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2013/07/09 03:04:51
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Guys, before starting, anyone who has actual FIRST HAND experience dealing with Daniel Mandelbaum should add their experiences to the thread, but no speculation or 2nd hand accounts.
Any comments or replies in the thread that AREN'T firsthand accounts, will be deleted.
Replies cannot include phone numbers and/or real world of addresses for Daniel.
The purpose of this thread is to provide a concise summary that people unfamiliar with the situation can read and digest as quickly as possible. I am attempting to stick to facts as much as possible. There are certainly enough corroborated events to list objectively without commentary tainting the perception of intent. If a new situation occurs, it should live in a separate thread and be amended to this one if/when evidence is gathered.
Thank you for your understanding and co-operation.
Anyone directly involved in a crime concerning this individual should at the very least make a report at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx to make sure the crime is documented. Eventually, one would hope the Gov will realize it is a significant and ongoing problem worth their attention. Also, please consider contacting the USPS fraud department here - https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/contactUs/filecomplaint.aspx
This post is a warning to the community, and a recounting of my personal recollections of events, supported wherever possible with direct evidence and links to the events in question. I post this as a user, MajorTom11, not on Dakka's behalf. I want to thank the site for their care for the community in general and the latitude afforded me to post this summary.
Daniel Mandelbaum has been active in the community since at least 2009 under a variety of aliases and businesses. He is a talented miniature converter, however, his dealings in the community are heavily clouded by allegations of theft, harassment, recasting, mail fraud, non-registered businesses (illegal) and lying. Allegations is a term I use only because he has not been convicted in a court of law, however, if you read the evidence linked in this post, you will find that the actions and events listed leave no reasonable doubt whatsoever on a great deal of misdeeds.
In the spoiler below is as brief a summary as could be put together detailing the events relating to Daniel Mandelbaum. It is by no means comprehensive, there are simply too many small incidents during the larger ongoing narrative to cover in any way that would be concise. However, for those with little time, it will have to do:
Spoiler:
The typical operation Mandelbaum allegedly runs is to set up a company or service under an alias, perhaps most famously as Red Star One, false 'real' name given as Matthew Bonder. Under this alias and the Conversion Corner website, Mandelbaum took a great number of commisions based on his talent. At first, he would deliver said commisions as expected. As time went on however, he would become later and later than his promised delivery dates, eventually not delivering at all.
As upset clients started coming forward and publicly complaining, he began engaging the community in a very aggressive and odd way. In perhaps one his most morally reprehensible acts, He went so far as to make up a fictional marriage and pregnancy that miscarried, and later the wife, 'Sarah', who after the miscarriage was soon dying of cancer as an excuse for non-delivery, saying he had to travel out of state both as an excuse for both not replying to emails and for not being able to do the work. This went on for many months, until eventually the furor surrounding the issue became so intense he simply disappeared, leaving many out of both their money and the models sent to him as base parts for the conversions. During the entire affair, he never let-up the steadfast claim that he was Matthew Bonder and that anyone accusing him of theft was heartless due to his dying wife and/or child. He also engaged in heavy harassment by both phone and email to anyone he had contact info for, particularly clients he still owed. This would prove to be a pattern.
Later, in 2011, Mandelbaum resurfaced as a member of Miniature Wargame Conversions, a group of talented painters, sculptors and converters. In conjunction with this, he also had several ebay accounts used to sell FW bits that were allegedly recasts. There were also recasts of another hobbyist's custom Knight Titan models that were sold without permission from their creator, particularly suspect due to using lego bionicle parts cast in resin, including an unmodified head. Amidst this flurry of activity of no less than 3 ebay accounts and his MWC activities, Mandelbaum began to fall under the same suspicions as he previously did as Red Star One, when packages and payments began disappearing. One of his favorite excuses, tracking was lost at the border or the mail lost it was particularly prevalent. As suspicions arose in the community at large it came under heavy suspicion that many accounts belonged to 'Matt Bonder' due to both behavior and work shown, and so public accusations began. One suspected account was a Dakka user account named Lord.Serpius, also the name of one of the suspicious eBay accounts. Mandelbaum, under intense pressure, had convinced his mother, Susan Beasley, to pose for pictures showing her licence offering this as proof that the account did not belong to Matthew Bonder. A long series of emails passed between Lord.Serpius and moderators on sites such as Dakka trying to 'work things out' as he continued to try to convince the community that he was a 60 year old woman in an attempt to hide his identity. During this time many MWC members spoke up in Mandelbaums defence, refusing to believe the long list of allegations against him and insisting the community had somehow got it wrong. These people were not party to Mandelbaums indiscretions, merely duped by masterfully executed manipulations to paint anyone making accusations as villains. Eventually though, in events that would prove typical to Mandelbaum, he lost track of which lies he said to whom and was revealed through a series of corroborated evidence, including identical phone #s as 'Matt Bonder' and other items including mailing addresses that 'Susan' was just another alias. His eBay accounts were closed and as before, once revealed he disappeared, shutting down his website and severing all ties to his recent aliases. As before, a great many people were left out of pocket on a variety of items.
'Matt Bonder' again resurfaced in 2012 as part of Three Stage Studios, another group of commission painters and modellers, some quite famous in the community. During this time he was also involved is a retail business and operating under the aliases of Kellz1234 and a ThreeStageStudio (TSS) account on DakkaDakka. As before, suspicions arose when very similar work was shown, some known to have been Bonders. When TSS was contacted by various former victims of 'Matt Bonders' alleged misdeeds, many acrobatics were performed in order to avoid admitting he was part of their group. The people speaking were named 'Damian' and 'Jeff', both later revealed to be Mandelbaum again. It did however prove tough to deny that 'Matt Bonder' was part of the group when he was posting his own former work as reference to solicit new commissions. It was at this time the most important single piece of information in the whole ongoing saga was revealed, the true identity of all the accounts and aliases, Daniel Mandelbaum. This was ascertained through multiple means, including phone numbers, addresses, email accounts and so forth. At this time it was also revealed that unfortunately, Susan Beasley, Daniel Mandelbaums mother, had passed away. Searches for her name, not knowing her true relation or about her death revealed an obituary page, revealing further connections and also a name that would come up later, Stephanie Hernandez.
Once his real name was discovered Mandelbaum began to panic and unleashed a torrent of harassment again against anyone he had contact information for. Eventually, he disappeared again, with TSS disbanded and many if not all of the former members realizing the error of their ways and disavowing him as a friend or colleague.
As before, Mandelbaum was ready for discovery and less than 3 weeks after the implosion of TSS, Resin Forge was opened. They went on to do business for a few months with only a few incidents that would arouse suspicion. As before, the business was based on selling Forge World parts initially under suspicious circumstances, but later being fairly well established to be legitimate parts. During this time, allegations were made of non-delivery by 3 people, and an allegation of attempting to purchase custom sculpts from a european hobbyist for unauthorized recasting were made.
Resin Forge was highly active in the weeks preceding the 2013 Horus Heresy weekender, gaining notoriety and notice for offering pre-orders on the unreleased Fulgrim model only available at the weekender at that time. There was no limit to the pre-orders, and a hard sell was made that it was even cheaper than ordering from FW itself. It was also stated unequivocably that this was all possible as the owners were flying over to visit family and would be attending with 2 empty suitcases. To be clear, Resin Forge had no way to guarantee any models at all, they have no official relationship with ForgeWorld, no arrangement.
It was at this point that a member of the DakkaDakka forums posted a warning to the community that ResinForge was in fact being operated by Daniel Mandelbaum. Evidence was not presented as the member felt it was not worth divulging the method of how this was discovered to justify the reveal, feeling it more important to be able to find him again if necessary. Initially, many familiar with Mandelbaum began to recognize a great deal of similar postings, conversions and methods in Resin Forge. Slowly but surely, a great deal of evidence was amassed that Daniel Mandelbaum was the owner. Ironically, it was cemented when Resin Forge had a cease and desist letter sent to the owner of Dakka to stop discussing Daniel Mandelbaum was the owner... sent on behalf of Daniel Mandelbaum. This is where things started getting extremely odd, even by the standards of Daniel Mandelbaum.
