"Alleged" SCAM ARTIST LIST - Add yours here.

[Nick Lee-Shield]

Hey guys,

Sadly i got caught out by that CARDIFF people, and now they have used my identity to sell several items, including a set of Zeiss super speeds and a steadicam vest on cinematography.com. Now my account has been completely wiped - no inbox e-mails, recent posts, items for sale etc. The only legit thing i have for sale is my R1MX.

 

[Dino Jakovic]

This guy wanted to buy red mx from me but send me some file to watch and like an idiot i click the file and got infected. Head to clean install my PC change all the passwords just to make sure. Does anybody know what does the file do

 

[Anatoly Khramov]

Tom Baig is Sergey Kravchenco
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...natoly-Khramov&p=1644984&posted=1#post1644984

 

[marcian lazar]

somebody scam the account of a guy George Su from California.
he "sold' me a foton anamorphic attachement for 37-140 zoom. I lost the advance, i was lucky to cancel the balance.

 

[John Chater]

Someone from this company tried to sell a set of lenses. They talked a very good game. http://www.westbroadcasthd.com
It appears they used the name of a legitimate local film production person. Even had a local phone #.
As soon as I asked for proof of their legitimacy and third party escrow they disappeared.

 

[Sergio Perez]

Beware of Ebrahim Saadawi :

http://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic...ugh-one-of-this-sites-highest-rated-accounts/

 

[Costa Konstantinou]

FRAUD:
There's a guy who calls himsel Gareth Jones and claims to work for PROKIT London.

Tried to buy an Alexa from me. He ain't working for PROKIT and a fellow forum member, whom he reportet as a former customer, turned out to not even know his name (Gareth, or what his name realy is, just saw the member's add on this forum).

So, be aware! And always get in contact with the company directly instead of just believing someones "stories" about who he is and who he works for.

 

[Daniel Soderberg]

Guy/girl named 'Kay Jay' tried to scam me.

 

[David McMillian]

Mark Smulson / Alimar Company
this man no steal the small monies- he only big leagues.
is others knowing how many more good peoples has he take for a spin?
how this man slip legal systems and not get ride to jail?
is any one known to see what this man looking like or have wanted poster?
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?131631-alimar-compay&highlight=alimar
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showth...mar-company-and-Mark-Smulson&highlight=alimar
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?115984-Mark-Smulson-Alimar-Company&highlight=alimar
http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?130098-Our-Data-base-stolen&highlight=alimar

This guy takes the cake.

 

[Javier Banos]

This guy takes the cake.

he eat cake also - he have sweet tooth for steal good people monies
this guy big big boy - standing short & wide

 

[David Ruzicka]

Don't ever deal with FAE Studio, Marcela Lizcano. They are scammers. I have WTB listing, looking for Cooke lenses. They contacted me off reduser, in private email they have lenses they want to sell for really good price. Even sent me pictures. They were willing to sell them in person in NYC. I am right now on a train back home. They never showed up. But as I just figured out from a guy, who took down their website because they didn't pay him, they are scammers and criminals. He got me in touch with another guy who didn't escape without getting scammed. He confirm they are criminals. It was a God's blessing they never showed up. Be aware.

 

[Erich Roland]

Be ware of a guy named Dario Stegmayer who is a partner in a Company from Madrid/Barcelona Spain called Exodo Rentals or also The Anamorphic Factory. He does not back up his equipment sales.

Dario sold us this 3-lens set of Anamorphic Cinevison lenses said to be in “perfect condition”. The lenses arrived in a pelican, with no apparent miss handling or damage. I spent hours testing the 3 lenses with focus charts and lens projector to make sure they were in shape as advertised. But the 85mm would not sharpen up, it was clearly different then the other two lenses and soft. I documented everything very carefully and sent Dario an email with my findings and attached high-res images of resolution charts.

