Source
r/IAmA•
karmanaut

IAmA Announcement: Diablo 2 spammer has been re-banned.

We have received proof that he is indeed the same scammer as the one mentioned in this blog.

First of all, the holes in the story:

  • the lie about "Karlson and Karlson", his law firm. Does not exist

  • His claims that his site and the "spammer's" site are not linked. Also false. Also, Here.

  • his identity: in his original thread, he claims to be american (And I quote "A good friend of mine, who is also american") yet has french in his database. The alleged scammer from D2keys is french Canadian. When questioned on this, he continued to insist on being American but did not explain his use of French.

There is further evidence that the mods have used to make their decision that our sources does not want released, which we are respecting.

AMA, if you really feel like it.

Posted Dec 3, 2009, 12:12 AM UTC · edited

189274
TheDentite•

This may not be the right time to mention this, but through a stroke of luck I happen to have come across several thousand Ecco the Dolphin cd codes and am looking to unload them cheap. Um ask me anything or shit.

112
Studsmurf•

<3 Ecco.

Ill take 500 of them.

39
TheDentite•

Great, send the money to my paypal. Your code is 4.

44
Studsmurf•

As soon as this awesome deal I have with this Nigerian guy goes through, your next on my list to pay.

25
Measure76•

You have a deal with a Nigerian guy? You should do an AMA!

12
numeroz•

how do i pass the first level? HOW DO I DO IT!?!

15
BigScarySmokeMonster•

Do a lot of flips. Like, just keep flipping out of the water. Flips!

7
filenotfounderror•

GOD DAMN THE SHARKS!

4
Skyhooks•

I spent all my money on making my abs defined and my junk massive. So I'll only take 4! I assume it's for SEGA-CD? As we say, Sega does what Nintendon't!

7
mrhorrible•

I'll give you $70 for one!@!

1
[deleted]•

Couldn't reddit kill a lot of birds with one stone, and ban all French Canadians?

102
Delta009•

Actually, I am a French Canadian living in Montreal, QC, and if someone was kind enough to give me the name and address of the spammer, I'd be more than happy to go and stow thrones at his house--with a legal disclaimer like this one.

73
[deleted]•

Si tu check sur ce lien tu vas voir des links sur des thread d'autre monde qui ont découvert ses infos personnelles. http://i-r-squared.blogspot.com/2009/10/exposing-two-bit-scammer.html Voici les liens: http://www.redflagdeals.com/forums/warcraft-3-keys-diablo-2-keys-stradf-other-aliases-scammer-764777/ http://edgeofnowhere.cc/viewtopic.php?t=396682&sid=a7401816ab6c5fc7915a94aefb1d694c

Laisse moi savoir si tu decide d'y aller, je vais te backer :)

10
[deleted]•

I am from Manitoba, can I join in?

7
Recoil42•

That depends, are you from Winnipeg?

6
jackzombie•

moi aussi

5
PeterM7•

If you plan on actually going through with this. Send me a PM, I could bring a few friends too.

  • I also live in Montreal *
3
ropers•

stow thrones at his house

Best pun I've heard in a long time, nevermind the questionable meaning.

2
idontcommentever•

So you're an admitted French Canadian. Ban him!

1
log1k•

ಠ_ಠ

9
Taughtology•

ಠ_ಠ

1
rocketsurgery•

Or we could just sign over a Concavity of land to them that's been ruined by toxic waste. Of course then we'd have the Assassins de Fauteuils Roulant on our ass...

6
[deleted]•

Nunavuts and Québécois can swap places.

2
jooes•

As a French Canadian, I say fuck you.

4
[deleted]•

Wow that was out in the open. You guys usually PM me when you want a little action.

2
[deleted]•

On dit mange de la marde.

1
larrydick•

Seconded.

1
[deleted]•

Wow, les québécois/canadiens français qui prennent ça au sérieux doivent vraiment aller prendre de l'air.

1
[deleted]•

What's wrong with French Canadians?

0
ihaveasteak•

asked and answered my friend

4
[deleted]•

Wow, thanks a lot.

How can Reddit even upvote this.

-6
Someguy101•

You just click the top middle part of the H. It's pretty easy.

34
yakityyak•

"Je me souviens." We are concerned French Canadians will hold a grudge.

4
jaggederest•

I'm worried about my poutine. Maybe it's time to dip into the Strategic Poutine Reserve, or bring them 'democracy'.

