That's terrible! I hope you're able to get your money back!
https://artists-beware.livejournal.com/994302.html
WHO: Guro-Boy
https://guro-boy.deviantart.com/
https://josuke-hiigashikata.tumblr.com/ (Abandoned)
New: https://gyro-joestar.tumblr.com/
https://twitter.com/j0hnny_joestar(Abandoned)
New: https://twitter.com/gyr0zeppeli
http://www.furaffinity.net/user/vitreoushumor
WHERE: https://toyhou.se/guro-boy (Deactivated account)
https://refsheet.net/guroboy (Still trying to trade their dainty) Moved to https://refsheet.net/Wormwood (nsfw art featured here: http://archive.is/mP8Op )
New accounts: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/gintoki./
https://toyhou.se/Gintoki-kinnie
Still very active on Gintoki-kinnie, and joining several CS groups. Please be extremely cautious when dealing with them.
Was also discovered he still owns 2 longthings, despite being banned from the species/community.
https://sta.sh/214d2x3ndq2?edit=1
WHAT: 2 longthings (closed species by Glidertoo)
WHEN: Jan 31st, 2018
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 11th, 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.
i had an issue with them too, last year back in october in fact so they always left me a sour taste in my mouth / feeling suspicious ever since, so i feel its worth mentioning too.
its been a while so forgive me if these screenshots arent sufficient enough so i hope this will do.
this is my longthing in question, i recieved them via trade from CreamofDespair on the 27th of september 2017 (i can provide proof if needed)
i was alarmed that a month later i saw the same longthing up for trade in guro-boys thread.
surprise surprise the account they purchased them from, nekolenlen was deactivated or any leads were a dead ends, along with the longthing missing artworks. it also seemed none of the previous owners were this nekolenlen person either around the time they purchased the longthing.
here are some screenshots from the pm's sent between us: one // two // three // conversation between me and creamofdespair, thread has a link to the previous owner aswell either of us aswell thus raising further suspicions. please also note they went by vitreoushumor before changing their username
i never heard from them again about this.
They have a Tumblr as well in case you'd like to add that to their accounts! https://josuke-hiigashikata.tumblr.com/
I'm just posting this here again as I was affected by this user as well. Guro-boy took an image of my longthing Corvus and badly edited out the watermark. Then he went to Perikoala's gallery and stole the commission I paid for and tried to sell/trade the design, which he'd named "Laci".
After confronting him he linked me to a dead account saying that they bought the design from there - http://www.furaffinity.net/user/darlingdoq
But as you can see it's a totally blank account. When you look for darlingdoq in the search bar absolutely nothing comes up, and so I don't believe Guro at all. If anything, it's probably their account. There are around 5 of us who have all been affected by the same person. Coincidence? Does he think we believe that he got all these longthings from some random empty account and that they're all fakes??
These are my longthings - https://toyhou.se/Disdain/characters/folder:39213 and I have never put any of these guys up for trade.
I received a Longthing from Guro-boy as a gift from my good friend MissKirsten - who, knowing I've been trying to get one without luck, traded a Dainty of hers to Guro-boy and the noodle was part of the deal: https://sta.sh/0qvsm6853ih Curiously, despite my confirmation, the file was never deleted from Guro-boy's sta.sh; the link from their message is still functional as I'm writing this post.
(They wrote my friend's nickname entirely wrong by the way, there should be no dash and for the love of everything, her name is not Kristen).
On April 11th my Longthing's profile was favourited by Disdain - and I happen to have a habit of checking out the users who fave my characters, so I did it this time as well; Disdain's profile is where I found the link to Glider's PSA, and noticed that the Longthing I owned was very similar to one of Disdain's, and I started to worry.
After looking through Glider's both accounts on FA I found an even more probable ripoff victim: a custom made by Glider for a friend - the middle one to be exact - of which my Longthing seemed to be a slight edit. I contacted MissKirsten immediately about my concerns, as I had no idea whether my noodle was an approved edit or a ripoff: https://sta.sh/0ny8tkte3qr
Reportedly, Guro-boy told my friend they had won the Longthing in question in an auction of Glider's (which is obviously nowhere near possible, if my noodle's the real deal). After hearing my concerns, MissKirsten wanted to contact Guro about this, however their TH account was already closed. Luckily, she was able to contact Pajuxi and regained ownership of the Dainty traded to Guro: https://sta.sh/0ayj560kkiy
So at least our story has ended happily and quickly, I suppose. Still, I had to delete my "Longthing" and yeah, I'm pretty pissed.
They attempted to trade me for finding them a dainty. Unfortunately I dont have screenshots of their badly edited out version of Corvus but this is all Ive got. My friend had a bad feeling about them so I ignores the message and went on with my day. Glad I did.
Yeah this user scammed a LOT of people with these fake longthings in exchange for Dainties- at least 4-5 cases if not more as people are continuing to find out the Longthings they got were fakes.
Luckily between talking with Guro and working with TH, we've gotten most of the scammed trades reversed and the original Dainty owners their files back! If you think you were caught up in one of these scams, I recommend maybe noting guro-boy @ dA because after some talking they have been helpful in undoing the fraudulent trades.
Needless to say they have been blacklisted from Dainties and its really horrible how many people have gotten affected by this :(
Disdain I'm not sure tbh? In our conversation they brought up that they got them from a friend and "I dont even know how to doctor stuff like that I'm an honest guy." and I called them on it out and they kinda ignored the subject and I didn't pursue it further- because for me there were more important things to talk about since they were trying to talk their way out of getting banned/ getting people their designs back and all that jazz
Also to @MonsterInsideMe don't cancel your claim! If you close it you can never reopen it again and if Guro flaked on refunding you that would leave you out $250.
I'd like to add to this as well. My experience isn't with longthings, nor did I have any transaction with them. They uploaded 4 eerays onto their TH, one of which was mine. I only got caps of two, but "Codi" belongs to me---> x / x
I messaged cookiehana immediately, and she went to confirm with the other 3 eeray owners that they still owned them. Here's my eeray, who has edits I made.
Then I messaged guro-boy right after, and here is our conversatoin---> x / x
I was very suspicious of them and insisted on being given a name and proof, since they claimed they were scammed too. And after reading the comments here, I see that disdain was given the same username I was: https://www.furaffinity.net/user/darlingdoq A deactivated account that I couldn't do anything with. This is also their proof of the transaction with darlingdoq.
In the end, I didn't make a PSA cause I just couldn't shake how suspicious this was. I didn't have any other experiences with them, I never knew guro-boy before that, and all I had was an empty account that I couldn't pursue further and no one else's experiences. So maybe this will bring more to the table. I certainly hope more people can avoid being scammed this way.