Dario was not pleased to hear this news and immediately blamed the shipping company and told me to make a claim against the shipper, because (he said) the lenses were “Perfect” when shipped. I had already told Dario the case was not damaged, and the shipper would want to see pictures of the physical damage to the case to support a “miss Handling” type of claim.

Here is my first problem with this seller. Right out of the gate he wants me to lie in order to cheat the shipping company so he doesn’t have to deal with this issue or back up his sale. I have a problem with that kind of thought process that the seller went to the dishonest plan immediately on the first response to a problem, with no questions about my testing or results.

I continue our email conversation to try and find out how Exodo rentals tested these lenses before shipping, to be so confident of condition at the time of packing them up. I asked if he had looked at the images I emailed to better understand my issue and is it different then what he has seen from these lenses prior to shipping? Dario responded that he did not look at my images, and that he was not a lens technician. Now I’m getting concerned because he is not cooperating in a way that would suggest he cared one bit. I asked to have his lens technician look at the images, because this is how these lenses arrived, we have a problem to solve. Dario then responded (email #3)….. “we don’t look at lens charts here…. and either do our clients”. Then Dario said “nobody has complained about these lenses”.

Okay, here is big problem number Two. This company has no traditional way of evaluating lenses (this is going downhill fast). Reading between these lines my thought is…. it ‘s very possible he really does NOT know what the condition of these lenses were when shipped, other then “nobody complained”, because he has basically told me exactly that!

Its the 85mm that has a sharpness problem, so it’s the one lens of the 3 that’s the easiest to miss-judge (without charts) because of all the out-of-focus parts in the frame can fool you into believing the in-focus part of the frame is sharp enough. When I focused the 85mm on a resolution chart you can see the problem clearly and has different resolving ability then the other 2 focal lengths. But we’ve established they don’t use resolution charts, so it would be tough for Exodos staff to know the condition of these lenses without using proper “industry standard” evaluation tools. Looking at resolution chart images it was quite clear to see that it was soft.

In email #4 Dario accuses me of possibly dropping the lens as to why it’s not performing properly because id had the lenses for a few days at this point. Yes, this is consistent with this kind of “bully” type of person, to grab any possible answer because he refuses to accept my results. And what has become obvious to me is that I’m dealing with a person willing to say anything in order to get away with… NOT doing the right thing…. like dealing with an issue honestly. I’ve been buying and selling equipment for over 30 years and you have to be straight-up with people when they are buying site-unseen. This seller is throwing out every possible excuse and offering ZERO help to find a realistic reason for the discrepancy or a solution to my problem with his sale.

Now I’m concerned that I’m going to be stuck with a Vintage lens repair which can be very costly and time consuming to get serviced, so I ask to return the lenses for a refund. Then Dario says “I will not answer any more emails from you, get a lawyer”. Terrific, this large rental company in Spain.... will not allow a return or back up his sale for used equipment! Id be happy if he offered to pay for the repair or possibly even just some portion of the repair, but no..... "get a lawyer".

I would steer way around these guys and look elsewhere for your purchase needs. And god only knows the rental gear probably is not well cared for, because we know they don’t use resolution/focus charts, and they wait for complaints to know if a lens has an issue…. these are words straight from one of the partners in the company!

BEWARE Exodo rentals or Dario from Spain!

 

[Tom Greenberg]

Aandrej Semberko, also known as Ignas Astauskas...Total Scam!

Aandrej Semberko, also known as Ignas Astauskas...Total Scam!

Beware of Aandrej Semberko, also known as Ignas Astauskas, using the email address: astignas@bk.ru He is supposedly located in either Lithuania or Latvia...either way he is a total scammer!!

In January, I purchased an Angenieux Optimo Style 30-76mm lens from him. He listed it on RU for 7000 Euros (about $7500 USD)...an amazingly low price, considering that this is a $17K lens new. I've bought and sold hundreds of items through RU and other online forums, so I thought I knew what to look for in a scammer. I asked him to send me current pics showing that day's date...I asked him to send me the SN#, so I could check it against the stolen equipment database...I checked through this thread to see if there were any negative comments...I checked out some other sales he had made to RUsers that seemed to go well. After doing what I could to verify his legitimacy, he looked ok, so I sent him the funds via PayPal.