The firm that sent the C&D was a fraud, hastily assembled in the days before the CandD was sent using a stolen identity and a fake German address, the site was composed almost entirely by copy and pasted text from legitimate websites. This was discovered within 24 hrs of the CandD being sent, and the site mysteriously disappeared in the same period. At this point, 'Kim' and 'Jason' made themselves known and began posting that Daniel was an innocent member of their trio of owners. They also opened a 'hotline' to a cell phone to address any of his alleged unresolved dealings from the past, and to be fair they resolved a few incidents. Also to be fair, they acted as if repaying debts after 4 years of 'borrowing without permission' with no interest or apology made them perfectly trustworthy with a clean slate. The community continued to dig into the evidence and post about his past alleged ponzi schemes during this time.
Around this time people began posting politely on Resin Forge's facebook site asking for confirmation of Mandelbaums presence, evidence that they went to the HH weekender as promised, and also provide their business registration number as required by Texas law. One of the people who posted on the RFFB page, once, a Dakka member named Aerethan, was harassed at his workplace shortly afterwards. Resin Forge had checked his personal facebook page, deduced his place of work and called attempting to have him fired and threatening police action for 'harassment' done from their offices. This was Daniel Mandelbaum, calling from his father, Michael Mandelbaums phone (a number used frequently under other aliases). Shortly after this came to light, Resin Forge announced that Mandelbaum had quit due to ongoing harassment of him by the community, which he claimed was baseless. The two remaining owners, Kim and Jason (Jason only being heard from once) announced they would continue their business, strong as ever. They also sent paypal receipts to members of the community to 'prove' they were not involved in the fraudulent website the CandD was sent from around this time, there were however, 2 versions of this paypal invoice. Though both were sent from them and supposedly the same invoice, one said Stephanie Hernandez, another, photoshopped version, said Kim Hernandez.
The community did not let up on their questioning or scrutiny. Resin Forge began aggressively editing their FB page, banning anyone asking even polite questions and editing out anything that was not supportive of their business or calling the rest of the wargaming community scum and liars. Regardless, the community continued to examine the evidence being provided by RF themselves, and in some cases the lack of it. Due to this and the continued asking of tough questions they should have been able to easily answer, 'Kim' and 'Jason' announced they were closing ResinForge and had a firesale of their inventory, including a great deal of Daniel Mandelbaum's personal Sons of Horus conversions. This firesale was not conducted through their website, but instead via PM on their facebook page, and only available to past customers. This was of great concern as it cut the papertrail of ordering and bypassed what should have been a legal company with the structure already in place to do everything they were doing. It made no sense.
After it was announced they had sold everything to loyal customers, Kim declared that she alone had bought ResinForge and was now the sole owner, having nothing to do with Mandelbaum and planning big things. Essentially the same story as before, except this time RF leveraged the firesale. As it happens, despite 'selling everything', Kim still had plenty of stock to sell somehow. They continued to do business only through facebook PMs.
Next ResinForge asked a legitimate member of the community who did not have all the information to become a moderator of their FB page. This person, AJ, or ExiledMiniatures, sought to do positive work and engaged Dakka in person to attempt to calm things down. Quickly though, inconsistencies and oddities were piling up that AJ could not ignore or answer for, culminating in an extremely odd video of Stephanie Hernadez as 'Kim' wearing a mask. This video was supposed to be the 'incontrivertible proof and evidence that would put all doubt to rest' promised when she took over the company, but instead it was 60 seconds of monotone oddities that offered not a single iota of new information. AJ, not being able to account for or explain this action, and it being very much against his advice quickly fell silent not wanting to involve himself further, understandably so. He was associated with ResinForge for less than a week.
Though Kim/ResinForge claimed to have no connection at all to Mandelbaum, this was revealed definitively to be a lie shortly after the 'mask' video. Stephanie Hernandez, while claiming to be named Kim, was in fact Daniel Mandelbaum's significant other, as revealed in both Susan Beasley's obiturary, her facebook personal account 'La Petite Gamine', and however humorously a Myspace page for 'Mordecai Hernandez-Mandelbaum', a parrot owned by Stephanie Hernandez. Images of this parrot showed the room in the background as matching the 'mask' video previously posted by Kim. The parrot's MySpace page disappeared shortly after this was posted on Dakka.
It must be made clear the main point of the community's scrutiny towards ResinForge was to get 3 pieces of information, and nothing more.
1. To have proof that they went to the HorusHeresy Weekender which to this day they claim they attended. This was important to the community as they tried to pre-sell items they had no way to order, which would be fraudulent act from ResinForge themselves. 2. To show their business registration showing that Daniel Mandelbaum, Kim Hernandez and Jason were all legal owners of Resin Forge as claimed initially. It is illegal to run a business in Texas without this number. 3. To show their business registration number AFTER Daniel Mandelbaum allegedly quit, with only Jason and Kim's name on it, as required by Texas law.
At this point, several weeks had gone by with ResinForge under intense scrutiny and more and more lies revealed. During this time, Resin Forge accused the DakkaDakka forums of making 2 seperate death threats. None of this was corroborated or proven in any way shape or form, no evidence given whatsoever. The timing of the second threat was indeed fortuitous for RF though. 'Kim' had challenged Dakka to prove she needed a registration number, claiming it was untrue. A torrent of proof was forthcoming with multiple members posting links to the appropriate laws. At the same time, La Petite Gamine was found to be definitively Stephanie Hernandez's and also the Parrot site was discovered. Conveniently some might say, a death threat was supposed issued and Kim decided to close ResinForge down for good, blaming Dakka.
After this, using a sock-puppet Facebook account 'Sharkfrom Jawz', Mandelbaum continued to attempt to cast the community at large as the villains who shut resinforge down, and also attempted to attack his biggest accusers directly using the sock-puppet. All suspected it of being Mandelbaum immediately due to distinctive speach patterns and excuses, but it was revealed definitively that 'Sharkfrom Jawz' was an admin account for the ResinForge facebook page. As usual, it suddenly disappeared as soon as it was written on the forums. Not too long after, Mandelbaum was calling people he had contact info for from the RSO/Matt Bonder days to 'apologize'. Unfortunately he would call 5+ times even after being told not to.
This did not last long, as he was very quickly discovered to be operating a Facebook page called 'Black Crusade Studio' https://www.facebook.com/pages/Black-Crusade-Studio/481959581882223 under the alias Alan Welson - https://www.facebook.com/alan.welson?hc_location=stream . This page was under suspicion by many in the community from day 1 as the themes, conversions and methods were identical to Mandelbaums known style. Suspicion only increased when BCS started selling FW bits through PM only, something RF did pretty uniquely. But the real last straw was when BCS started taking pre-orders for a custom, 3D printed Chaos Warhound Titan, an original design not based on a FW conversion. It was quickly discovered that the image used for this sale was stolen from the original creator, who then made a Youtube video to announce he was being plagiarized by BCS.
At this point, there were only heavy suspicions it was Mandelbaum still. A thread was created on Dakka to notify of the stolen IP, but no mention of Mandelbaum was made in the original post. However, comments quickly appeared on the similarity of the scam and the FB page to Mandelbaums M.O were mentioned. Within minutes, Mandelbaum was on the phone threatening many people and claiming he had nothing to do with the hobby, this site or the internet in general for the most part. Over the course of the next day or so, investigation into the BCS site and the supposed owner, Alan Weslon, revealed that despite claims on the site that the company was based in California, LA area, and that Alan had been a longtime hobbyist working in the community, calls to local hobby centers revealed no one has heard of this individual. Meanwhile, BCS was employing all of RFs tricks, including friending the same list of hobby groups and personalities to spread their name, and also, the steady and inexplicable appearance of over 700 likes in the course of a few weeks, while only about 20 people ever like or comment on the content of the site.
BCS began responding to the accusations in a very Mandelbaum style fashion, blaming a mystery third party and casting himself as the victim, saying he wanted to get in touch with the original creator and sort things out. However, all links to the original creators contact info were deleted as 'trolling' from the FB page, as well as all questions to do with anything that could easily prove innocence or legitimacy. In particular, BCS claimed they had the 3D files and were selling custom, uniquely modified versions of it for cost. Why they would not seek profit, or need a pre-order was unexplained. The original creator claims it was impossible to get the files, and asked that BCS show an in-program screenshot of the 3D mesh, which is something easily shown in minutes if BCS was being honest about what they had. So far, all attempts to get answers are instantly deleted, and nothing has been shown to show any legitimacy at all, nor that they could have even delivered on the pre-order as they refuse to prove they even had the files.
