[It seems this member has "sold" many of these puzzles to forum members but no one has received them. Unless a swift and understandable explanation is provided one can presume this is a scam. Read the responses below and beware.]
RUBIKS's CHEESE IN PACKAGING WITH GOLDEN STICKER!!!!!!
300
RUBIK"S CHEESE IN PACKAGING WITHOUT GOLDEN STICKER
250
4 color Dino.
200.
Puzzledesigner@gmail.com

EDIT: pics

dollars or euros? and can you post pictures of the dino?

Oops I always forget..
USD.
I need to take a picture for that one so hold on.
It will be faster to PM me your email address.

I urge the main poster of this thread to come forward and explain himself
(although to be honest, I will not be surprised if he does not).

There are at least THREE buyers who are still waiting for some rare puzzles
for over a month. One of them is me, and I had already filed a PayPal dispute, and
since he was not responding, I have now escalated it to a claim. Unsurprisingly,
some of the items have been sold more than once, without him mentioning he has
duplicates.

If this person is really a scammer, then this is probably the first time in
twisty puzzle forum history that someone lured others to pay and then
disappear.

So, if the main poster does not come forward, I will have to reveal his
details (name, emails, etc), so that future cases may be avoided,
at least for someone who uses the same details.



Pantazis


PS. Besides, right now, I have more important things in my mind than
some insignificant (when compared to life) puzzle amount (which is insured
in any case), as yesterday I lost a close relative because of cancer.

Make that four people. It has been five weeks, and still no sign of my puzzle. I tried to contact him two days ago, but his e-mail no longer exists. This is almost certainly a scam, so I too have opened a Paypal dispute. At this point, I think we can reveal his details to prevent anyone else from running into the same problem with this person.

Then, I will suggest everyone to do what I did, that is, to escalate it to a claim.
It is too obvious already.

There is another forum member who almost fall in the trap, but the whole deal stopped
after my email. If more have been scammed (or almost scammed) please come forward.


Pantazis

After reading Cheese_Board's message, I feel I need to write something as well.

I'm another one of the four (so far). It's been four weeks since he emailed me he was sending the puzzles, and no puzzles or emails since. I just escalated my two PayPal disputes to claims as well.

If you did a deal with this guy and didn't receive your puzzles, don't delay. File a claim right now, and tell us all. Some warnings for other forum members are clearly needed here.

Make that five people...

I have just filed a Paypal dispute as well. It's a shame to have such a bad experience so early in my collecting career.

I'll leave it a week before I escalate it to a claim, I think.

i am so mad Now!!!

If I were you, I'd escalate it to a claim right away. It's five people now, and I found out that one of the supposed singular items I bought was sold more than once, with no indication he had duplicates. I consider this ample proof that the seller is not honorable.

I can't believe this is happening in our puzzle community. This forum is based on trust that everyone has in its fellow members, and now to witness something like this, it disgusts me. If it's true, this member has to be banned, because we can't allow this to happen again. I have traded, sold and bought puzzles here, in the past and never had a problem with any member.

I hope the members that were caught in this fraud get their money back, because it's possible that the guy could have closed his account by now and PayPal finds hard to reverse the payments. People need to know that future acts like this will not be left unpunished.

Gabriel

My thoughts exactly.

If I had the money, and the trust, I would try and make a deal with this guy to say that I'll pay the money when I've got the puzzle, and anounce it on the forum, and a screen shot of the paypal transfer. Someone like you Pantazis may be able to do it, I'm sure you'd be trustworthy.

I think I can be added as a 6th person... I just came around here to check the topic and read these posts today... I guess I shouldn't expect the item anymore...and start a paypal dispute. It wasn't a cheap item at all...like for everybody I guess. Any other suggestions are welcome.

No further reply from Helios-Cube since the beginning of the unclaimed puzzle discussion...
Doesn't any moderator here know what is happening?

Wow, I'm very lucky that I was too busy and didn't ever see this post because I dfinitely would have jumped in as well.

If this is what it seems, then it is indeed a sad day for the puzzle community.

I was considering buying one of the dogics, I'm really glad I found out it was the Two Color because I really didn't want it.

Luckily I avoided this one, it wouldn't have been the first time..

If anyone needs it, I have another email address. He tried to sell me these as well. Thankfully, I don't need duplicates.

I bought the original dogic but have not received the package yet and it has been over a month as well. I'm dissapointed that this has been the second time I have/may have been scammed. I'm on vacation and can't get a secure connection so I'll file my dispute when I get home Saturday... I'll try to email him then as well. Let's hope some resolution comes from this...

Edit: the email he has listed now is what I emailed him with back then I believe... Can't check now.