2
igraywolf•

Je' taime mon ami. Now get the hell out.

0
[deleted]•

Vous êtes Canadien Français?

1
[deleted]•

Oui pis t'es un gros cave.

4
[deleted]•

It's easy. Do you see the arrows next to his comment? The one pointing up can be clicked on with the left button of your mouse.

0
[deleted]•

[deleted]

59
[deleted]•

Reference, for those of us late to the blog post? Scammer deleted his posts.

5
[deleted]•

[deleted]

12
trevorpinzon•

The last threat the scammer made was against the guy's young child, saying he should be careful when speaking to strangers at school.

2
[deleted]•

well, that's true.. isn't it?

7
Holzmann•

when speaking to strangers after school.

FTFY. So tl;dr: french-canadian scammer may also be a child predator.

1
djepik•

Can we just ban people that are obviously trying to sell stuff?

48
d07c0m•

Yeah, general rule: no advertising.

23
caitlinwoodward•

They tried taking the first post down, but people seemed too interested.

10
[deleted]•

I wonder if that's what the regulatory agencies feels like sometimes.

10
bogus_idea•

I'm not going to advertise, I just want to highlight that I would like to trade some potatoes for a tipping goat named Faceplant.

5
HolyJuan•

Agreed. Oh, by the way, I am selling a t-shirt based on this comment.

13
ABlinkin•

Oh great! Now where am I supposed to sell my newly engineered, aquarium-sized, bacon-shitting narwhals, huh?

3
Ciserus•

I don't know if we need to ban them, but I don't understand why we voted an obvious sales pitch up so high in the first place.

2
gwillyn•

I don't think that's the way to go about it. Sometimes there are items advertised (directly or indirectly) on reddit which we are genuinely interested in. The war on terror game comes to mind. There's a fine line between information and advertising, especially in IAmA.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

42
karmanautOP•

Meh. I'm outlining criminal law atm and getting a fair amount done, actually.

57
Bornhuetter•

When you "came back" you said you were only going to be back for a week, but you stuck around. What happened there?

35
karmanautOP•

I am lazy and have no willpower, basically.

73
Bornhuetter•

Oh well. Good to have you back, and good luck with the degree.

30
desk_rabbit•

But we're glad to have you here.

6
GetOuttaMyOffice•

Like a true redditor ;)

3
dearsomething•

That seems a bit coincidental with this post. Perhaps a case study is in order?

7
karmanautOP•

This would probably not apply to criminal law; his selling an item that doesn't work at all would be a contracts issue, and he would pay damages under implied warranty of merchantability.

20
atleast5letters•

Did he say AS IS at all? If so, seems like everyone is fucked.

2
[deleted]•

Surely there's some threshold where this becomes criminal fraud. I hope intentionally selling defective products isn't a riskless activity.

1
Orchestral•

In his case, he apparently threatened the blogger's child as well as attempted extort (is that term correct in this case?) him for 5000.

1
anonymous1•

Ah, but could you get jurisdiction over the guy?

1
theglassishalf•

Wouldn't need to use the implied warranty, he said they were tested and good. You could also get out on misrepresentation (he didn't test them). How's crim? I know it gives me a mens rea.

1
scarrister•

Why do you insist on making a poor life decision despite the innumerable warnings from disgruntled lawyers in this subreddit?

5
karmanautOP•

I'm a fool, I guess.

I actually like law school a lot, and I find it very interesting.

9
scarrister•

I loved law school - it reminded me a lot of high school in some ways.

Now I'm paying the piper: Spent half the day playing tug of war over a 5 year old boy and capped the day off with a jail house conference with a bearded lady who didn't want her bond lowered - wish I could pretend that I didn't know why lol.

Beats 70 hour weeks doing insurance defense I guess though.

6
JudgeReddit•

Attorney job satisfaction in career choice and day-to-day work is higher than most other professions (in my state, at least). There are unhappy lawyers, but the idea of it being substantially higher than other professions seems to be incorrect. This may also vary based on field. Criminal law is always hard to practice, as is family law.

5
[deleted]•

Statisticians have a 105% satisfaction rate.

11
ContentWithOurDecay•

Care to use this entire situation in your studies?

2
matrixclown•

You watching the game tonight I assume?

1
karmanautOP•

:-/ Nope, studying.

