PSA: Starshiie.

Posted 5 years, 11 months ago by voidranger

WHO: Starshiie.

WHERE: DeviantArt; but mostly FaceBook.

WHAT: Character theft and reselling stolen characters through FaceBook.

WHEN: April 10 - xxx. [ I am not sure if this thief has any more characters, and I don't want to rule that possibility out. ]

EXPLAIN: A few days ago, I was notified by a couple users on here that a character of mine was reuploaded entirely under a different name and information. Naturally, I was very upset and quick to jump to conclusions because this particular character is very near and dear to me, however, talking to the user cleared up a lot of misconceptions. It seemed that the user that reuploaded my character was wrongfully scammed by the true thief, who mostly operates on FaceBook through a group. The person who got scammed was very cooperative with me and even gave me screenshots of the exchange with Starshiie, who goes by a different name on FaceBook, but I'd prefer not to leak personal information. Through this, I also found out that another one of my characters were stolen. However, the person had told me that apparently, she had been using both of my characters for a long time, so no one suspected that they were stolen when the thief placed both characters up for, 'OTA', on FaceBook. Sadly, she did get $4 out of this exchange from her victim, but I have already recouped those funds to the person from my own PayPal, because they were honestly just an innocent bystander that got deceived.

[ My initial note and the person explaining the incident. ]

[ Exchange between the thief and the person they scammed. ] -- Sorry, I don't know what the translation is, but I know the general premise.

[ Stolen Character: Shinhwa. ]

[ Stolen Character: Suga. ]

[ sta.sh. ]

Please be wary, everyone. I, unfortunately, did not take watermarks too seriously, but this entire incident has been very unnecessarily stressful for me and has put me on edge.

heterodont

Not sure if you're looking for a translation, but the exchange between the thief and the person they scammed is the scam..ee? asking about the character and images, thief saying they'll send them 'their' things and the thief stating that ''their'' character is tranquil/peaceful/etc, doesn't like to get into problems, and what the characters likes.

I can translate the entire thing but I don't think it's necessary since it doesn't seem to be part of the actual transaction. just the thief trying to ''prove'' it's their character by listing off personality traits.

The group's rules say that stolen characters aren't allowed so the person who stole your characters is very likely gonna get booted when the person complains to the mods about what happened, if you yourself haven't already done so.

voidranger

Sorry about the late reply, work and school haven't been very kind to me lately. u.u;

NotDamien -- Ah, yes! It was a huge relief for me as well that the person that got scammed didn't pay too much, but I'm sure that it was still disheartening. ;; I believe that the thief got pictures that were unwatermarked on DeviantArt, from artists I've commissioned, because not all artists watermark their work. Still... I have a sinking feeling because the person I was talking to through notes said that the thief had, like, nineteen pictures of Shinhwa when they were discussing the OTA on FaceBook; so I'm a bit concerned if that's true or not. Thank you so much for your constant support and help, however! I appreciate it. ^^

heterodont -- Ahh, I see! Thank you for explaining that to me! ;; I assumed that was the general gist of it, but I couldn't be sure. orz It's also a relief that the group probably booted her, but I'm a bit concerned because the thief might just turn around and steal characters to sell them in different OC groups...