This saddens me for one reason. This person has been on the forum for a while. It's a shame that he is not sending on the puzzles or paying attention to emails. I've just done a scan of the forums and since he's posted his other email before (the one he mailed me with) I have no problem posting it here: stu5257(@)gmail.com

The other thing is that it is not the moderator's place to know what is happening. It's not our job (or should I say Dave's) to make sure members aren't scammed by other members. This one has been on the forum for 2 years. I would have thought it a safe sale. But please don't blame the moderators for this. Not their fault.

If you're eligible to open a PayPal dispute then that's the only responsible method of contact at this time. All communication should go through PayPal's Resolution Center.

• PayPal's Resolution Center keeps records of all communications, which is critical to resolving the problem.
• If the PayPal account had been hacked then opening a dispute will provide helpful evidence to support an Unauthorized Activity claim. Emails won't do that, and could even tipoff the hacker.
• Evidence in your dispute may help protect other victims.
• Helios-Cube has already said the stu5257 email address belonged to someone else, so it's not a reliable contact for this issue.

Apparently stu5257 at gmail.com is not Helios-Cube, but a friend of Helios-Cube.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

I can't believe this....
URG!!!

Is there any legal action to get my money back????
Where does he live?(country? state?)

I can't seem to reach him by email...

I will PM him tho.

(PS I bought the 4 color dino....T.T)

I bought the original Dogic too...

If this is what we think it is, then this despicable person is trying to scam twitters too: He/she is trying to "sell" a MacBook Pro and a MacBook Air: http://twitter.com/emrose80s/statuses/13715816503. He/she twitted this on May 10th, the same day he first offered the puzzles on this thread.

Skarabajo.

It's quite interesting that this guy (stu5257) approached me a while ago... wanting to BUY a dogic.
I hope everybody involved can get his money back. This is a sad thing, though generally I'm amazed at how trustworthy the puzzle community is.

I'd be interested in hearing about his alternate email addresses. I'm currently dealing with another Stu. I strongly believe him to be genuine but I'd like to check first.

Akk.
That would be me, right?(dino and curvy coptor.)

I still can't believe it.
I was so excited to buy the 4 Color Dino.....

So,
What we know now is.

Email:
1) stu5257@gmail.com
2) puzzledesigner@gmail.com

And the up, up post about the twitter suggests that her name is "Emily Rose"?

Akk I am so frustrated.
I have two tests tomorrow, I fluncked today's one, and I lost my money, and I am sleepy.

Sigh...

I think generally we are trustworthy because we can be trusted. The majority of us do this for the fun of it. We aren't out to make money from it. (Hence my rants on occasion) Add that to reputations of being trustworthy built up over the years and there you have it.

But here's what kills me about this whole issue (and thankfully I'm not involved-had he half a brain, he would have realized that I don't have great interest in packaging) HE WAS ON THE FORUM AT 12:47 TODAY. Tell me he didn't see these posts? I mean if this were me, I'd be on here right now explaining what happened or pming people or some such.

I sincerely hope you all get your puzzles or your money back, but based on that...I don't hold hope.

I don't know if this information would help anyone, but here it is anyway:

He/she offered his/her MacBooks on mac-forums.net too and his username there is stupuzzles (see attached image for Google's results; the mac-forum page no longer exists).

A month ago, he/she asked a question to a PayPal support group. Could someone explain this question... "unlimit my account"?

So now we have a third email: stupuzzles@gmail.com and according to http://verify-email.org/ all three emails are not valid.

Skarabajo.

If paypal thinks you're suspicious (in other words, some buyer had filed a case and they're afraid you might run away with the money), they may hold the funds in your account ransom for up to 180 days. They call that limiting your account because you're not allowed to make a withdrawal or spend anything.

Wow, I never thought this was a scam and a large scam to that! I am that "another forum member who almost fell in the trap". I was interested in the puzzles offered in this thread and requested more and larger pictures. After some time I received them for the Cheese, but not for the Dino. I requested pictures of the Dino but did not have a response. I wrote again and received the response that he is a student and can only do that on weekends. Another 10 days later, recently, I wrote again and then my email returned as it did not exist anymore. Looks like he did not have those pictures yet, otherwise I would have paid for the puzzles too. I was just a little slow and a little lucky, and then Pantazis came forward with this. Had I lost the money it would have been a huge hit for me now.

Wow, should someone make a post at the forum to warn the members there?

Besides that, I think something should be posted in the General section to warn all the other members about this.




I think members that are trying to contact him through emails should try PM him as well.

I would URGE anyone who is having problems to IMMEDIATELY initiate a PayPal dispute if it hasn't been done yet. From what it sounds like, quite a few are nearing the 45 day time frame to start a dispute.

Once your 45 days are up, trying to get your money back (if necessary) will become a whole lot harder.

Just FYI...
Ben

I think it's useless. He just comes here to read and laugh about what we talk. It's obviously it was a scam. I should have realized that earlier...because of the lack of pictures and the change of currency from EUR to USD with no logic...

