Hi,
First off, the buyer and I are both in the US (the buyer in NY, and I am in IL).
I'm not sure if this is where I should be posting this, but I figure maybe this subreddit is appropriate.
Every now and then, customers file a fraudulent chargeback with their source of payment claiming that a purchase was unauthorized. Now I am dealing with a SNAD case because a buyer had buyer's remorse. In eBay messages, he stated that the item I sent (a suit) doesn't fit, so he wants to return it. He said nothing about the item being SNAD (significantly not as described). He acknowledged that the size was correct, but didn't care because he can't even put it on since it's too tight. I said I don't accept returns, which is stated on the eBay listing.
He said if I don't accept the return, he will file a chargeback with his credit card (not even bothering with eBay's or PayPal's buyer protection policies; the reps from both of which told me that this is not a SNAD, but buyers remorse). He proceeded to file a chargeback stating the the item is significantly not as described, which I am dealing with now. I am hoping it will be decided in my favor since I have provided screenshots of the messages, my listing (which included multiple pics showing the size of the item), but this can take a while. Furthermore, in his messages, he implied that he does this often (he said he loves doing this and thinks it's fun).
What I am wondering is: a) does this count as fraud, and b) if so, how can I pursue criminal charges being pressed against him? Who would I reach out to? The police? His credit card issuer?
Thanks for any info