It took a couple of days, but he finally sent me a tracking number for the shipment via Lithuania Post. I tracked the shipment online, and it eventually (3 weeks later) got to Chicago. I emailed him couple of times during this process, and he was always slow to respond, with not great English, but he did respond. Once the package got to Chicago, it seemed to vanish...after 2 weeks with no action, I placed a "lost mail" claim with USPS and signed up for phone notifications. That seemed to shake it loose, and within a couple of days, I got a notice that it was on it's way to my local Post Office. It arrived there and I got another notice that it was being delivered on a Saturday. Then on Saturday, I got a notice that it was "unable to be delivered due to improper address". I figured that was because it was a Saturday, and my business wasn't open. It was scheduled for redelivery on Monday, but Monday I got another undeliverable notice. I then called the local Post Office, and after 2 days of looking they called me and told me they had found my package. It was addressed to me, but at some address I'd never heard of...not the address I had sent him, not the address on the PayPal transaction. But I was excited that it finally arrived and drove to the PO to pick it up. When I got there, they handed me a box that looked like it had been run over by a train, and I was worried that the lens might not have survived the trip.

However, I shouldn't have worried, because when I opened it up, there was no cine lens inside...just some hunks of rusty metal wrapped in bubble wrap. Needless to say, I was pissed off beyond words. I sent him a flaming email (no response), but then remembered that I had paid via PayPal. I filed a PayPal dispute, and after 2 weeks of correspondence with them, they found in my favor and returned my 7000 Euros in full...THANK YOU PAYPAL!!

I've been putting off writing this post, waiting to see what the resolution would be. Now that the funds are safely back in my bank account, I wanted to let everyone know to avoid this asshole!

 

[Bryan Smith]

Wanted to flag a scam on Red User. Guy by the name of Jacob Bowman. He had an Epic W #000132 listed for 20K shipped from Houston, Texas.

http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?155263-RED-EPIC-W-HELIUM-8K-(Brain-Only)

We contacted him a couple days ago. Asked him to send some photos. He sent 3 images. Seemed legit. As long time Red Users and having bought and sold a number of items, we always do our homework. We have never had a bad experience. So we dug in on this. I asked him if he had any refrences. He said he purchased a set of Leica primes from Alexander Safdie. So I pinged Alexander and he said no one named Jacob Bowman ever purchased a set of primes. So I told Jacob that and then he responded saying he put up half the money for Antonie Fabi. Obviously a big name on Red User. Spoke with Alexander again and he said Antonie had been interested, but in the end he sold the set to someone else.

So we dug a bit deeper. Found that the images he sent of the camera were the exact same images Beau Khaler posted back in December for Epic W #000132. This was odd as that camera had sold and Jacob told me that he had purchased the camera direct from Red in Hollywood. I asked him about this and he said that he purchased the camera with Beau. Another flag. Spoke with Beau today and he said that is not who he sold the camera to in December and he does not know the guy at all.

Then Jacob told me to call Limelight Films, Elect Films and West Broadcast HD as he had worked for all of them since 2012. All these places said they did not know of a Jacob Bowman and he had never worked with him before.

So I continued to bait this a bit further as I was pretty sure it was a scam and I can’t stand that these people would get someone on Red User. I told him I was ready to go and would fly down to pick the camera up. He said that was fine, but would need to still take payment by wire because cash or check would not work. I offered Pay Pal and he said that was not possible as it only protects the buyer. Which is true. So he sent me his wire details. The name on the wire was Reginald Sims. This is a known scam name on DVX User and other forums.

http://www.dvxuser.com/V6/archive/index.php/t-294637.html

This guy is a scam. Hope no one has fallen for it.