In short, status quo to a Mandelbaum operation. During these events, I discovered some information that definitively linked Mandelbaum to the accounts, for reasons of not wanting to compromise the methods used to discover the truth, I have not given the specific information. I realize this is quite understandably not ironclad for people wanting to remain impartial and only wanting true transparent evidence, but, I offer the assurance of my word for what it is worth. That being said, regardless of whether it is Mandelbaum or not, BCS is not to be trusted and have already definitely attempted to scam the community.
Also worth noting, Daniel Pm'd several people on Facebook from the ResinForge account. Something that was sworn to up and down for weeks by ResinForge was impossible, as he was completely, totally, disassociated with the site, sold his share, removed as admin according to Stephanie 'Kim' Hernandez (Mandelbaum). This is not new information as we knew it was him all along, but, another typical slip up forgetting what lies he told when, revealing he never left RF.
As of this writing on August 28th, the situation is ongoing.
Daniel Mandelbaum is accused of many things within the community. Much of it has very clear evidence/records available to see at this point. Some remains likely conjecture. It must be made clear that he has not been convicted in a court of law, though authorities have been contacted, no single one of his alleged crimes has been big enough, though taken together the size of the issue is considerable. Daniel may or may not open another store/business/service again in the future. If he does, all I am doing here is informing you, the potential client, of what you may be getting yourself into. Consider that you may lose your money, or may be harassed, before purchasing. Remember that his businesses always do very well in the first few months, in which he establishes a good reputation. If nothing has gone particularly wrong with his business, this is no reason to assume it won't based on past history.
Ultimately where and who you buy from is up to you, I just want the community to be informed. In the following sentence, I speak for Dakka and indeed I believe and good member of the community: We do not, under any circumstances, endorse any action be taken towards Daniel Mandelbaum except through legal means.
Believe it or not, the above summary only covers a tiny fraction of the actual events. If you are not already convinced, or want to see the actual tale unfold as it happened, please see the links for the entire timeline. The scope and severity of the events cannot be accurately conveyed any other way.
Links to discussion of past activities and to past websites set up, by order of date:
Names/Aliases/Accounts used: Matthew Bonder (alias) RedStarOne (account) Great Hobby Bits (ebay account) Double your Bits (ebay account) Lord Serpius (Dakka account, eBay account) Susan Beasley (his mother-in-law, now deceased, claimed to be Lord Serpius while using her name) Three Stage Studio (Dakka account) Kellz1234 (Dakka account) Jeff (Alias from MWC) Damian (Alias from MWC) Stephanie Hernandez (Supposed Resin Forge co-owner and later owner, his significant other, had a real person participating but also posted using this identity as an alias) Kim Hernandez (Resin Forge Alias, attempted obscuring of Stephanie's real name to throw off investigation, an alias for an alias) Jason (Supposed 3rd co-owner of Resin Forge, likely alias, only ever heard from once via phone, all other posting similar syntax and patterns as Mandelbaum, not definitive but likely) Daniel Mandelbaum (his real name) Sharkfrom Jawz (FB account used to engage and harass his detractors, pretending to be an unbiased observer, quickly revealed to be a Resin Forge sockpuppet and an administrator of the Resin Forge FB page) Alan Weslon (Alias Facebook account and owner/admin of the Black Crusade Studio facebook page)
Daniel lives near Dallas, Texas. (His actual address will not be posted on the forum, as it is against Dakka policy)
This message was edited 5 times. Last update was at 2013/08/30 01:34:42
My involvement with him began in April of 2012 when he was operating under the name Three Stage Studios. He was producing a true-scale terminator kit at the time and I placed an order with him. Over two weeks I did not receive any tracking info and when I inquired about it I was told that he has had more orders than he thought and was running behind. I did receive a tracking number about 3 weeks after placing my order.
My items arrived in the mail and I received everything I paid for. I was truly happy with the product and didn't have any reason to complain.
About two weeks after shipping Daniel contacted me to make sure I received the order, and then he asked me if I would mind giving them a review. At this point there were also a few members of Dakka that were interested in the product and were posting in the thread about Three Stage Studios hoping for scale shots. So I took a few pictures of the models next to some Games Workshop models for scale and posted them on Dakka with a quick review in the middle of May 2012. During this time all communication from Daniel was professional and civil.
About halfway through July 2012 complaints started to arrive about Three Stage Studios on Dakka and I received a new email from Daniel asking me to defend him:
Please link your review and also I can give you screen shoots of that man/lir showing he got a refund that he asked for today as well as tracking this evening for free models. He is simply attacking me even after it was made clear that threads against me should not be made.
You will probably notice some of the same arguments and tactics that are currently on display on Resin Forge's Facebook site. At the time I ignored the email.
Over the next few weeks it seemed like more people were reporting problems with Three Stage Studios and people were getting concerned. I shared that I had a problem with delivery but that it was resolved in two weeks time (sound familiar?) and that I hope that everybody else gets their problems resolved as well. As more people started to have problems they would link to my original review and state "well, he got his stuff, so maybe there is hope". I started to feel like I had inadvertently contributed to a situation that has left people with money out of their pockets and no deliveries to show for it. I made my feelings known to the community, I apologized for my review and shared my sincere hope that nobody ended up loosing money after reading my review and then deciding to place an order. I asked the moderators of Dakka to delete my original review hoping that nobody else would place and order after reading it. During the same time we (the community) also suspected that Daniel Mandelbaum was also the real name associated with this person.
Shortly after having it deleted by a mod I received new communication from Daniel:
Daniel Mandelbaum wrote:
have seen the bs dakka thread.
All I want to say is I have your review saved so removing it to make it appear no one has ever gotten a kit is a waste of time.
In total there are 16 reviews of the kit on the net with over 75 people that have gotten them. I have had problems keeping with demand and have always sent refunds as soon as they are requested over the items.
I am not Daniel, and its slowed of you people to think that.
Im glad I saved your review and pictures before you guys "redacted it".
I wont let dakka make me look worse then things already are. Acussing me of this or that, removing reviews to make it seem like no one has ever gotten anything.. I wont play games like that.
I went through legal channels and filed a DMCA take-down request with Google over sharing my pictures (Yes, I pulled a GW, don't judge me since it was for a good cause ) which Google obliged and informed Daniel that any other copies of my review hosted without my permission would face the same actions. After some claims that Google advised him on how to circumvent the DMCA he dropped the subject.
That same other users also started to share reports of receiving phone calls from Daniel that would not stop. Daniel claimed in emails to me that he was the one that was harassed and that he was not the one making the phone calls. He states that he filed a police report and provided me with a link to the report. At this point of time the emails started to get profane, filled with swearing, and are very similar to communications others have shared that they received from RSO in the past. I stopped replying to his emails and that was one of the best decisions I have ever made.
I was able to verify with Lexicanum that the address on file for the police report provided to me by Daniel Mandelbaum was in fact the same delivery address utilized by Resin Forge.
I'm not out for blood and my only reason for posting this is to share my personal experience with Daniel and to establish a link between his past actions and current actions. To summarize:
1) I placed an order, had an initial delay. Was resolved within a couple of weeks, everything was good.
2) He asked me for a review, which I provided.
3) 2+ months later people started to report problems with his company.
4) My review was mentioned, and I decided to remove it since I was concerned that I had been used.
5) Daniel Mandelbaum started to send me a barrage of emails which no longer had the professional tone and instead were filled with cursing and accusations.
6) I was able to verify that Daniel Mandelbaum and Three Stage Studios had the same address as Resin Forge.
I still feel bad about the review and every time I see his name surface I worry that there might be people out there who lost money because of it. I still have most of the models sitting in a box , and sometimes I will take them out and start to plan a project with them. But honestly, every time I even hold them I feel sick about the whole mess I was involved in and put them back on the shelf. I just feel like I was one of the lucky ones to get my orders in order to build up orders and support for what felt like an effort to scam others down the line.