RoyalRoad
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This chapter was supposed to be the final one of my story, but I think I was describing too many events in large brushes and skipped what was going on, and it would have sucked to summarize this chapter into just two or three paragraphs into the final chapter instead of all the details.
I added my story onto RoyalRoad, where things are much easier to track and manage. Feel free to send your comments there, I'll be reading those too.
I'm a new writer trying to improve. As always, feedback about the story or my writing are all very welcome, and I read every one of them.
The introduction of money to the galaxy created winners and losers. Most people were winners. A few were losers.
The Ribbiths were the earliest species to discover FTL. They predated number two by tens of thousands of years. In the grand scale of the universe, it was not a very long time. In the scale of wealth accumulation, even without a functioning economy, it meant that they were able to develop and mount weapons on some of their spaceships just as the next species managed to start exploring the galaxy.
In the beginning, this relationship was tributary. The terms were simple: give us goods, or we blow the aggregate inherited wealth of the last dozen generations of your family into bits. For the kind of beings that manage to rise above the atmosphere, above billions of others of their own species, risking it all for a little bit of dignity was simply not a choice.
This worked very well for the Ribbiths, for a while.
And then more species got onto the scene. Rather than a problem, they correctly saw this as an opportunity. As planets began to trade goods with each other, the Ribbiths created a sham association, the Galactic Trader Guild, which created legitimacy and cover for their armed ships to extract wares from traders at will.
The Trader Guild didn't do much, except the bare minimum of introducing new traders into the galaxy, which was more for them to create extra opportunities for plunder. They made sure no one else was allowed to build armed spaceships, and they made it illegal for Ribbith families to sell their armed ships to other species.
The entire galaxy was their oyster.
This worked very well for the Ribbiths, for a while.
Shroggit was a 184th generation spaceship owner in her family. They had bought it from another spaceship family that had gotten too soft and not made enough goods off the other species of the galaxy to recoup the recurring costs of running the spaceship.
In her view, whoever sold it to them must have been idiots. It was so easy to get the wares to cover the costs of reactor fuel and parts replacement. She could probably do it in her sleep.
Today, she was poking and prodding at a particularly popular route between Gakrek and Bohor. She put her ship right above Bohor, right where traders from Gakrek would blink in, and then snare them.
Space was big, but they've had a lot of experience doing this.
Sure enough, she'd only been waiting for less than two hours when a large sized trader appeared on her radar. She linked her FTL blink drive to theirs, trained her targeting system on the poor target, and hit the transmit button with her long, webby manipulators.
"This is Shroggit, an association representative of the Galactic Trader Guild. I see you here on my ship dues list that you have not paid a protection fee for over 3 cycles. By Guild rules, you are required to surrender one tenth of your current cargo over to me."
"According to my ship scanners," she continued, almost bored and hoping the other ship would not comply, "that would be a total of one ton of fruit from Dirt, and two tons of steel composites from Gakrek. Please signal your compliance by cutting engines."
The other ship ceased power to engines and started drifting. Her scanners saw movement inside the ship around the cargo area where the poor trader was moving his confiscated cargo into the venting area. Good, she was dealing with a professional here.
Shroggit was in and out, managed to hit two other ships, and since she got lucky with the space traffic control at Ribb, she got home in time for dinner.
Zod wiped some bodily liquids flowing onto his forehead due to his nervousness. He had just been intercepted by a Guild representative. It was never fun to deal with those people, and he was not carrying any goods, so he wasn't sure how that was supposed to go.
"Why aren't you carrying any goods," complained the representative on the other end of the radio. It was Shroggit.
"I sell for money now! On this leg, I'm carrying nothing," Zod said, hoping that meant he wouldn't have to forfeit any goods on this interception, "so am I free to go?"
"No, it means that I have to impound your ship, you idiot," cursed Shroggit, "lock yourself in the cargo-"
"Wait wait, please no," Zod pleaded, "I can pay you in credits, I have a Terminal!"
As it happened, Shroggit did have a card, and she knew how to use it because she'd traded some of her totally legitimate salvage at a port to GC merchants. "Alright, I'll try this out, but if you try anything funny, I'll blow your spaceship into tiny bits."
"Yes, I can pay you one tenth what I have now," Zod said, not at all thinking of trying anything funny with his entire family's fortune on the line, "just read me your card number."
"Are you kidding me?" Shroggit screeched, "that's a massive cybersecurity violation! Never broadcast your card number on an open frequency! Just vent your Terminal over and I'll swipe my card on it. I'm taking 15% this time for that idiotic comment!"
"Hmm we got a request from another user to revert a transaction on their account for this same reason again," Kathleen Bryce, GC head of counsel said.
"Another chargeback?" Asked Sarah.
"Yeah."
"What was the stated reason?"
"Services not rendered. Comment: I was not protected after paying my protection fee to the Trade Guild representative," replied Bryce with a hint of amusement in her voice.
"Well, he's technically not wrong. We processed the chargeback, right?"
"Yup, policy is to favor the buyer, in this case, poor Zod. He better hope he doesn't get caught by the same rep again, this… Shroggit froghead... Dear lord, she's been doing a whole lot of protecting out there."
"Ah making the galaxy a safer place, one helpless trader at a time," Sarah said sarcastically, "can we legally freeze her account?"
"Hmm… not a good idea. Technically, we can freeze it when we suspect there's illegal activity or money laundering. But if we start doing that, she's probably just going to start shooting anyone without cargo," Bryce said after a bit of thought.
"Wouldn't she start doing that anyway when she realizes that people can just chargeback all her protection fees?" Sarah asked.
"Probably, but not everyone will, so that might give those traders a bit of time while we figure out what to do about this Guild nonsense."
Shroggit was not happy.
Galactic Credits were very convenient. She'd gotten a lot of extra food and even a reclining chair upgrade for her ship just for profits the past few weeks. And she got herself a Mini Terminal so she can tell people to read their card numbers over the radio. It's not her problem if someone was passing by and heard the card number and pin codes.
But more and more traders had been getting out of paying for her protection by charging back the fees. Some low life trader snitch had told everyone how to do it, and Galactic Credit was more than happy to deprive her of her hard earned money.
Of course, she was still making far more profits than before, but loss aversion is a powerful motivator. Everyone wanted to avoid losing more than they wanted gains, and this can make people do some pretty irrational things.
In her case, in the private group on Traders Only for Ribbith representatives, she created a thread called "Known Chargebackers List: Detain or Destroy". It got hundreds of replies from other Ribbiths in days, and the list was still growing.
Today, as she put the card number into the search bar, she found a hit. This Aslae fellow had been caught charging back against a 48th generation representative from her home continent, a crime punishable by… whatever she felt like, and she was not in a charitable mood.
"Aslae, you are hereby ordered to relinquish control of your spaceship," Shroggit said gleefully over the radio, "lock yourself in the cargo hatch and unlock your exterior airlock doors. I will be boarding shortly."
Aslae was panicking. She had charged back one of the Guild members the other day, and she was right to do it! What these rent-seeker scums were doing was… wrong! On top of that, they were inhibiting the free trade of goods and currency, which all good and noble traders knew to be a sacrilege to the galactic trade economy!
She didn't say all that though, instead she tried begging, "w… wait please! I promise I won't do it to you! I didn't mean to do it to the other guy! Please!"
"You have two minutes to comply!" Shroggit shrieked over the radio, indifferent to her whining, already making a list of potential buyers for the impounded trade ship in her head.
Aslae was seeing dozens of generations of her family's hard work go down the drain. She would be grounded for life, with nothing left to even start anything. The thought was absolutely unbearable. Something snapped in her, and the combination of that fear and depression drove her to try the impossible.
She didn't try to fight with an unarmed ship; she's not THAT far gone. She tried to run. Aslae hit the blink button on her console. The planet of Yis'Meh disappeared from her side window, and it was replaced by the dirt brown of Gakrek. Her heart pounding, she maneuvered her ship towards the direction of the planet and put every bit of reactor juice into the rear thrusters. Maybe if she got into the atmosphere…
Her proximity radar blipped. She didn't have a powerful radar, but the angry Shroggit was close enough behind her that Aslae's ship could see her with even its outdated camera sensors. She pushed her ship reactor to the edge of its performance limit.
Out of habit, Shroggit had linked her drive to Aslae's before she even opened a radio connection at Yis'Meh. Aslae never had a chance. Shroggit contemptuously locked onto the fleeing ship, savagery in her eyes. She waited until she heard the turret lock into place: a beep from the targeting computer confirmed it. Without thinking even twice, she squeezed the trigger.
A massive railgun in the belly of her ship charged, then roared.
A reinforced tungsten composite rod spat out at Aslae at twelve kilometers a second, relative to Shroggit's vector. It crossed the less than six kilometer distance between the two ships in about half a second.
The first module the projectile hit was the rear engines. The massive hole it blew in them immediately shut them down.
Oxygen started to vent out the rear of the hull where a hole was made.
The projectile went straight through without slowing, and hit the ship reactor, overloading the core. Safety shutdowns were initiated and the ship readied itself to eject the core to save the rest of the ship... but it would not nearly be in time.
None of those things mattered. The tungsten projectile was still going, barely perturbed by its passage through several layers of steel and hardened composites. It passed neatly through the pilot's cabin, superheating the oxygen in it into a ball of plasma and vaporizing Aslae instantly.
Then, it continued on a straight path. With its remaining energy and angle, it just barely had enough energy to enter Gakrek atmosphere. Luckily, its trajectory took it into the middle of a vast ocean, where it threw up a large water plume that ruined some seafood's day.
A trader spacecraft nearby caught the entire thing on its dashboard camera.
As did an imaging satellite from a certain payment company on a humanitarian mission.
Traders Only
New Thread [Locked]: Video of Ribbith Ship Murdering Space Trader
Comment: I don't know how anyone can defend this...
Comment: Her name is Shroggit! Here's a picture of her.
Comment: How does Shroggit even sleep at night? That's somebody's daughter!
Comment: Of course it's another dirty hecking Ribbith!
Comment: OMG! According to the Gakrek satellite tracker app, the humans had a satellite pointing right at it when it happened! GC! SHOW US THE VIDEO!
Comment: GC, release the video!
Comment: C'mon GC, release the evidence…
"Well?" Sarah demanded, "we can't do nothing! At the very least if we release it, it'll be used at her trial… or something! I've seen what we have. It's Hollywood production quality footage of the entire thing at high definition."
"Her trial?" head counsel Bryce snorted, "good luck with that. If you think the Ribbiths are going to allow a fair trial of one of their own, you're more naive than I thought. Statistically, you know this probably isn't the first time she's shot somebody, just the first time it was caught on camera right?"
Sarah knew she was right. With the Guild's unwillingness to help the Gaks in the middle of the famine, and now… this, she's had it with them.
"Is there any… literally ANY legal reason on Earth we can't release the footage?"
"No. No legal reason not to… not on Earth at least."
Traders Only
New Thread [Locked]: GC Leaked Satellite G-21A: Proof Shroggit Murdered Aslae HD
Comment: My ancestors...
Comment: What. The. F-
Comment: Her name was Aslae.
Comment: Every one of us they kill, we should kill ten Ribbiths!
The Ribbith High Court rejected the petition for justice due to lack of standing.
It was exactly one sentence long, they wrote:
Denied: aliens do not have a right to bring suit in the Ribbith justice system.
The opinion doused the flames, convinced everyone of Shroggit's innocence, and calmed the mob.
Just kidding. Of course not.
Shroggit was fuming. Her credits account was locked. Galactic Credit had bowed to galactic pressure and forced her to go back to using barter, like an unbanked peasant. It was degrading and humiliating.
Even worse, some bored individual on Earth had placed a bounty out on her head. It was worth three million credits, or four if there was video footage. This is very illegal in most countries on Earth. But it seemed that she was having trouble finding a local prosecutor who would agree to take action against him.
She also heard reports that spaceports on Earth had started mysteriously running out of dashboard cameras and spacecraft armor upgrades...
So now she also had to worry about some idiot trader getting bad ideas when she told them to drop their cargo. Every time she asked for a protection fee now, she was on edge, thinking about what would happen if they did something as stupid as ram their ships into her… or something.
The humans really did know how to make everything worse.
It was Sarah's turn to go to Olgix this time. She didn't mind it; it was a nice time of the year, and a good opportunity to go see what's happening on the ground.
The peace there between the Olgs and Gak refugee community had been kept by a constant shipment of goods. The logic goes, if beings have high standards of living, they wouldn't be incentivized to risk it all for some petty grievances.
The logic worked, sometimes. Other times, it didn't. But it was better than nothing, and she certainly didn't think that they were going to fix the problem of ethnic violence by shooting their way out of it. And that was exactly what she was thinking aloud...
"Do you think it's even possible to get the two species to stop fighting each other? She asked the other passengers, almost rhetorically.
Jackson, who she'd hired off the Space Force with an impossible to refuse offer, waited to see no one answering her question, then said, "it's not entirely impossible. Your way might still work. Or we could just occupy the area around every Gak refugee community with a massive amount of troops, make them go through metal detectors, checkpoints. Raid the bomb makers at night et cetera. That might eventually work too."
"Yeah, then they'd start shooting at us," chuckled Reese, "not that that's not what they-
"Folks, we've got incoming," the pilot, Anika, interrupted, "there's an armed ship coming straight towards us at 200 kilometers, closing rate... half a klick a second and accelerating."
"Everyone, seal your helmets. Pilot, blink out," Jackson calmly said into his headset. He was the one who was in command in situations like this, with the most tactical and military experience. They all obeyed wordlessly.
With a button press from Anika, the stars on the external view screens changed.
Then, a blip on the radar.
"They followed us," Anika said, her face stony, "bogey has closed to 160 klicks. It's... still closing, one a second."
"Can you identify her? Is she a known trader at an Earth spaceport?" Jackson asked.
"Identified. It's a registered Ribbith ship. No known alias on file yet."
"Match their vector, the Terra Two has good sublight engines. We can try to outrun her to a distance and then get out," said Jackson as he weighed his logical options. He had a VIP on board and was probably faster than the other guy. Running was the only correct choice.
"Bogey falling behind to 170 klicks."
Shroggit was downright pissed. First, people are denying her the rightful fees of her protection. And now this. Somehow a ship she had her eyes on had seen her coming from far away. It had blinked out, and then started running.
And not only was it running, it was just a bit faster than she was.
Zooming her cameras in at the ship, she saw no weapons on it. It clearly wasn't a warship, why does it even have a radar with the range to see her this far out?
She can't give up. This was clearly a valuable ship hauling contraband. She was weighing her options when the ship blinked.
"Ok, that should be far enough, now blink to Earth. We'll get back into our security umbrella and drive her off there," Jackson directed.
Momentarily, the external view cameras showed Earth at a distance.
Then, radar contact again.
"They followed again. Bogey emerged closer to Earth than we did. 150 klicks and closing again. Should I match vector and burn? It'll take us further away from our own security ships," Anika inquired, ready to make the burn.
"Ok, if it comes to it, no other ship in the galaxy has the reactor fuel to match our range, and we're on a full tank," said Jackson, cursing internally that he didn't think about the possibility that the bogey would cut them off using blink. His tactical options were being limited, and now eliminated one by one.
Shroggit followed the running ship at a distance, and fumed. She couldn't get any closer to them no matter what she did, and if they just ran for a while, they'd be out of range of her blink drive lock, and they'd get away.
She contemplated her options. There was just one. She would normally never consider this for how wasteful it was, but Shroggit was not thinking straight. This was going to be a lucrative ship and cargo. She just had to get in range to threaten them, and they would surrender. After all, everyone saw the video of her killing that Aslae creature; they would have no choice.
She entered the target coordinates manually into her blink drive, and then hit the blink button.
"Bogey blinked closer to us! Eighty klicks to our rear! Taking evasive action!" Anika yelled into her microphone.
Well that short blink thing is a new trick, Sarah thought, I guess that makes sense you could do that with how advanced some of the Ribbith FTL engines are.
"Dump all non-reserve oxygen," Jackson said, not even bothering to contemplate the possibility of running out of reserves. He'd seen some classified tests of what space weapons could do, and if they were gonna get hit, they didn't want to get hit with the highly flammable gas still filling the hull, "pilot, identify the weapons on that ship."
Oxygen vented out of the Terra Two. Everything suddenly got a lot quieter, the only sounds coming from inside their helmets, the ship's audio system, and contact with the spacecraft. Sarah could hear her breath strain against the acceleration of the spacecraft as it maneuvered
"Single ventral railgun, no other visible weaponry. It's a Ribbith-class, 34th generation configuration," Anika grunted as she weaved the ship into a random pattern. The constant dodging was making her impossible to hit, but it was also slowly allowing the bogey to get closer. And then she noticed a flashing light on her dashboard, and swallowed with some difficulty, "we've got an incoming communication request."
"Put it on speaker," Sarah ordered.
"This is Shroggit, representative of the Galactic Trader Guild! You are evading justice and resisting arrest! Cease your engines and surrender your ship immediately to avoid lethal action," the grating voice of the insane murderess came through the ship's audio system.
"It's Shroggit! That monster!" Sarah actually hissed, "we do have weapons on this ship right?"
"Mam, please, sit back and let us handle this. She's sixty kilometers out. Her railgun can't even hit us at this range, " said Jackson with now maddening calmness, "please, we know what we're doing, we can keep you safe and get away from her. Even if she gets much closer, the explosive reactive plates on our hull will be able to survive a couple hits."
"I don't want to run away from her! I can see my home through that window," Sarah gritted her teeth, "put me through to her."
"Yes mam," Anika complied.
"Shroggit, you asshole! You're in the Sol system, which is under human control as per the bylaws of the Galactic Trader Guild. I demand you surrender your ship to Earth authorities immediately!"
"Earth has no authority over me! I am a representative of the Guild!" Came the psycho's reply.
"This is your last chance, Shroggit!"
Shroggit looked again through her sensors screen at the target. Despite being one of the more reckless members of her species, risk aversion ran strong among people who had a long climb to the stars.
There were no weapons on that ship. No rail guns, not even a turret mount. Nothing.
A while back, she'd heard whispers that Earth might have been developing some laser weaponry, but she put that out of her mind. After all, she would just need to move around a bit and even if they had a laser, it wouldn't be able to focus on a spot and burn through her hull so far out.
She contemplated her choices, and chose the worst possible option.
The proximity alarm blared across the ship's audio system at its occupants in their helmets, "TOO CLOSE," said the voice recording of a calm man, followed by two urgent whoops.
"She just shot something at us. The radar approximates the round's velocity at twelve kilometers a second," Anika, all emotion draining out of her voice, only professionalism now.
The alarm blared again, "TOO CLOSE whoop whoop".
"Rate of fire: about twenty rpm. She's at forty klicks out."
"Can we fight back?" Sarah asked.
"Mam, she still can't hit us yet. As long as our thrusters are firing, she's gonna keep missing at this range. Her rounds take three seconds just to close-" Jackson started to explain.
"I know she can't hit us YET! I can do math in my head too, thank you very much." Sarah said impatiently into her helmet.
TOO CLOSE whoop whoop.
"Ok, I've seen enough of this clown," said Sarah, replacing the anger in her voice with frosty steel, "Anika, do you have a lock on her?"
"Yes mam, we've had the lock since our radar first spot-"
TOO CLOSE whoop whoop.
"Can we hit her from here?"
"Yes mam. We have all-aspect off-boresight capabilities, mam. She's way inside the minimum abort range and we are comfortably inside the WEZ as well, are you sure…"
TOO CLOSE whoop whoop.
"Goodbye, Shroggit," Sarah said coldly into her transmitting microphone, and then terminated the connection, "fire."
The letters in AIM-120 stand for Air Intercept Missile. The space version, the SIM-120, was almost an exact copy, except it was programmed to take advantage of the lack of drag and the microgravity in the vacuum of space.
President Dwight Eisenhower had once famously said, "every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed."
In a twist of fate and irony, the aliens would innately understand the essence of that message far more than humans ever could.
The price tag of a SIM-120 is two million US Dollars.
Terra Corp gets them at a slight bargain because… they used to make licensed copies of them. The only way they could get more vertically integrated is if they started the wars themselves, and the jury is still out on that one...
$2 million before the human's introduction of credits would roughly be the accumulated value of four to five generations of successful trading in the broken galactic economy.
Even with humanity's credits and the Terra Corp discount, this was still the combined price of 600 tons of apples, or 75,000 pairs of new shoes, or 300,000 pre-printed t-shirts of losing sports teams on Gakrek.
No alien in the galaxy would ever, EVER, in a thousand lifetimes, think of using something like that as an expendable munition.
The Terra Two's "Executive Security" package came with four and a very nice bottle of champagne.
This particular spacecraft, carrying one of the most important individuals of Earth and therefore the galaxy, had a classified custom payload that went far beyond mere consumer upgrades.
On trigger press, a hidden weapons bay on the dorsal of the Terra Two opened for a split second and a SIM-120 silently detached itself from the spacecraft.
After a quarter second, judging the area clear, it fired its thrusters to align itself at the juicy radar target marked by Anika right behind the ship, and accelerated at 70 Gs. In just under 10 seconds, it parked itself at what its onboard computer calculated to be the perfect kill box, and detonated.
At a closing rate of 7 kilometers per second at its peak, Shroggit's chance of dodging it was precisely zero, if she had even seen it on her radar at all.
The explosive charge on the SIM-120 wasn't big. It's not meant to be. The air variant was designed to put holes in fragile aircraft that would tear up in the Earth's atmosphere with drag.
Here, uninhibited by air resistance, the warhead discharged forty pounds of carbon-chromium steel fragments at Shroggit's spacecraft.
After Action Review determined that roughly 35% of the pieces made thousands of dime sized holes in the cargo hull, and then ignited the oxygen venting out. The remaining 65% shredded the frontal profile of the pilot's cockpit with molten bits of metal, killing Shroggit instantly.
"She's still alive!" Sarah exclaimed, squinting at the intact spaceship on screen, "should we fire again?"
"No mam, it was a direct front hit. The cockpit is... gone. There's a fire in the pressurized cargo bay. The hull is just floating together on inertia," Anika was shocked at the horrific image, but kept it out of her voice; this was her first ever space kill, and she'd never had to see her kills on a high fidelity sensor camera before.
It was the first real space battle in the history of the galaxy where both sides were armed.
"Good wor- thanks, guys. Sorry for overriding you in the middle of battle earlier, Jackson," Sarah apologized, her bloodlust had drained suddenly, leaving her with only a cocktail of guilt that she kept barely under control.
"No, I would have done that too if I were you. And I would probably have ordered that outcome in a few seconds anyway. That's why I even let you take over," Jackson said grimly, his eyes still transfixed on the view monitor focusing on the broken spacecraft, the out of control oxygen blaze finally reaching the reactor.
And then, after everything else on the spacecraft had burnt down, the reactor core meltdown protocol activated and safely ejected out the rear, leaving behind just a charred black husk, settling the account on 184 lifetimes of bad karma.
It's my first time I wrote any action, other than a potato bag fight against a famished Gak in chapter five. I think there was some influence from David Weber in there, and some elements of the "space battle" were from the Expanse series though with quite a bit less back and forth. Hopefully I did not overdo some of the descriptions.
For anyone who loves space pew pew, apologies in advance that the next and last chapter won't be nearly as exciting haha. It will be called:Wounded Animal
I've also started planning out my next story in this universe, hopefully with a slightly less rough start compared to this one, haha.
RoyalRoad
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There is so much to unpack here, but I feel it is my civic and human duty to warn EVERYBODY about the truth when it comes to this evil human being, so here goes:
Anna Macko (Agniezska Rogulski of Ottawa, ON) is being investigated by authorities in both USA in Canada for her shady and illegal business schemes. This is not a joke. It is serious. Before you fork over $2,000 USD one time or $3,000 USD on a payment plan, PLEASE read this for your due diligence. Your hard earned money is yours and it should not be thrown to the fire. Many people, observers and her paying students alike, feel she is about to exit scam and rug pull EVERYTHING. She's squeezing the last bits of juice she can before running from the authorities and disappearing forever.
She grew her following from overhyping her 4 courses.. uh.. "courses"