3
MisterNetHead•

I hate to pull an old joke out of the drawer, but you should get P-Dub to do your homework. :P

7
matrixclown•

I'd scold you if it wasn't an away game. You gotta take all the crazies experience you can get!

1
radiohead_fan123•

Favourite subway?

1
sizzam•

Awesome, you quoted my post regarding the phony lawfirm! Is that worth something for the Trophy Case? ;-)

19
viruselectriko•

and he posted my screenshot ( the ping one) XD

9
InspectorInternet•

And karmanaut linked to my post (swoon)! This is my accomplishment of the week! My girlfriend will never understand!

17
calvin521•

A girl friend AND a acknowledgment by karmanaut!? You shame me sir.

23
KeyboardHero•

Karmanaut apparently has a habit of making people swoon

9
karmanautOP•

here, too

10
[deleted]•

I'll eat the downvotes, I don't give a shit, but this is fucking insane.

Why the fuck does Blizzard still charge 20 bucks for this game? I mean, seriously...

16
jkh77•

For the same reason that WoW will always be 14.99 per month.

6
krappy•

WoW has a lot more perpetual active development than D2

3
jkh77•

Doesn't matter! We're talking about a corporation's bottom line, here. If profit isn't VAST managers are going to get fired.

EDIT: formatting

1
[deleted]•

im just pissed I lost 5 bucks. any way to get paypal to reimburse the cost?

15
shasto•

i'm sorry you lost 5 bucks. :( here's some karma.

5
stfuendie•

Report him to paypal. Hopefully everyone that got scammed will do the same.

2
iBleeedorange•

Ok...I read that thread, didn't understand what exactly happened. Can you tell me if this is correct, and if not what's wrong with it?

  • Some guy (2000diablo2keys?) made an AMA saying he had 2000 d2 keys and was selling them for 5$ each
  • A redditor mathrick made an AMA saying he got scammed, then the scammer dude tried to defend himself, and failed miserably, (He deleted his comment on that AMA within the last 10 minutes of my post here, because I saw it when I clicked that AMA).

Is that everything? I feel like I'm missing a lot of it.

13
[deleted]•
  1. 2000diablo2keys made an AMA saying he had 2000 Diablo 2 keys for $5 each, redditors bought the story and he sold perhaps a couple of hundred keys.
  2. His post received a star (mods later claimed they don't know how this happened)
  3. The star was removed
  4. The AMA was banned
  5. The AMA was unbanned
  6. The AMA was banned again
  7. mathrick made an AMA saying he was scammed
  8. 2000diablo2keys joined that AMA and attempted to defend himself, poorly. He said there was a database error that had resulted in a whole pile of people getting the same key, he said he had recieved 20 complaints which then became 25 complaints. A link was posted to a blog exposing another diablo key scam, evidence was posted that his site had the same IP as the other scam site.
  9. 2000diablo2keys started another AMA saying that he was being slandered and that in fact he was the victim of fraud. Some people said they had received keys, others said they too had been scammed. He said the MYSQL error had generated 50-100 keys that had been sold but not marked as such, this combined with SQL random not being random resulted in failed keys being sent out by an intermediary he had hired. He said that he had bought the keys from some guy during bankruptcy proceedings. He then said there were 30-35 complaints. An Image was provided showing his database tables were in french, he still maintained that he was American despite his terrible grammar. The Blog that had exposed the other scam released confirmation that he was indeed the same guy.
  10. This thread was posted stating that 2000diablo2keys had been banned again.
28
iBleeedorange•

Thank you, I saw the AMA's in the wrong order, mathrick's then the 2000d2key guy then this one.

2
karmanautOP•

He deleted his comment on that AMA within the last 10 minutes of my post here, because I saw it when I clicked that AMA

I banned it because I don't want him mentioning his site over and over again.

Basically, he tried to defend it, was convincing, but didn't explain any of the holes. Then, we got proof positive about some of his lies, so he was banned.

11
iBleeedorange•

That's what I got from it, and you can ban certain comments? that's neat
Did I cover everything or did I miss something?

1
happybadger•

Alright, Karmanaut, what steps are the moderators taking to ensure that something like this doesn't happen again?

13
karmanautOP•

I have taken the liberty of removing his head and putting it on a spike in front of the IAmA subreddit so that all potential spammers may see and be afraid

72
happybadger•

You have my internet axe!

16
[deleted]•

Allright, good plan.

11
ihaveasteak•

And my Bow!

