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Nope because it and the one under yours showed up after I typed it, clicked post then went off to a different section.

The more times he shows up though the closer he gets to being caught. No one can avoid slipping up forever.

It's the exact same writing style and M.O. The deceased woman has the same name as the woman he last pretended to be here on Dakka when he was calling himself Lord Serpius.

Since this doesn't seem connected to Dakka aside from this thread, I assume we cannot issue a warning in the form of a transaction report on the Swap Shop to the community avoiding this company/individual?

Afaik, there is no connection to Dakka other than a few members (such as the OP) who dealt with him / his new blog.

At some point, someone should probably make a site with a compiled history... but it's be too long and convoluted to matter, really, and he'll just come up with a new scheme next time.

Pretty much just continued vigilance is the key. I am certainly always on look out... but I don't believe this has any place in a transaction report / sticky or the like on Dakka. There have been other prolific scammers before, and eventually they run out of new legitimate names for Paypal accounts, or brush up too close with law enforcement, and realize it's just not worth it.

Granted, with this particular person that has taken much longer than usual. But I'm hopeful he'll realize this time around that there's just not enough gain in it to make it worth it, and also that he'll have run out of Paypal account information to use and won't want to burn his last one / few.

He's a known scam artist, so I don't know why we couldn't, though I mean he's already banned on Dakka from what the above said so I'd say he's probably already listed somewhere in the Swap shop.

Panzer, glad your got your money back.

Edit: Ninja'd by a SwapMod, so whatever he said

He is listed in transaction reports under his old aliases. However, that list is only for transactions made on Dakka, hence the more recent things he's done via blogs not being on there.

I think things like that would be better kept track of via another site / blog... it's just not the kind of thing that we want to do on Dakka (i.e. a "black list" or the like). Such things exist on Bartertown, and perhaps this information could be compiled over there. But no matter where it is, it's not going to stop people from clicking on a new conversion blog and buying parts, before it comes to light who is behind it.

The key thing is to pay via Paypal, and file within 45 days if parts are not delivered, with any company. However, as I said I'm hopeful that this will be his last hurrah, and he'll move on... but I've hoped the same before, so will continue to keep an eye out for these kinds of things.

WarOne wrote:Since this doesn't seem connected to Dakka aside from this thread, I assume we cannot issue a warning in the form of a transaction report on the Swap Shop to the community avoiding this company/individual?

It doesnt matter if its related to Dakka directly or not, this is now beyond that.

He is a common enemy and a petty con artist that deserves to be caught. Anytime that he is left free is time that someone will suffer, so....

Frankly, if I had any say in this, I would keep his status stickied till he is caught, wow he should feel honored xD

Sadly, just about no one reads stickies unless we force them to. Especially not the kind of new people who would be the most likely victims.

Can a mod go and edit that post to remove physical addresses? Such things should stay private. I don't recommend people post their email here either, too many bots about.

Done.

Mannahnin wrote:Done.

And that's why you make all that money that we don't pay you here.

The honor, it is to serve.

I'd never seen the obituary before, actually, so I was unfamiliar with that link.

The writing style, though, I'll disagree on. Almost every time a new thread popped up on Matthew that I had the "nerve" to post in, I got a new string of explicative laced emails from him. The writing/typing/spelling/grammatical style of those emails matched the messages I used to exchange with him on Bartertown before things went downhill with him there. The emails above are far too lucid, grammatically correct, and too free of the word "feth" (he used that "word" in actual conversation, rather than the actual "F-word") for me to agree that they match his style.

RiTides wrote:I think things like that would be better kept track of via another site / blog... it's just not the kind of thing that we want to do on Dakka (i.e. a "black list" or the like). Such things exist on Bartertown, and perhaps this information could be compiled over there. But no matter where it is, it's not going to stop people from clicking on a new conversion blog and buying parts, before it comes to light who is behind it.

Correct.
Bartertown has NO problem sharing any proven information we can collect on anyone who's scamming people.

We have a thread in our Hall of Shame forum on Matthew Bonder. ANY Bartertown member can add information (not opinions - FACTS only) to that thread. Note, however, that we only allow facts. If, for example, you want to update that thread and say that he's now operating as 3SS, please provide the proof.
The same thing goes for anyone in our Hall of Shame. If you've got provable information on them, PLEASE feel free to add it.