2013/07/09 04:49:38
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Here is my statement from the previous 2 threads. All relevant documents are still listed in the C&D thread should anyone care to view/hear them.
Sunday 5/5/13 I left a comment on the Resin Forge company facebook
page stating that the company was a known scammer, and that I guaranteed
the items would be sent from Texas, as that is where said scammer lives.
Prior to that I had very little(if any) involvement in the Dakka thread
regarding Resin Forge.
At 10:21am PDT on 5/6/13 I was called into the office of my Company
Director. He informed me that a man named "Jason" called stating that I
was harassing him online using company property, and that he had traced
the IP address of said comments to my company(National Vendor). In reality,
he checked my Facebook profile(at the time was public) and National Vendor was
listed as my place of employment, which is how he got that number.
I then explained to my boss the following:
1. I posted a single facebook comment, at home, from my own computer.
2. Facebook does not release IP addresses of those who comment on pages.
3. My comment was in no way harassment, it was a public warning.
4. Dakka post IP addresses are only available to admins and moderators of that
site. They are not publicly visible or accessible.
At about 1:35pm on 5/6/13 "Jason" called again, and was this time forwarded
to voicemail. In that message he left a call back number.
In it he insists that I am harassing him while on the clock, and using
company property.
All of my comments made during that day are unedited on the Dakka thread.
None of those comments were harassment, and most were not even directed at him.
The receptionist for my company then informed me that "Jason" yelled at her,
saying "He's doing it right now, it takes 4 seconds to fire him". She was
quite upset at the calls. After the 3rd call in 10 minutes, my boss informed
"Jason" that we would no longer be taking his calls, and that any further
contact would need to be made by a police officer with a legitimate badge number.
That evening, I proceeded to research a few things, and found a few interesting things.
First, about 90 minutes after the first call from "Jason" the person who we suspected him
of being met with a detective from Dallas PD to file a complaint for internet harassment.
The incident report is 0111735-A. The report lists Daniel Mandelbaum as the complainant.
Secondly, the number that he left for my boss to call him at is the same number that
Matthew Bonder(RSO) left to a person he scammed back in 2009, and which is publicly available
on the Bartertown thread that is linked in my post on Dakka. Seeing this, I then confirmed the
caller ID at my office as being from "Michael Mandelbaum", who is Daniels father, who lives at
the same address as reported in the police incident report listed above.
This confirms in my mind that Mattew Bonder was an alias being used by Daniel Mandelbaum back in 2009
when the scams first started. Resin Forge(who had been accused of being Daniel Mandelbaum)
admitted that the police report I had uploaded to Dakka was indeed made by him, admitting that Resin Forge
is run by Daniel.
Also relevant is the link between Susan Beasley, Daniel Mandelbaum, and Matthew Bonder.
Daniel admits that Susan is his mother. The evidence linking Matthew Bonder and Susan Beasley was acquired
by others, so I cannot have input on it's validity, but having seen it, it's rather damning.
This message was edited 4 times. Last update was at 2013/07/11 15:38:13
"Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! ... It’s become the promotions department of a toy company." -- Rick Priestly
2013/07/09 05:39:58
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
This is my experience with Daniel Mandelbaum via his initial ID/alter ego or Matthew Bonder. As a staff member of Bartertown, this represents the experience we had with him as a site, and not me personally:
After this, he was discovered assisting a previously banned user, feeding him information and "talking s***" about Bartertown and it's staff while he was an advertiser. RedStarOne was eventually banned from Bartertown - due to the BTR's and not the rest (as he will claim).
During the time that he was an advertiser, over the course of two advertising periods, he amassed enough debt in advertising fees (I do not currently have that information available, either) that a member of our staff was able to purchase the credit from us and contract him for TWO custom built Warhound Titans. Those Titans were never delivered.
Again, this post represents Bartertown's history with Daniel as RedStarOne and is not my own. While the PERSONAL experience I had with the man was HORRIBLE, I do not think it would do much for the thread. Once the thread grows a while, I will add my personal experience to the mix if it sees to be appropriate.
Eric
Black Fiend wrote: Okay all the ChapterHouse Nazis to the right!! All the GW apologists to the far left. LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE !!!
The Green Git wrote: I'd like to cross section them and see if they have TFG rings, but that's probably illegal.
Polonius wrote: You have to love when the most clearly biased person in the room is claiming to be objective. Greebynog wrote:Us brits have a sense of fair play and propriety that you colonial savages can only dream of. Stelek wrote: I know you're afraid. I want you to be. Because you should be. I've got the humiliation wagon all set up for you to take a ride back to suck city.
Quote: LunaHound--- Why do people hate unpainted models? I mean is it lacking the realism to what we fantasize the plastic soldier men to be? I just can't stand it when people have fun the wrong way. - Chongara
I do believe that the GW "moneysheep" is a dying breed, despite their bleats to the contrary. - AesSedai You are a thief and a predator of the wargaming community, and i'll be damned if anyone says differently ever again on my watch in these forums. -MajorTom11
2013/07/09 12:20:56
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
My history regarding Daniel Mandelbaum is one of gathering evidence on his activities and, in the case of Ken Perry, exchanging hundreds of emails, receiving over a dozen threatening voicemails in a single day (which I have recorded), and basically acting as a go-between for that trade.
Even more than my personal interactions, though, I would like to list the testimony of an "example victim" from each stage of Daniel's various enterprises.
Conversion Corner website, RedStarOne account (2009 - 2010) Testimonial: Ken Perry
Spoiler:
I am really NOT happy about being, for all intents and purposes, ‘forced’ into posting this.
Clearly Matt has been through a lot – the loss of a child and the loss of a wife.
But…
I started e-mailing Matt (RedStarOne, RSO, Red the Conversionist, etc.) way back in December of 2008.
I was looking for help in getting an all MKVIII marine army on the table.
It quickly became apparent that it wasn’t feasible, and would probably be too expensive in the end.
So, instead, we moved on to other conversions I’d like to have built.
Conversation went back in forth and on 5/13/2009 I sent the following to Matt:
1) Stormhammer Super-Heavy Tank conversion (Baneblade based)
2) Pre-Heresy Land Raider conversion (Land Raider based)
3) Venerable Dreadnaught (Finish a conversion I started but was having trouble completing)
Good communication followed and in late July 2009 he announced he was finished!
He sent pictures, I was happy and so, on 8/3/2009 he requested payment, and on 8/4/2009 I sent $120 to him via PayPal.
Now, oddly enough, nothing ever got shipped – but I was VERY happy with the pictures and figured this was just a minor glitch – after all, he was going through some tough times with his wife’s illness.
I received MANY assurances that Yes, my package is on its way soon!
In September of 2009, we moved forward with the next round of conversions:
1) Stormhammer Super-Heavy conversion (Baneblade based)
2) Stompa Lifta-Dropa arm (bits based, provided by me)
3) Leman Russ conversion – Magnetized with turret and sponson options
4) Space Hulk Terminators – all 12 of them, for removal of BA specific icons.
So, even though he still hadn’t shipped the first round of conversions, which I’d already paid for, I shipped him the next
round.
Many excuses and delays later, he announced that the second round was complete!
On 11/27/09 he requested payment, and on 11/27/09 I paid him $140 via PayPal.
I was then told everything was going to ship – no worries!
In fact, I soon heard that everything did ship!
I then FOOLISHLY believed this, and sent in the last round of conversions – ‘upsizing’ Marine vehicles to accommodate
my long labor of love, a Pre-Heresy True Scale Alpha Legion army.
So, without waiting to receive the package which had allegedly shipped, in December of 2009 I sent along:
1) 6 Rhinos
2) 2 Predators
3) 2 Whirlwinds
After MANY excused and delays, including TWICE being told that the packages had shipped but… mysteriously BOTH
times it was returned to him for… some reason.
On 2/1/2010, he emailed me to tell me that EVERYTHING was complete – finally!
Final payment for this job was requested on 2/1/2010, and on 2/2/2010 $235 was sent via PayPal.
Fast forward 13 MONTHS and over 150 e-mails later and still… NOTHING.