• $100/day Investment Course
• Crypto on Fire
• 2% Theory
• Passive Income Class

$100/day - this course name ITSELF is scammy. You don't sell or promise absolute dollar value returns like this when it comes to investments or income, EVER. This is a big NO right off the bat. Professional traders and investors use Anna Macko as a household meme in their respective communities. Even the Bitmex trollbox flames Anna Macko and her strategies from time to time. "She's fueling our longs/shorts!" they'll say. Let me tell you, Bitmex Trollbox users are not very bright, so if even THEY are making fun of her, that's not good news.
Crypto on Fire - this "course" was just repeated content from $100/day. I don't use "repeat" loosely. I mean there are outright duplicated videos that you KNOW you've watched before just because the videos were so bad that you couldn't forget you've seen it. You'll also find videos where she will cut a 20 minute video you've previously watched down into 3 x 7 minute videos and scatter them. This has been caught on by many students multiple times in her courses. Some videos have terrible scratchy audio, some have audio cut 10 minutes in, some videos she is mid-explaining something and it just ends abruptly... and you won't find her pick up where she left off anywhere. There are even videos of her sharing her screen for 6 minutes but there is NO audio, you just see her cursor moving around erratically. Then at the 6 minute mark you hear, "OKAY SEE YOU IN THE NEXT VIDEO!" Excuse me, uw0tm8?
2% Theory - this is currently the name she uses to sell her big whammy course bundle now. Her "umbrella" if you will. It's a short name that sticks. That's fine... except you learn absolutely nothing new in 2% Theory - if you could even say you learned anything in $100/day or Crypto on Fire. Her 2% "theory" is taking your entire capital, let's say you have $1,000, and putting that ENTIRE $1,000 on one trade (this is a big NO in the trading world but I digress). You then aim for 0.5% to 1% profit on this $1,000 trade. Rinse and repeat multiple times a day. According to Anna Macko, some days you make 10%, some days you make 1%. Who knows, who cares! But where the 2% "theory" comes in is you keep 2% of your profits for the day inside your trading account for reinvestment and compounding, while withdrawing the rest to spend on living expenses. Now, if you know anything about MATH, this doesn't work out logically and she is recommending the OPPOSITE of how one would actually compound your profits in trading or interest in savings...
Passive Income Class - oh boy. Here is where shit gets real. The entire class, which costs $1,000 USD, is 78 minutes of content and her cryptodotcom referral link. All this scam of a course shows you is how to sign up on that platform and open a Crypto Earn Staking Account with them. If you are a newbie to the crypto world, let me clarify: all this info can be found for absolutely free. I don't mean on Google or YouTube, I mean IT'S ON THE CRYPTODOTCOM SITE FOR ABSOLUTELY FREE and explained in a MUCH more clear, thorough, and detailed manner than bonged out Ms. Macko can do on her best day.
Why is this serious? Because she got an Investment Opportunity Violation from selling this Passive Income course. She is all over TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube telling people she can GUARANTEE, GUARANTEE!!!! 12% PER YEAR. Sometimes she says 18%. Sometimes she says 8%. Somerimes she says "but I can guarantee you an average of 12%". This is so shady and illegal that:
1) this Passive Income course got taken down by the authorities (SEC US gov) and she is not allowed to receive money in exchange for the info anymore, so now it's a "bonus" in 2% Theory bundle 2) her course hosting site has forced her to remove all her offerings off the sales page. Yeah, have you noticed when you go to internetlifeacademy.thinkific.com that you can't find ANY of the courses shes selling anymore? That's not a mistake. That's not an oopsie. She is straight up not allowed to smear her scams on their website anymore. They dont want to deal with that legal mess and expose themselves to liability. 3) her payment processor cut ties with her because they were so bombarded with chargeback disputes from her students' credit cards and banks. They have piles of dirt on her for their own investigation of her business schemes. "Why did her students not just ask her for a refund instead of filing lengthy and costly chargebacks?" you ask? Well, because even though her refund policy states she will refund you AND pay you $100 on top for wasting your time should her courses not work for you, she will give you a 5 page Google Forms link to fill out that has 10 questions per page! And they will ask you ridiculous shit like "how much crypto do you own? Where did you buy it? When did you buy it? Where is it being stored?" Wtf? Anna Macko are you kidding me right fking now? 4) I havent even touched upon this yet, and I could go on for hours about this topic on its own, but her SIGNALS which she claims "always win and never lose" is so illegal. She is not licensed to be selling signal services in ANY regard in ANY jurisdiction. You need to be licensed in USA, CA, UK, AU, NZ individually and respectively to sell that bs. At the very least you have to be licensed to sell it from the region you operate out of, which is Canada for Anna Macko, and which she has no Canadian securities or brokers license to do so. Please people, dont buy into signal services. They are all shit and Amma Macko's just might be the shittiest in existence.
You will notice across her social media channels since the 2020/2021 holiday season, she has really changed up her wording and demeanor: "when you get my signals, you will never lo -- ALMOST never lose". Careful careful Anna. She has recently changed the names of all her lesson titles inside the course now as well. Anything that once said "NEVER LOSE" now says "ALMOST never lose". This woman is in big legal trouble guys. Honestly please stay away. This is bigger than me or you. This is HUGE.
I have so much more to say, but this is getting extremy lengthy and I think I have made my point. Some of you will read this and go, "huh, who?" while more of you will probably recognize her annoying voice and ads from Youtube. Even her YouTube ads were so disliked and reported that she created a NEW YouTube Ad that said "wow, people are reporting my ad because they think crypto trading is too good to be true!!!" No, that is NOT the reason why Anna. I know you know that's not the reason why your ads were reported. You are giving crypto a bad look, making legit trading course creators look scammy, and also setting women in finance back decades.
She has gotten really shakey and sweaty on her socials lately. You will see her talking nonstop about scammers, bullies, narcissistic friends, toxic people, and competitors. What does this have to do with crypto trading, lady? Oh right. She never really provided any value or insightful crypto-related content on her social media to begin with. But her new demeanor and sweatiness on social media shows she is unravelling down a deep, dark hole. Again, this is serious shit and not to be taken lightly folks. Its bigger than us. Watch quietly on the sidelines as she unravels more and more each day. And when she finally exit scams and rug pulls, feel free to come back here on this thread and thank me from saving your butt and your money. Or not, it's cool either way.
I hope I didn't waste my time or your time here today. But if I saved even 1 person from buying into her elaborate scam, then the time and effort that went into this post was worth it.
I saw these Google Drive links posted in another post about her on reddit and I thought they would be very relevant to share here too. After all, I am only ONE person with ONE perspective. But in these folders you will find other people's very real experiences with her PLUS you can witness Anna gaslight her students in email and DM exchanges. She is not a woman you want to be involved with. Beware!
Reviews and complaints: https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=14VCzTKc3CvPXusenI3W9yeonQTd48Fy6
Anna communicating with students. Anna removing, blocking, and censoring any student that speaks up or vocalized their very real experiences. Anna asking a full paid student to send her 0.19 BTC to answer a support question. Screenshots of her course curriculum and lessons (wtf @ her lesson titles) + unintelligible refund policies. A giant mega thread in a facebook group about students dissatisfaction and frustration with her and her course. https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=1sd3Te1CrUJu_qzLCqCSLQ4AFzvWRkLcd

For context, my partner & I booked an Airbnb apartment in Melbourne, Australia over Valentines weekend (Feb 12th - Feb 14th) as we though it would be a good weekend away.
On February 12th (the check-in date) we were supposed to check-in at 7pm, but the Victoria government announced Stage 4 restrictions at around 1pm, which were imposed 11:59pm onward for 5 days due to the outbreak of the UK COvid strain. This is important as the restrictions would deem our stay at the apartment illegal as it was outside of our 5 km radius we were allowed to visit.
After hearing this news, I contacted the Host who after some messages, said we could have a 50% refund or reschedule the dates for a time later on. I opted to change the dates and tried changing them online. When trying to alter the dates , the AirBnb website was saying 'You cannot change dates as you're already checked in), I saw that it was past 2pm on check-in day so it prevented us from cancelling for some reason? Following this, I contacted the Host who said they would try alter the dates on their end, to which after some time, said they were 'unsuccessful in changing the dates and to contact Airbnb' at around 4pm.
I contacted Airbnb the next day early in the morning, being Feb 13th, (and informed the Host that I did, they also thanked me?) and after about 8 hours they responded back saying they'd get a case manager involved in the situation to see if they could alter the dates.
I received a message today, being February the 14th, from the case manager who said altering the dates was unsuccessful as the host denied the date change. I contacted the Host who said 'this should have been resolved on the 12th not the 14th' which I think is completely unfair, and has told mey they will not issue a refund nor changing the dates.
I don't find this situation fair whatsoever as there's no way I could have had the dates changed by the 12th. The hosts are no longer assisting me and I would like to chargeback (via PayPal). I wanted to ask for some outside perspective of my above situation, i.e., am I in the wrong? Or if you think I have a strong case for retrieving my funds back via chargeback.