Eric

To be honest we have been openly commenting on 'writing style' when trying to figure out it is him for years... his wording may be different, but his attitude, business practices and excuses certainly aren't.

The lesson here being, don't feth with this community, don't rip off customers and then dare them to come at you, don't delay stuff for months or forever while claiming it is in the mail. Bonder or not, this kind of thing is unacceptable and bonderesque.

We, as a community should not tolerate this kind of stuff and should protect each other imho.

MajorTom11 wrote:To be honest we have been openly commenting on 'writing style' when trying to figure out it is him for years... his wording may be different, but his attitude, business practices and excuses certainly aren't.

The lesson here being, don't feth with this community, don't rip off customers and then dare them to come at you, don't delay stuff for months or forever while claiming it is in the mail. Bonder or not, this kind of thing is unacceptable and bonderesque.

We, as a community should not tolerate this kind of stuff and should protect each other imho.

If this was Facebook, I'd "Like" that comment.
It's not, so I'll settle for quoting it. : )

I couldn't agree more. That's why Bartertown has the "Bad Trader Reports" forum and the "Hall of Shame." It's all about protecting the next potential victim and, hopefully, helping to get the current victim straightened out.

I'd urge everyone here to visit the Hall of Shame and BTR forum on BTown and add any information [provable info, mind you : )] on anyone there. Feel free to share and use the information we have posted there.


Eric

Out of curiosity, what would it take to get this bastard in court and shortly afterwards, in a chain gang digging ditches? Mind, I know nothing of foreign law, but I find it surprising that this guy has been able to do this for so long.

MM, you must have missed the auto appended post last page where the person posted his reaction to the obituary link being posted. Complete with all caps and feths all around. He never starts out like that, only descends to it when exposed, as he has here.

Personally, I have no interest in compiling data or proof on any of his aliases, I was simply mentioning BT for those that do. There is mountains of it across his various past schemes, although not all public. Regardless, I'll be watching, as always.

BrookM wrote:Out of curiosity, what would it take to get this bastard in court and shortly afterwards, in a chain gang digging ditches? Mind, I know nothing of foreign law, but I find it surprising that this guy has been able to do this for so long.

From what I gather it's either a case that it's too small scale for local law enforcement with each individual case as the money lost is only in the hundreds and not thousands (however altogether I imagine it is quite a significant amount from all the people he has scammed over the years)

Or

The money one would be charged to simply take this guy to court is significantly more than you would get back (or something). So unless we have a rich gamer that got scammed that can take him to court on principle, if they can find him, as I recall he uses or used an old couple or a P.O. Box so he cannot be traced.


The guy appears to be very clever, having been able to scam the community at large for a good few years.

RiTides wrote:MM, you must have missed the auto appended post last page where the person posted his reaction to the obituary link being posted. Complete with all caps and feths all around. He never starts out like that, only descends to it when exposed, as he has here.

Nah.

REMOVE MY MOTHERS OBITUARY FROM YOUR fething EMAIL CHAIN RIGHT fething NOW.

If you look at it, the sentences are all caps, except the "fething," which is lower case. That's indicative of the filter kicking in. To be certain, I "quoted" the original message. If you do that, you'll see that the actual F-bomb was used in the email.
That's very abnormal of him. In emails with me, he always used "feth", rather than the ACTUAL F-bomb, as if he got so used to seeing it on forums that it just entered his natural vocabulary.

RiTides wrote:Personally, I have no interest in compiling data or proof on any of his aliases, I was simply mentioning BT for those that do. There is mountains of it across his various past schemes, although not all public. Regardless, I'll be watching, as always.

Don't blame you. That part of my message was "general information" for anyone who felt the desire, not to you personally. Sorry if I didn't make that clear.

Eric

If this guy has posted on Dakka, or any other reputable site, for that matter, it should be a very easy thing for a MOD to look up his IP. With this information, it is a very simple process to find out exactly where this creep is.
We used this method to stop someone that kept pestering a WoW guild forum years ago.
A friend posted up satellite images of the guy's house, car in the driveway, and street numbers on the front of the house. From there, what anyone that sees the information does with it is entirely their own business.

Unfortunately, in this case it's not that simple....

MM- Ah, I see... Unfortunately in my dealings with him, I got the full uncensored f-bombs aplenty, though.

