Author (Read 44718 times)

Kanped · « **Reply #50 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:06:00 PM »

He DID win a film award, for a trick he filmed on his mobile phone (in the "film shot on a mobile phone award" category- fierce competition, surely).

Hell, maybe he even does have a design but the funds to get it made? NAH.

Here's more hilarity courtesy of Shane Carter (also cancelled when I pointed out his face was on the page and his FB was linked to it. Picture earlier in this thread of his FB profile image on the other Kickstarter page if you're in doubt);

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hauntthehated/haunt-the-hated-television-show?ref=city

I'm actually kinda proud of myself for getting him to shut down his Kickstarter and throw a spanner in that particular work. Given it had no support whatsoever, I guess it is a bit like kicking a wounded dog but a win's a win, right?

Few other things; the MMA stuff that was actually verifiable and looked legit? I didn't read it very closely but the site hasn't been updated in a long time and all it says is "Shane comes in when he can on thursdays to help with the conditioning of the kickboxers to get them ready to compete." That could mean just about anything. He has a tattoo on his arm visible in the MMA stuff and the magic stuff on youtube. One last ditch effort to give him a chance to prove he's not lying. This will be my last message to him unless he writes back;

"I've had an idea. If you are who I think you are, then you have a tattoo, like an Ace of Spades on the inside of your right forearm. Make a video (you've won awards for that, so it shouldn't be hard) that shows your face and the inside of both forearms. If there's no tattoo, that throws serious doubt on my suspicions and regains a lot of faith in your project. If you refuse, it looks very suspicious".

Evan · « **Reply #51 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:39:07 PM »

Thats disappointing... I was hoping that it would be a legit company but I guess not. The fact that he just cancelled the kickstarter 3 hours ago, just shows us that he is running all of this. I haven't given him any info and I won't until he "releases" the products that he is talking about and someone actually receives them.

Also, here is something that he posted:

Paul Carpenter · « **Reply #52 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:55:35 PM »

Evan,

Shane Carter = Xdelamuertex on Twitter and lives in Spokane, WA.
Xdelamuertex@hotmail.com registered the-con-artist.com on Nov 11, 2011 and lives in Spokane, WA.

So yes, he is behind it. Liar liar pants on fire! This stuff is not hard to figure out, it's all public knowledge.

Linguist_ · « **Reply #53 on:** March 16, 2012, 03:57:31 PM »

Playing card enthusiasts - a force to be reckoned with.

Kanped · « **Reply #54 on:** March 16, 2012, 04:06:30 PM »

It's nice to see everyone deciding that an insurmountable plethora of evidence is worth more than some guy's word.
Now if only more people would apply that to other aspects of their life

Anyway; chalk it up, guys. One dead scammer. Nice work everybody.

xela · « **Reply #55 on:** March 16, 2012, 04:57:50 PM »

Oh bother, I can't imagine what was going on in his mind when he did all this. "Let me just throw out a name from the USPCC and make it sound official!" What he fails to realize is that all of us here know who Tiffany is, any of us can contact her, and a few of us regularly do.

Kudos to Paul and Chris for unravelling this scam. I don't think this guy was doing anything other than marketing a deck that was absolutely awful as something that the USPCC was "blown away" by.

If you look at his website, the only designs aspect of it is the background which is actually not made by him at all. Here is the background: http://www.pptbackgrounds.net/blue-matrix-backgrounds.html

I have no tolerance for people who rip artwork. =_=

Billywiz · « **Reply #56 on:** March 16, 2012, 05:29:30 PM »

Great job exposing this scam Kanped, you saved alot of people from being ripped-off...

Warning..Never mess with the card community

zaganh · « **Reply #57 on:** March 16, 2012, 05:33:34 PM »

i havent read this properly but i clicked the twitter and thats the guy who said dan and dave stole his ace of spades for chinatown deck

Evan · « **Reply #58 on:** March 16, 2012, 05:36:13 PM »

The Con Artist posted this pic on Facebook with a caption on, "YEAH For proofs."

What do you guys think? I'm still skeptical and will not order from them until we know for sure it is legit. http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=404889199537591&set=a.404889196204258.117737.330147213678457&type=1&theater

Evan · « **Reply #59 on:** March 16, 2012, 05:45:18 PM »

Also, I posted in a magic and playing cards group on fecebook that Shane Carter is also a part of. I posted the link that Alex supplied where they downloaded their pic from.

