PSA: Sheller / Jodora (scamming/chargebacks)

Is there any sort of legal resource/denouncing that can be done in this situation with this many affected people? My heart breaks at the situation and I wonder if there's some sort of report that can be done, I'm unfamiliar with US/ENG speaking countries laws, but this is an insane situation and a shitton money with too many affected and a clear pattern of suspicious fraudulent behavior (like who in the world is giving checks for designs payments????) and I'm just worried that they might get away with this without at least some repercussion. Even if it really was the mother (which I doubt) legally, ignorance is not an excuse to take thousands of dollars away from people. 

It sucks that artists are still being mistreated and that people's livelihoods have to be caught in the middle of this because of personal affairs. Whatever might be the situation, nothing can excuse this and even less with Sheller's movements right after the charge backs. 

Thank you for pointing this out @SeaSlugs, I read from another user earlier what it looked like and realized what I had done. I will be honest, I made a  knee jerk reaction to immediately help pay back the artist but it's  wrong. My intention might have been good but that isn't an excuse. I  apologize for not thinking critically.

I will be keeping this design and not giving it to Gill. I will also not be buying any more characters and designs Gill had intended to buy.  

I am open for DMs to talk to anyone that has concerns, questions and links you wish to share.

i moved in the same circles as Gill many years ago (~2016/17), i wouldn't say we were close but we shared some group chats. ftr, they've been engaging in bizarre practices around adoptables since at least 2017 (nothing material that i can recall, but a lot of buying and reselling that struck me as weird at the time). eta: i recall they gave a design to a mutual friend as a gift, but later asked for it back so they could sell it, which upset our mutual friend and was just overall weird. they also sold a design another mutual friend had made for them as a gift without any additional art - essentially selling our friend's art that they had received for free. i lost contact with them not long after that. 

i do want to point out that they are closer to 25 than 20 (i know this because i know how old they were when we were acquainted) as i've seen some people mistaking their age for 20.

slimeyflowers It's totally understandable to want to do what you can to cheer up and help a friend. I just would hate to see you get dragged down over this. Overall a tough situation to see and I don't envy your position ;_;). )Also I hope my comment didn't seem too mean, I was mid night shift orzz)

NVM MISUNDERSTOOD-

I have been chargebacked too, I really hope this works out for you !!

i’ll redirect my own experience with the person from chuchy07’s bulletin: https://toyhou.se/~comments/32355698

in short, i was the person who was accidentally overcharged from the resale of chuchy07 design. and i also refunded their $10 commission they ordered from twice (because i had worked with them in the past, i had no issue manually refunding their commission since they wanted the money asap and didn’t want to wait for vgen to process it. we had agreed that they would return the $10 along with the $50 i was charged extra for the design. they sent an extra $5 as an apology for a total of $65). i got anxious about a message they had sent, so i also sent refund through vgen … so i have a $65 pending echeck they sent through my kofi that still hasnt cleared into my account T_T but im sure once it hits, i’ll also be effected by a chargeback from what i have been hearing from others

they had some other waitlist requests on vgen as well.. but i’m glad those were cancelled before i could even ask for payment >__<

If you have any issues getting your character back (in the even the chargeback dispute ends in favor of Sheller and you're left with both no money & no design) remember to file a ticket with evidence.

I had filled a ticket on Sheller at the very start of this situation back when they were actively hidding their characters asking for their account to be frozen to prevent them from migrating account. The admin got back to me eventually (after Sheller had started saying they'd pay back everything). They are aware of the situation and will help you get back your OCs if need be.

copy pasted response from the admin:

Hi, thanks for reaching out. 

It looks like this user is currently making an attempt to reverse  these chargebacks and return characters to impacted users. I have issued  this user a warning asking them to cooperate in compensation of these  chargebacks. This account will not be locked so that this user has the ability to return characters to impacted users; we'll keep an eye out, but if you notice that they are trying to continue business unrelated to chargeback cases, please do file a report with further information for review. 

If you are aware of an artist who has done business with this user who requires either a refund or a character to be transferred to their account, please ask them to file a ticket directly with a link to the character that requires returning or details regarding the funds that  are required from this user. This will make it easier for us to keep track of individual cases. 

Following and bumping, I really hope you win this dispute and get your funds. 

Update from SlimeyFlowers

It seems that Gill is attempting to hide from or ignore what's going on </3 I have doubts that any charges will be reversed by them

I'm very exhausted by what has happened but this isn't about me.

Thank you cheeriko for posting my update. From the bottom of my heart, I hope Gill understands how deeply concerned I am but more importantly what has escalated.

I will still be reachable but I'm distancing myself away for my own health.

slimeyflowers - Of course!! I definitely understand how stressful this is. Thank you for all your help!

If it helps anyone, although I do not have any evidence, it's probable that the disputes were made through their credit card company rather than Paypal. If their $8,000 debt is associated with a credit card, their "mother" (or Gill) could've contacted the company to report months of 'fraudulent charges'. This may explain the apparent difficulty they are experiencing in canceling the disputes.

Unfortunately, if they can't find a way to drop all disputes, all people affected will be sitting with money on hold for at least a month. </3 

If anyone wants to link my post to other threads and bulletins I give permission. Take forever screen shoots of my comments too and spread it around. I don't think me or lovementish will get any other updates, those are bridges we burned. It'll be up to you guys and Gill now.

Demand reverse charge backs but be kind to Gill, they are going through a lot. I understand the frustration though.