Who: pizzasass @ dA | pizzasass @ TH (inactive?) | cat-rah @ Tumblr (changed URL after this PSA went up) | pyrrha-nikos @ Tumblr | [email protected] | [email protected]
What: Chargeback on payments of adopts and extra art.
When: June 6th and 7th, 2018
Issue: User on deviantart paid for several adopts designs and their extra art packages. All art was delivered in April, after their initial purchases in March and April. Asked me to put a Mermay design (with intent of buying the extra art option) on hold until June; at the end of May, I noticed their account was suddenly deactivated. On June 6th, I received notice of several chargebacks from the user.
They purchased three adopts from me, in March and April, and had ordered the additional art packages I offer with my adopts on deviantArt. I have proof of our conversations through notes, including them receiving the adopt file and extra art. They clearly had no issues with any of these pieces, and had even gone so far as to commission artwork of one of the designs they purchased. They had planned a $60 purchase for a Mermay adopt with extra art, but suddenly deactivated their account. I didn't think anything of it until I saw that they issued chargebacks on my Paypal and threw me into the negative.
Here is the sta.sh folder of all my screenshots; I tried to make it as organized as possible: https://sta.sh/2xi280mdfg4
Here is their TH page, with one of my designs, the art I did, and a few commissioned pieces: https://toyhou.se/2079054.lennox WARNING: It includes one NSFW piece.
Upon following the artists credited in their commissioned pieces, I was able to find two of the pieces uploaded by the user. Unfortunately, the original posts were deleted and the only way I found their Tumblr account was because of the artists who reblogged the commissions they did, and the source linked back to the user cat-rah. I don't know why they deleted the original posts, but my guess is to try to clear suspicion. My concern is that they appear to be an active Patron of one of the commissioned artist's Patreons, and that they could be a Patron of other artists out there. They're very active on Tumblr, from what I can tell.
I have reason to believe that this user has a habit of making new accounts on deviantArt, purchasing a bunch of art, and then issuing chargebacks several months later. The reason I believe this is because, as seen in the screenshots above, they have used two separate emails for me to send them invoices to. I did a simple google search on [email protected] and found a link to an auction on dA, with the winning user, katyperry16, using the same email as I was provided. Note that the account has been deactivated. I have no way of knowing when that happened, but I suspect it was before they created the pizzasass account.
https://www.deviantart.com/pk-adopts/art/OPEN-FS-Snow-Angel-Auction-715342317
https://gyazo.com/5ccde3bb509b4f2c57acb6437fafcccf (screenshot of the comment section from the auction linked above)
On June 6th, the user in question emailed me, urging me to ignore the charges because she was 'hacked'. Since June 6th, I have not had any follow-up or heard anything from this user. I strongly believe that they spun this excuse as a way to feign innocence. Their silence on this issue speaks for itself, honestly. I included the screenshot of this email in the sta.sh folder I linked above; I crossed out the user's name for the sake of privacy, but their initials are still visible if you, as an artist or adopt-maker, want to make sure you haven't encountered the same person.
I wasn't sure if I should make a PSA about this user, since everything took place in June; I don't know if it's too late to be relevant, but I wanted to get the word out there anyway, since they do seem to be somewhat part of the adopt/OC community. I was actually returned the money from Paypal at the end of June, and my cases were marked as 'closed' until a few days ago on September 9th and 10th, where my cases were apparently updated as being closed in favor of the buyer. I've sent several emails out to Paypal asking why this happened, because this seems like an error -- I've heard no response back, and the email I received on the 9th and 10th said that the reason for siding with the buyer was 'Other'. I don't know what that means, but I have lost several hundred dollars because of this and Paypal's chargeback fees. I don't expect to get an answer from Paypal about this, nor do I expect to ever get the money I earned back. I just want to make other artists and adopt-makers aware that there is someone out there who has chargebacked myself and several others users.