Now, you’re probably thinking … “What were you thinking?”…and I’d have to agree with you.
Basically, I believed all the stories Matt told me, and even though he could never provide a tracking number, I always
thought ‘tomorrow’ would be the day he’d finally ship everything AND provide a tracking number.
So, to summarize:
Total paid in conversion fees adds up to $495.
And the list of models?
1) Leman Russ tank - $50
2) Pre-Heresy Land Raider – plastic Land Raider $65
3) Venerable Dreadnought - $40
4) 1 set of Space Hulk Terminators – 12 Terminators, irreplaceable at this point, but call it $100
5) 6 Rhinos - $198
6) 2 Predators - $89
7) 2 Vindicators - $89
8) Stompa Lifta Dropa Arm – misc. bits
9) Stormhammer Superheavy Conversion - Baneblade Kit $99
10) Stormblade Superheavy Conversion - Baneblade Kit $99
Conservatively, that is what? That around another $829 right there.
That totals up to about $1300.
MANY times I've offered to send more money to get it shipped, but that never helped either.
Fast forward to 2011.
Matt has started a new blog, in order to “Pay it Forward” and “Give Back to the Community”.
He can find time to continue to model, organize give-aways and give back to the Wargaming Community…
But he can’t find the time to ship my stuff back to me?
Stuff I’ve already paid for and have been waiting, very patiently for, since August of 2009.
I don't know what else to do.
I’ve been supportive of him and his efforts.
As much as it is possible to be someone’s friend via the Internet, I have been his friend.
I can sympathize with what he’s been through.
I have been though some things during this time too.
I’ve had heart problems.
I’ve had a skin cancer scare.
My wife has thyroid problems.
And, most importantly, I’ve had my youngest daughter, now five years old, diagnosed with Autism.
She still doesn’t speak, and the medical bills associated with all of her challenges and now the legal bills as we fight the
school department to get her the services she needs… My hobby used to be a release for me, something to do to get away from the stress of ‘everything else’, at least for a little while.
Now, along with a lot of my money and models, Matt’s kind of taken that away too.
Now, he's almost killed this hobby for me.
I cannot recover from this hit. I cannot afford to replace what Matt is, for some bizarre reason, holding hostage.
I just want my models back.
The models I’ve already paid for.
The models I’ve offered to pay shipping for AGAIN in order to get them back.
The models that Matt allegedly shipped back to me (for the third time) on 3/9/11, that still haven’t arrived.
The models that allegedly shipped back to me (for the third time) on 3/9/11 but for which he still hasn’t provided tracking numbers.
If Matt wants to “give back to the community”, if Matt wants to “pay it forward”, I sure would appreciate it if he would do the right thing here.
forgive me for the late reply, i was away for the holidays and haven't checked the forums since.
I'll try to cover what happened as best as i can.
I contacted Matt on Feb. this year, i got eluded into the idea that he could scratch build 2 Thunderhawks (For myself and a friend). I did all the talks with him through my personal email.
At first he would reply instantly (same day or the next). We went over the specifics and after several emails, we both confirmed on the price tag and the completion date (he said it would take 4 weeks). However, as the weeks went by, his replies were slow till the point were i am ignored now.
He asked for half of the cost to begin work, and to receive the other half after showing the complete products. I kept asking for WIP pics, but he never provided any, always stating that he would eventually show me something.
Within weeks, i began to panic because he never showed nor spoke of the commission. I do not recall when it was (i would guess about 3 months), he vanished..... no word, no email, nothing.
I then discovered he had a blog, and that a bunch of people share the blog. I sent an email asking if Matt could reply back to me, i was told that he left the country for work and that his return to the country was not known.
Then comes September and Matt finally replies back. He sent me 2 pictures of a single Thunderhawk in different angles, without saying anything. I did not know what to make out of it and asked for a refund.
I've asked him many times to refund the money sent but he replied back " i dont have the cash, either wait for me to sell the thunderhawks or till i get paid"
His last email (september 27th) i told him "im afraid to send you money, since ive been waiting since feb." , he replies back with "I didnt ask you to send money did i?"
Now from that statement alone, im under the assumption "i will work on this at my own pace, if i want to, and when i do get it done, i may send it over" something along those words...
I do have a record of the emails.... its the only thing i got to back my story up....
Sorry for the long post, i hope that it made sense (forgive my grammar and punctuation)
If you need further details, please dont hesitate to ask. I appreciate your efforts to warn the community, i would hate for someone else to be fooled again by Matt.
You contacted me (RiTides) on the Dakka Dakka website late last year regarding some Thunderhawk scratch builds that you were waiting on from Matt from MWC (Miniature Wargame Conversions).
We have since found out this person's real name is NOT "Matt Bonder" but actually "Daniel Mandelbaum". This is because, in the thread that you last posted in on Dakka, he was posing as Susan Beasley. He then more recently linked to her obituary (apparently she passed away) which was quite foolish of him, because she was his mother and it listed all of her surviving relations, giving us his real name, address, everything.
We are now in contact with his local police department. Here is the entire thread where this all came out, if you're interested:
And here is the profile of a member who is gathering information about the case, to bring together to contact the local police department (he has already called them a few times).
Can I give him your email address for you to send him any evidence you have of the deal you are waiting on Matt (i.e. Daniel) to complete with you? I.e., Paypal invoice screenshots, emails, anything you can send him would be helpful (so probably easier to do so over email, rather than through the PM system on Dakka).
Hope you're well! Also, below is a copy of the PM you sent me late last year as a reminder...
Also, if you want I have all Matt (i.e. Daniel Mandelbaum's) personal info if you also want to get in contact with him directly, but I would recommend simply going to the police directly now, as your case seems to be for a high dollar amount that he never delivered on and scammed you out of.
Been so long since we last talked. Hope your in the best of health.
Sorry i could not reply earlier, but just recently im so busy...
It's so funny how Matt or Daniel contacted me a couple of days back... Saying how sorry he feels and how badly he treated me.
He said he would "Get back to me soon" to discuss my refund. I simply laughed at him saying that i do not expect to see my refund and that he has no right to ask for forgiveness.
Haha, and this part was weird... but he specifically said "But i need you to promise..."
I was shocked he expected me to accept ....
He went on "You do not contact nor talk to anyone in Dakka, nor do you share anything"
I think i see why he would say this..... You guys are onto him ^^
I can gladly send over whatever emails i have saved..... (Will have to compile them).
And please, can i get Daniel's contact info. i would like to report him to the police as well.
Thanks for your help
Regards,
Suhail/Shikimori
------------------------------------------------
And a follow-up email from Suhail:
It all makes sense now...
This is the info. he said was "His friend"....
My friends info is:
Michael Gary Mandelbaum
Full address edited out McCallum Blvd
Dallas, Texas 75252
Hey Suhail, here is some info, which matches up closely to what you sent. I have several other phone numbers for him, and the exact address is slightly different... but he is Daniel Mandelbaum.
Can you send me a screen capture of your Paypal transaction, and your name/address/phone number to put into the document I want to send the police?
I can also give you the info for his local police if you wish to contact them directly.
Sincerely,
Steve
See below:
"I got it through these records someone else linked to.
I'm a little slow on replies (on holiday with family).
Unfortunately I threw away any sort of evidence of payment. Back then I had them all stored, thinking I'd actually get my money back.
However, since I'm living abroad and so far away from U.S. , and realising I would never get anything from Daniel. I eventually accepted to move on and disposed of everything. (I'm only left with emails).
Over here, we mainly use Western Union (as paypal was not accessible for a very long time, but now paypal is). So that's why it made it difficult for me.
Will emails be sufficient enough for evidence? I don't know. If you think so, I'll forward them to you.
I'd like to give him a call and see what he has to say. But I do not expect much. I can't believe he'd send a refund back.
If you still believe I'll add any value to your cause, ill provide info.
Regards,
Suhail
Three Stage Studios website, Kellz1234 account (2012) Testimonial: Tommie Cheung and Max Morrison
Spoiler:
Hi Steve,
This was the summary i sent you 15th of August, 2012 regarding getting scammed from the said person.