They immediately changed the pic to this one which can also be found on google

jmrock · « **Reply #60 on:** March 16, 2012, 08:10:29 PM »

You all seem to be infatuated with this guy, but I'd get off his D!*# already... you proved your point... You are great detectives just like Batman...

On a more serious note, I doubt Tiffany or anyone else who had their email posted would appreciate it very much. Tiffany's phone numbers and private company email do not belong posted on this forum for all the world to see. It's inappropriate and its immature. You need to censor the numbers and email or take it down... Again, these are the numbers and email she uses to do business and it's nobody else's business... Please do the right thing... Thanks, J.

Paul Carpenter · « **Reply #61 on:** March 16, 2012, 08:42:28 PM »

jmrock, we are taking it serious because he's tossing around names, getting people's info, lying about things and doesn't have a shred of real proof that he's actually done anything other than jerk people around. If he would stop his shenanigans or put up some artwork, or ANYTHING then we'd be happy to leave him alone.

JimmyJohns · « **Reply #62 on:** March 16, 2012, 09:18:31 PM »

Quote from: jmrock on March 16, 2012, 08:10:29 PM

You all seem to be infatuated with this guy, but I'd get off his D!*# already... you proved your point... You are great detectives just like Batman...

On a more serious note, I doubt Tiffany or anyone else who had their email posted would appreciate it very much. Tiffany's phone numbers and private company email do not belong posted on this forum for all the world to see. It's inappropriate and its immature. You need to censor the numbers and email or take it down... Again, these are the numbers and email she uses to do business and it's nobody else's business... Please do the right thing... Thanks, J.

Nobody here posted her phone number and e-mail.The dude behind the Con-Artist, posted that on his FB page, which probably a lot of people can see.

Evan · « **Reply #63 on:** March 16, 2012, 09:22:48 PM »

Quote from: JimmyJohns on March 16, 2012, 09:18:31 PM

Quote from: jmrock on March 16, 2012, 08:10:29 PM
You all seem to be infatuated with this guy, but I'd get off his D!*# already... you proved your point... You are great detectives just like Batman...

On a more serious note, I doubt Tiffany or anyone else who had their email posted would appreciate it very much. Tiffany's phone numbers and private company email do not belong posted on this forum for all the world to see. It's inappropriate and its immature. You need to censor the numbers and email or take it down... Again, these are the numbers and email she uses to do business and it's nobody else's business... Please do the right thing... Thanks, J.
Nobody here posted her phone number and e-mail.The dude behind the Con-Artist, posted that on his FB page, which probably a lot of people can see.

I posted the pic that was on their page, here. That is what he was talking about but I took down the pic.

jmrock · « **Reply #64 on:** March 16, 2012, 09:56:04 PM »

Please pardon me... I read a little more in depth... Didn't mean to offend anyone... Just didn't like that her personal info was put out there, but yes, it appears as though it was he who posted it in order to prove he was talking to her... I'll read a little more in depth next time... He does sound a bit shady and it was not appropriate for him to post her info... I'm sure she wouldn't be happy to know that her personal conversation with him was posted on the internet for everyone to see... Again, please excuse me...

xela · « **Reply #65 on:** March 16, 2012, 11:14:20 PM »

I don't think it is her personal info, seeing as how that's how she will sign her emails if you send her anything at all via the USPCC email. Regardless, throwing around private emails is in very poor decorum.

I'll be contacting Tiffany and seeing what can be done.

Kanped · « **Reply #66 on:** March 17, 2012, 01:17:14 AM »

I emailed her pointing it out. Asked if it was genuine and said I thought she might like to know it was posted but by all means, contact her because I'm sure it will be better coming from someone she's dealt with before rather than some complete unknown (i.e., me)

SpadedQueen · « **Reply #67 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:14:37 PM »

I followed the link from The-Con-Artist's Facebook page. I'm brand new here, so please don't rip me apart! I just had a few things to add to all this thought provoking thread. Does anyone else find it interesting that the link to get here is still up on their page? If you guys are wrong, and there is a design near production, all this will do is make you guys look like assholes for trying to defame someone. Not trying to defend The-Con-Artist, but I'm also not interested in talking crap about someone before all the cards are on the table. (pun intended) Honestly, I am being wary, but I haven't been hurt by liking the page or getting my friends to like it. Has someone here been scammed by these people/person. Is that why everyone is out to make a fool of them? Looking at all of the links that were posted about this guy, I haven't seen anyone scammed out of anything. I see someone who has posted a ton of ideas, but do you know where they are at with these projects? Does anyone have personal knowledge or is this all Internet research?
You guys keep on doing your thing and tearing someone apart, but my guess is that they left the link up to this site intentionally. I will wait it out and see what happens. If they start showing artwork as promissed, I wonder how many will suddenly switch sides. I'm not going to jump to conclusions on this one. I haven't been asked for any personal info or money, so I'm not feeling scammed at all. I have not lost anything. If you guys are right...well then I guess you can say I told you so! If you are wrong, well then I feel sorry for you because you just made yourself look really bad!