 

[J. Ford]

I seen Bryan Smith's post and I wanted to post my exlperince with Jacob Bowman.
He did the same thing to me and my business partner Maz. We seen this and Maz replied quickly as you can see in his post. I took over the negotiations and told him that I would like to pick it up in person. I told him I wanted to check to make sure the camera was not stolen and he said ok. I called my bomb rep and he said that camera was not the owner. So I called Jacob back and he said his partner Winslow Braithwaite had brought it. I call my rep back and he said that was not the owner either. I called Jacob back and he said that his partner bought the camera from Beau. I called the rep back and he said Beau owned it. So I thought everything was good and I told Jacob, Beau would have to start the process with Red because I wanted the evaluation done. He texted me back last night and said Beau has started the process. I woke up this morning and seen he had the camera back on reduser for sale. I called and texted him and he has not returned any calls. I'm upset that these scammers are on reduser. I bought and sold a few Items on here. These scammers are getting ridiculous. Thank you for your post Bryan my gut said something was fishy.

 

[Dylan Couper]

Warning on user mark_andrew here. I purchased a black bear doorway dolly from him in early December. Took weeks for him to tell me it finally shipped but the tracking info was wrong. Thanks to Paypal for recovering my money. Communications were OK. He said that UPS picked it up but it got lost, and a few weeks it was "returned" to him, big apologies, did I still want it? Yes, I did. Paid again in early Feb. Never heard from him since and he has multiple other gear for sale here. Paypal is trying to recover my cash again.
I'll give someone the benefit of the doubt once, but at this point he belongs in the scammer list.

 

[Anthony Berenato Jr]

Shavaughn Melvin is a strait up thief. He is running a slow pay refund scam. He does not own any of the equipment he has listed for sale. He holds your money and then slowly sends unsigned money order refunds in small amounts. He took $345.00 from me. When he was contacted by the Las Vegas Police he admitted that he owed me the money. I just saw a post from another member who bought the same Scarlet at the same time that I did.

Shavaughn Melvin's posts should be removed and he should be banned.

I'd like to post that Shavaughn Melvin is back at scamming REDUser members again under the name Nathan Zaire. He had recently purchased a RED 5" Touch Monitor from me and is doing what is known as a Chargeback / Unauthorized Transaction Scam on PayPal. Very grateful for Seller Protection and the few people at PayPal that I've communicated with the last few days. Here's some information that will hopefully help someone in the future:

- A scammer may attempt to build rapport with you by mentioning another similarly priced item that they think is priced "too low to not be a scam."
- The scammer may ask you to drop the item off at an address not listed as their verified address on PayPal.
- The scammer will attempt to get you to ship the item to them in the fastest way possible (overnight), with hopes that they can beat the credit card authorization from going through before the item is delivered.
- The scammer may attempt to contact you later with questions, hoping that you will give them a refund - and they may further keep the item from you or send you back one that is not yours.

Shavaughn Melvin (also known as Vaughn Melvin), his fake account Nathan Zaire, and his production company Nivlem Productions / Nvlem Film Squad should not be trusted under any circumstances. Please do a search on any potential buyer's latests posts and make sure that they're established members of the community and not riding the waves of the free market here. There are plenty of user accounts that are brand new with no postings. Ask for proof of person and production company if you're ever in question - as no real person should have an issue identifying themselves.

Sadly, this still may not help against chargebacks - so be sure to make sure you fulfill your duties and requirements for PayPal's Seller Protection. Write a good set of Terms and Conditions. A chargeback scam is when a buyer initiates a chargeback on their credit card either mentioning that "someone else used my card / account" or a variety of other alternative statements you could imagine. PayPal will withdraw the money back from your account until proof of delivery is obtained. Keep all the proof you can as a seller, and be sure to check this forum for different names that appear once the buyer offers their PayPal address. I seemed to have missed this one in the shuffle.