Hi all.
I’m surprised I need to mention this still.
Don’t contact me and ask about cultivating actives. Don’t contact me to ask what strains will give you the best trip. Don’t contact me after you order with photos of jars you inoculated with active spores. Don’t tell me you used my spores to try to cultivate. Don’t describe putting spores to a “medium” and discuss “activity”. Don’t try to discuss cultivation with code words. Adding “microscopy purposes” or “scientific purposes” to the end of a message where you talk about cultivating actives doesn’t make it ok.
I offer microscopy products that are not to be used to illegal cultivation. I have notices all over Reddit, my website, on the products themselves and in the review request automated email about the intended purpose of my active spores.
Don’t tell strangers on the internet of your crimes. You risk implicating others, and I can probably speak for all the vendors when I say we don’t want to be involved or hear of you using our products illegally and it’s against our terms and conditions. I’m my case, it voids any refunds or replacements to do so and it bars you from future orders.
Please. Please. Please. Do not discuss cultivation of actives in any form. If you have issues seeing spores under the scope, tell me that. If you see contamination on your slides, tell me that (and take a pic through the microscope, even if it’s from your cellphone).
I do not share any admission of felonies with any other parties (unless the guilty party tries for a refund or chargeback), but I will notify you that you breached my TOS and ask for you not to contact me again or place any new orders.
Be smart guys and gals.
PS- please enter my 4250+ review giveaway! There are still some spots :)

Having an insane experience with Amazon, hope someone here has some suggestions. Purchased an item (AMD Ryzen CPU) for a new pc build from Amazon in early January, received, installed using an existing water cooling setup I had. Had a few issues initially, and then random problems over the next few days. Occasional failures to boot, keyboard not detected, booting with only 1 ram stick detected, etc. Finally took my computer to a shop to diagnose as I did not have adequate parts to test all individually and thought it could be the cpu or board. Shop says CPU. Opened a defective item return. Item is backordered so I figure I'll get a refund and buy again later. Drop return off at UPS store with provided return number.
Amazon denies the return. No reason given. I call and speak to an agent. The first agent says my return is on hold, my account is flagged as a new account from someone with multiple accounts, and I have a history of too many returns. Tell him I've had that account since 2009, and I've returned one other item in 11 years. He looks, confirms this to be true, and says a specialist will call me back within 24-48hrs.
No callback. Call back in a second time two days later. This time I am told refund denied because I sent an "incorrect item" and I need to "send back the item I ordered." After being placed on hold, I am told this was determined because there were "trace amount of grey goo" (thermal paste req for installing a cpu) and the fan I returned had never been used. Explain I had an existing cooler, and they have the correct item. After arguing and trying to explain to them the item name and serial are literally engraved on the top of it, I tell them to just send it back and I'll warranty with the manufacturer. Promised someone will call me back in 24-48 hours.
No call back. This time I initiate a chat to have a written record. Rep is rude, suggests I file a claim with the shipping carrier, even though I nor anyone else ever suggested shipping damage. Clears and closes the chat before I can copy any of it.
Open a second chat the same day. This time I was able to save it, runaround about "item appears heavily used" which is crap because it's a CPU and there's no visible signs of use. Then I'm told the "original label is partially missing from the box", well yeah because it's the seal that keeps the box closed, and I wouldn't know it was defective if I didn't open it and use it. I tell them to check the model and serial stamped on the CPU to match with what was shipped. They say they can't do that because a "incorrect item" was received and "will be destroyed" per their "return policy".
TL;DR Amazon is shady AF; has my money and the item.
The whole experience has been insane. Thanks to anyone who read thru all that. Stupidly thought this would be faster than waiting for a RMA from AMD that could take a month. I've found no such references to the return policies they quote about them being able to keep items returned. Seems highly illegal and suspect, they either take title and possession of the item or they don't. I don't see how they can claim right to take possession of a return, decline the return, keep the money, and say they destroyed the item. At this point, open to ideas, I'm about to file a credit card chargeback tomorrow. Open to suggestions.

I hope this sub can help me, and I really wish I knew this area existed long ago.
My Problem/Requirements:
G.Fi canceled my services on me back in June. I'm still being billed for services not-rendered, I cannot get them to stop billing me, and I haven't even gotten to the point where I'd like to talk about refunds, that's last - assuming I ever get to that point.
I want these charges ceased, asap && I want a refund.
I bought the service in May. G.Fi canceled and stopped rendering services in June. G.Fi is still billing me...
Bottom line, G.Fi terminated providing me services and refuses to stop billing me. (As of 4/Jan/21 G.Fi is still trying to bill me and this is now impacting my Google Pay.).
​
STATUS - 4/Jan/21 - Now my Google Pay services are impacted & I am getting delinquent payment notifications from G.Fi.
If any tech-bloggers out there would like to write a piece on all or a portion of this debacle, please DM me. I'm all yours.
​
UPDATE 4/Jan/21 - Superseding story below, for those that have already read the full post.
G-Pay unavailable, no acceptable payment methods.
Original Debit Card states Account Closed (in G-Pay not actually closed)
Google FI - NOW says I have an outstanding balance.

From: Google Payments [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected])Date: Sun, Dec 27, 2020 at 3:26 PMSubject: Google Fi: Payment was declined for nova/8619564059449603550To:
Your financial institution declined a payment from your Visa • • • • XXXX associated with the Google Fi account for nova/8619564059449603550 on Dec 27, 2020.
They provided the following reason:
Unfortunately, they didn't give us a reason why. Check with them for more information.To ensure uninterrupted service, you will need to contact your financial institution to fix the underlying problem.
Once this has been done, update your primary form of payment and pay any outstanding balances.To update or change your primary payment method:Sign in to Google Fi at google.com using your Google Account and then select "Payment Method".

​
​
My Story:
Back in April, my younger brother passed away leaving my elderly father back in the USA. I live in the EU. Having been in Europe for many years, I no longer have a US telephone number, and due to the circumstances, I was considering moving back to take care of my father. First, I would need to return to the EU to attend work and start the process of processing a deceased service member from abroad. Thus, I decided to get a US SIM, and after conversing with the sales team at a local Best Buy, they sold me on the G.FI SIM.
The idea was that I'd be expecting to be moving back and only short-term traveling to the EU while attending to all of the process & paperwork in the meantime. I bought the SIM in May, and by the time I'd arrived home and tried to use it (a couple of weeks later in June), it had already been disconnected.
And so ensues the long silly battle of . I went through endless cycles trying to get the account reactivated under military terms - my brother being a deceased Marine and myself an honorably discharged USAF member. NoGo. Even better, I'm now stuck in EU calling USGOV 1-800 numbers and military hotlines at a premium (from Europe) for the next 2 months thanks to G.Fi.
That's when I asked them to cease billing. I went to Twitter. I opened up support cases (most recent/ongoing - 1-2074000030837 ). I even went through the online cancellation back in June.
Not long ago, I noticed that I was /still/ being billed!
I logged into the Fi site and tried to change my billing details, including card details. Still getting billed.
I've recently started back into the support case listed above, but that's going to go nowhere. And to be frank, I don't expect it to. I'm dealing with a team of people that have shown that they cannot comprehend the circumstances I've conveyed. There is zero empathy. In fact, where there should have been, there is ignorant apathy - I'm not being rude, I get it, different cultures.
Because of the circumstances around this issue, I've lost my ability to be couth or even civil with the people behind the email chain. I'm pretty sure billing someone for services that you willingly and knowingly ceased - is illegal.
I'm at a point where I think the only options are to file a chargeback, which I know by EU standards, I WILL win, but now I'm faced with the prospect of Google-Fi being linked to MY-Google-*.* / gmails, google auth, and everything linked could be shut off. That's a fundamentally frightening thing.
Thanks to Covid and changes in life, I'm still in the EU - however - this doesn't matter. I'm not trying to get the services reinstated, I just want them to stop billing me, and give back, what they took!
Open to suggestions, and thanks in advance.
​
EDIT #2 - I think in the end that I might have ceased further billing, I won't be getting my money back. You don't have to read all of the below unless you just want to see how appalling it is to deal with G.Fi. What I also can't show here is the apathy and disgust from the Live Chat sessions as I never got those transcripts - all of the below is email exchanges. Well, this has now spiraled into something completely different. I'm now adding updates to the top of this as STATUS & UPDATE comments.
​
EDIT in response to u/brklynmark - but for everyone's benefit:

Did you activate the SIM and use it in the US at all before returning to the EU?

Yes the SIM was activated and used in the USA prior to my return. However, it was not for a very long period, days rather than weeks. Ultimately, this is why the services were shut off, G.Fi quoted me their "primary usage in USA only - Now prove (you can't) you aren't an EU person" I paid with my EU Card and I was sitting in EU at this point.

"it had already been disconnected" meaning GFi disconnected it (not you)? How did you find out / how were you notified?
What do the GFi people you've been speaking to say the current status of your account is? Sounds like you've been asking them (repeatedly) to cancel the account, are they refusing to?

The services simply didn't work. I had the suspicion and actually had to play the support hoops to even lead them where to look. That's when they confirmed, that the account SIM locked (this was a long while ago over the phone) but essentially I was getting a not authorized on any 3, eir, or VF AP's.
June 2nd after recommended by the telephone call I opened up a ticket and they responded with leading questions on the premise of "maybe an exception can be made" for brevity, all the questions were the same as the initial t-shooting minus a few extra about my travel timeline.

from G.Fi - June 11th

Hi,
Thank you for contacting Google Fi Support.
Unfortunately we can’t grant you an exception at this time. Your international capabilities will remain suspended until we're able to determine that your service is being primarily used in the US as per our Terms of Service. Please make sure to prepare an alternate course of action.
If you have any questions in the interim, feel free to reply to this email.

I asked if they could at least unblock WiFi calling so that I could tend to the 100's of hours of 1-800-USGovt that would be coming.
from G.Fi -
Hi,

I understand your concern. We cannot assist further as the service is not intended for prolonged international use. Unfortunately, we do not have an option to unblock any features like WiFi calling from our end.
I would personally suggest picking up a local SIM card. I hope it all works out soon!

​
At this point I was pissed, I'd had one "supervisor" who strung me along making me think he was trying to work with me and use our military ID's to get services functional - he wasn't, he was just stringing me along and essentially admitted as such.
This is when I started demanding to speak with someone in the USA - I'd lost my head.
from G.Fi - June 13th

Hi,
My name is Bhavani and I am the specialist who will be assisting you as Sushma is out of office hours.
Your details has been forwarded to our concerned team for an exception and they've informed us that the exception request has been denied to use the services outside the US.
Also, we do not have the possibility to transfer the case to the support available in US. Google loves to receive feedback from its users, and you are the driving force in improving Google Fi. You can use the following steps to provide feedback here:
In the Google Fi app on your phone, scroll to the bottom and tap Send feedback.
Or on the web, log in to fi.google.com and click the grey circled question mark. Scroll down the menu and click Send feedback.
We appreciate all the suggestions that we receive and will certainly take yours into consideration.
If you have any questions, please feel free to this email.

What audacity you guys have. Please explain, for what reason I have received another bill from you?
Either restore my account, or refund me my money.

At this point, I hadn't actually gone into G.Fi to try and cancel (I know right?) service as I made the assumption this was acknowledged as a done deal on both sides.
from G.Fi - July 20th

Hi,
Thanks for writing in!
We understand your concern regarding the bill. Upon checking, I could see that your account is active and please be informed that with Google Fi, you'll continue to receive the bill as long as your account is active.
If you're outside the US and unable to use the services, you can pause your account by following the below steps:
If you would like to pause service:
Open the Google Fi website or Google Fi app.
In the Account tab, under Your Plan, click Manage Plan.
At the bottom of the screen, select Pause service, then confirm.
To resume your service:
Open the Google Fi website or Google Fi app.
In the Account tab, select Resume service from the banner.
Additional information can be found in the article, Pause & resume data or service.
As you're looking for a refund, I see that you're in the Flexible plan, depending on when you paused your service, you won't be charged or you'll get partial credit for the days when your service was paused. Hope this helps!
If you have any questions, feel free to reply to this email.

I went through the portal and did what I could find at the time - it's been a while, but I do remember there was no "Cancel Button" -- I also changed my billing details, as much as possible, but this doesn't matter (more on that later). Afterward, I fired off the following:

Let's be perfectly clear - I never paused or asked to pause my account. YOU REVOKED my account.
Terminate my Fi service and give me my money back. I have ZERO [give a shit] to continue dealing with you. I have no recourse, no ability to speak with anyone in the US, and was lied to - on service availability, and everything else.
---- STOP MY Fi SERVICE, and, GIVE ME BACK MY MONEY ----
I don't have the time to personally, and diligently, deal with you. I need to tend to a dead family member, a dying father, and coordinate my family needs. I realize you are incapable of the empathy required, to understand what that means, so -- CANCEL AND REFUND.
Thank you, have a day.

June 17th I created a Twitter just to go vent and try to get someone in a Google-Proper unit that /might/ care. https://twitter.com/BananaSacks/status/1273039566426046464
I eventually got an email response back from one of the @ Google's not G.Fi - to which I replied that I wanted to speak with someone in the USA about the matter. Never got a response.
Annd here we are - It's December.
​
Back to questions from u/brklynmark

Change your billing details = removed all cards? Does the site still show any cards under Payment Method?
Are they still posting monthly bills to the account? If so, what do the bill details indicate they're charging you for?

I can't delete all the payment methods, you need to have an active/valid billing method - or at least the last time I tried.

