false seller, a rather sad story
Hello folks,
I don't know if this post will reach or "save" anybody from what has happened to me. I don't even know if anybody gives a damn about what I write here but I want to warn you about a certain girl from sweden who pretends to sell "rare" items (figures).
Her online name is "djmaxgirl" and she's here on figure.fm! I don't want to start a war, neither do I want to scare or terrorize her! But I gave her way too much time and warnings and since she doesn't respond in ANY way I'm just going to write her dumb, childish tricks down on the internet so everybody can read it. And I will stick to the facts and ONLY to the facts, and I will do it politely; in no harming, hurting or humiliating way!
If you are a friend of her and don't believe me that's also fine. But I can only tell from experiences what happened to me so please have the respect to at least accept my way of writting about her. Thank you.
The story:
On March, 7th I bought Vergil (the RAAAARE and expensive Devil May Cry 3 Kotobukiya Version) from her and paid him right away (about $2shipping40, including account. That was fine by me and we kept contact since that day. About three days later (I guess) she said she's going to ship him by swedish post office.
Weeks passed by, passed by, passed by...!
After she found out that the package was still in sweden she explained she will get the package back from the post office and ship it with UPS or any other FAST delivery services.
We now have MAY! ... it took almost 3 month to get the package from her to post office and from post office to her...?? Well whatever, I still trusted her - and I don't know why! Maybe because I was so excited about getting Vergil? I don't know... But what I truly regret to oversee was the 45 days of paypal's secure guaranteé were OVER... By now, there was absolutely no way to get my money back from her anymore.
On May, 13th I got the very last email from her where she wrote she's going to contact me right before she ships Vergil once again to my place...
Since that day I never heard from her ever again.
Until now (Spetember!) I tried to contact her with mail but I fail... She also doesn't respond on skype anymore... I want to say, I never used bad language on her in non of my emails!
The final proof of her being FULLY aware that she's screwing with me I got several days ago when I wrote on her still active "selling Vergil (SOLD)"-post a comment like "Thank you for tricking me..." and she deleted ALL her posts ONE DAY LATER!! (The original comment I wrote is still shown on my activity page! You can read it there!)
I also found her on tsuki-board (myfigurecollection.net)! Strange thing is, since I told her (email) I found her on tsuki-board I cannot find her account there either anymore!! She must have deleted it too for you cannot rename your username there... but I don't know that for sure.
I also warned her yesterday that if she doesn't respond within the next day/morning to my never-ending question "why did you do this? I want answeres please" I will write about her tricking way here on figure.fm and tsuki-board to warn other people! And guess what: NOOO respond at all. >(
So what do I wanna reach with that post I write? Please avoid to buy from that swedish girl! I know her name and location so if you're unsure if she's the one who tries to sell you something ask me about her name and city!
I WILL tell you because I'm sure she doesn't even have the figures she tries to sell... I never saw Vergil! I know it was dumb to not ask for pictures but I usually trust people who DARE to chat with me with voice and webcam... I never knew she would play her false face so perfectly...
And just for your information, I'm not crying about my money or the figure (even though I want one of them (back)) - what really hurt me is that she LIED to me from the very beginning. What she said, what she did... all a lie? And - I'm very sure now - she was UP TO trick me from the beginning, yet she was able to smile at me, laugh with me and talk about my fandom with me on skype?? You're the worst. :'(
If anybody made experience with djmaxgirl the same or approximate way as I did, please don't hasitate to comment. It will save a lot of other people from that girl.
There is no sense in staying silent and hoping it won't ever happen again, because it will if we don't make any action! Also, I still buy from other private sellers because there also is no sense in distrust everybody. ;) Let's make a chance for good! :)
Thank you for reading! Take care and beware.
Sonishi
tell me lies tell me sweet little lies - just that song
i think buying from bad sellers is just parts of this hobby, what i mean is, like when u buy a fake or conned. i am not saying its justify but part of the experience like love, its better to love than never experience love.
i once paid $200+ for an item that was never sent to me, so i was screwed over. its a bit like ebay - everyone has been cheated once on ebay but a bad seller.
You actually trust someone that long? You must be good. I would love to make a deal with you and then I keep quiet after 50 days. Sure. What easy way to do business like this.
Why not do everybody a favour instead of posting a story here, by posting all her details out.
Post EVERY SINGLE DETAILS which includes:
paypal email
name
address
skype number
email
EVERYTHING. Who knows she can get a "customer" on her door step. =)
It's not too late to warn everybody by posting all her details out here.
Also, you can try your luck with paypal, by finding out her bank account number and everything.