NathanCanadas · « **Reply #68 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:30:08 PM »

Quote from: SpadedQueen on March 17, 2012, 04:14:37 PM

I followed the link from The-Con-Artist's Facebook page. I'm brand new here, so please don't rip me apart! I just had a few things to add to all this thought provoking thread. Does anyone else find it interesting that the link to get here is still up on their page? If you guys are wrong, and there is a design near production, all this will do is make you guys look like assholes for trying to defame someone. Not trying to defend The-Con-Artist, but I'm also not interested in talking crap about someone before all the cards are on the table. (pun intended) Honestly, I am being wary, but I haven't been hurt by liking the page or getting my friends to like it. Has someone here been scammed by these people/person. Is that why everyone is out to make a fool of them? Looking at all of the links that were posted about this guy, I haven't seen anyone scammed out of anything. I see someone who has posted a ton of ideas, but do you know where they are at with these projects? Does anyone have personal knowledge or is this all Internet research?
You guys keep on doing your thing and tearing someone apart, but my guess is that they left the link up to this site intentionally. I will wait it out and see what happens. If they start showing artwork as promissed, I wonder how many will suddenly switch sides. I'm not going to jump to conclusions on this one. I haven't been asked for any personal info or money, so I'm not feeling scammed at all. I have not lost anything. If you guys are right...well then I guess you can say I told you so! If you are wrong, well then I feel sorry for you because you just made yourself look really bad!

The fact of the matter is he has lied. We aren't making any irrational assumptions. I don't know why he left the link up, but it's probably because we would have flooded his facebook page. He lied to us about USPCC liking the project since he didn't even put anything forward. And the project isn't near production since he hasn't announced anything to USPCC.

Linguist_ · « **Reply #69 on:** March 17, 2012, 04:41:24 PM »

Quote from: SpadedQueen on March 17, 2012, 04:14:37 PM

I followed the link from The-Con-Artist's Facebook page. I'm brand new here, so please don't rip me apart! I just had a few things to add to all this thought provoking thread. Does anyone else find it interesting that the link to get here is still up on their page? If you guys are wrong, and there is a design near production, all this will do is make you guys look like assholes for trying to defame someone. Not trying to defend The-Con-Artist, but I'm also not interested in talking crap about someone before all the cards are on the table. (pun intended) Honestly, I am being wary, but I haven't been hurt by liking the page or getting my friends to like it. Has someone here been scammed by these people/person. Is that why everyone is out to make a fool of them? Looking at all of the links that were posted about this guy, I haven't seen anyone scammed out of anything. I see someone who has posted a ton of ideas, but do you know where they are at with these projects? Does anyone have personal knowledge or is this all Internet research?
You guys keep on doing your thing and tearing someone apart, but my guess is that they left the link up to this site intentionally. I will wait it out and see what happens. If they start showing artwork as promissed, I wonder how many will suddenly switch sides. I'm not going to jump to conclusions on this one. I haven't been asked for any personal info or money, so I'm not feeling scammed at all. I have not lost anything. If you guys are right...well then I guess you can say I told you so! If you are wrong, well then I feel sorry for you because you just made yourself look really bad!

You make some fair points, but I don't think just because there is no monetary value to what is going on doesn't make it okay. The reason why decks sell is through good design and good marketing. If I brand wants to be a one-hit-wonder then it can go ahead and create a great deck and have it printed. But if a brand wants to be successful then they need a good reputation to do that. This brand is not creating a good reputation by having zero evidence of a deck being produced.
While his actions won't negatively affect any individual person if it does turn out to be a scam, it will affect the custom card industry. An industry that is quickly getting saturated and that relies on communities such as here or United Cardist. If that wasn't the case then the companies wouldn't have representatives who communicate on these fora and spread the word here to gather interest. If people start coming along and scamming, then people will start mistrusting new brands that pop up. People are already quite skeptical with new custom cards from the outset, it won't take much for people to lose interest in custom brands altogether.