Did you get a cancellation email confirmation?When you go to your Google Fi Account, does it still reflect an active line and/or phone?
I cancelled my last account a few months ago and received an email with subject "Service canceled", and my Account page says "Your service has been cancelled" with an option to rejoin

I just searched through my emails and no, I don't see any old email to indicate that there was an acknowledgment. I've also logged back into the Fi portal to attempt to re-trace the steps that were given to me previous to cancel, which were:

My name is Emaan and I'm a Google Fi specialist. I'm following up with you on behalf of Sushma as she's out of office.
I'll not have an option to close your Fi account, you can cancel it from Fi app or website.
Open the Google Fi website or app.
In the Account tab select Manage plan.
Select Cancel service.

Just like the last time, there is no "Manage Plan" - I can upgrade, add devices, toggle Services outside US on/off, add persons, switch plan, and pause service.
HOWEVER!! I now have an option to "Leave Google Fi" that I know did not exist before.
So at this point, I've now canceled again and it is confirmed. (But not over, see new updates at top 4/Jan/21)
​
For everyone else that has mentioned to "Simply change billing method" or "Cancel the card" - I don't think that this is going to work, just like when I put false supporting card details in my updated billing info. This is a recurring payment from an authorized source. That's why when you cancel your credit card or report it lost/stolen, you don't need to call waste management and the electrical company, your billing cycle still posts out. At least that's how it was for me back stateside.
Now, I could cancel my EU card but I have the feeling that it wouldn't cease the bills --and-- I don't know what new world of bureaucracy and headache that's going to pose for me out here.
At the end of the day I'm not broke over this, but it surely is a world-class rip off.
​
A word of warning to everyone - As another commenter below pointed out - Always, keep your critical and non-critical services/accounts separate. I could have hands-down, without question, gotten my money back and filed a chargeback. But simply closing my Gmail and walking away is not that simple. I'm an Android user, my google accounts are tied to an entire ecosystem beyond just mail and youtube. You're talking GoogleDev, API's, GCP, and a long list --- For those that aren't grasping, it's like the Apple ecosystem if you have an iEverything, a smart house with iStuff, your iTunes, and so on - only potentially biggemore-tangled.

I am a small business owner, doing eCommerce for 3 years. I have an independent website and also sell on eBay.
Like others in posts before me, recently my account was shutdown with a “permanently suspended” notification that says I “can no longer use PayPal”. No explanation or previous notice was provided. Funds were frozen for 180 days, and while I can still log in, I can not accept or send payments. This account was a business account, set up under our LLC, of which I am the sole owner.
I also have a personal PayPal account I’ve had for probably 15+ years. I use this for my own personal online shopping etc, but I don’t use it very often. Both accounts were shut down on the same day, again with no explanation.
You probably can guess how the calls to Customer Service went - sympathetic ears, but they were not able to tell me anything as to why the accounts were closed. It has been very demoralizing. I had to scramble to get set up with another payment processor, but have found we have lost some business by not having PayPal as an available checkout option (our % of abandoned carts went up immediately once PayPal was no longer listed as an option).
At this point I am trying to find out: - How (or if) I can answer PayPal’s concerns and have my business account reopened. - What the problem was so I can avoid this in the future - If I can (without violating their TOC’s) have another PayPal Account created for use for my business. Have it created either by myself, or my wife, or employee, or a new LLC etc - Any other options I am not thinking of so I can continue to use PayPal on my eCommerce site
Some answers to anticipated FAQ’s: - I created both accounts after turning 18 - I am the sole owner of the LLC - The accounts have different bank accounts, different email addresses, but same street address (my home) - The products sold are Legal products - I sell both Physical and Digital Goods - I have a retail license and pay my taxes - I am based in the US - I do not use and have never used a VPN - My disputes/chargebacks were minimal (6 PayPal disputes out of 10,000 orders in the last year, all but 2 were decided in my favor. Total loss about $30 total, and that was about a year ago) - Business was steady (no dramatic increase in business preceding the ban), though we did have one larger than normal order about 4 months prior. - I withdrew funds daily, so at least I do not have much cash frozen up with this
I genuinely just want to know what happened so we can operate within their parameters in the future. I am not really interested in any solutions that are illegal or against their TOC’s, but I can’t seem to get any answers from them directly.
I can tell from other posts that this is a common problem, but if anyone has any insight I would appreciate it. Thanks in advance

Hello,
I am a degenerate gambler and over the course of the past few weeks I've I've lost a significant amount of money in online gambling from my checking account, using my debt card (not a CC). I realize I can initiate an 'unauthorized' chargeback with my bank (report the card stolen) and have a majority of the funds returned. Though, I am curious on what kind of consequences I am looking at if I do this and the bank investigates and discovers that I legitimately lost the money. I am located in the USA and in a state where online gambling is illegal. The online casino uses a 3rd party payment processor located in China.
Can I be charged with fraud? I realize I will be banned and blacklisted with the online casino. I have read some stories of online casinos turning collection agencies after you. Since it's illegal to make deposits to online casinos and participate, will the bank even care if they discover it was me? Are there any potential repercussions that I've not thought about if I move forward with this? Will the casino turn over my IP to the bank?

Hello, I'd like to preface this that it's in shady territory. It's not necessarily a scam as much as it is--at least in my country--illegal. Also apologies for the formatting, I'm on my phone.
The website https://www.gamivo.com/ is a keyshop, I used most of these until very recently when I learned the shady nature of these websites. Using stolen cards to purchase games, fot example. There's a few posts already:

• https://amp.reddit.com/Scams/comments/f0tsmq/gamivo_smart_autosubscription_scam/
  
• https://amp.reddit.com/Gamivo/comments/k3n8dw/gamivo_smart_suscription/
  
• https://amp.reddit.com/Scams/comments/i4whbt/gamivo_smart_scam/
  

And now, this one. There's many things. The first thing I did was contact their support with two requests the first being, naturally a refund. The second, the deletion of my account and all its data. To keep it short, they said no, we cannot refund you with the most bullcrap excuses. Now I've made a deal out if it with PayPal, and if they deny it, I intend to chargeback from my bank and keep it at that.
See, in my country (Netherlands) there are numerous consumer protection laws. A big one being that such subscriptions and services must be clear and not small print. I called a service called "Het Juridisch Loket" ( https://www.juridischloket.nl/ ) which provides advice and legal advice for free. Again, without going into detail they've provided me with the knowledge and certainty that this is blatantly put illegal. Their main reasoning being that such a service must be opt-in, NOT opt-out. Not to mention, we have a fourteen day--it does not matter what--no hassle return/refund policy ( https://www.consumentenbond.nl/juridisch-advies/rechten-bij-aankoop/online-telefonische-aankopen ). This includes the latest charge especially since I did not use this month's service at all. In addition, to do commerce in countries especially European once that countries consumer laws are in effect ( https://www.kvk.nl/advies-en-informatie/internationaal-ondernemen/e-commerce/europese-regels-e-commerce/ ). To sum it up, this practice is illegal. Is the money worth it? No. Would it be easier to just give them the money, close my account, cancel my subscription? Absolutely. However this is not okay. Like many companies, letting them get away with sleights like this will not work in the consumers benefits. A point has to be made.
TL;DR
A keyshop has an OPT-OUT subscription service. This should be opt-in in the Netherlands. Therefore, if not them or PayPal, depending on your country you're entitled to a refund and I intend to.
With regards and have a good day,
Cjero
EDIT: I've also decided. The key of the game I bought was a month or so ago called "Armello". With the money charged back, I'll be buying a fresh key from the Steam store and gift it to someone with said money just to prove a point. If anyone's interested and think the game looks fun, and the chargeback goes well, feel free. Just DM me or post a recipe in the comments for me to try because I've been trying to learn cooking. Cheers!

