Fraudsters
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**We've been duped and I am very pissed off….
I received this email:**
Dear Mrs, Sir
I am pierre Dubois, i am a french journalist for the magazine press market leader of men's fashion trends and lifestyle in the whole Germany wich called in style.
In February 2017, we will launching in style men magazine for the french market.
The editorial committee has decided to make a press article on "Iron Heart" miltary jacket and would like to make a full review of one or two of your models with your agreement.
We 'd like to test the Japan quality level and how you compare with you competitors in this matters.
So we would like to know if you're interested to participate to this press article and if yes we will need a "miltary jacket" (that we're going to send you back).
If you're OK of course we're going to prepare everything for you from the photos sessions up to to the article.
Please find attached our rate card and title profile and below a quick overview of the title. I would be more than happy to present the title to you in more detail. Are you based in London? Happy to arrange a meeting.
Keyfacts
Frequency: twice a year
Day of publication: Saturday
Copyprice: 3.50 € 1)
Basic rate (1/1 page 4c): 22,300 € 2)
Sold circulation: 80,000 3)
Editor-in-Chief: Kerstin Weng
Why InStyle MEN?InStyle MEN is the essential style guide for men: Here you can find out everything about fashion, beauty and the most popular lifestyle news – naturally with the style of the stars. The magazine is aimed at the "normal" man who is interested in fashion and cosmetics but who isn't an expert.
InStyle MEN will initially appear in a bundle together with InStyle, making it an unmissable, extra-thick style package for HIM and HER. InStyle MEN will then be available at the newsstand for a further month as a stand-alone.
THE STYLE OF THE STARS – FOR MEN!InStyle MEN is the consequent extension of InStyle‘s core competence: fashion service and orientation! Within 140 pages, InStyle MEN presents everything one must know about fashion, beauty and lifestyle.
InStyle MEN is directed especially at readers who are interested in fashion but also to female InStyle fans who want to share their passion for the latest trends with their partners.
Please feel free to contact me anytime, should you require further details or wish to receive a copy in the post.
Best Regards
Pierre Dubois
T +33 755 264 558
**After some to-ing and fro-ing including some telephone conversations, I agreed to send him some gear. Anyway, he stopped communicating with me, so I got in touch with InStyle's head office.
The response:**
Dear Giles,I am very shocked to hear about that. There is no InStyle Men in France, and there was never a plan to do so. This guy is just a liar and as I said, I am really shocked that somebody is using our brand to steal clothes.
I put our Parisian correspondence Inna Fischbuch in cc, that she is informed that someone is acting like that.I am very sorry to say, but as we have nothing to do with this request, we can not refund any clothes. But what we can do: publish your label (this time for sure!) in our upcoming issue (october issue).
For further questions, please do not hesitate to call me.
Best, Kerstin
@Alex just found the bastard:
http://cyrilhuzeblog.com/2017/02/24/dont-be-a-victim-and-catch-a-crook/
And sorry @Appfaff , the vest you wanted was one of the stolen items….
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At least you got scammed by an above average dick hole. That's… comforting?
(really sorry to hear this, as I am every time you get screwed)
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what the hell????
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Phew , I dodged a bullet there .
Hello Giles ,
I"m an writer , no publisher ack err I meant wholesale buyer for Tartan Men Abroad Monthly - an
online but sometimes offline blog for men's fashion as pertaining to trends of current suitablility in the current forward looking manner .Can you send us some Iron Heart products to observe , wear , photograph and facilitate for review and style pointers in our April 2019 edition ?
Feel free to email me or telephone for further access . My pager number ( I'm old school and use a pager for fun ) is 987-456-123-567345210-56 .
Look forward to future endeavours and colloborations of high standards .
Thank you .
Jock Esq.
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Has anyone had any run-ins with a Jason Barlow from Washington, DC? I feel like he's actively trying to scam me right now through an eBay purchase of an IHSH-33. He's made some idle threats and doesn't seem to want to go through eBay's official channels to arrange any sort of agreement and everything about it seems shady.
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Anyone know any of these effing bastards, then let us know and we'll happily send you a baseball bat at no charge….
Barbara Springer
David Allan
Dave Self
Andrew Peterson
Michael Giovanni
Renee Frank
Michael Benadiba
Eric Bowman
Leonard Puma
Bryce Swartzwelder
Paul SchuylerCredit card, or attempted, fraud.......
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There was been an increase in reports of attempted scams on the marketplace “Want to buy” thread.
Example here: How do you report a potential scammer?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=19230&share_tid=14300&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ironheart.co.uk%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D14300&share_type=t&link_source=appThe modus operandi is that a newly opened account with no posts contacts someone with a WTB notice, claiming to have a friend with the item. They then provide an email for the so-called friend.
This in itself is suspicious behaviour, but they are not difficult to expose as they do not seem to have very good product knowledge.
If you have any suspicion someone is trying it on, please send a PM to me or one of the crew, with the account name of the scammer, a short description of their behaviour, and a forwarded PM or a screenshot of it. I will take a look and probably act with extreme prejudice [emoji1]
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Thank you Reuben…..
We, as a company, have been stitched up a few times recently. We now know what to look for in the new type of fraud they have been utilizing, so we won't get caught by that one again. But there will surely be a new one soon and we likley get caught out again.
It is so depressing to start a weekend with USD1200 of chargebacks to deal with...
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These guys don't give up… I've banned two more in the last week. Same MO as earlier:
- Recently opened forum account (only a day or two old
- Very normal English/American names like "jackmiller1234" and a gmail address with the same
- If you have a WTB thread they will claim to know someone with the item and start emailing
Please report them to me if they @ you and I will deal with them..
Thanks to @phillyforager and @Monitor for tipping me off about the last two muppets.
On another note I am enjoying writing abusive PM's to them before banning them.
There was been an increase in reports of attempted scams on the marketplace “Want to buy” thread.
Example here: How do you report a potential scammer?
https://r.tapatalk.com/shareLink/topic?share_fid=19230&share_tid=14300&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ironheart.co.uk%2Fforum%2Findex.php%3Ftopic%3D14300&share_type=t&link_source=appThe modus operandi is that a newly opened account with no posts contacts someone with a WTB notice, claiming to have a friend with the item. They then provide an email for the so-called friend.
This in itself is suspicious behaviour, but they are not difficult to expose as they do not seem to have very good product knowledge.
If you have any suspicion someone is trying it on, please send a PM to me or one of the crew, with the account name of the scammer, a short description of their behaviour, and a forwarded PM or a screenshot of it. I will take a look and probably act with extreme prejudice [emoji1]
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Thankfully I've not fallen victim to this, despite two attempts by people to scam me.
As neph93 said, they might ask you to e-mail their friend who has items for sale that you happen to be looking for.
I was suspicious immediately but went along with it to see how it works.
They sent me some photos of items I was looking for, but the photos all had different backgrounds, suggesting they simply took the photos from Google Images or Instagram.
When I asked for more product details, they replied with nonsensical information. For example, I asked for more information about a flannel shirt, but they told me it was made of denim, and weird stuff like that.
Basically, it was pretty easy to spot that it was a scam, but I know we can all be vulnerable to stuff like this, e.g. if we're tired or not thinking straight.
Basically, be very cautious. Check the history of the person who has messaged you. I'd never buy from someone who was brand new to the message boards.