Information about Shavaughn Melvin:
- Name: Shavaughn Melvin
- ALT Name: Vaughn Melvin
- ALT Name: Nathan Zaire
- Production Company: Nivlem Productions
- ALT Production Company: Nivlem Film Squad
- ALT Production Company: Heartbreak Productions LLC
- PayPal E-mail: nivlemproductions@yahoo.com
- Production Company Address:
4520 Lemon Gems Court
Las Vegas, NV 89130

I ask that the moderators ban Nathan Zaire (Shavaughn Melvin's alter ego) and reach out to anyone he's potentially going to con or has already. Ban any IP address that he's accessing this forum from as well, as he's a reoccurring felon.

 

[Harry Buck]

Scammer:Monserate Colon

On Monday I contacted this seller because I was interested in purchasing his Red Epic-W. We been speaking for about 2 days then I sent him a wire transfer for $27,000. The next day he told me he received the wire transfer and that he was going to ship out the same day. He did not ship out and I have been sending him numerous emails and even tried to call him but he did not answer. He finally emailed me back and said that he wasn't going to ship out the Epic because he don't want to ship to England. I told him that I paid already and now he is saying that I don't deserve the camera and that I will never see my money again.


He is a scammer and needs to be banned or if not his Epic-W post should be removed. Now I am out of a camera and $27,000. He's not going to refund me and everyone needs to be alert. Before I reply to his thread I want to check in with the Administrators and Moderators on this forum. I called my bank and they told me that the receiving bank has received the wire transfer. The seller even told me he received it and that he was going to ship out. I have been scammed. Lesson learned.

His Post - http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?155503-Epic-w-brain-for-sale-asap&highlight=epic-w
His LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/monserate-colon-54123a30/

Cheers,
Harry

 

[Monserate Colon]

This guy is a liar and a scam artist . he contacted me about my epic- w to make him feel "secure " about sending me money from the uk .. apparently he sent a fake transaction slip from the Barclays Bank with fund that I never received .. I've sold and bought on reduser on multiple occasion but my 6th sense told me this guy was a fake when I seen he had join just 4 days prior. But my experience has been good here so I went with it.. however I did make sign a contract under Henry Nathaniel Buck. His red user account is Cu0180760 please make sure this guy doesn't waste anyone else's time .. I can't figure out his motive .. I still have my camera and receipt in my name ..and he asked me 4 time to send him a picture of my epic-w with the serial number .. he doesn't even have a website..this is retarded and now hes trying to wrongfully slander my name like that gonna help him get my camera somehow smh

 

[Monserate Colon]

Scammer:Monserate Colon

On Monday I contacted this seller because I was interested in purchasing his Red Epic-W. We been speaking for about 2 days then I sent him a wire transfer for $27,000. The next day he told me he received the wire transfer and that he was going to ship out the same day. He did not ship out and I have been sending him numerous emails and even tried to call him but he did not answer. He finally emailed me back and said that he wasn't going to ship out the Epic because he don't want to ship to England. I told him that I paid already and now he is saying that I don't deserve the camera and that I will never see my money again.


He is a scammer and needs to be banned or if not his Epic-W post should be removed. Now I am out of a camera and $27,000. He's not going to refund me and everyone needs to be alert. Before I reply to his thread I want to check in with the Administrators and Moderators on this forum. I called my bank and they told me that the receiving bank has received the wire transfer. The seller even told me he received it and that he was going to ship out. I have been scammed. Lesson learned.

His Post - http://www.reduser.net/forum/showthread.php?155503-Epic-w-brain-for-sale-asap&highlight=epic-w
His LinkedIn Page - https://www.linkedin.com/in/monserate-colon-54123a30/

Cheers,
Harry

How can u live with yourself ur a freaking scam artist trying get over you bum .. work like everyone else and earn something you just did a whole bunch of nothing for no reason .. u sent no money and u have no camera .. get a life loser I'm calling as I type to ban your from ever buying a red again thank for nothing loser waste of time