This is going to be quite a long read. I don’t intend for this to be sensational; I want to relay facts and experiences of myself and others in the VGM Vinyl community. There likely won’t be anything “shocking” in this piece to those who have had to deal with Materia Collective’s customer support and anti-consumer policies. However, considering the growing list of community members (including myself) who have been treated poorly by MC. I felt the need to take the time to write this with the hope that it will pressure Materia Collective to put an end to these extremely anti-consumer policies. I am writing this on a throwaway account partially because I value privacy myself and partially to protect the privacy of people who were interviewed while writing this piece. Just know that I am an active member in the VGM Vinyl community. I know I would get banned from purchasing from MC if my name was connected to this article. While I currently have no plans to order from them again, I also don’t really want to burn the bridge just yet. Sources will be assigned the name “Anon” with a number. There will be input from members on VGMVinyl, Video Game Vinyl Collectors (Facebook group), and the VGMvinyl Discord.
No cancellation/refund policy, is it legal? Yes, and no:
Materia Collective holds a no cancellation/refund policy for any reason. According to MC’s website via the “Policies” tab: “All sales of all products and pre-orders are final, non-cancellable, non-returnable, and non-refundable” (bolded and highlighted). Unfortunately, this policy is technically legal in the USA. Although it should be noted that it would be illegal if MC were operating out of the EU.
One source who asked to remain anonymous, that I will call “Anon1”, shared with me that he accidentally ordered two of the same Vinyl. They immediately submitted a ticket on August 28th asking to correct the issue but have not heard anything back at the time of posting this. Anon1 noted that the vinyl ordered was listed in stock and not a pre-order. There has apparently been zero communication in the form of customer service response, shipping notifications, or updates since. There does not seem to be much hope for this situation to be corrected at this point. The real question is, would it be corrected even if Anon1 received a response? I can only speculate, but I am highly skeptical since I have not heard of a single person receiving a refund for any reason without first threatening a charge back. And well, policy says they will not...
Enter “Anon2”, who brought the potentially illegal side of MC’s no cancellation policy to my attention. This dispute happened in a public channel on the VGMvinyl Discord group, but the source still asked to remain unnamed, so I will respect that. Some context first though… According to Anon2, MC customer service had offered to split an order that had both pre-order and in stock items so that the in-stock items would arrive faster, MC also offered to cover the shipping. Anon2 did not originally realize that the pre-order would hold up the entire order and said that they thought it was a very kind gesture and gladly accepted. However, a month passed without a shipping notification, then another month. Anon2 was curious on what was going on, so they emailed MC customer service, no response for a week. Sent another, no response for an additional 2 weeks. At this point, Anon2 stated that frustration was building from a months old broken promise and now emails were being completely ignored for nearly a month. According to Anon2, the last straw was when they saw the pre-order items they had ordered over 3 months ago (that had now been delayed an additional 3 months on top), go on sale for ~40% off in the now infamous “moving sale” on August 28th, 2020 (more on the sale later). Anon2 then sent an email asking for either a cancellation with full refund, or to be given a refund in the amount of the difference of the pre-order sale price (which was around $40.00, according to Anon2). Included in this email was an ultimatum that if neither of these options were honored, Anon2 would issue a credit card chargeback immediately. Worried that it would go without a response again, they directly messaged Sebastian Wolff, CEO of Materia Collective, on Facebook in order to get a response to their numerous unanswered emails. They then received a response from Sebastian a few hours later stating, “We aren't able to refund differences between sold items and discounted, and refunds/cancellations aren't possible as per our policies.” Anon2 then issued a charge back as promised and took to the VGMvinyl discord to vent his frustration.
Okay, but how is it illegal? Well, Anon2 had a hunch that there had to be some sort of consumer protection on items ordered that had been delayed past the advertised release date. Otherwise what would prevent a company from indefinitely holding a customer’s money? Anon2 said, “I started digging, and within about 20 minutes I found myself on the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) website on a page called “Billed for Merchandise You Never Received” and there it was, pretty much exactly what I was looking for.” Anon2 provided me with a link to said FTC web page for reference (https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0221-billed-merchandise-you-never-received). I highly recommend you take the time to read this page. However, the takeaway points from this webpage are, “By law, a seller should ship your order within the time stated in its ads or over the phone. If the seller doesn’t promise a time, you can expect it to ship your order within 30 days… …If the seller is unable to ship within the promised time, it must notify you, give a revised shipping date and give you the chance to cancel for a full refund or accept the new shipping date.” Some discussion broke out between Anon2 + other Discord members and Sebastian Wolff on this subject. Sebastian reinforced his stance by responding with “If you want to give us another 5 days to respond, that might be optimal. Support inbox is at about 800 tickets, the sale got us over 3000 orders, and Materia is a tiny team struggling to make due in the pandemic. We crossed a line a you're pissed? Fine, we can make exceptions, but email that concern our way. That gets you refunds or partial refunds or priority mail upgrades. Starting a firestorm here, credit card chargebacks, FTC complaints, and sending lawyers our way? I mean. You do you, if that's what you think will help you feel better and resolve things.” Unbeknownst to Sebastian that he had already denied Anon2’s request of a partial refund or cancellation only hours ago. A request that was apparently fully backed by FTC law (Items in both orders had not been shipped by the advertised date). Anon2 reported that he did get a full refund by the end of the day but noted that it was only under threat of an FTC complaint, an in-progress charge back, and multiple direct messages to Sebastian just to get a response. Typically, the consequences of taking these actions will almost always result in a ban from making future purchases. While Anon2 states that he was never told he was banned from purchasing from MC again, he believes he is and will not purchase directly from MC again unless these policies are changed.
The takeaway here is that if your order is delayed beyond the advertised date (or over 30 days if not stated), the seller MUST notify you and MUST offer a full cancellation and refund by FTC law. Why have you never needed to know this info? Probably because it is so rare for a company to deny cancellations, due to the extremely anti-consumer implications. There are many other sources I could quote and experiences I could share, but I think they would be redundant at this point. Suffice to say this is not just a small handful of people whose view of MC has soured.
Post-sale note: Materia Collective now requires you to check a box saying “I have read and agreed with Materia Store’s terms and conditions” in order to checkout with your order. I can only speculate that this was done for “legal reasons”, but I am doubtful that this checkbox voids FTC law on delays. I am not a lawyer and none of my sources claim to be lawyers.
Pre-ordering from Materia Collective:
Materia Collective discounts their pre-orders. Many peoples’ first exposure to this was the August 28th, 2020 “moving sale”, but it has been a MC practice for long before that. Though I should note that this sale was by far the biggest amount a pre-order has gone on sale for (~40%).
Simply put, there is almost no incentive to pre-order any MC release. I say “almost” because sometimes there are limited editions that people might prefer, and a pre-order is a guaranteed way to secure your FOMO buy. Open edition pre-orders are just potential money wasted as you sit there and watch the price drop over the weeks/months for an item that MC does not even have in hand yet. Early support is clearly not valued in MC’s business model.
The “moving sale”:
I barely know where to start with this… So, I will start with the positive. The sale was huge, and the price drops were generous (~40-75%), people definitely took interest. Sebastian stated that they took in 3,000 orders. I don’t think there is much of a surprise there, considering you could pick up an album for $7.00 (sans shipping).
Now on to the negatives, I’m going to try to speed run this.
• ~40% off was placed on most pre-order items, essentially slapping early supporters in the face. Remember, these have nothing to do with moving and clearing stock, MC did not (still does not) have them in hand. I just feel the need to state Hollow Knight Piano Collection originally went up for pre-order almost 1 year ago (Nov. 2019). Remember, no cancellations allowed.
• Some items listed as “in stock” were actually back-orders (MANY reports of this). Multiple sources told me they still have not received a shipping notification OR a response to their multiple emails in over a month+. Back-orders obviously have nothing to do with a moving sale, as they are also not in hand. These back-orders are not expected to ship until November, 2020 at the earliest.
• Sebastian stated that Covid-19 has affected their staff and they are running a skeleton crew, “Materia is a tiny team struggling to make due in the pandemic”. This makes zero sense, why would you put your entire catalogue on massive sale and advertise it multiple times when you can’t even keep up with orders or customer service before the sale (see anon2’s story)? MC chose to do this sale while they were massively understaffed and un-prepared to meet buyer expectations.
• International shipping. I am reluctant to add this, as I do not know the details of this. Only that Sebastian has stated that it was the best rate they could get. I cannot confirm or deny that. I just know that $40-$50 shipping for a 1xLP was quite a sideswipe for many international buyers. I do know that I recently sent a 2xLP overseas and it cost me closer to $25.00, and that is without any kind of potential contract or deal with shipping. Do with that info what you will, shipping prices do fluctuate.
Conclusion:
Understaffed, customer service non-existent, taking a huge amount of orders on products that are not in hand (and in a shady way), doubling down on a no cancellation policy, and no positive changes made after a huge backlash… I’m forced to wonder if MC has come under serious financial hardship and this sale was a last-ditch effort to stay afloat. I have zero proof of this and was not able to get any info from any source concerning MC’s financial state. I do know that VGMV is only a part of MC, they are also involved in licensing representation for various artists in the scene (like Toby Fox of Undertale fame). However, all of this is so strange from a business perspective that I don’t know what other conclusion to come to.
I wrote this as a warning for the VGMV community and to tell you about your right to cancellation if you ordered an item that has missed it’s advertised delivery date. Times are tough right now for so many of us, and things come up… To have money tied up for months with no product delivered and no hope of a refund without taking extreme action is just not okay.
Sebastian, I know you will read this. I don’t know what is going on with your company, but you are actively alienating this niche community. People talk a lot in this community, and the talk about Materia Collective has not been good for quite some time now. Please change this anti-consumer (and sometimes illegal) policy and treat your customers with some decency.
NOTE: Please do not threaten or harass any Materia Collective employees. I had planned to put this on reddit today and I wish I could say that I was surprised to see the current top post is also related to Materia Collective issues. Sadly, I am not...

Hi all.
I’m surprised I need to mention this still.
Don’t contact me and ask about cultivating actives. Don’t contact me to ask what strains will give you the best trip. Don’t contact me after you order with photos of jars you inoculated with active spores. Don’t tell me you used my spores to try to cultivate. Don’t describe putting spores to a “medium” and discuss “activity”. Don’t try to discuss cultivation with code words. Adding “microscopy purposes” or “scientific purposes” to the end of a message where you talk about cultivating actives doesn’t make it ok.
I offer microscopy products that are not to be used to illegal cultivation. I have notices all over Reddit, my website, on the products themselves and in the review request automated email about the intended purpose of my active spores.
Don’t tell strangers on the internet of your crimes. You risk implicating others, and I can probably speak for all the vendors when I say we don’t want to be involved or hear of you using our products illegally and it’s against our terms and conditions. I’m my case, it voids any refunds or replacements to do so and it bars you from future orders.
Please. Please. Please. Do not discuss cultivation of actives in any form. If you have issues seeing spores under the scope, tell me that. If you see contamination on your slides, tell me that (and take a pic through the microscope, even if it’s from your cellphone).
I do not share any admission of felonies with any other parties (unless the guilty party tries for a refund or chargeback), but I will notify you that you breached my TOS and ask for you not to contact me again or place any new orders.
Be smart guys and gals.

Hi all.
I’m surprised I need to mention this still.
Don’t contact me and ask about cultivating actives. Don’t contact me to ask what strains will give you the best trip. Don’t contact me after you order with photos of jars you inoculated with active spores. Don’t tell me you used my spores to try to cultivate. Don’t describe putting spores to a “medium” and discuss “activity”. Don’t try to discuss cultivation with code words. Adding “microscopy purposes” or “scientific purposes” to the end of a message where you talk about cultivating actives doesn’t make it ok.
I offer microscopy products that are not to be used to illegal cultivation. I have notices all over Reddit, my website, on the products themselves and in the review request automated email about the intended purpose of my active spores.
Don’t tell strangers on the internet of your crimes. You risk implicating others, and I can probably speak for all the vendors when I say we don’t want to be involved or hear of you using our products illegally and it’s against our terms and conditions. I’m my case, it voids any refunds or replacements to do so and it bars you from future orders.
Please. Please. Please. Do not discuss cultivation of actives in any form. If you have issues seeing spores under the scope, tell me that. If you see contamination on your slides, tell me that (and take a pic through the microscope, even if it’s from your cellphone).
I do not share any admission of felonies with any other parties (unless the guilty party tries for a refund or chargeback), but I will notify you that you breached my TOS and ask for you not to contact me again or place any new orders.
Be smart guys and gals.

Chargebacks are Shitty

It is no secret what this sub's stance is on PP chargebacks. If for whatever reason, you're uncertain of where we stand on the matter, I'll quote from our various wiki pages.
From the TS List:

What Not to Expect from the TS

Chargebacks when things don’t go your way. As a rule-of-thumb, chargebacks are highly frowned upon if not outrightly discouraged. There is no reason you should not be able to reach a compromise with the TS. When you file a dispute, the seller's account ends up getting suspended, or worse, terminated. They lose money, it disrupts their business, it complicates others' orders, and it results in less sellers accepting PayPal because it's too risky for them to use. This one incredibly selfish decision ruins things for everyone. If you must proceed with a chargeback as a last resort, have the decency to send the product(s) back to the TS. If you don't, you are point blank stealing. We will definitely find out about it, then you will be permanently banned from RL and RLBST amongst other unpleasant consequences.

From the FAQ:

I'm unhappy with the bag I received. Would it be okay if I filed a chargeback?
Absolutely not. Chargebacks fuck things up for everyone. This is the reason why less and less sellers are taking PayPal nowadays. We may not be able to prevent you from doing this, but when we find out, and there is no doubt we will find out, you will be permanently banned from RL and RLBST. You'll also find it very difficult to impossible to buy from any of the TS in the future.

Announcements/discussion posts throughout the years all linked to in our Buyer Expectations page:

• Buying Etiquette - Chargebacks
• Buying reps, filing chargebacks and general purchasing etiquette

We've even included tips on the best way to resolve seller disputes. From the Newbie Guide:

Not all transactions will be smooth sailing. Problems are bound to arise. Our main advice when dealing with any seller is to be kind and understanding. These are people who are working to support their families, and, at times, they have to grapple with health or familial issues that forces them to step away from the job. Be patient especially with the sellers who have been reviewed a million times on the sub. They are not trying to screw you. Sometimes they can take awhile to respond, days even. When things go wrong, it isn't automatically their fault, so don't be so quick to blame them. They're not the ones making these reps. Factories can fuck up and send sellers something bogus. It's not always a B&S. You don't have to assume the worst of your TS. Whatever problem you're dealing with can be worked out. Just remember to remain calm and communicate...

For anyone still confused, we'll make it simple:

If you file a chargeback and do not return the product to the TS, you will be banned and blacklisted.

You are stealing. There is no ambiguity. No room for interpretation. Regardless of how legitimate a buyer's argument may be, no one has the right to keep the product and have their money returned. There isn’t a right to recoup fees and shipping costs either. If your primary expectations include guarantees and you're worried about losing any money in these transactions, you should not be buying reps at all. Manufacturing and selling counterfeit products is illegal. There's no concept of fairness in this realm. If you can't be adaptable and flexible, what you can do is stick to stores with generous return policies and pony up thousands of dollars for the auth. That way, you'll always be satisfied and none of us will have to be subjected to the bullshit. We all have choices here.
If a chargeback occurs, we will be informed of it. All the TS (Aooko being the sole exception) are in regular contact with me, u/AffluentNeighborhood, and each other.

What brought on this announcement?

Aside from the chargeback case itself, it was a comment in one of the recent QC threads. This is also serves as a good reminder of how a situation can be grossly misrepresented.
There are always two sides to every story. What you read here is one version of the truth, or in many cases, an absolute lie. Don't be so quick to believe everything you see. People recount events in such a way that casts them in the best light to garner sympathy (see Rashoman effect).
One person's "I received a bag with tarnished hardware and the seller didn't care" is another's I saw the PSP, made no note of the hardware finish despite it being visible in multiple photos, and approved the bag to ship. Then when I received it and was unhappy with what I saw, I lodged a reversal to get my money back, kept the bag, and ignored the seller."
Nevermind that the buyer didn't do her due diligence during the QC stage and that the auth have distressed hardware that can vary from bag to bag. It took AffluentNeighborhood and I mere minutes to find those links. There are a ton more examples, too.
What's done is done. Heidi is out both the money and the bag. The other TS were made aware of what occurred and we provided them with all the relevant info. If this buyer happens to find that no one's responding to her from here on out, then so be it. We haven't even revealed the entirety of what she's done. If you think it looks bad now... We're ready with the screenshots in the event she wants to escalate things.
There are consequences to being a scumbag. And that fact will never require a PSA.