2
daytime•

Fuck man. The bow never gets any respect.

3
dragonfly_blue•

And my Bong!

2
calvin521•

And my keyboard!

1
bogus_idea•

I have a cheez whiz cannon blaster made out of conglomerated bacon bits.

1
P-Dub•

Did you fill out the corresponding P3-A1 form to do that?

3
[deleted]•

I'll give you a great discount on diablo 2 cd keys if you somehow put an effigy of the spammer's head on the "t" of the reddit logo. Maybe x out the eyes... turn his blood into gravy and have it streaming down into a big plate of poutine. That'll show everyone else not to fuck around.

1
Failcake•

I think in AMAs like the one he posted, you shouldn't be allowed to post the URL of your business. Just say, "I have 2000 D2 keys, AMA." And they shouldn't be allowed to tell ANYONE the URL of their business, even if it's a PM. It'll prevent stuff like this from happening again.

1
dearsomething•

Here's a question: What do you want us to do? I'd love to hear some ideas.

8
happybadger•

I don't know the limitations of Reddit's code, but I propose a second kind of report button if it's possible. This button would require a certain amount of votes, say twenty or thirty (to avoid flagging every submission because of that one asshole who has to yell "TROLL LOL" like a precious little lemming in every thread) (edit: You could also go percent-based. Users could vote if a submission is legitimate or not, and anything under 60% [rough estimate of the usual approval rating] would be flagged for the mods to decide on), and would mark the submission with a grey or black star.

The black star, until changed by a moderator, would signify that the submission is likely made of bull and shit, and we as users could glance at it and avoid giving someone personal information/money/trust/attention.

It might be worth the effort of creating, as it's one thing when a girl might be lying about sleeping with a sibling and another when redditors are actually being scammed out of money.

Another option, if the above is unfeasible, is to auto-ban anything that is being used to market something until you have real proof of identity and intent. The submitter will give it over if they're legit, as they want to make money, and you'd have a gold star to show that they're trustworthy.

10
dearsomething•

I don't know the limitations of Reddit's code, but I propose a second kind of report button if it's possible.

We can't change code at all. Except CSS, which doesn't help us here. The stars are put in, by hand, by a moderator. Plus, I don't think we're going to have any additional stars. Just the gold one.

Another option, if the above is unfeasible, is to auto-ban anything that is being used to market something until you have real proof of identity and intent. The submitter will give it over if they're legit, as they want to make money, and you'd have a gold star to show that they're trustworthy.

Sounds fair, and I completely agree with this - but how would we prove they're legit?

3
happybadger•

Ah, crap.

Let's say you have a legitimate business owner, Soapier guy for example, doing an IamA. If he's running an honest business, and posting for promotion of his soaps, he should have no problem showing you a state-issued ID card or driving license. After all, that information would (presumably) be public record anyways if someone were to ask the local government for a copy of their business permit.

It seems like a privacy scare, but now there's hard proof that people are abusing this subreddit and its subscribers in an illegal way.

6
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
fireburt•

If only there was some way to vote on a thread to show your support or dislike of it. ;)

0
ContentWithOurDecay•

From what I've heard the moderators are installing a common sense feature to IAMA that will prevent this from happening again.

7
dearsomething•

Maybe we should just make the banner image Deadpool, as a warning.

1
[deleted]•

Jesus Reddit, I thought you were smarter than this. It took you 3 days to realize blatant spam was more than blatant? Like I'm not disappointed in the mods, I'm disappointed in the users. I've been watching this and I just can't fathom why anyone on Reddit would have even taken a thought to buy a key. Nothing about the original post looked the least bit legit.

But maybe I am a terrible pessimist =/

10
unshifted•

Remember that these are the same people who put stuff like "Vote this up so I can get head from my girlfriend!!!!" on the front page.

7
P33KAJ3W•

I need to vote for that.

1
[deleted]•

fuck you, if I make the same post I expect 1,000 upvotes within 24 hours. Worst wingman ever!

1
willis77•

I got to the original AMA right after he posted it and watched with horror as it got upvoted. There's nothing interesting about somebody buying 5000 widgets for $1 and trying to sell them for $2. I think the people upvoting were living vicariously, allured by the prospect that maybe they too could make a couple Gs online with no effort.

If it was an honest person doing an honest AMA, he wouldn't have whored his website out every two comments and faked the "I'm so shocked that you guys are buying keys" BS.