I'm sure that goes against the spirit of Figure.fm and would likely be a breach in terms and conditions of use. That said I would of opened a paypal case regardless of how trustworthy the seller seemed, but then retrospect is a harsh mistress.
Is there even a terms and conditions in this website?
I do know there's one term: "Be Nice".
Who is being mean first? Huh?
Just post everything here so that people won't get scammed by the same bastard.
I'm being totally neutral here and please don't take this in any negative way, but I am simply injecting a little common sense into the equasion is all :)
We are all being neutral. But you see we have to do everything according to the law. If there's no terms and condition says "YOU MUST NOT DO THIS" then it's fine to do so. So just post it up!
Don't just come here and write a story. Nobody is interested in story if there's no source, no pictures, not even a proof of payment. What is this? Framing? Accusing?
o__O
No need to be rude. Sorry that I wrote my story, but at least I DID wrote my story and didn't stay quiet. ^^;
I don't know if you meant me or Mim, because I got your comment too but it's better to write anything than nothing, no?
Besides Mim is right! I must not write private stuff about a person because it IS against the law and she could sue me in worst case if she wants. Besides I got banned on a site once before because I just said the USERname of a cheater. ^^:
I can give people her data private but I'm not allowed to do so in pure public. Unfortunately... :)
Good! Then there's no need to post this up anymore. You are better of deleting this.
Because there's no solid proof and anything. Not even a proof of purchase/trade?
Not even skype log and everything? Just come here, post a random picture, and claim that XXX CHEATED ME, and not even providing info anything.
Isn't this is like accusing? Framing? If this site bans you, then this site is also helping the so called "scammer" as well.
Pick your choice. Also getting banned here isn't like losing anything. No?
I'm not afraid of getting banned. I said she can SUE me for giving out privat informations and I don't really want international stress. ^^:
Sure I have everything! I have the paypal bill, I have her name, her mail-adress and I have proof (on tsuki-board) she did the same thing to others!
I have everything one would need to open a proper case but I cannot act against the law if I want them to help me. It's not about banning, it's about the law. And, yes I think it's unfair but this is how the world is.
I can't write down her private stuff without consequences. This is the SAD truth. :'(
Then why not at least post up the proof of purchase?
So what if she posted another sales here luring people under a different name? Don't we all get shot in the foot because of ineffective warning?
There's no need to be sorry my friend.
You have the rights to share.
And Thank you.
I really don't like your attitude Lt Dan. What Sonishi's doing here is justifiable whereas your ideas are not. They're rude and barbaric in a way. Posting someone else's data online just like that is against the law if you didn't know. What takes place here is not framing nor accusing, it's warning.
Forgot to add that as for someone who registered TODAY, you're a very eager contributer to this topic. I'm not sugguesting anything, or maybe.
First of all, this warning is ineffective. Without any email address or even paypal email address, this "seller" could really sell under a different name. So what purpose does this post serve again? Warning against conman?
Oh wait that should be common sense.
Warning against this "djmaxgirl"?
She could sell under a different name.
So what's the point? You are much better off to not post anything at all, no?
Also which "law" says that newbie can't contribute to this post? Don't we all "obey law"? Huh?
So we must have a "time limit" in order to post comments? Cool.
It's like waiting for weeks and then you start taking action like posting a warnin- I mean commenting. Hahahaha omg!
Thank you, buddy. That's exactly what I'm trying to do.
What CIN said is not that untrue...
I'm also not suggesting anything but I just am starting to think ...
Think that I am the conman? Cool. Sure sure go ahead and post all "my" details.
Not like I will sue people? I dare you.
I never said anything like that did I? ;)
Furthermore I'm quitting this conversation because it's beginning to make absolutely no sense anymore. On both sides! :)
No of course not. I'm trying to inb4.
This post makes no sense in the beginning anyway.
Gezz Lt Dan, i don't normally say things like this. But what are you flaming about. This post is a warning for others to not make the same mistakes as one who knows what happens. I to like to see this post be a good warning to others and hope that this doesn't happen. But i know this wont and most likely well continue... :(
Something tells me that you're "djmaxgirl" and you "coincidentally" created a new account-the same day Sonishi created this post about the scammer. But that's just my hypothesis; no need to reply xP.
ah~ nice touch! Lt. Dan stopped posting after this reply...
something smells fishy!! lol
Since Sonishi decided to stop the conversation, there's no point for me to continue anymore. Right?
You are so DJMAXGIRL it's not even funny.
So what if Sonishi just wants to share a bad experience with other people on this forum? Isn't he allowed to?? Lt Dan, you are really pissing me off, and you are just as bad as the seller in question.