I made an order and paid for their True Scale Space Crusader Heavy Armor x5 on the 13th of April, 2012, and well i still have yet to receive the item, and i tried contacting the guy multiple times to figure out what has happened to the order. I still have all the emails, paypal transaction number and all the details regarding the order.
I have included a copy of my paypal transaction to him for your reference also.
Link edited out
The guy who i believe to be Daniel replied to my email each time giving me different dates as to when he supposedly sent the goods which is a contradiction to each other. Considering it's been over 4 months i can't even submit a dispute through paypal to get a refund.
My details are as follow:
Name: Tommie Cheung
Full address edited out
Cheers and thanks for your help, please let me know if there is anything else i need to provide.
You contacted me via Dakka requesting details of my transactions with Daniel Mandelbaum.
Please find attached, all records I have of the dealings I had with Daniel Mandelbaum regarding ThreeStageStudios.
Hope it helps save more folk from being taken advantage of by this scumbag.
Name: Max Morrison
Amount lost: $71 USD
PH: Edited out
Not sure if my address is useful to you as im from Australia?
Its: Full address edited out Australia
I will forward all the email & chat transcripts I have, as well as the original paypal receipts.
Cheers,
Max
Resin Forge website (2013) Testimonial: Ryan Lancaster
Spoiler:
My name is Ryan Lancaster. I live at Full address edited
My home phone is Edited
My cell phone is Edited
Sunday 5/5/13 I left a comment on the Resin Forge company facebook
page stating that the company was a known scammer, and that I guaranteed
the items would be sent from Texas, as that is where said scammer lives.
Prior to that I had very little(if any) involvement in the Dakka thread
regarding Resin Forge.
At 10:21am PDT on 5/6/13 I was called into the office of my Company
Director. He informed me that a man named "Jason" called stating that I
was harassing him online using company property, and that he had traced
the IP address of said comments to my company(National Vendor). In reality,
he checked my Facebook profile(at the time was public) and National Vendor was
listed as my place of employment, which is how he got that number.
I then explained to my boss the following:
1. I posted a single facebook comment, at home, from my own computer.
2. Facebook does not release IP addresses of those who comment on pages.
3. My comment was in no way harassment, it was a public warning.
4. Dakka post IP addresses are only available to admins and moderators of that
site. They are not publicly visible or accessible.
At about 1:35pm on 5/6/13 "Jason" called again, and was this time forwarded
to voicemail. In that message he left a call back number of 214-864-Edited.
In it he insists that I am harassing him while on the clock, and using
company property.
All of my comments made during that day are unedited on the Dakka thread.
None of those comments were harassment, and most were not even directed at him.
The receptionist for my company then informed me that "Jason" yelled at her,
saying "He's doing it right now, it takes 4 seconds to fire him". She was
quite upset at the calls. After the 3rd call in 10 minutes, my boss informed
"Jason" that we would no longer be taking his calls, and that any further
contact would need to be made by a police officer with a legitimate badge number.
That evening, I proceeded to research a few things, and found a few interesting things.
First, about 90 minutes after the first call from "Jason" the person who we suspected him
of being met with a detective from Dallas PD to file a complaint for internet harassment.
The incident report is 0111735-A. The report lists Daniel Mandelbaum as the complainant.
Secondly, the number that he left for my boss to call him at is the same number that
Matthew Bonder(RSO) left to a person he scammed back in 2009, and which is publicly available
on the Bartertown thread that is linked in my post on Dakka. Seeing this, I then confirmed the
caller ID at my office as being from "Michael Mandelbaum", who is Daniels father, who lives at
the same address as reported in the police incident report listed above.
This confirms in my mind that Mattew Bonder was an alias being used by Daniel Mandelbaum back in 2009
when the scams first started. Resin Forge(who had been accused of being Daniel Mandelbaum)
admitted that the police report I had uploaded to Dakka was indeed made by him, admitting that Resin Forge
is run by Daniel.
Also relevant is the link between Susan Beasley, Daniel Mandelbaum, and Matthew Bonder.
As listed here: http://www.resthavenfuneral.com/obituaries/obituaries-detail.cfm?method=2&id=1738 Daniel admits that Susan is his mother. The evidence linking Matthew Bonder and Susan Beasley was acquired
by others, so I cannot have input on it's validity, but having seen it, it's rather damning.
At this point, should Daniel continue to call my company, I will have to file a restraining order
with Dallas PD, as his calls are a huge waste of company time and effort.
Attached to this email are the voicemail, as well as the caller ID noted above.
As these testimonies show, Daniel has a long history of creating aliases and websites to sell bits and conversion services, sometimes taking over a year to set up an operation before committing his first scam. Some of the above victims have been compensated, but some have not (Tommie Cheung and Suhail AlHashemi, for example, the latter being a very expensive conversion job).
For when Daniel or one of his aliases states that he has refunded everyone he owes- this is simply not the case. If you read Suhail's testimony, you will see that many victims simply give up pursuing him, or have no idea who he really is. Suhail stumbled onto the Miniature Wargame Conversions thread on Dakka, otherwise he would have had no way of knowing Daniel's true name and identity... being left with only an abandoned alias, and no means of contact. In Tommie's brief message, you will simply see that the Paypal refund window was run out, a common tactic that Daniel uses. Neither of these victims have been compensated!!
Also note that many of these victims are from different countries. Daniel is relentless in making excuses that buy him time to run out the Paypal window for refunds and the like. Please, take note of the above and if you have any dealings with anyone using a McCallum Blvd, Dallas Texas address... know what you will likely deal with if you do anything other than submit an automated refund through Paypal within 45 days.
This message was edited 3 times. Last update was at 2013/07/09 12:34:40
2013/07/10 16:56:41
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
I have a small account to add, although I never had any direct contact with Daniel Mandelbaum.
Once Ken Perry realized that getting his money and/or models would be very difficult, if not impossible (as listed in the Ken Perry account above), many of the users on Dakka Dakka volunteered their own models to help him recover from this tremendous hobby blow. I sent him all of the Blood Angel Terminator sprues, completely intact, from my copy of Space Hulk. These were to replace the ones he sent to Matt Bonder... sorry, Daniel Mandelbaum and never received back.
Daniel Mandelbaum has not returned these Space Hulk Terminators to Ken, which means that I am still out these increasingly difficult to obtain miniatures.
In May 2012 I order a TS4-A Tracked Cyborg Recon Unit
(Item Number 18528309) from Three Stage Studios. After a significant amount of time, I wrote emails and got a reply from a person named Daniel who stated that yes it had been sent already. No tracking number was given and the model never showed up. Total of the order was $21 - this is a small amount and I had forgotten it until I saw a post now on facebook regarding Black Crusade Studios. $21 is still $21 though and I really hope he is prosecuted. The email I paid the funds to was threestagestudios@gmail.com
I almost never post on Dakka but when I heard this bloke was up to his old tricks again I figure I should chip in.
A couple of years ago a certain Redstaron was posting on the miniature wargames conversion blog about his resing Knight paladin titans. Naturally this had a link to Ebay and offers to buy them from the person. So I put in an order for three, which cost about 300 bucks.
Afte a few weeks I had yet to received my items, but the seller insisted he'd have them out soon. There were always casting issues, or things needed to be tweaked, etc etc. Eventually I stopped getting responses altogether and I was preparing to file an ebay report.
Then I discovered posts about this person on this site and others. Soon I was demanding my money back and only when I began posting on a thread about this individual did I get a response. I even got a phone call and was told that some other person was responsible for the delay and that the ebay account had been frozen for no real reason but that I'd have my items very very soon. Overall a polite and pleaseant interaction and it set me at ease.
Sadly I forgot to put in my ebay report in time, missing it by a couple of hours as I forgot about there being 31 days in that month, and so forgot that the time period ran out on a 14th instead of a 15th. XD
Long story short, once they had their money and I couldn't get it back I never heard from this individual again.
2013/08/29 22:51:14
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
I figure it may be about time for me to share my own experience with Daniel and his associates.
I was a fan of the conversion work on the page and began chatting them up periodically.
When the HH weekender came up I decided I would pre-order Fulgrim and order another model who wasn't new just a general warhammer forge model.
