UPDATE: I can't fit all of the aliases used by these guys in the title of the topic - also be aware of: buzisem, outlook, and googlyeyes. Let me know if I need to grow this list.


Hey SBer's

I am selling original Sofubi toys, customs and collabs (with Splurrt, Ilanena, Kikake and many others!), and I wanted to inform all of you of a scammer in our midst.

I recently sold a bunch of stuff (all Splurrt figures that I had painted - all on a collaborative basis with Splurrt himself (Joe Merrril) to a person who claimed to be named 'Elizabeth Record' from NewYork (signing emails as 'Lizzy'). This person was found out to be a former SB member named 'Sam' (I do not know his screen name) who was using his girlfriends name, email and Paypal in order to buy things - and then flip them. When I found this out, I was very angry to know that I had sold so many items to a flipper...

I was even MORE p#%•~d off when I received an email today telling me that Paypal was investigating a potentially fraudulent claim for a REFUND (cancelled payment) for the items that this 'Lizzy' had ordered! I have EMS records PROVING that the package was delivered -- as well as an email from Lizzy/Sam stating that the items were delivered. I have provided this information to Paypal. Next up isthe NYPD.

If any of you have any dealings with 'Elizabeth Record' or this 'Sam,' please be careful. These people are scammers.

I will be seeking retribution - targeting BOTH Sam and Elizabeth. They are obviously working together to rip people off, and they should both be punished for their horrible lack of ethics, and disregard for the art and effort that so many of us invest in this hobby.

Please, all of us, be careful. There are terrible scammers passing themselves off as 'members of our community.'

His ass should be sent back to prison.

Thanks for the heads-up.

smells like Busizem718

hope things work out for you...

man thats so messed up, talk about playing games.

please let us know if the police are able to help in any way. (id like to really hope they will, but you never know..)

Ouch, what a jacka$$. Well you've got everything to back up your side of the story Jon, so I don't see how Paypal could find against you. This dude should get barred from ebay and all transactions sites altogether - being a dick flipper in the toy world might be pathetic, but criminal fraud is just a whole other thing.

We've had a scammer before who stole his girlfriend's credit card to rip off people here. Can't remember the name but it was quite a big thing.

This sucks, I guess when he realized he wasn't going to be able to get double retail on E-bay he had to find a new way to profit. Really pathetic to become so obsessed and compulsive in buying toys, that you have to be so conniving and conning trying to finance it. I guess you have to see Sam as what he is, an addict, maybe not to toys but to buying toys. And you can't expect any more from him than you could expect from a crack head.

Wow. Sam just posted in the Skullbrain FB group. Why is his still on there?!

so sam, is this "Bob McChicken" character?

Sorry you have to deal with this Jon.

Stay frosty people.

not a fan of him or his posse

He doesn't have a posse. I'm sorry he's causing so much trouble. It's ridiculous. I haven't spoken to him in a long while.

so is Sam and Elizabeth and Bob McChicken the same person?

I removed him from the Facebook group but he is asking to join again.

If there are problems with this person, s/he should get a chance at clearing it up...

Thank You for removing him! I was just about to do so when Wingnut gave me the heads up on him. Definitely don't let him back in. Profile picture kind of looks like him.

I don't know why I'm continuing about this, I'd rather focus on positive things but, I've gotten several messages from various people and hear Sam has been telling several lies to excuse his behavior. Among them his parent's house burnt down and he has throat cancer and only months to live. He's stepped on so many toes here in NY he wouldn't attend the mishka nag event. Instead he sent his younger teenage sister and a bunch of her friends to enter the lotto for him and guess who won... Pretty much it's safe to assume at this point any attempt at clearing things up will be a lie.

where is the ny skull krew to copy and paste the usual "sam is a good guy, what he does with his toys is his business" ???

Again, for the second time, let me re-state that Sam's NY affiliations are mostly if not all burned at this point. Please don't turn this into a NY lynch mob.

Also, all that Joe is saying is truth.

Can someone list all of the accounts Sam is using?