Y SO SRS?
Reported.
You are so "djmaxgirl"... I clicked your ID and checked weather if you had other comments or posts.
You only have comments on this post, plus you created an account the exact day this story was posted, and for some strange reason your attitude towards Sonishi's post is unnecessarily overly offended.
If there is no point of continuing anymore then why bother commenting?
Who do you think you are to tell someone to delete their post? They got their rights to share whatever story they want... and If you think this whole story is pointless and ineffective?
Then you should have just ignored it and go on about your business, why even bother to leave like 10 or more comments on one issue?
"Y SO SRS?" like what "CIN" (from Poland) mentioned b4, let me ask you this and answer us all!!!
AS for someone who registered today, Y R U SO EARGERLY CONTRIBUTED TO THIS ONE TOPIC??
Dont tell me you answered already cuz your answer does not make sense at all. It sounds like you are trying to fit your own reason and convince others but we are not conviced. None of your comments are...
I kind of agree that sharing all the info you have might warn others. H
onestly if I got scammed I'd give out all the information I have.
When I buy figures from sellers on FigureFM, I usually google their email addresses and nicknames looking for some background before I send them my money.
It's really sad to read that but at the same time one will quickly relise that world is full of such low beings as she is as well. It's not always a happy place and there will always be someone willing to take advantage of you. I may understand why you kept your guard low with her but I'm sure you shouldn't lose hope just yet. If you have her real data, it should be possible to get in touch with the local police station or any other police station in Sweden and see what they have to say about it. Maybe somone from Sweden will be kind enough to give them a call and enlighten us here if it's still possible to recover your money. If you don't do anything, she wins and I'm sure this is what she wants so don't give her that satisfaction.
One word of advice, false seller equals false person. You have no idea who this person is, false identity and identity theft is very, very, common online, you shouldn't be posting personal information about others on websites no matter what, it could get yourself and others (innocent people) in trouble. I have personal experience in this. You think a person stealing money on the internet would use his/hers real name when you can basically just make up anything really. It's the same thing with bank accounts, it's impossible to know for sure. I hope this doens't happen to anyone else here and that Classifieds gets a feedback system, it would really help. The internet is a cruel place :(
Agh, my biggest fear is something like this to happening for me.. Luckily for myself it hasn't happened.. Yet..
But I do try not to buy from people who isn't trusted or not having enough feedback etc.
& always ask for pictures the person self have taken D:
I know the feel bro, same thing happened to me when I was buying a Yoko cosplay.
The girl told me she was in a car crash shortly after I bought the cosplay from her and said she needed time to recover since her arm was broken and she couldn't make the costume, of course I said "take as much time as you need" "fell better soon" etc. it turned out to be a lie just so the paypal protection would run out,
she then followed up by blocking me on any and all sites she and I were on so I had no way to contact her, I was so hurt that someone who seemed so nice would tell lies like that just to swindle me out of as much money as possible, my boyfriend finally found a way to contact her and he threatened legal action, so she eventually sent the cosplay out, but it was literally made from pieces of cardboard and dirty old shoe laces, she was probably laughing while gluing it together. I just dropped it after that, too much time and energy going after bad.
I don't like to name names but this person swindled at least a half dozen people I've actually talked to, so here's her user name: !Aneris, or at least the one she used when I talked to her.
I think everyone should take this as a lesson to never let paypal's 45 day secure guarantee run out, no matter how nice someone seems, if they were that nice they'd probably understand why you had to do that.
It always feels bad to be tricked but live and learn, at least you know it won't ever happen to you again. =)
I have been blessed this has not happened to me yet, but if you are in any time of E-commerse/trade its bound to happen atleast once. Closest thing I have come was commissioning a Yazoo cosplay for one of my BJDs, she took forever (said she was in college, so sounds legit) when I finally got it the arms where too small I had to take my poor BJD's hand off to get him in it, she didn't seal the top of the zipper track so if you pull up on it it will come off track and how she sewed the lining to the pleather made the coat bunch, she offered to "fix it" but after waiting so long I just said forget it, needless to say, Yazoo doesn't wear that costume much.
I've got a similar story, but i'm not going into detail since i to don't wanna start crap. But about a year ago i found a seller on Myfigurecollection, that was selling something i wanted. I like you had contact with her for months and i was even going to plan a trip to a convention and meet up. Yes i know what most of you are thinking and yea i know, "bad move".
But like you i waited for months and tried to get ahold of her, and yet to my efforts nothing. It was about 3-4 weeks before my trip and she stopped talking to me due to what i don't know, but since i seen some of the warning signs and i cancelled my trip with my friend who was going with me, and ended up going to the Final Fantasy Concert in San Fran. that year.
