and my personal journal, but it's not bothering me, easy to just ignore him :3 I know it'll end soon enough.

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

heres a screenshot of a message on empa's AIM user message about something I posted on vivisector recently. Taunting me because of the awkwardness I felt towards a holier-than-thou troll group forum. I think this post should be locked/frozen due to the fact that empa is purely posting this to troll me and gain more reaction from me and satisfaction for herself.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31099383/aim%20message.jpg

I'm not going to link to the vivisector post because its generally a very negative forum that should be avoided. Nobody should ever go there.

[synccoyote.livejournal.com]

No, she is posting this because you have done this to MULTIPLE PEOPLE, not just with moonjava and empa. You have gotten art of other people without their permission. That is wrong, and I applaud someone for finally posting about you here. You will even go as far as to say that someone else's character is your own to get porn of them.

This post should stay up. Just because you think you aren't doing something wrong doesn't mean you aren't.

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

also, regardless of whether this thread gets locked/frozen or not. I am washing my hands of this. Goodbye.

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

further evidence that this entire thread is a trollpost
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/31099383/hahaha_oh_wow.jpg

[synccoyote.livejournal.com]

It's not a trollpost just because you refuse to accept that you've done something wrong.

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

this has been a total hoot but I really should just stay true to my word and stop replying, even if y'all will think you've won with your little plot to demoralize me. I just know that we will meet again some day :)

[blasphemusfish.livejournal.com]

Guys I'm leaving! No really. Any minute now. Just need to reply again.

[thaily.livejournal.com]

"(4:54:46 AM) gecrux: anyway, have a nice night and enjoy your $300+ that you've wrenched from my fingers."

Yes, you wrenched it from his cold, dead fingers when he willingly gave it to you to draw porn of people who didn't want to touch him with a 20 foot pole. Poor baby!

*gag*

Screenshot everything, report everything, block everywhere.
Leave one [1] post up explaining the situation. Don't update it, just link people to it if they ask and never speak of it again; he obviously craves your attention until he can attach himself to some other poor sap, as he undoubtedly will when he can't get anything out of you anymore.

[tornaderman.livejournal.com]

Yeah.. i havent actually talked to him since march or so. I actually blocked him from just about everything I can think of lately as well to try to avoid more crap from him. I'm still having people link me to posts and shit he makes about me though and sdfaskldfj I don't even care. This is ridiculous.

Anyway, sounds like he's latched on to Zeriara. A perfect match of people there.

[armaina.livejournal.com]

what a horrible human being. augh. Thank you for posting this, certainly someone to look out for just in general, sheesh.

[kayla-la.livejournal.com]

Please reign in the insults a bit, thank you!

(frozen)

[erkgloom.livejournal.com]

http://lulz.net/furi/res/1814272.html

just thought I should post this here, more evidence of empa's attempts at trolling me.

she also posted these pictures in an attempt to get me to respond negatively. I am not trying to necro this thread or anything and I apologize for my negative words in the past. I just want this nonsense to be done with.

http://img.lulz.net/src/yiffiestcruxie.png
http://img.lulz.net/src/erk-ro-nyhm.png
http://twitpic.com/7blhzq

again I am really sorry about posting another comment here after I said I'd leave, but I feel like I need to point this out because this thread has already wasted enough of my time, and she is continuing to waste it.

(frozen) Official Mod Words.

[oceandezignz.livejournal.com]

This post has wasted your time for a little over 3 months and some odd days? Really?

Erk, if you want to get past this and beyond this then you really need to leave it. And leave it good. Stop looking for evidence of harassment and the like if its that distressing for you.

Also, looking at that thread in /furi/ you are no innocent, therefore you ought to really quit posting to this, to furi or to anywhere. Actions speak louder than words so if you stop feeding them things and live your own life correctly and cut the drama mongering - you'll notice they won't have any fuel to try and burn you with.

Thread frozen.