I have
Sam
Elizabeth Record
Bob McChicken
Busizem718
ebay: googlyeyes11


any more?

yeah from what I heard, his parents house had a fire, not that it burned down... somethign about continuous electrical problems. he sad throat cancer, i didnt hear only months to live. This new drama I read on here this morning, he said he split with his GF, and she filed claims on all paypal transactions if items were delivered to her house or not. Take everything with a grain of salt... just forwarding the info I was told.

Bob McChicken sent me a Facebook message and asked to rejoin the Skullbrain Facebook page.

I told him he had to come back here and explain...and that I can not add him back until he does so.

He's going to need to create a new account to do that. And possibly use a different IP.

I've been thinking about doing this for a while, but just haven't had the time... I want to take a minute in this thread to set something straight here, for the record, as I don’t wish to be associated with Sam in the mind of anyone here.

I regret the post I made some months ago in the middle of this page, shortly after GARAMANIACAL, in Sam’s defense:
viewtopic.php?f=3&t=39640&hilit=grody+foe&start=2850

I have to say that I did not really have any clue at that time as to who Sam really was or what he was up to; he seemed like a decent, personable guy in the brief encounters I had with him at the opening, and of course my perceptions were colored by feeling happy and grateful that some sb folks showed up. I was unaware of the growing suspicions around him in part because I tend to stay far away from any threads here that I perceive as pointless “drama” and shit-stirring. However, my experience with Sam has left me feeling that I need to at least keep a better ear to the ground for people like him in our midst.

Right around the time I made the post above, I posted in Whatever to see if anyone here could help me find a good way to scan or photograph an old, fragile piece of Garamon ephemera I had recently scored, and which was precious to me. Sam immediately PMd to say that his father, an archivist at a hospital in NYC, could do the job for $60. Great. I sent the piece off to him. VT to NYC. It got lost in the mail (legit- it was a postal issue that both myself and Sam, to his credit, worked to resolve), and ended up arriving three weeks later. A couple weeks after that, Sam let me know the work was done: his dad had produced two different hi-res photos of the piece, and a full size printed proof. Great! Then Sam told me to send him $100, and he would send it out. No acknowledgment of our previous agreement or the sudden $40 price hike. I pushed back (with my heart in my throat, a bit, as here he had me over a barrel, with my cherished, ultra-rare piece of art still in his hands), said I never would have initiated the deal @ $100 and could only afford $60, and he relented. I Paypalled him $60. All this while my knowledge of his MO was growing.

I took a trip with my son to Brooklyn to visit friends in late April; while I was there, rather than take any chances with the mail again, at Sam’s suggestion we met in person, at an art opening at some uptown candy shop. He showed up with the goods, and I was quite pleased with what I received. I thanked him and asked him to convey my thanks to his dad. Without my GARAMANIACAL opening-high, and out from under several pounds of rubber and make-up, I was able to get a much clearer sense of Sam. We conversed for 15 minutes or so. My impression was that he is a shallow, name-dropping braggart with too much money and time on his hands. In the course of our short convo, he told me of the gallery space he used to own in Manhattan, with its astronomical monthly rent; how he was at that time the only person in the states to show Banksy works in a gallery; the precise, huge monetary value of the art amassed in his collection at any given time, and on and on, seeming desperate to make an impression as a high-stakes wheeler-dealer. This was at precisely the time when the heat was being turned up on him here for flipping activities, and I asked him about that. He rolled his eyes and said, “Dude, I’m paying (Lulubell) Amy’s rent every month!” … as if all those Grodies wouldn’t be moving without him. He also implied that Lulubell knew all that he was doing and was fine with it.

I was very relieved to get my piece back and end my brief association with Sam. He’s not my kind of people, and again, I just want to say all of this to clarify any associations in the minds of fellow boarders in the wake of my March post. Also, I’d add that I have not stated anything here I would not say to him directly.

It will be really interesting to see if he shows up at FOE next weekend.

Also "potter426" on ebay, it appears.

not trying to lump anyone in with what i said, just pointing out that people used to defend this guy and now we see his true colors.