EXPLAIN: I was approached by Guro-boy when I placed a thread seeking Longthings to buy. They messaged me with two that they were selling, one at 150$ and the other at 100$. I thought this was fine and wanted to buy them both. They originally asked me to send as Friends and family, but I said I was uncomfortable with that and offered to pay the fees for them. They sent me an invoice, which I was comfortable with because invoices are more secure. They gave me the image files and all was fine after. About a month in, I was contacted by a user, who I won’t mention, stating that their longthing looked eerily similar to one of mine. I agreed and sent Glider a note about it. (I later learned Glider isn’t as active where I contacted them, so that’s not an issue). I then contacted Guro and they stated it was a custom. I was still very wary, but I accepted it and just kept things quiet while I did some research. Things got busy, IRL, so I dropped the thing to take care of my life.

Glider posted a journal to FA today, April 11^th, 2018. And stated there was a tracing issue. I asked in the thread, for someone to note me the name of the user. I was noted, by SEVERAL people, that it was guro-boy. This prompted me to message glider, who was active on the site, for confirmation. They confirmed my suspicions and stated I was sold two altered long things.

As of currently, I have filed a dispute asking for them to VERIFY the legitimacy of these longthings, but I will be escalating it to an immediate claim.

PROOF:

Glider’s journal: https://www.furaffinity.net/journal/8690922 (http://archive.is/utgJN)

The Two longthings I was sold: https://sta.sh/21sds6or442j?edit=1

Conversation for original purchase: https://sta.sh/017r9nhrw0el

Paypal proof: https://sta.sh/0amkxon9kd9

Second PM asking about legitimacy: https://sta.sh/01jzv5os7nd5

PM to glider: https://sta.sh/01x7uafbrotp

Folder with proofs: https://sta.sh/210pqzzkxepp?edit=1

Update: They have contacted me via email, and offered a refund on a payment plan after I escalated the dispute to a claim. https://sta.sh/01kh1arkw3ms
My reply and theirs: https://sta.sh/022fhs2g4eou

They have NOT refunded me anything yet. Despite this conversation happening this morning

Update 4/21/2018: They have contacted me via email and offered me the partial refund via. Together, we have decided that I will deny the refund so the case can be reviewed and the date extended in order to get a full refund of the 258$. I felt this was the best course of action, since the date they originally requested for the second payment was so close.

Updated: PayPal closed the case, not in my favor, and now I’m out the 258$. :,) So there’s nothing I can do, except hope that Guro actual refunds me, since I have no ground to stand on anymore. Update (5/1/2018): Paypal has closed the case, again, against my favor. I contacted Guro boy. They replied saying they needed to check if their bank wouldn't frekk out. Then proceed to tell me that they WOULD refund it. Here we are. Almost a week past the actual date they said they'd have the full amount. Nothing. I'm taking this as a loss. I am going to see if my bank will do anything. I am doubtful, but I can at least hope.
https://sta.sh/0bnt5rwp6b2
https://sta.sh/0wzpx7cx0gc

5/19/2018 My bank has denied the claim to reverse the charge. Their reason is that paypal stated that I authorized the transaction. They found the payment to be valid. So, I've filed a complaint with the BBB, but at this point, there's nothing I can do.
https://sta.sh/0k1iahz5sle
https://sta.sh/018o63e5htu8 (BBB case)

Guro has been seen trying to commission Glider, despite not refunding me the amount. https://prnt.sc/jmayyx (Archive link: http://archive.is/ynH7z )

5/26/2018: It looks like Guro-boy has migrated to making off-brands of the closed species he was banned from. https://toyhou.se/~forums/5867.service-reviews/63052.psa-artist-beware-guro-boy-updated-5-24-?page=8#post-1493872
http://archive.is/uruXC
Second update: Guro has now blocked me from his social media platforms, which leaves me no way to contact him. It confirms that he was the one that made these fake longthings, and not this "darlingdoq" account he claimed sold him these. https://sta.sh/0hdfdn9kpor

Third update:

And ladies and gents, I have payment part 1 of 2 from Guro-boy.
https://sta.sh/014i8wjqluw5
https://sta.sh/0gbcxkc9wk

Update (6/2): Guro boy has been caught tracing art from other artists and selling them as commissions. http://bibbity-babbity.tumblr.com/post/174478869145/josuke-hiigashikata-quick-question-would-you ( http://archive.is/MntOu)

Update 6/3: New accounts added to the list of accounts.
Artist beware from traced art: http://bibbity-babbity.tumblr.com/post/174477990110/guro-boy-vitreoushumor-art-theftbootlegging

**Update 11/3/21: New accounts added to the beware.

If anyone is interested in retweeting the AB post on twitter: https://twitter.com/Artists_Beware/status/994804199920754688

** 6/20/2018: A rep from paypal called me today. She resolved my claim and issued a credit for thew full 258$ to my account. It turns out, there was a large misunderstanding on paypal's part and my correct channel through the BBB resolved this. I issued a refund to Guro-boy for the 125$ they gave me. I am not interested in keeping money that is not mine. I am considering this resolved.

