fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #2212 ]

⌈ Secret Post #2212 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 03 pages, 063 secrets from Secret Submission Post #316.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

The anon-fraud thread got me thinking- have any of you ever run into fraud in fandom? I'm talking about the kind of illegal shit like charity fraud, job scams, identity theft, and stuff that's not technically illegal, just immoral, like taking advantage of people's goodwill and promising to deliver on things they never do?

The major one I can think of is this Arkh Project thing. I knew almost nothing about it until I did some looking into it, because an acquaintance of mine had talked about it, and if that's legit I'll eat my computer. $5000+ gone to concept art? Yeah. That screams scam if I've ever heard it.

There was another very recent incident that is only on my radar because an online friend of mine was very pissed after this, but a creator of this thing called Firework Comic was constantly begging for money, even got Neil Gaiman to promote her requests. Anyway, turns out this girl was loaded. She basically took the money of well-intentioned people and buggered off. Which I find kind of disgusting.

Yeah, I've never been scammed, but you hear about that sort of thing happening. And I have to admit, there are times when I find the idea really tempting - when I'm particularly worried about money or sick of work, the idea of just making some vaporware Kickstarter or something for some easy money starts to get really appealing.

I'd never do it, of course, but it seems so easy to do. And that seems really enticing sometimes.

(I'm sure, also, that it's somewhat more difficult than it looks, and you have to put a decent amount of effort into a good fake if you want to pull the thing off)

I have nothing but disdain for the Arkh Project, but I do think it's less an actual scam than it is being run by completely stupid people.

When I hear "scam" I think of, like, pseucides. Or there was this girl in RP a few months ago who was begging for money for medical treatment even though she was also buying video games and premium paid accounts.

Someone in one of my smaller fandoms faked a grave illness/hospital time/we're not sure she's gonna make it/it's a miracle she's alive .... for sympathy, I guess, because all she could've gotten out of it was some flower arrangements and cards (which "her best friend" instructed us to send to her house, not the hospital...where some people called anyway to discover that no one by that name had been checked in).

Dating myself, but I was hanging around in the HP fandom when the whole Cassie Claire laptopgate went down. I wasn't a fan and didn't donate, but holy shit a lot of people did. Classic wank.

All wank leads back to Cassandra Clare. It's like the fandom version of 6 degrees of Kevin Bacon.

not sure if it counts as fandom since it's about commissions and art trades, but boy do the people at artists beware have tons of stories along these lines.

some of the stories have to be seen to be believed, with some artists raking in thousands of dollars from several commissioners who don't know of their reputation of not delivering art or who think they will luck out

and then the artists changing nicknames over and over, repeating the process

crazy

Well, there's this guy: http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/index.php?title=Kevin_Wise

Obligatory mentions:
- Tessa Stone
- VB/OB/Turimel/Bit of Earth (with bonus transwank surrounding VB's later history)
- Laptopgate

Also I vaguely remember some issues surrounding a fanart fundraising thing for Katrina relief (or maybe it was Indian Ocean tsunami relief?) that went down in the HP fandom. Anyone remember that?

I never got something I bought at a fandom charity auction, but it's not a big deal. Shit happens. The charity got my money, that's what matters.

Oh, I was around who_anon and fandomwank when Torchtanic went down. the fw wiki is down, I can't find links, but it was a SERIOUSLY money-mismanaged con in about 2009, iirc. HILARITY.

TORCHTANIC LINKS:

http://www.journalfen.net/community/clairvoyantwank/462511.html
http://www.journalfen.net/community/fandom_wank/1210754.html

YOU ARE WELCOME

There was the Moonlight bus ads SNAFU from several years back. Man, was that fun to watch as it unfolded.

http://cleoland.pbworks.com/w/page/10373453/Moonlight

I got caught up in a pseuicide wank ten years ago in a tiny corner of fandom...nothing was scammed but the whole situation was people throwing good emotions after bad. It was ten years ago, and it still informs the way I feel about people online, but in a fairly positive way. I feel like I know the signs and the risks now, and I've not been faked-out since. It felt just like you say - not illegal, but only because there is no way to make something so hurtful illegal.

Arkh is a bag of crap. VB/Jordan Wood/Andy Blake/Thanfiction is still out there and still delivering - hosting cosplay events in SPN fandom these days? Still really sketchy and glomming on to as many randoms as he can suck into his radar, at least, and asking for money for something or other every few months.

I wasn't involved at all, but does anyone else remember when two or three lesbian bloggers turned out to be straight dudes? It was a year or two ago, IIRC. One of them had even invented a narrative of living someplace where homosexuality is illegal and faked being arrested so he could go on vacation. I think Amnesty International even got involved in that case. I'm pretty sure that same guy had been trying to get a book deal for his fake persona, too, and both of them had online girlfriends maybe?

I knew someone who masqueraded as another person within our group of friends. The sock then claimed to be in the hospital. Then the sock's "family" started posting claiming he was dying.
It was only by a slipup on the person's part that it was figured out. The accounts were then discovered to have the same IPs, all that.
They never asked for anything, but they strung people along via IMs, texts, and calls for months.

[ SECRET POST #2212 ]

Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)

Re: Fandom Fraud (not about anons!)