Have I been ripped off?

prowla

Well, the more people who come forward, the higher the profile of the issue. This isn’t a random one-off. 

WiresDreamDisasters

Regarding Action Fraud - I never heard a peep when Ross Fingland did me over. The only reason I got my money back was because my lover @Heartfeltdawn did some proper sleuthing work that I was too stupid to do, and the other person who was also scammed joined in on it, and we all ganged up on Ross and called him a fat ass and took the piss out of his OKCupid account until he gave me my money back.

And Eventide even stepped in and sent me a replacement pedal, free of charge! The bloody legends!

p90fool

.

prowla

An update on this, with some collated actions from various sources:

• There are several cases logged with Action Fraud and the later ones reference the earlier ones.
• A number of people, but not all, have received refunds. Someone even received it TWICE, but they've been more honest than the fraudster and returned the 2nd one (oooooh, it was sooooo tempting though!).
• The fraudster  appears to have taken down a their profile and some of the associated group ones. They are still communicating with people via FB Messenger, however.
  
• They did use a proxy/fake profile "Jason Lear" to communicate with some people; the profile picture used for that account was actually of another Michael Mason (unrelated AFAIK), who was notified of this, after which that profile disappeared.
• The fraudster was also found to be advertising the same items on Reverb, but the account was taken down.
• The fraudster has sent the same shipment tracking information to multiple people, claiming it to be proof of attempted delivery; of course, there are no tracking checkpoints showing such attempts to the various victims addresses as it apparently wended its way on its tour of the UK.
• A number of musicians have come forward to say they are owed money too; whilst this is a separate matter to the straightforward fraud of selling items with no intention of delivering them, the amount is tens of thousands.
• The fraud cases raised are not negated by the fact that the fraudster has refunded some of the people after the fraud was uncovered.
• There are still people who are being "refunded" via an echeque to PayPal, which then fails after a couple of weeks delay.
  

It is also worth noting that the fraudster is trying to portray themself as a victim in this, so we should beware of posting implied threats and wandering away from the topic and documented facts.

Rob1742

Well done Prowla. Easy to walk away from £100 for an easy life. But to get all this together you are helping others that currently have issues, but more importantly helping to stop future issues.

I really hope the police deal with this, which I think should be a fairly easy one for them given the depth of the issue. They won’t walk away either, they will want this one over the line.

Really pleasing to see when someone goes the extra mile to stop this sort of thing. Very well done Sir 

DB1

Indeed. Very well done. Someone tried to scam me over £110 the other week, and it wasn't so much the money (I could live with being scammed for that much, knowing that I'd only be £110 down, but he would always be a scumbag) but the principle of it. It was far easier than your situation, so well done for tackling it in the way that you have.

prowla

There are several people sharing/coordinating with each other; some have stepped up from a previous iteration too. 

It’s all very community spirited. 

guitartango

prowla said:

There are several people sharing/coordinating with each other; some have stepped up from a previous iteration too. 

It’s all very community spirited. 

See he is back on FB and Marketplace

poopot

Guess who's back
Back again
Shady's back
Tell a friend
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back, guess who's back
Guess who's back

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100010826582679

prowla

Seems like I missed the party - I hear the game of "whack-a-mole" was quite popular.

prowla

...though Pass-the-Parcel was a close second. 

poopot

Any update on this? Did he get pulled?

prowla

A word of warning - he is now back selling items on Gumtree (the Bugera amp and the guitar case).

Creed_Clicks

Can the police not prevent him from selling online? (Is that even possible....?)

viz

I haven’t mentioned this before but I was watching this thread with interest. 

Mason asked me to play for his Queen tribute set in March 2020, just before lockdown.

Yesterday, after two years’ delay, false promises and other nonsense, and the day after we started preparing legal proceedings, he has at last settled the debt. 

roundthebend

His current FB profile is still active. He's linked with a Phil Collins and Genesis tribute band, and a Queen tribute act. Plus others.

Worse, we have a mutual friend. I'm wondering if I should notify the friend, who I suspect knows him because of music industry interest in promoting events.

Bod

As someone that suffers with anxiety, I really don't know how people can carry themselves like this.  I guess narcissism is the other end of the spectrum.

horse

viz said:

I haven’t mentioned this before but I was watching this thread with interest. 

Mason asked me to play for his Queen tribute set in March 2020, just before lockdown.

Yesterday, after two years’ delay, false promises and other nonsense, and the day after we started preparing legal proceedings, he has at last settled the debt. 

 Great news. I know a guy he didn't pay and just gave up in the end

Rob1742

These type generally win because people back down and let them win. Too much hassle etc etc. I get it, it’s easier to walk away and this is why the baddies win.

I have seen it loads of times, from youth to recently, I generally avoid them as I can generally spot them a mile off, but even though I think I can spot them well, I’ve been caught a few times.

I had someone rent a house from me, he caught me for £14,000. Nothing I could do to stop it getting to that level, you aren’t protected and have to accept the debt will go big.

Won at court, but getting the money back is a different game altogether.

One nice win I had was to apply to take the money from his bank account. That was a nice day. You literally get what’s in there. I think it cost me around £800 to execute it, and his account had £700 in it. 

Not the desired result, but knowing he would have been shopping not knowing what was going to happen and suddenly his card wouldn’t work because his account has been cleaned out gave an element of satisfaction. 

I’m going to carry on playing with him, just like he played me. I doubt I will get the money back, but if he is always wondering what I might do next it might stop him doing it to others. Although I doubt that as it’s clear he has a history of it. 

boogieman

I wonder if plod ever did investigate? Especially with the suspended sentence hanging over him.