Objectively, I suppose this thread has been a bit pejorative. Many, indeed most, people look at the evidence (or lack thereof from The-Con-Artist.com's side) and just say 'well, we can wait and see'. Other people choose to just go for it anyway and trust the brand. Still others choose to act on the lack of evidence the company is putting out and the evidence of the background such as Kanped came upon. I don't think people who fall into the last category are doing anything wrong. We are acting on the evidence that exists. If he wants our respect then he can quite easily earn it by giving us evidence of his product. I don't think anyone would object to that in favour of this 'all in due time' attitude. Similarly, I don't see anything hypocritical if we do change sides on the basis of evidence that it isn't a scam. If it isn't a scam, then it isn't a scam and we can apologise for calling it such. However, none of us has to apologise for calling his marketing strategies diabolical and damaging to his brand image.

Paul Carpenter · « **Reply #70 on:** March 17, 2012, 05:36:16 PM »

SpadedQueen, thank you for joining us here and speaking your views. That is always appreciated and I hope you find other good resources here. There are some super knowledgeable and great folks on here.

I think Linguist summed it up well. To make it simple, we don't like people that lie, blatantly, about things we care about. The fellow running the Con-Artist is lying, in a variety of ways, and keep compounding his lies. That is wrong and no one should be ok with that. This could also be easily fixed by simply showing us anything at all about his actual product. If it existed, it would take but a moment to put some little piece of it up, or describe some little detail. The fact that this hasn't happened speaks volumes. If I was in his boat I'd be putting up stuff instantly to help reverse the negative reactions, not let days go by and just lie some more. As a designer, I cannot fathom launching a marketing effort for such a project without a decent logo, or a picture, or a mockup of my work, or some quality written descriptions, or a sketch, or ANYTHING at all. That is truly, 100%, mind-boggling insane and a misstep the size of the Grand Canyon.

So either we are right, or we are wrong and this fellow is the poorest marketeer ever, neither of which are good outcomes for the consumer.

Detailing some issues:

- He (Shane Carter) says he's not affiliated with the con artist. Lie. He registered the domain name.
- He says that USPCC is amazed by his work. Lie. They have no project going with him. Remember that some of us on here DO have projects with USPCC and know the people there. I asked specifically if they knew him. I could have gotten two answers: 1.) yes we have a project but I can't talk about it or 2.) no, we have nothing going on. USPCC has no reason to lie to me, an existing customer.
- He says he is giving away 150 decks in a few months. This is 99% a lie. If I handed over a fully complete design to USPCC tomorrow, I could MAYBE have it done in 2 months. Maybe, but not likely. He almost certainly has no product to give away at a launch and is using the promise of it as a lure. Not nice.
- He talks up his project like it's the second coming and wants everyone to jump through hoops to spread his work, but all he has shown so far is two stolen PC wallpapers. If that is the design skill at work, then that's another lie.
- We found several other Kickstarter projects of his that are so poorly thought out that they are laughable, and they do not speak well of his ability to manage a project. And he denies being a part of though he's listed as the project owner.

If you think that your personal Facebook info isn't worth anything, and your lists of friends aren't worth anything, and the knowledge of things you like isn't worth anything, and your mailing address isn't worth anything, then Google/Facebook/Twitter and countless other businesses must be doing it all wrong. Your personal info, no matter how mundane it seems is extremely valuable and handing it out any ol' slick talker that dangles a carrot is a poor decision.

xela · « **Reply #71 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:19:47 PM »

You need to know only one thing about this guy:

He stole the designs for his shoddy website from a site that gives free desktop wallpapers but does not entitle the user to claim the work as their own or for use in commercial work. This is his design work on something as simple as a website.

A deck of cards from him will arguably be worse than flinging dog crap on a canvas.

On the off chance, by some stroke of luck, he produces an exceptionally good deck, then I would still not apologize or retract a single statement. And neither should you. I don't care how awesome something is when the business practices are sketchy, greedy and ask you to do a ton in return for nothing.

Please, people, if you really want to support start-ups, support those of us who actually have something to show for it. On this forum alone there is Paul, Lance, Russell, Adam, Sean, Reagan, Randy, myself and several others all of whom don't ask for your personal info and claim we have done something that we have not.

