I'm a person who got scammed by the diablo 2 keys guy. AMA.
Actually, don't ask me anything. I'm only posting it here to make sure everyone who's seen the original thread gets the message: this guy is a thief. The guy behind http://d2key.com is a scammer and will steal your five bucks.
I sent him a support email, just to get a new set of non-working keys. When I complained, I never got a reply. You can read more about his scam here.
EDIT: To answer "how was the link between that and diablo-keys.com established?". As I mention here, the original support email listed was [email protected]. Obviously it's not something I can present in the court, but it's enough for me to know I'm not tarnishing his good name wrongly.
EDIT2: As explained here and here, another evidence of the link between this scam and the other scam is that mysteriously both resolve to the same IP.
EDIT3: Despite the fact it's been here for over 4h, and that he's responded to me in comments about 15 times in that time, including several times asking me to email him (which I did), I still haven't got an email reply from the guy about the non-working keys. His claims about replacing faulty keys are patent bullshit.
EDIT4: Following the evidence in this thread, as well as other, unpublicised proofs from the blog poster, the scammer has been banned from IAmA again. Announcement here.
EDIT5: The guy answered me, finally. However, since I've already registered keys I got from another, very fine, redditor and don't have the means to verify the new ones right now, it is currently unknown if the new keys are legit.
EDIT6: I've got them checked. Out of three sets I got from him, at least one was reported as "currently in use by negs". I'd imagine the others to be a similar deal. So yeah, after a huge thread in which he repeatedly asserted his innocence, what I got in the end was a set of keys stolen from someone else.
Posted Dec 2, 2009, 7:26 PM UTC · edited
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OK. Maybe you are replacing all the defunct keys. We will never know, that is between you and your conscience.
But you seem to pass over the most vital issue (if you really aren't scamming, that is) which is that you asked for money from people with a shitty system. Heck, the website is still up, people can still make orders, even after you have acknowledged that you have had a "technical database problem". Saying it's your fault doesn't do shit. You messed around with peoples money whether you are fraudulent or not, and that is bad practice.
My recommendation is to cut off the site, fix whatever it is that needs fixing, verify it, and go back online.
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In his defense, running with a shitty system that messes with 30 or 40 people is way better than scamming hundreds of people. Really how much can you expect from some random dude selling diablo 2 keys for 5 bucks on the internet?
Exactly. Who could expect everything to go smoothly when OP said it took him hours to manually copy and paste each key into the db?
I'm still awaiting a reply on my second complain after you replaced one pair of broken keys with another pair of broken ones. Resolve that and we'll talk.
How do we know you aren't scamming him for extra keys?
EDIT: Well, looks like he was scamming you. :( Sorry, mate.
In a nutshell? You don't. I don't know of a way to show that I got a pair of non-functioning keys. If you know any, shoot.
Screenshot of Diablo rejecting the keys?
Not that I'm suggesting you are trying to scam him, but that's one way.
You send him back the keys that you claim don't work, you don't lose anything, they don't work. He tests the keys with any diablo2 installation and if they don't work you get new ones, if they do work: you must have done something wrong. He can prove to authorities by your email that you where wrong. Nobody loses, except someone who wants to scam, on which side ever.
Apparently, a bunch of people who purchased from this guy got used keys in his own thread. I think it's fair to say that OP is being honest.
In any business, the provider should be prepared for an approximate 5 percent (minimum) scam/non-payment rate. This is universal enough to be considered almost a law in b-school. It is rarely worth the effort to try and lower this in the first place, and the risk of bad publicity from mistakenly accusing a customer of shenanigans is even more reason to just accept it and adjust your pricing to compensate if you choose. If not, then it's best to just deal.
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Screenshot
"I could get sued, by Blizzard AND law enforcement, if I did sold not working keys."
Judging from this thread and the other one, you sold a lot of non-working keys. Whether you replaced some of them if people complained loudly enough is irrelevant. If Blizzard can sue you over selling non-working keys, then they can sue you right now.
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Has anyone counted how many people claim that they have been scammed?
If it is under 30 people then his story is consistent, and given that he claims to replace any bad keys I don't think too many judges would really care.
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My friend sitting next to me right now has received 3 sets of already in use keys now. He's fairly livid now.
http://img233.imageshack.us/img233/9548/d2key.png
And this cosmic coincidence?
Lets focus on what's important, mypussytits.com?
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That's not an explanation. The same web server is hosting your domain and the domain of a known scam site, and it's only out of 30 hosted domains.
zomg! like you have never registered two domains about the same thing before? get over it. even if the other one was a scam at some point in time (which i disagree that it was), just because he has two domains on a server which is blatently obviously shared hosting (based on the other websites on it) doesnt mean he is scamming. if you truely believe that you need to have proof. screenshot the email he sent you with the key, or the website that has the key. if you have a sales number, post that and have him post the DB log of the that sale number being tied to the key. and seeing if the key works on other computers or not.
if the key says it is invalid, you can get a new key. if it says its used, thats yer fault.
diablo-keys.com is the domain of a known and proven scammer. He is claiming up and down that he's not the same person.
d2key.com is a domain hosted on the same web server, out of about thirty.
It's either a cosmic coincidence, or he's a liar. His explanation doesn't even make sense.
Try and keep up.
'known and proven scammer'
Besides some dudes blog, I dont believe anyone has any legit information on diablo-keys.com
"which i disagree that it was"
Really? The guy went so far as to put up a fake lawyer page, and then threaten to sue people who complained about being ripped off. If that's not a scam, you have a very interesting definition of the word.
heh yeah i guess i was quite wrong after reading the rest of the thread and the original.
i dunno, i guess i was defending him because i in a similar situation of selling something and someone calling it a scam.. after the entire ordeal i ended up with only 15% profit, gave a bunch of people free stuff, had my server DDoS'd, and was contacted by a lawyer about a class action lawsuit.. pretty much retarded.
i was 17 at the time too, which didnt help.. didnt know how to deal with these things =/
edit: i downvoted mehself on my older post.
This still doesn't explain your treatment to him through the emails, including the totally bogus lawyer website.
If you do get sued by Blizzard or are charged criminally, I know a pretty good lawfirm that should be able to help you out. It's run by corporate executives from HP and Apple.
I liked the ironically part :)
It's like raaaaaaayaaaaaiin,
It is ironic that a post slandering him would generate more revenue. I don't see how that's not irony...
This situation would be considered libel because it is written, not spoken.
Sounds like it doesn't take much work. Let the script sit, and automatically take peoples money $5 at a time
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Preach on brotha
Pics or it didn't happen.
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$9.90 is with the "Diablo 2 Master Guide," which he said he wrote/compiled himself, and is charging $4.95 for. Uncheck that box and the price for a set of keys is indeed $4.95.
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How many confirmed defunct keys are there?
Oh wait we can't confirm any of this.
next time get Karlson to write your posts on reddit.
I've ordered from your site before. Keep up the good work m8.
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I ordered the D2 and LoD keyset and both of them worked fine on the first try. Not a scam. Just a guy and his customers having some trouble.
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