Anyway, at least this time it is an open and shut case- makes for less drama!

I was one of the few lucky ones that actually got the stuff I ordered, the only thing that makes me feel bad is that I didn't know who it was at the time and I posted a positive review of the kit on here. I am sorry if anybody got screwed over after deciding to order them after seeing the review I posted.

Which reminds me that I need to delete the pictures from my gallery so nobody else sees them and thinks "they look alright, I should get some".

I'm rather reluctant to believe this was a scam - people actually received kits, and I've been following the development of the set from the start. Seems a bit of a crappy scam if you actually end up producing and mailing out kits to people.

That said, I didn't get mine. I did get a refund quite easily though, so overall I don't have a terrible opinion of the guy, and I certainly don't buy that he's the scourge of the community he's being painted as, but the fact remains: People paid for this stuff and didn't get it, for me that means, nice guy or not, he's not getting another order.

People do have a history of actually getting what they ordered from the known scammer, the only trick is to get in early enough in the scam. Make a couple legit sales and conversions, get good reviews, build up trust, then let that house of cards fall down.

I am going to delete my review so that no new people are going to order from him, for what it's worth that is about all I can do at this point to give back to the community. Again, I am sorry if anybody ordered from him and got screwed after reading my review.

Why is there any doubt about who it is? Writing styles don't really matter so much considering this was pointed out:

Mannahnin wrote:It's the exact same writing style and M.O. The deceased woman has the same name as the woman he last pretended to be here on Dakka when he was calling himself Lord Serpius.

Pacific wrote:Why is there any doubt about who it is? Writing styles don't really matter so much considering this was pointed out:

Mannahnin wrote:It's the exact same writing style and M.O. The deceased woman has the same name as the woman he last pretended to be here on Dakka when he was calling himself Lord Serpius.

As a side note then, is TSS (in the Warseer thread Charax linked) Matt Bonder/RSO too? As if that's the case then he's still active on a rather large forum.

The blog is "Three Stage Studios" and it's him. We know this from several sources- at least 3 completely separate ones. And, of course, this is corroborated by his posting the link that his mother is Susan Beasley- the same name and photo used by him in his last persona as "Lord Serpius" on Dakka.

Assuming the username "TSS" stands for the blog name, and it seems to since he is apparently advertising his products there, then yes it's him.

The good news is, even though I believe I've seen about 10 people so far saying they haven't received items in several threads/etc, refunds do seem to be being given... which is good. Personally, I believe this is because he is using someone close to him's real name / information: "Daniel Mandelbaum". Apparently it is a name / account he does not wish to sully. Either way, it seems with a LOT of persistence... people are being refunded.

Thanks for the redaction of my review. That way I don't have to worry about giving people false hope by seeing somebody actually get these things. Am I the only person on here that actually got what he ordered?

Charax wrote:I'm rather reluctant to believe this was a scam - people actually received kits, and I've been following the development of the set from the start. Seems a bit of a crappy scam if you actually end up producing and mailing out kits to people.

That said, I didn't get mine. I did get a refund quite easily though, so overall I don't have a terrible opinion of the guy, and I certainly don't buy that he's the scourge of the community he's being painted as, but the fact remains: People paid for this stuff and didn't get it, for me that means, nice guy or not, he's not getting another order.

er...... I think I ought to remind you how Bonder works.

1) He doesn't work alone, in fact he recently blends in new sites. Why? he piggy back legit people's reputation.
He offers free prizes, he offers free commission, in return he builds trust and reputation and people will believe him to be a good guy and NEVER DOUBT HIS PAST EXPLOITS.

2) He doesn't scam right off the bat. Why? being new at a new place where he is asking for money where no one knows him?
he would be stupid to start scamming with like 1-2 commissions going on.
Its better for him, to take some time to build reputation, till his business is large enough to sneak in multiple commissions simultaneously (no one but himself knows how many customers and job he took in )
within 1-2 weeks window ( when caught on ) . Then he stacks the scams when there are like 30+ ( random number ) people paying him at once.
He is required to have a large customer base at a same time so the paypal refund period can ALL EXPIRE at the same time.

Edit, now Im not saying TSS belongs to Bonders and Bonders alone, nor thats how TSS operates atm.
But I AM saying, that is how Bonder himself operates/ operated.