To give this guy a single shred of credibility is an insult to the card community. The only people I expect to mindlessly adore this "company" already are the same people that actually bought the Merz decks.

Those of you that are indifferent, kudos, but keep in mind that you should be very careful who you give personal information to (changing your FB privacy settings is not a good idea, and I would never ask that form my fans despite how much it inconveniences me). You should also evaluate your sense of self worth, because proclamations of what you like and dislike to all of your real life friends shapes how they view you.

So let me ask you guys this, how do you view the blokes on you Facebook that actually "like" and share those "FREE IPAD GIVEAWAY IF WE GET 100,000 LIKES!" as fools? Well, that's how they will view you.

SpadedQueen · « **Reply #72 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:29:47 PM »

Thnks for welcoming me!

I do see that most people here have major issues with this guy. I guess I'm just the type of person that tries not to judge people before I have all of the information. There is a lot of info that has been found, but not all of it is damning. Saw that Mike the Greek was wearing his fight wear brand in a televised event. Also, did anyone check out the pic that The-Con-Artist just posted? Looks like artwork to me. Thanks for all the info you guys dug around for. Interesting stuff! I agree about not putting personal info out there for the world to see. I googled my name and a ton of stuff came up that I didn't know about! It's definitely not hard to find! Thanks again!

JimmyJohns · « **Reply #73 on:** March 17, 2012, 07:45:22 PM »

Quote from: SpadedQueen on March 17, 2012, 07:29:47 PM

Thnks for welcoming me! I do see that most people here have major issues with this guy. I guess I'm just the type of person that tries not to judge people before I have all of the information. There is a lot of info that has been found, but not all of it is damning. Saw that Mike the Greek was wearing his fight wear brand in a televised event. Also, did anyone check out the pic that The-Con-Artist just posted? Looks like artwork to me. Thanks for all the info you guys dug around for. Interesting stuff! I agree about not putting personal info out there for the world to see. I googled my name and a ton of stuff came up that I didn't know about! It's definitely not hard to find! Thanks again!

Dude, what the f**k are you trying to say/prove?

? Quote:"I guess I'm just the type of person that tries not to judge people before I have all of the information."
What more information do you need

Kanped put a lot of information regarding this fella...
That guy even cancelled his Kickstarters projects and deleted his account there, within hours of being exposed...
Everything about this Con-Artist project is fishy!!!!!

By the way can I have your Social Security Number, address, date of birth, credit card info,
because if so I can send you a free deck of a project that is ready to be launched....

SpadedQueen · « **Reply #74 on:** March 17, 2012, 08:14:21 PM »

Quote from: JimmyJohns on March 17, 2012, 07:45:22 PM

Quote from: SpadedQueen on March 17, 2012, 07:29:47 PM
Thnks for welcoming me! I do see that most people here have major issues with this guy. I guess I'm just the type of person that tries not to judge people before I have all of the information. There is a lot of info that has been found, but not all of it is damning. Saw that Mike the Greek was wearing his fight wear brand in a televised event. Also, did anyone check out the pic that The-Con-Artist just posted? Looks like artwork to me. Thanks for all the info you guys dug around for. Interesting stuff! I agree about not putting personal info out there for the world to see. I googled my name and a ton of stuff came up that I didn't know about! It's definitely not hard to find! Thanks again!
Dude, what the f**k are you trying to say/prove?? Quote:"I guess I'm just the type of person that tries not to judge people before I have all of the information."
What more information do you need Kanped put a lot of information regarding this fella...
That guy even cancelled his Kickstarters projects and deleted his account there, within hours of being exposed...
Everything about this Con-Artist project is fishy!!!!!

By the way can I have your Social Security Number, address, date of birth, credit card info,
because if so I can send you a free deck of a project that is ready to be launched....

Sorry love, but I am missing a few body parts to be a "dude". Lol. I am not out to prove anything. You have made up your mind and I respect that. And, no I won't give you any of that information, but thanks for asking! I would never give it to anyone, but then again, The-Con-Artist has yet to ask me for any personal info. I made only that post visible to the public on Facebook. All other information is still private. If they do ask for personal info before showing proof of a deck, I will unlike them and move on. Simple as that. So far, it hasn't happened, so I'm still hanging in there. I would be sorely disappointed if there were no deck, don't get me wrong! But, I'm not convinced that there isn't a deck either, regardless of all posts about contacting USPCC. What if someone else in his company was contacting USPCC and not using the company name? I will wait and see.