I've already escalate this to a claim. Guy can't be contacted in anyway. I hope paypal will help us all.

Oh...and all the info I had is that his paypal name was:
Jun Seok Lee
Korea
If that helps...

I'm afraid I can be added as the sixth member here.

I bought the Dogic II some weeks ago from him (April 27th, I believe). I did nevertheless manage to contact him on puzzledesigner@gmail.com.

See below:

-----------


On Sat, May 22, 2010 at 7:23 AM, Miguel Monedero <mmonede@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi,

Almost one month has passed and I haven't received the DOGIC II yet ...

Could you tell me when was the exact date you shipped it?


De: puzzle designer [mailto:puzzledesigner@gmail.com]
Enviado el: sábado, 22 de mayo de 2010 9:58
Para: Miguel Monedero
Asunto: Re: DIno and Dogic for sale

Yes, I am having a shipping problem with another buyer, too.

It seems the Korean shipping Company has many breaks on May(for mother's day, teacher's day and veteran's day)

So the Package I sent on the 20thd arrived at the 14th. So You might want to wait a little.
I will call the company tomorrow and update you on that.
If it gets lost I will fully refund you with the shipping.


AND I think it was the 30th Since I have night shift on thursdays.
Thanks


-----------


I was giving him some extra days ... I guess I'd better contact Paypal immediately

Sadly I just caught up on this issue and, as Roxanne has mentioned, this isn't really a matter where I can help much for existing transactions.

Given what I have read I will slap a ban on this user so they can't use our site to advertise more sales although their reputation is likely already ruined. Unless they have a very compelling and prompt response to compensate all parties I imagine an Admin will revoke their account as well.

Dave

I'm the 6th... ...you were the 7th unfortunately. You'd better start a paypal claim immediately.
@Dave - Of course the mods and admin don't have any responsibility for this.

I think it would be clever, if possible, to make it so he/she can only view this topic.

katsmom, I didn't mean to blame the moderators for this, I know it is not their job to fix this soft of situation, if that is what you got from my post. I just wanted some input, which is exactly what has happened, so, um, no further issue then, I guess.

I think this is a case where a IP lookup to see if this user might have multiple forum accounts would be appropriate. Dave, could you do such a thing?

I am fine if the moderators decide to ban Helios-Cube, but I ask that this thread be kept so that it can be used as evidence in our Paypal claims.

It seems that this guy had avoided Ebay by purpose. I believe that the Paypal buyer protection is better in the case of an Ebay deal. I wish to be wrong, though and hope all the best that Paypal will protect any buyer who has suffered from this person.
I had to file a dispute at Paypal, only once. Fortunately the expected package has arrived one day later.
Paypal wrote that they will not cover a case where the goods do not arrive, unless the deal had been made via Ebay.

That would probably be against the Terms of Use of this forum or something but this is just a terrible issue in the first place I would definately root for this idea

I just wanted to say that he was on here today so i bet he has seen this topic

It appears to me that I was lucky and he did not have more and bigger pictures of the Dino Cube. I also tried to remember where I might have seen the Cheese photos and I found this topic: viewtopic.php?f=14&t=12537 I remember that when it was selling, there were lots of nice photos on the site referred in that topic. I believe the pictures of the Cheese I have received were from that sale.

An Admin can but I don't have that information as a lowly Moderator The Admins have been notified of this thread.
I don't plan on deleting it.

Dave

I'm sorry to hear this for all affected, I'm glad I managed to keep away from this because I still would like some puzzles, and those prices were very tempting..

Anyway I'd advice to rename the topic title or put a warning in the top so people who don't read throught the entire topic wont't fall for it. Unless ofcourse that email really isn't working anymore.

Required information:

Forum email: stu5258@gmail.com
Previous email account: stuson@naver.com

Registered from IP: 72.192.219.188

Ah, perhaps I can get a bit more information that I had thought as a Moderator. I can also add that the email change and some other account related changes were made from IP: 121.141.212.178

Dave

I don't find it unusual to avoid eBay at all, after all, who would want to pay an extra 10% unnecessarily? On another forum, it's almost standard for people who want to avoid eBay fees to just discount the item they want to sell. That way, another collector can get a better deal. They operate on a circle of trust type thing, like we have here.

While it's mostly true that PayPal will not "cover" goods not received outside of eBay, it doesn't mean that they won't help with "recovering" the funds nor are they not interested in fraud cases. Basically, when you file a dispute, the funds are held and if the balance goes below 0, they'll go after the bank account registered for the funds. If they can't recover the funds, they won't "cover" it out of their own pockets.

If PayPal is unhelpful in recovering the funds and the funds came out of your bank account/credit card, I would advise taking it to the bank and go after that particular transaction.

Ben