I talked to Jason who assured me the model was coming but never provided tracking numbers, but seemed nice so no big deal. On day 45 I informed him I'd be opening a PayPal dispute, as so many others had done, and that he could wait out the 15 days to refund my money. I felt sympathetic that they were paying out a lot of returns and I wasn't in desperate need of the money, so no harm.
I had my refund 10 days later, no biggie.
A few days later I was approached by Kim and offered to help manage the Facebook page so she could focus on product and fixing the image as at this point everything was falling apart.
From my first introduction post the Dakka community accused me of being another alias.
So then I began talking on Dakka as a middle man between Dakka and resin forge. Once I showed I had a real identity and behaved in a calm collect manner Dakka accepted that.
Since I had already begun posting to defend my own identity Kim asked that I post things on her behalf and defend the company. So I provided the information I was given to dakka.
I also gave my advice to Kim in how to proceed. None of which was taken.
I was taken aback because my advice would have cleared resin forge and allowed them to continue to do business. But since Kim was so against it I began looking into the story some more and discussing with Tom privately.
Since I was no longer needed as RF was closing doors and I had shared some info with Dakka, I was removed as an administrator of the Facebook page.
A week later the SharkfromJawz account t shows up attacking Dakka and lex as an unbiased third party.
Once I saw the name I contacted Tom to inform him that SharkfromJawz was the administrative account on Resin Forge and was not a third party unrelated to the company.
After this source broke I received this angry email from the RF page which I only just recently retrieved from my archive of RF conversations. Which I have edited for language.
Why are you giving personal info to dakka?
This isnt a joke or a game
and you playing me for a fool is pretty messed up.
Ok then, ignore me..
ill go ahead and write Jason an email about how you were the only one to know who the admins here were and you told f***ng dakka.
Do you realize i filed cyber stalking charges against a number of them already?
Now when they ask how they keep getting info, I have to tell them.
I thought I could trust you AJ.
Seems I cant trust a single f***ing person.
Thank you very much for making the world so much more clear.
And enjoy Dakka.
Assuming this to be the end I archived the emails until two days ago when I get a new message from Daniel through the resin forge page.
He just wanted to talk to me in person.
Just to be clear, and this will be added to the original account, but Daniel was always, always the mastermind behind ResinForge and never, ever left. If you ever need to wonder why you should never trust a word from his mouth, look at the length and level of vitriolic hate and adamant swearing up and down he was long gone for weeks if not months during the Resin Forge episode. Here we are, 1-2 months later and Daniel Mandelbaum is sending PMs from the main Resin Forge account. He is a pathological liar.
I also have a personal experience with Redstarone or Matt Bonder as he was known back then. In 2008 I commissioned a Thunderhawk from him for around 200$ I think it was. I believe I was the FIRST person to get a commission from him and I can verify that he did deliver the merchandise as planned.
Now, that is not to say that the same complaints as others have had did not apply. It was very late, and there were a lot of excuses of random family members being sick/dying/whatever which included his wife, etc. Also, it was not fully delivered as it had no base and I had to fully replace the cannon as it wasn't what we agreed on.
However, it was the correct shape and fairly well done if not a bit simple. So while perhaps every other deal he's done has been a scam, his first was delivered. I feel that he saw how much money he could get and just decided to screw everyone else over.
For verification, the Thunderhawk in my gallery is what I'm talking about (after a lot of modification tho with bitz).
I'm only adding this for completeness and honesty, I am in NO WAY saying this guy is even remotely trustworthy. He tried to get me to buy more and I refused after he didn't deliver the final pieces (such as the base).
Keeper of the DomBox
Warhammer Armies - Click to see galleries of fully painted armies
32,000, 19,000, Renegades - 10,000 , 7,500,
2013/08/30 01:36:16
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Please note new info in the first post, and, also new and of note to all reading are the links in the bold red text that can be used by victims to report fraud to the Government and USPS by quick and easy internet form. It is very important that the crimes be reported by all so that the cumulative problem will be apparent to the authorities.
You guys aren't going to believe this story, but he's been at this a while....
Back in 1997, I was a frequent trader on a site called Bartertown. At the time, I was running a GW store out of my dorm room after getting a rather liberal GW as my "retail" salesperson. It was pretty sweet because I was getting GW for I think 55% off retail, which lead to me buying literally every FB/40K/Mordheim/BFG/Necromunda army in existence (over the course of a few years).
I found I was spending so much time building miniatures and attending classes in college, that I really did not have time to paint miniatures. There were a lot of guys running these "I'll paint your miniatures for $1-2 since I live in my mom's basement and have nothing better to do between bong hits". So I looked at quite a few and finally settled on none other than Daniel Mandelbaum of Dallas, TX. I sent off a big box full of miniatures. As soon as he had them, communication slowly dropped off over time, until it was apparent he simply wasn't going to send them.
I had a few friends who lived in the Dallas, TX area, so I decided to drive down from Maryville, MO and give Daniel a visit, since I had his home address. I put on a business suit and stopped by the address he'd given me, to find that the address was his father's house. I told him I'd just driven down from Missouri, which clearly disturbed his father. I told him that I'd sent this big box of miniatures to Daniel some time ago and hadn't got anything back. His father said that Daniel had a lot of people that sent him miniatures and he really had no idea if the miniatures were here or at his mom's house. As it turns out, Daniel's parents were divorced and Daniel split his time equally between the two houses. His dad told me something to the point of "Daniel is a good kid, but he's got problems, and I don't want any trouble. He should be around soon and I'll see about getting your stuff back to you."
So I stop by a couple days later, this time decked out in black leather, looking kind of like a biker. His dad answers the door and the stuff isn't there. I tell his dad, "Listen, either Daniel is going to get me the stuff or I'm going to find some other way to pay back the debt." His dad was visibly disturbed and began repeating "he's a good kid, really, he's a good kid." There might have been a few tears - the guy looked scared. I'm not a small guy, drove here from Missouri, and was indirectly implying I might hurt his kid or something, so it's no wonder. It was all a lie, I'd never hurt a kid... but that was exactly what i wanted him to think. I told him "I'll be back tomorrow - this is going to be Daniel's last chance to make things right."
So, I go back the next day. His dad gives me a box which contains maybe 75% of the stuff. I can't really remember if I got any of the cash back or not.
The fact I was able to reclaim any of it seemed like a miracle. Also makes for an awesome story I've been telling since 1997. And... honestly, I started to find plenty of other people online who had been ripped off by Daniel as well. So... guys.... this fraud has been going on since at least 1997. At the time I want to say he was around 16 or so. I remember he was young enough anyway that pressing charges wasn't helpful and that's part of why this adventure became the reclamation method. So he's probably like 32 now, having spent half his life actively engaged in fraud mostly related to Warhammer 40K.
If you'd like a little more proof of my claim... The whole incident led to me realizing that a painting studio could make good money if only it was a serious business ran by professionals. It lead me to creating the first painter out there who called themselves a "painting studio" when founded NVStudios. You can even still see it on the Wayback Machine... http://web.archive.org/web/20031217181731/http://nvstudios.com/
Daniel is my age, so he would have been 12 in 1997, which is a time when every kid thinks they are clever enough to scam and get away scott free.
You'd think his dad would have set him straight when Bill the Biker showed up in his leathers, but apparently not.
"Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! ... It’s become the promotions department of a toy company." -- Rick Priestly
2013/09/07 13:06:00
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Okay, so my wife corrected me: this happened during our 2000 spring break in college. That might be why I was thinking he was like 16.
I remember also that somewhere along the way Bartertown did a major site update and I kind of remember a lot of the old information either getting lost or misplaced. Otherwise you could look back to 2000 and find dozens of people who knew about Daniel back then.
I have to admit I'm a little excited to be able to perhaps use this old humorous story to finally stick it to this adult criminal.
2013/09/07 19:16:55
Subject: Re:The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
I was ripped off by Daniel Mandelbaum. I met him on Dakka Dakka in about 2008. I commissioned him to paint some IG troops and assemble/paint some IG tanks. I gave him Paypal payments and over $300 worth of assorted SM miniatures. When I did receive some
of the IG back, they were painted horridly and assembled like an uncaring child had been loosed on them. To be fair, I did receive a nicely painted Commissar Yarrick and an IG Officer. EVERYTHING else has been repainted, reassembled or just shelved.