Hello MapleStory reddit,
I saw this post recently - https://www.reddit.com/Maplestory/comments/hgmiby/frenzy_service_is_now_regarded_as_illegal/
Decided that this was a good opportunity to speak out regarding my case and this matter as a service buyer.
I have been playing this game for quite some time and never had something like this happen. I couldn't even comprehend the reasoning for my ban and I tried to receive answers while appealing the ban that was placed on my account
On June 21st 2020, I was permanently banned for hacking/illegal third-party programs. You can find my IGN (Domtille, Bera) in the ban data and I can assure you that I've never cheated this game a moment in my life.
There was news that a False Ban wave had been happening to numerous players recently so I thought I was caught in this mistake that Ghiblee had mentioned
During the appeal I was told that I triggered "potential illegal RMT activities through the in-game Auction House system" and I was "confirmed to be engaging in the aforementioned RMT activities, including direct involvement with and association a known RMT source." - https://i.imgur.com/7JqpcGG.png
I honestly have no idea what that means.
I paid someone for Frenzy service in a player-to-player transaction and bought 2 EXP Accumulation potions in the AH to begin the training session. I was then banned shortly after 4 hours.
I received essentially the same copy pasted answers on 4 separate occasions. Eventually I got in contact with Senior GM Gllean and was told the decision was final and I would be denied every time after. - https://i.imgur.com/6FwzGCx.png
My question is, are we going to receive clarity on this situation? Is it the Frenzy service that got players banned or In my case was it this faulty Auction House RMT trigger?
In this response: https://i.imgur.com/ElB2sPH.png
GM Kyuyuiyui states that they are unable to release the exact details, "Giving out any internal information or policy can be used to try to get around those policies should it be leaked."
EDIT: As a follow-up last night (as it had been 4-5 days since my appeals and a full week since my auto-ban), I sent a ticket using more terse language. I told them I would be fully willing to share my financial transaction history (both bank and credit) and that I would be following through with NX chargebacks (for $1-2K) were they to not provide me with more information with my supposed "RMT." This time they escalated: https://imgur.com/a/QTMxKnT. Hilariously, this is the same senior GM who said that I would receive the same response every time (yet he's the one changing his tone...).
EDIT 2: Ghiblee made an official comment on the situation tonight: "We would like to inform you that we do not ban players for legitimately using the Frenzy Totem, however, we discovered that an account was flagged for other suspicious behaviors that is currently under review. If you believe your account may have been affected, please submit a ticket to our Customer Support (https://support-maplestory.nexon.net)."
"Other suspicious behaviors" and "an account" is extremely vague but at least they're looking into it. Plus, they are telling people to open tickets if you've been affected.
EDIT 3.: I was unbanned like two days ago! Looks like they only took me seriously once I made threats lol so idk what that tells the community

Table of Contents:

1. FAQ
2. Basic vocabulary and botting terms
3. Where to buy bots and how to avoid being scammed
4. Different types of bots
5. Bot Rentals
6. Cook groups
7. Proxies
8. Servers
9. Captchas, harvesters and Gmails
10. Bot restocks
11. Privacy and virtual credit cards (VCCs)

12. Jigging

1. Frequently Asked Questions * Are sneaker bots illegal? - Bots are legal but they do break the terms of service of many websites and online retailers. As a result, they have the right to cancel botted orders or ban/blacklist any of your information from making future purchases. * Do I need a paid Cook Group? - A good, paid Cook Group is a must for reselling and botting. It is your #1 resource for everything. Free groups aren't collecting any money to provide paid services so you can't expect nearly as much from a free group as any paid one. * What are the costs of botting? - You'll most likely have to pay the resell price for any bot due to nearly every bot being out of stock. You'll also have to pay for a Cook Group each month. Datacenter and Residential proxies would be recommended and a server would also be recommended for the most success. Bot subscriptions and renewal fees may also cost.

* Is botting difficult? - Botting is certainly not as easy as many would expect. There are thousands of people who purchase the best bots and continue to experience failure for months. Botting requires time, patience and investment.

2. Terms And Vocabulary * AIO or AIO Bot - "All in one", a type of bot that usually supports many sites. For example, Cybersole is an AIO bot that supports many different site types such as Shopify, Footsites, Supreme, and Mesh. * AWS - "Amazon Web Services", a virtual server provider. See Server. * Brick - A shoe or another item that will not be profitable. * Captcha - Anti-bot measure that many sites utilize. Usually "I am not a robot" and selecting pictures out of a 3x3 grid. * Cook Group - Discord or Slack group with botting, sneaker and reselling info and guides. * Cop - To buy or purchase something. * Datacenter (DC) Proxies - Faster than residential proxies but easier to be banned by sites. Usually purchased in packs of 10, 25, 50, etc for intervals of 1-30 days of usage. * Delay - Millisecond intervals used on bots. See Monitor Delay and Retry Delay * Early Link (EL) - Links usually provided by Cook Groups that are scraped from the back ends of sites, hand made or given by stores to increase your bots checkout speed. Also helpful for manual users without bots. * Footsites - Footlocker (FTL), Footaction (FTA), Eastbay, Champs. These are all owned by the same company and all the sites function in the same way. * GCS - Google Cloud, a virtual server provider. See Server. * Group Buy (GB) - Exclusive opportunities provided by bots and Cook Groups to purchase out of stock bots, proxies, tools or programs for their retail price or a discount. These are usually limited similar to bot restocks but only people in that Cook Group can go for the product. * Keywords (KWs) - A way that bots can monitor for products on a website, usually used with + and - symbols. For example, "+air,+jordan,-3,-5" * Monitor Delay - How often your bot refreshes a page or website to monitor for a new product. * OOS - "Out of Stock" * Proxies - Virtual IP addresses used to mask mass amounts of requests coming from your bot on one IP address, needed to avoid IP bans. See Datacenter (DC) Proxies and Residential (Resi) Proxies. * Residential (Resi) Proxies - Slower than DC proxies but more reliable on sites with high bot protection. Usually purchased by the gigabyte and function similar to a phone's data plan. More usage uses more data quickly and you will run out. For example, 1gb, 2gb, 4gb plans and they usually expire after 30-60 days depending on the provider. * Retry Delay - How often your bot retries to complete a task after encountering an error. * Server - A virtual computer with good specs and a good connection used to run bots. Usually located in the same location as a websites server that you are botting and the same location as your proxies. * Sitelist - A list provided by a Cook Group for each release which mentions every site dropping a certain product with details about each site. * Slots - A service provided by a trustworthy, experienced botter which involves them using your payment information and shipping info to purchase limited items for you, you are usually charged a set Pay After Success (PAS) by them. * WTB - Want to buy. * WTS - Want to sell.

* WTT - Want to trade.

3. Where To Buy Bots And How To Avoid Being Scammed
Marketplaces:
Tidal
Botmart
Botbroker
The Process
In Tidal and Botmart be sure to always use a middleman. 1. The buyer or seller opens a ticket using the "-new" command in the "ticket-submission" channel for Tidal or the "open-a-ticket" channel in Botmart. 2. The other person is added into the ticket by the middleman. 3. The seller sends the bot's key and info to the middleman so he can verify it is legit. 4. The middleman verifies the bot and tells the buyer to pay the seller. 5. Once the seller notifies the middleman that he was paid, the middleman will send the key to the buyer. 6. Whoever agreed to pay the middleman fees, pays the fees. Usually around $10. 7. The ticket is closed.
How To Avoid Being Scammed * Always use a middleman no matter what. * Never do a deal in the dms. * Check if the sellebuyer has any legit checks on Twitter.

* Check how many deals they've done in Tidal or Botmart. In Tidal, the number in parenthesis, for example (15), is how many successful deals they've done.

4. Types Of Bots * AIO - All in one bots. Support many site types but may not do amazing on each one they support. Project Destroyer (PD) is an AIO bot that supports Shopify, Mesh, Footsites, Supreme and Demandware. It's Shopify and Mesh is not very good at the moment but they excel at Footsites and Yeezysupply. * Shopify - Shopify is an eCommerce platform that many retailers use. Most notably, Kith, Undefeated, Palace, Bodega. Concepts and more. This is arguably the most difficult type of site to bot and the bots that do well are the most expensive. * Supreme - Supreme bots have been around for a long time and the site is relatively easy to bot. There are several popular Supreme only bots such as F3ather, Mek and Velox but some AIO bots also do incredibly well on Supreme. * Mesh - Mesh is an EU site type and features sites like Footpatrol and Size?. A very limited amount of bots support Mesh and many that do, don't work. * Footsites - Footlocker, Footaction, Eastbay and Champs. There aren't any footsite only bots and the module is featured in many AIO bots. Payment verification cancels are very heavy on these sites. * Demandware - Demandware sites include YeezySupply and Adidas. These sites are queue based and randomly choose people to get the chance to checkout.

* Raffle Bots - Raffle bots are bots used to enter mass amounts of accounts or emails into raffles. Sites like Naked or Footpatrol do raffles for each release and they're nearly impossible to win with one entry. Raffle bots are quite saturated and will require many unique emails, proxies and gmails for captchas. Raffle botting is certainly not for everyone.

5. Bot Rentals * Many bots can be rented out for a fraction of their price for specified intervals. These are usually daily, weekly or monthly rentals. You can find the rental channels for a bot in Tidal or Botmart.
Renting a Bot * If you don't have a bot or want to try a new bot, you can rent it out. Renting usually doesn't use a middleman and you don't gain access to the bot's Discord server so your renter has to supply you with any information about updates or guides. The buyer usually pays first and then the renter will send the bot's download link, license key and any guides needed. After your rental period is up, the renter will "reset" the key and you will lose it's activation on your computer and he can rebind it to his own. Always make sure your renter is reputable because it's very easy to get scammed renting a bot.
Renting Out Your Bots

* Depending on the bot, the process is relatively simple. You find a reputable, legit renter, they pay, then you send them the guides, key and download link. Firstly, you should make sure that your bot is capable of being rented and is allowed to be rented. You should also be careful that the buyer is legit because they can chargeback the payment or they could possibly crack your key which would get it banned and you lose your key. Renting out your bots for drops you aren't interested in or buying bots for the purpose of renting is a great way to make some passive income each month.

6. Cook Groups

* Cook Groups are your number one resource for reselling, botting and being able to purchase limited items ranging from shoes and clothes to toys and memorabilia. Most groups will cost you around $40-$60 per month. Unfortunately, like almost everything in this community, almost all groups are limited or out of stock and you'll have to pay resell to join. Shoebots is partnered with House of Carts, a reputable group that's been around for over four years. You can use code 'hocreddit' to secure your spot for a discount of 30% off here. The most common features of cook groups are support, release information, sitelists, groupbuys, backdoor plugs, restock monitors, social media monitors, early info for releases, local information, and so much more. These are vital to your success.

7. Proxies

* Proxies are also vital to success and needed for your bots to function. It's recommended to have a plan for Datacenter proxies and Residential proxies each month so you're able to bot any site. Proxies are pasted into your bot's proxy section then they apply to each task that you run. You always want to be running at least a 1:1 task to proxy ratio to minimize bans. It's also recommended to test your proxies speeds and whether they're banned within your bot's tester or a program like FOGLDN.

8. Servers

• Servers are not necessary but are recommended due to their incredibly fast ping speeds to websites. Running a virtual server in the same location as the website you're botting and the same location as your proxies will yield the highest speeds. Providers like AWS and GCS charge an hourly fee for your server while they are running and can be costly especially if you're running for restocks so dedicated server providers like 10xServers may be ideal for many people. These providers charge a flat rate monthly and you can run your server 24/7.
  