Momma-Lucifer

This whole situation is such a mess. I'm glad people are sharing their experiences here.

As a bit of an update, I'm actually posted this as an official beware on the Artist Beware Livejournal, but it isn't going to be posted until the limit that paypal has given for the dispute to be replied to. I highly suggest OTHER people also submit their own bewares, as tedious as they are, so something like this doesn't happen again.

Thank you all for your support. I'm sorry for everyone who has to deal with this, or has lost something because of it. Personally, I traded these two designs to two good friends of mine, and now I have to break their hearts and deliver this news to them.

otterespresso

Posting here as I was affected.

While the longthing I bought from them (though they weren't supposed to sell in the first place I found out!!) was a legit longthing, the owner before me may have been traded a longthing that may have not legit (or not owned by guro-boy in the first place). It's still being investigated, but It’s pretty safe to assume it was stolen! orz

enchantedpencil

Man, it's terrible to hear so many people were affected by this. What do people do with characters they find out are bootlegs, anyway? Sacrifice them to the cold digital void of the internet and lament the loss of money/trades it took to obtain it?

Momma-Lucifer

enchantedpencil Pretty much. You can’t use the design as the exsisting species, unless you can get a MYO slot. It absolutely sucks for those of us who traded the designs. We have to either give back what we traded for OR pay the other party (like in my case) for the work they did. That 250$ I would be getting back is completely going to paying for the customs I traded for.

noolongerinuse

Hopefully you guys are able to be refunded. It's not fair that this many people have been tricked by this artist. Thank you for leaving a heads-up for people that haven't had this happen yet.

Momma-Lucifer

pajuxi I was just informed from an anonymous source that they are still trying to trade their dainty via https://refsheet.net/guroboy

pajuxi

oh thats fine! they got banned from the species so they gotta get rid of their Dainties, I don't forcibly seize them and will buy back the ones they can resell but the other option is to trade/discontinue them- what is concerning to me though is that they said they wanted to discontinue pretty much all of those Dainties and would turn their edits in to me, but they are just listed as "sock deer" and "monsters" with no edits.... looks like im sending another note sighs deeply

hinatot

adding in- i had an issue with them back in november as part of a multiple-person trade, where they had traded a dainty that they didn't actually own, thus just... basically causing a big mess. i'd ended up messaging them and two of the three other involved people through the night. guro-boy had claimed the dainty had been resold to them, and claimed an empty furaffinity account (darlingdoq) had sold it: https://imgur.com/qct3UUr

i checked in on their page a few days ago when all this longthing stuff was going down, and noticed a conversation on their page: https://imgur.com/DeMWhp7

where they claim the same user sold them their traced longhthings

note that the original message from my conversation with them is from november, and this conversation on their page is from a few days ago, putting the supposed sale in february or later

nobody would actually buy from a person who scammed them like that once. so it's just them digging their own grave deeper

Trundlebug

pajuxi Ahh, that's good to hear that the dainties they had are legit. They traded me an MYO slot they got from 'their friend' and I recently traded it to a really nice person on here wicked ... I was worried that suddenly this dainty MYO was somehow faked (they provided me with screenshots, but I'm still wary).

However if their dainty stuff is legit from you, then I won't worry too much about the MYO slot.

Titheling

pajuxi my concern with them selling the dainties is that they might be taken back by people traded for stolen designs...leading to duplication of the adopt :/ Might be a good idea to get the trade info for the dainties and see if anyone who gave them one and found out about this has reseized the design because they were scammed since tbh that's what I'd want to do if I found out what I traded for was not legit...I'd consider what was traded to be mine once more. This is a really stupid mess GOD

pajuxi

(boy i missed a lot in this thread FDGF)

Trundlebug me and wicked talked before actually!! they are all good to go and the slot and slot proof is legit ;w;/

Milesian if im understanding correctly all of that has already been taken care of! all Dainties that had some scam for longthings or what have you somewhere down the line have been reversed/fixed to the best of my abilities, and the ones left with guro are MYO slots they used that they bought from events or a few dainties they got in legitimate swaps with no longthings/scamming in the trading lineage!

pajuxi

Milesian messed up the ping because i can't spell for the life of me DFGDFG