So i know how you feel, and it's not about the money or the items in question, but it's more about the fake feelings someone can put towards one or many ppl just for money or attention. I mean we could try to ask our selves "why" or "how come" or many other questions and by no means i'm trying to tell you what to do, but i feel this can just be a learning experience in what to do and not to do with talking and selling over the internet. I feel for you and hope you the best with everything, and i also hope that this one bad experience doesn't stop you from your hobbies or trusting others.
I've been burned by eBay/bad shipping more so far. :P Plus one commission from an American manga artist I never got. But so far so good, I usually buy locally in keep in touch with the sellers, especially if it's a big ticket item.
I've really become fond of this community, shame that instances like this happen. Thanks for the warning though. I guess the lesson learned: always have pics of what you're buying or at use your buyer protection asap.
Hey, I live in Sweden and if you want me to take a talk to her, just mail me her contact details to draken_long at hotmail.com and I can pay her a visit if she doesn't live too far away from me.
I have too been tricked, and therefore I want to help out everyone that has been tricked too. And hope that someday someone will help me if I get tricked again.
you know there's like 9 million people here? (i live in sweden too) and i don't think anyone would use their real name when scamming people online, especially if this person has done it before. only trust sellers with good feedback and ALWAYS file a dispute before the deadline. it's not very hard to "seem nice" online since you never really know anyone.
Oh I know that, PayPal don't accept false names(correct me if I am wrong with empirical fact), since it's connected to your creditcard and therefore you must give your real name or at least the real address, and if I have the address it's really easy to track that person down, since I've done it alot of times before(here in Sweden, and sometimes in the rest of the world). It would be a bigger problem if the person behind the PayPal account isn't the seller, instead it's her friend/father/mother/brother/whatever, it would require some more work, but I would get to her sooner or later if I really want to.
And I know how many people lives in Sweden, and I know how easy it is to gain the critical information about them.
And don't trust sellers with good feedback, because that's the mistake I did, and I payed dearly for it.
I don't think its right for someone to do things to others unless it was done to them. So unless the person really does live out there, and you know them by chance, I don't think you have the right to go after them for him. Im only saying this cuz, violence only leads to more violence. And im not one who believes in eye for an eye, but more he's just warning for us who don't know or might be tricked by someone else.
Im not trying to debate things or call anyone out, but I just can see what's being said here and I hope everyone else can take this to heart or at least be aware of the signs of a bad seller.
First of all, I didn't say anything about violence, I was talking I was going to pay her a visit and ask her why she didn't answer this buyers mail and maybe ask her nicely if she could pay him back or something like that. Why the hell would I fight her for? It's not my money on the stake here. I just wanted to be nice and have a little chat with her. But ofc you think immediately I was going to use violence on her(do you seriously think I will hit a woman in this lifetime? I would rather die before I hurt a woman)like I am a criminal person.
I would gladly take the help from someone if they are in the neighbourhood if they could take a chat with the seller and ask her/him what's up with everything. But it seems like you can't accept help.
Okay maybe my choose of words didn't come across. I wasn't implying for you to use violence but rather nothing good comes of confronting someone for someone else unless you knew them. Otherwise it can get worse not knowing the details of what really happened. Sry that I might said you were going to use violence, I didn't mean to imply that was going to happen.
Apologize accepted. I understand you thoughts there, but if you think the other way around. Wouldn't you be glad if someone offered you help in another country. Would you accept the help or say thanks, but no thanks? Even if the help doesn't does anything, or maybe makes everything worse (how much worse can it get for the buyer?), wouldn't you be glad that at least someone was kind enough to offer their help? I mean, we live in a world that it seems like noone cares about each other, and the world would be much better if people could give help and recive help. But that's my two cents of the whole incident.
I think it's great to get help from others, but i think there is a level of privacy we have to take as well. Unless you knew/know the seller or buyer then yes i can see how it's your business. But to get someone info without the others consent regardless of reason, is illegal in any country.
So what your whiling to help, is good and i don't see anything wrong with it, but how your trying to do it i can't say can be the right way, since the info your getting the person(s) in question finds out about how you obtained the info can sue for invasion of privacy.
Well you don't need to add a credit card to paypal to accept payment from buyers, you only need a bank account, and this account could be anywhere, in sweden or somwhere else. Of course, if I knew this person I would maybe ask about what they had done but my point really is, the personal information you think you have, it might belong to someone else. Of course it's upsetting that you get scammed, but unless we're talking about someone who ruined your life, the best thing to do really is to do what Sonishi has done here, tell the story, make people aware that it still happens and move on.