3
[deleted]•

you should be disappointed in the mods. they gave the guy a freakin gold star. i would be there with you laughing at the users, but THEY GAVE HIM A FREAKIN GOLD STAR. replace the lot of them in IAmA.

1
Verroq•

edit - I am stupid, ignore me.

0
X019•

blatant scammer is blatant

-2
jotux•

Thanks!

Brings a bit of integrity back here.

8
btits•

Sigh, i bought 2 keys about an hour before the thread came out =[ got my keys about an hour ago, neither work. sent an email back. hoping for money back =/ i knew 5$ was too goo to be true

8
[deleted]•

I bought a set of keys and surprisingly the D2 one worked, but the LoD one did not. Even though he was a scammer, $5 for a legal copy of a good game isn't too bad...

1
monogram•

The keys aren't legal, you're probably breaking the law. He generated them with a key generator and then checked which ones worked on bnet.

3
igraywolf•

There's a sucker born every day. I got downvoted quite a bit for saying so on the other thread. Legit is legit, and this shit ain't legit.

0
[deleted]•

As long as they work, they're okay in my book.

0
insomniac84•

But they are not ok. You could have just downloaded a keygen yourself and tested keys until they worked.

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
oddsouls•

It's frustrating, you know? I've gone through the replacement process three times now, each time the new keys are unredeemable.

I'm also unsure if you're properly reading the emails I send, I bought four keys, but am only ever receiving 2 per email.

7
btits•

already did. losing hope quickly

5
cl3ft•

refund through your credit card if you can.

2
[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
[deleted]•

How did he get a star in the first place?

8
[deleted]•

[deleted]

7
karmanautOP•

He seems to be using multiple accounts although we can't verify that, obviously.

It makes sense for him to have some legit keys to use: he would be caught pretty easily if it never worked. His promises to replace any broken ones also are important to a guise of being honest. As the OP of the last thread pointed out, he still had not received an answer about his being broken, despite the publicity.

8
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-14
hello2you•

Yet you can hang around and post here. GTFO.

14
DD44•

But you have been very quick to answer any critics here. Certainly hasn't taken you 3 hours.

6
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-11
[deleted]•

I'm a regular user who bought one and mine worked. The expansion key didn't, but the game one did. Was I the only one?

2
pmuessig•

I actually had success with the guy, but it took several tries to get a key to register on battle.net (and this was only for the expansion).

You have to be persistent and threaten to dispute payments through paypal. I figure that eventually enough of those disputes will get him banned from the service with all funds frozen. So he selectively helps those who are "noisy" about their situation with dead keys. Pester him and make sure to get in contact with him at his email you sent paypal funds to, not the support email for d2keys.

If anyone wants to see my email exchanges with him, PM me and I'll send you the interactions. It took about 3 days to resolve this.

edit: grammar

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-16
dearsomething•

Your English sucks, specifically when it comes to tense. Explain.

7
nicholaslee•

Uh, he's American. Duh.

/American English Teacher

7
Motherhead•

Hey, you know what would be a safe assumption? That it would be wise to just not buy things from you and your site. I know, given all that happened, you can understand my position (whether you approve or not.)

7
ghostchamber•

You ever going to explain the matching IP addresses and such?

5
trident042•

So how many of the mods were in on the decision making process? Any real dissent among you guys, or was it pretty much unanimous?

7
karmanautOP•

4 of us were in on the decision making process (which is good considering the short timespan), which was pretty unanimous considering the evidence we got.

7
[deleted]•

How many of you were in the decision-making process of starring him? The star seems useless if any mod can do it without a trail leading back to him/her.

7
[deleted]•

I am a Nigerian Prince whose uncle died. I have million of dollars to share if you money transfer me your life savings. Ask anything of me.

6
12AngryMen•

Where can I send my bank account information? And how much money do you need from me for processing, etc.?

6
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1
[deleted]•

[deleted]

6
smittyline•

Photo of suspected scammer

Source

5
anonymouslives•

That douche needs to be in prison, no question about it. I hope that his victims will be able to coordinate together and pursue legal action, both criminal and civil.

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

-9
anonymouslives•

The guy who started the thread, with all the evidence against you, you dumb motherfucker!

12
[deleted]•

[deleted]

0
stfuendie•

didn't you claim to have sold over 500 of them? Was that also bullshit to make you appear more legit?

3
[deleted]•

[deleted]

1