Thread: Andrew Lowenthal Warning

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**Potshot** · 12-03-2009 06:57 PM

[quote name='SPARTAN II' date='03 December 2009 - 04:17 PM' timestamp='1259875033' post='370082']

Thanks for the heads-up on this disreputable fellow, Sean. And thanks for sticky-ing this thread, Belakor. The more people who see this, the better. It'll be less profit-without-effort made by him, which hopefully will send him a message.

Not really counting on it, but one can hope.

It's not uncommon for fraudulent individuals in the prop community to set up "dummy" (also known as "sock puppet") accounts on forums where they've previously been banned from. I've come across such behaviour more than once on the prop forums I frequent.

Keeps them in the loop of what's going on, without anyone really knowing it's them. Sneaky little b******s, imho.

The best thing to do in such cases is to identify the IP address of the individual's original banned account and do a search for the same IP address for any of the existing accounts on the site. If found, you can then ban the individuals' subsequent "sock puppet" accounts.

I don't how the Admin/Mod group do basic post/member IP searches here, but I know how I did it on a Star Trek-related forum (they use Invision Power Board as the base for the site), so it should be equally easy to do here.

Of course, I'm not part of the Admin/Mod group here by any means. Just a friendly suggestion

[/quote]

On most forum software Mods have the ability to see users passwords from a MCP, online users list, or something similar. I don't know if that's the case, but I doubt it will help. If this guy has any brains, and a dynamic IP, he's probably already changed his IP address, or is using a proxy.

I wouldn't worry about his dummy account. If he is a known recaster who isn't making any money, he'll probably leave soon.

**LastSpartan** · 12-03-2009 07:02 PM

If he continues, that's because he is making money...

People are uninformed, especially on ebay. Sadly, even if we posted tons of stickies about recasters, the bidders are probably not members here, and unaware of who they're dealing with. Maybe even unaware of what recasting really is.

Never buy props on eBay. If it's cheap and from someone you don't know, either it's broken or about to break. Or it's recasted.

**ImaGonnaGetYou** · 12-03-2009 08:09 PM

[quote name='LastSpartan' date='03 December 2009 - 08:02 PM' timestamp='1259888532' post='370198']

If he continues, that's because he is making money...

People are uninformed, especially on ebay. Sadly, even if we posted tons of stickies about recasters, the bidders are probably not members here, and unaware of who they're dealing with. Maybe even unaware of what recasting really is.

Never buy props on eBay. If it's cheap and from someone you don't know, either it's broken or about to break. Or it's recasted.

[/quote]

Exactly. Since he specified that it won't be the exact item in the picture, eBay may not take it down, and in turn Andrew will end up making a profit. Your best bet, Sean, is calling up the authorities if the sale ends up happening (at least 1 bid or buy it now sale closes) and reporting it. If it doesn't sell, keep an eye on his eBay account, at the very least.

**Belakor** · 12-03-2009 08:33 PM

[quote name='Sean Bradley' date='04 December 2009 - 08:53 AM' timestamp='1259870022' post='370014']

I think it should also be noted that those images were only distributed in the classifieds section here...

[/quote]

Just a thought but could he have found them on your Photobucket account?