Allow me to say this.
Paypal do "allow" fake name, fake address and everything is fake.
It's their security flaw.
How if I say I have 2 separate paypal account and ebay account?
Oh, no... I'm not djmaxgirl. LOL
So just be careful friend.
Okey, I got enough of this sh*t. Whenever a nice man try to give help he just get's attacked. It seems like people here have some big f*cking trouble accepting help and even encourage scammers to behave like they do. I don't expect a "thank you" or a "good job" or anything like that, so don't get me wrong there, I just want to help beacuse I can help him, since I am in the same country. And if I'm getting the wrong person, I just apologize to her and say my mistake and tell her that someone uses her name for scamming.
Well, I am leaving this thread since it feels everyone one of you can't accept help without attacking the helper. And if you do indeed accept help, it don't feel like you show your appreciation.
aggggh, I think we've all been burned by an online seller at least once. This is why you file a PayPal dispute before the time-limit runs out!
I feel lucky that this hasn't happened to me (yet) *knocks on wood*
Though I do feel it's better to inform folks here about this then to keep quiet and have others fall into the same trap. That way they can probably check with you if it's the same information. I'm always weary about folks claiming to "sell" rare figures.
THIS IS WHY, IF WE ARE GOING TO HAVE CLASSIFIEDS ON THIS SITE, WE NEED A PROPER FEEDBACK SYSTEM.
I thankfully haven't run into any scammers yet (knock on wood), but I knew something like this was going to happen here eventually, in part because we don't have a real feedback system here--it allows people to sell to buyers that are essentially totally blind about their habits. Considering the value of some of the items listed here (rare figures, limited dolls, etc), I'm actually surprised I haven't heard about people getting scammed here sooner.
I hope Danny reads this post and sees how we need a classifieds feedback feature, to help limit this kind of behavior in the future.
Couldn't agree more about having a feedback section, this is figure.fm after all so people would come here to find/get info on figures. I wouldn't want to get Danny in trouble over it but I'd love to have a blacklist of bootleg dealing shops.
1
agreed
Maybe a simple Guestbook function on peoples Profiles would already be good enough. I've seen people use those for feedback on other pages. A simple "Nice seller, got my items super fast"/"nice buyer paid instantly without any issues" with a link to the original post of the item that was bought/sold would do it justice enough.
I also like the idea of a feedback system and I think it's a great suggestion. I wonder, though, what would be the best way to handle situations where someone is a first-time (or one-time) seller. When I go on the big auction sites I see many sellers with hundreds or thousands of feedbacks (feedsback?). I'm sure there are some good ideas out there on this.
I've never had a problem with a figure.fm seller, and I'm sorry to learn some people have had bad experiences.
Thank you for posting and sharing your story.
I think what Sonishi did here is DANG JUSTIFIABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
People need to hear stories of what happen, and crap really does happen in this field.
I also understand where Lt. Dan is coming from, but it was very unnecessary to be offended.
That's a raw deal, Sonishi. Sorry to hear about your luck and thanks for the heads up about this thief.
I think everyone needs to relax. . . You guys are too tense over this. (^.-)
How about we listen to The song Lili Marleen- the strike witches version to calm our nerves.
http://youtu.be/JnpWPxtAK-A
You should have used Paypals protection policy. If the seller was nice, they would understand the reason and give your money back.
Well, I am more to be a seller online on ebay rather than buying.
Things do messed up sometimes and it's not the seller's fault.
Shipping, customs confisticated the item randomly.
This is happening to me and what can I do is just refund or reship the item.
Reputation is important.
Not only that, sometimes buyers dispute even though they received the items. =O
And since the nature of normal registered airmail of Malaysia is poor, I never win the case like this.
Regarding the above post, it's just a lesson to all of us.
Dispute no matter how good the person if you don't received any items within 30 days.
If the item mange to arrive somehow, you can always pay back later.
I as ebay seller usually refund on the spot and make a deal with the buyers to pay back the item when they got it. It's a blind risk but that's better than a tarnished reputation, as a seller.
So guys, DISPUTE between 30 days!
My heads hurt with reading all this post, the beginning of the post was like a mind game from Death Note between Lt Dan and rest. I love reading and listening to people who been cheated or tricked because it will give me more self awareness. I never been in online shopping until after Anime Boston 2011 because I have the sense that I need to buy more anime goods. All my order and process were a success but I still dont trust a lot of the sites, So I will always background check on them. I wanted to purchase stuff from ebay but I have to own a paypal account and then come across paypalsucks.com and my eyes are awoken. So buy safe and dont trust anyone until proven con artist.