In an effort to move on and leave his drama behind, I settled for a Shadowsword kit from GW that was given to me by Justin Wu. I know Justin has made a lot of enemies in the hobby, but he really went above and beyond to get it resolved. To the point he basically sent me the item without receiving any payment for his shipping or product.
I did receive all of my miniatures back, but was out the payments and miniatures that were traded for work either never completed, or done badly. I did not keep old emails, messages, etc... due to the fact I had washed my hands with the stain on our hobby known as Mandelbaum. Little did I know he wasn't done with us.
"But i'm more than just a little curious, how you're planning to go about making your amends, to the dead?" -The Noose-APC
"Little angel go away
Come again some other day
The devil has my ear today
I'll never hear a word you say" Weak and Powerless - APC
2014/01/30 16:59:03
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
In an effort to keep things up to date, and for us to stay ever vigilant the following things should be noted:
Some time in the last month(I was slacking on checking these):
Alan Welson's FB page is gone
Black Crusade Studio's page is gone
and Resinforge.com finally was pulled(this may have been further past)
And in just the last week Daniel Charlie Frank(who admitted to being Mandelbondsley several times) pulled his page as well, which had a few pictures of him and his damned parrot(likely the mastermind behind all the alleged scamming).
Meanwhile his accomplice,Stephanie Hernandez' page "La Petite Gamine" is still up and rather private.
I've not seen any conversion work or sites that look to be in Daniels rather noticeable style, but pages getting pulled down is a small red flag that another round may be coming or is already in motion.
"Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! ... It’s become the promotions department of a toy company." -- Rick Priestly
2014/05/26 12:10:27
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Black Fiend wrote: Okay all the ChapterHouse Nazis to the right!! All the GW apologists to the far left. LETS GET READY TO RUMBLE !!!
The Green Git wrote: I'd like to cross section them and see if they have TFG rings, but that's probably illegal.
Polonius wrote: You have to love when the most clearly biased person in the room is claiming to be objective. Greebynog wrote:Us brits have a sense of fair play and propriety that you colonial savages can only dream of. Stelek wrote: I know you're afraid. I want you to be. Because you should be. I've got the humiliation wagon all set up for you to take a ride back to suck city.
Quote: LunaHound--- Why do people hate unpainted models? I mean is it lacking the realism to what we fantasize the plastic soldier men to be? I just can't stand it when people have fun the wrong way. - Chongara
I do believe that the GW "moneysheep" is a dying breed, despite their bleats to the contrary. - AesSedai You are a thief and a predator of the wargaming community, and i'll be damned if anyone says differently ever again on my watch in these forums. -MajorTom11
2014/05/28 03:47:26
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
"Bryan always said that if the studio ever had to mix with the manufacturing and sales part of the business it would destroy the studio. And I have to say – he wasn’t wrong there! ... It’s become the promotions department of a toy company." -- Rick Priestly
2014/05/28 03:49:22
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Resin forge is active again. The people must be informed.
I have had interactions with Mr. Mandelbaum, however in the interest of keeping my identity secure I won't be posting them here. MajorTom has records of it.
I look forward to seeing if Dakka can beat it's old record of scam shutting down.
40k: IG "The Poli-Aima 1st" ~3500pts (and various allies) KHADOR X-Wing (Empire Strong)
Ouze wrote: I can't wait to buy one of these, open the box, peek at the sprues, and then put it back in the box and store it unpainted for years.
2014/06/02 20:00:15
Subject: The History of Daniel Mandelbaum in the Wargaming Community: Be Informed and Careful
Due to recent events I was searching through some of the prior testimonials, and found this one that I thought should be copied over into this thread, as it links several of his prior aliases with his real identity, and clearly shows how he operates. I hope anyone considering working with Daniel Mandelbaum will keep in mind the experiences of posters like the one below.
LuckyNo.5 wrote: I've been reading this thread for a while and it's just gone too far Matt/Daniel. The lies, the circumventing the truth, running 2 aliases and getting caught up in both of them. Dragging everyone into the muck with you including your poor Dad.
I'm Ron Gamble/LuckyNo.5/eyeoferror.blogspot.com/ I used to be one of Matt's writers on the MiniaturesWargamesConversions blog up until about 5 weeks ago when Matt/Daniel started pulling some seriously useless drama over on us in an effort to cover up the fact that he owed certain members of the blog money and or commission work that was not delivered. When some of this started coming to the surface Matt amazingly got Cancer out of nowhere and was apparently so distraught by it and the fact that he couldn't afford treatment that he'd decided to kill himself. Which made no sense to me cause why would a person kill themselves if they only have less than a year to live anyway? What ensued was days of "cry for help" messages on face book "This is the end", "Carry on the blog when I'm gone" blah blah blah. Well regardless, the suicide never happened and the cancer disappeared quickly as did any facebook mentions of it, as if deleting the facebook comments means it never happened.
I can tell you all with all certainty that Matt Bonder is Daniel Mandlebaum…or shall I say Daniel Mandlebaum is Matt Bonder (Yes he even lied to us as MWC using his Matt Binder alias instead of his real name). I know this cause I helped "Matt" in the beginning with Threestagestudios. Now I wish I didn't cause I hate to think of the fact that I contributed to people being screwed over. We all knew that his mother passed away some months ago and certainly were sympathetic to it. He never showed us the obituary though, probably because it listed his real name.
I was one of the member Matt/Daniel owed money too on MWC and eventually I did get a refund from the Lord.serpius (Susan Beasley) account. This is when I started to realize how truly "disconnected" Matt is from reality. He was under the impression that the refund would magically fix everything never comprehending that it wasn't about the money in the first place…it was about the fact that he lied to all of us, the MWC members who stupidly defended his character online with such zeal only to realize that we were ultimately duped by this liar who didn't never even told us his own name. What's even funnier is that my own personal dealings with him were over a ForgeWorld Rhino tank that I had purchased off of him and was never shipped. Why did it take over 6 months to never ship a model? Obviously it's cause he didn't have it in the first place, or he wanted to keep it for himself. There's not other reason it would take that long. Funny thing about 2 weeks after I left MWC I get a voicemail saying "I shipped the model to you anyway, no need to pay me back for it". Yeah. It still never came in the mail
Well after that fake suicide stunt myself and multiple other writers left MWC and formed a new blogging group sans-Matt. http://www.standardtemplateconstruct.net. The first 2 weeks post the shake up were shall I say "Insane" Matt/Daniel would compulsively call all of us multiple times a day, switching personalities from "I'll drive out there and kick your arse!" to "How could you guys do this to me" to "I wish you all the best" Needless to say we were all amazed at how obsessed this guy was at attempting to prove himself right in the whole matter. I reached out to him twice during the whole ordeal. Once to tell him why we were leaving MWC, then a second time to tell him to stop contacting me.
Matt/Daniel follows a very specific M.O. when dealing with others; It's that of a 16 year old child. He talks a lot of smack and then never acts on it. He always makes it out to be that he is the victim and not the perpetrator of the crime and when he is confronted he acts like a caged animal, lashing out verbally in all directions. It's really quite an unpleasant set of personality traits that all culminate to creating an individual I no longer wish to be associated with. This is a God Damn Hobby about building small plastic dude men. Why does it need to be tainted with useless drama and underhanded scheming? Everything about MWC almost turned me off from 40k all together, but thankfully my enthusiam was reborn when I decided that there was 1 simple factor contributing to all my displeasure: Matt's antics. Simply remove them and Boom, all is right with the world
I write all this with certain trepidation because I know that in about 5 mins I'll start getting calls from multiple phone numbers and nasty voicemails saying things like "Be a man and tell me straight up what you think of me etc." Matt/Daniel…don't bother. I won't answer your calls and no amount of childish goading will make me contact you back. I'm sure you'll make threats to kick my arse, call me multiple expletives and the like the true freak of nature you are try to friend request me on facebook a day later and leave positive comments on my blog.
This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 2014/06/02 20:03:01
Renegades - 
KHADOR 
X-Wing (Empire Strong) 