• The quality of servers generally goes GCS < AWS < Dedicated Provider.
  

* You can also utilize the promo code 'REDDIT' for 15% off 10xServers each month.

9. Captchas, Harvesters And Gmails

• Captchas are apart of many sites protections against bots. Most bots will have built-in "Captcha Harvesters" where you can solve the captchas required to checkout a product. Within these solvers, you can log in to a gmail and apply a proxy as well.
  
• Aged, trustworthy Gmails are extremely important because the more "trustworthy" a Gmail is, the easier the captchas are and on some sites, you can even receive a "one-click captcha" where you don't even have to click any images. Trustworthiness is based on the activity of your Google accounts. These captchas are known as ReCaptcha V2.
  
• On YeezySupply for example, they have ReCaptcha V3, these are captchas that don't have images but are harvested in the background. Because of this, YeezySupply botting requires many high level V3 score gmails.
  

* Tools like AYCD toolbox provide Gmail activity generators which can also be run with proxies to maximize your Gmail scores and gain the best captchas.

10. Bot Restocks

* Throughout your research, you'll discover that nearly every bot is out of stock and you're forced to pay resell for them. When bots restock, they often sell out faster than the items they're used to bot, there are thousands of people racing to purchase bots with only 100 or even 1 copy available. Most bots restock via Twitter so it is essential that you have fast Twitter monitors and these are provided through your Cook Group(s). With these monitors you'll have the speed to see the tweet the instant it's posted but you'll also want an autofill or autocheckout extension or software to keep up with everyone else and beat everyone who doesn't have one. The most common are Flow, Fattye and Zenyscripts which can all be found in Tidal or Botmart for less than $100. These autofills are also useful for manually purchasing items on Shopify, Supreme and other sites as most people aren't able to fully automate the checkout like you will be able to.

11. Privacy Cards And Virtual Credit Cards (VCCs)

* Having multiple payment methods and addresses is extremely important. Many sites only allow a one per person policy and having different information can help bypass this. Privacy is a service that allows you to link your bank and create virtual credit cards with spending limits easily. Privacy is US only but an alternative is Revolut. Some banks such as Capital One also allow you to create VCCs.

12. Jigging

* If you don't have multiple addresses and names at your disposal, a trick called jigging is what most people use. This is making slight changes to your address that make it seem different but having your items still ship to your address. Some methods are changing "road" to "rd" or "lane" to "ln". You can also use the 2nd line to your advantage by adding "floor 1" if you live in a house or just adding "1". You can even go as far as adding a few random letters or numbers to the beginning of your address, for example, AAAA 123 Southwest Street.

Summary

• Always read your bot's manual, guides and Discord channels.
• Feel free to ask for help when you have a question or need anything. My DM's are always open.
• Always use a middleman for all transactions.
• You must put in time and effort to be successful.
• Join a cook group.
• Join our Discord server here if you have any questions!

Hello again and welcome to part deux of this long PSA. In case you missed it, here is part one. Tantalizing stuff. Indeed, it is a lot to read, but think about how much longer it took to write. We do this because we only want the best for you.
Again, this is an abridged version of our comprehensive resources that can be accessed through the Wiki Index. We realize the TS List and Factory Directory are the main draws, but there's other equally helpful guides (many of which were written by our very own best and brightest) and even funny stuff there, too. Give it a chance! We're all still in various states of quarantine, what else is there to do? Organize your underwear drawer?

Buyer Expectations

We've delved into this at length in the Buyers Etiquette and Expectations wiki, so we won't expend too many words on it even though it almost always is the impetus for the majority of PSAs we put up.

• Treat your seller with respect. It shouldn't need to be said. They are human beings. Yes, they say and do maddening things on occasion, but there's never any justification for threats or racism.
• You are not entitled to returns or exchanges. You will get a dud. You will surely be disappointed by an order. You will lose money. If those end results are unacceptable to you and if you are unwavering in your belief that the customer is always right, stop now and do not buy reps. This is not for you and that is okay.
• Ditto refund requests. A bad rep cannot be blamed on the seller. They're not the ones assembling your bag or shoes. They don't dictate factory policies and operations. Products go out of stock all the time. It doesn't matter what the seller said before you paid. There are over a billion people in China alone. We're not the only ones who want and love all this beautiful shit. Demand far outpaces supply. Tolerance, flexibility, and compromise are integral to your satisfaction with reps and the process involved in obtaining them. If you're in a rush, might we suggest Nordstrom or SSENSE instead?
• Ditto seizures and losses. Packages get misplaced, misdelievered, damaged, or seized and it sucks. It doesn't feel fair to have to take the hit. On the other hand, it's not fair to hold your seller accountable either. Each seller took the advice of their shipping agent, and like you, hoped for the best. Sellers are not liable for fuck ups committed by EMS/ePacket/China Post/USPS/DHL/FedEx/SF Express/Cainiao and every other carrier on Earth. They have as much control over the shipping, delivery, and customs processes as you do. Think of each seller as a small business. They don't have the margins to replace all packages under any circumstances. What you expect from Amazon (and the losses a giant conglomerate is able to absorb) cannot to applied to Aadi.
• Be reasonable with your QCing. Reps aren't perfect and neither are the auths you're comparing them to. No one is going to notice mm differences or any other variations. We're all overestimating how much other people actually notice or care what we wear.
• Every troublesome order is not a scam nor a B&S. People are so quick to label their problems as such. It is misleading and highly irrational. Understand what those words or phrases mean and use them responsibly. What you say can have wide-ranging negative repercussions on someone's reputation and livelihood.
• Covid has thrown every facet of our lives into utter chaos and it will continue in this vein for the foreseeable future. Shipping delays are the new norm. You may get your package in three days. It might be three months. There's only one action you can take as soon as the item leaves your seller's hand: wait.
• There are no guarantees when you choose to buy reps. Our TS standards are the closest thing to assurances we'll get from an illegal industry. We're in no way flattering ourselves by stating this. Ask any long-standing rep buyer and they will echo this sentiment. If you think you can whine, cry, cajole, and threaten your way to a favorable outcome, then we wish you well not only where reps are concerned but in life. You'll need it.

When to Contact the Mods

We cannot help with non-TS issues. We don't have that level of influence and authority although we are flattered if not perplexed that you assume we do. Only TS-related problems should be escalated to us and only under the following circumstances:

1. When a TS has stolen from you. Delayed responses, PSP, and shipping does not qualify as theft.
   
2. If a TS has doxxed you over a disagreement. If you stole from them and the doxxing occurs outside of Reddit, that does not fall within our purview and the TS will not be stricken from the list for doing so.
   
3. You have been B&S by a TS and you are in possession of substantial, credible evidence that validates your claim. The onus is always on the buyer to prove the accusation being made. Please do not end your message to us with "I have all the screenshots if you'd like to see them." We absolutely do need to see them and they ought to be provided in the initial outreach. We should not have to ask you for them and we won't.
   

All other basic queries, complaints, concerns, and allegations sent to us directly or via Modmail will likely go unanswered. If you need general advice, assurances, or guidance on how to handle a tricky conundrum, you should post your question in the Daily Discussion or Bi-Weekly Simple Questions thread. The community will offer you their input.

Important Links

• Important Community Reminders (Part 1) - Rules and Posting Guidelines on RL and RLBST
• Newbie Guide
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Buyer Etiquette and Expectations
• About the Trusted Sellers List
  • How TS are chosen
  • Rules governing TS conduct towards buyers
• RL Mods Are Not Customer Service Reps nor a Rep Industry Regulatory Body
• Chargebacks Will Get you Banned and Blacklisted

I'll try to dumb the story down as much as possible to facts but this is long: TL;DR below. This IS NOT a post about being banned, it's a post about a refund issue - possibly ebay's fault, although yet to confirm.
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I wanted an RTX 3090, the most sought after piece of electronics in the world atm... I went to ebay, searched for them, used some filters to find a good one/price, and then (since I didn't have an account) - I made a new account to purchase the video card. Save the hate about me buying the video card, I have the money and I work far too much to camp out.
Immediately started searching and filtering for new listings so I could catch one. Found one for ~$2500 USD, although the listing was in Canada. I tried to purchase, ran through the clicks and then ebay said there was an error - **I need to verify my account**. I thought, ok I'll call paypal (the way I was paying). Paypal on the phone said I'm good, and I even asked them if they thought the seller with 66+ rating was good with a few year history, they said absolutely. So, I got off the phone and clicked again - and the purchase went through.
The seller printed the shipping label that night.
Fast forward to 6:50 in the next morning. Email from ebay saying my account had been suspended. My brand new account that I then connected to a 8-10 year old paypal account with a 12 year old credit card, all accounts with the exact same *real personal information*.
Okay. Account suspended, **indefinitely**, but what about the item I just payed $2700 USD after taxes for?
Checked ebay sale listing, says the item is "tracking, on its way". - Okay, fuck it they can ban me illegitimately, I still get my item.
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Here's where it gets more weird...
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9 days later, item is 3 days late in trackers, canada post says delivery date is "to be determined". Package is missing essentially. I looked at USPS tracking and it says "tracking number created" 9 days prior with no updates. So I start to get worried.
Log into ebay, of course they won't let me contact the seller, who apparently has my money?
I call USPS and Canada post to confirm, and they have no answers and tell me that the sender has to be contacted, which of course ebay won't let me do now.
-----------------------------
I contact paypal and start a claim, thankfully they let me do this despite their website trying to steer me to ebay, as if their fucked up bot algorithms would let me do that now.
I threaten a chargeback, again totally legitimately and legal purchase made.
Seller gets back to me 3 hours later with this: https://i.imgur.com/9qtNCYY.png
So here we are. The seller literally *took the item back from the post office somehow?* And Ebay *didn't give me my money back?* I have no idea what to think.
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TL;DR: Either the seller tried to rip me off from the start somehow, or ebay almost kept $2700 USD from me illegally.

Micheal Cohen stands as the Vice President of Global Operations at MyChargeBack, a consumer protection company. Cohen had given comment in regard to how fraudsters are taking advantage of crypto transactions, particularly their irreversible nature.
At its first envisioning, one of the key selling points of Bitcoin was how it would protect retailers even more than credit cards could. Satoshi Nakamoto, the enigmatic founder of Bitcoin, gave a comeback to an early adopter’s complaint on an email on the 10th of October, 2008. The adopter, James A. Donald, complained that Bitcoin transactions weren’t instantaneously final.
Its Greatest Strength Being Turned To Weakness
In response, Satoshi highlighted the fact that paper checks can bounce following one or two weeks, with credit card transactions being capable of being contested for up to 60 to even 180 days after the fact. Bitcoin, Satoshi points out, is irreversible enough only after a few hours.
Cohen highlighted that, in some cases, a chargeback for credit cards are possible a full 18 months after the transaction was made. He further highlighted the two types of classification of credit card chargebacks: Unauthorized Use, and Authorized Use. Unauthorized, for example, is when a criminal illegally gains access to one’s credit card. Authorized, in turn, means when the cardholder themselves authorized the transaction, but they’re not satisfied with the outcome.
Cohen highlighted how, when it comes to crypto, consumers are only capable of recovering funds, should it be an unauthorized transaction. This is due to how credit companies, such as Visa or MasterCard, explicitly exclude certain industries from the authorized use category, such as gambling or crypto.
Crypto Scammers Are Like Grass In A Field
Much to Cohen’s dismay, he highlighted how crypto serves as such a convenient tool for scammers to collect funds, which are subsequently harming the mass adoption of cryptocurrencies. Cohen put it simply, highlighting that these people that got scammed through the use of crypto fraudsters, won’t be the ones that will promote the usage of cryptocurrency to others.
One of the most used tactics for these fraudsters, according to Cohen, is the offering of various services and products, typically related to forex trading. This is generally offered to an unsuspecting customer. At the last moment, the scammer eventually convinces the unsuspecting victim to pay for the service, or otherwise fund their new account by way of crypto.
Some Sliver Of Hope
Luckily for these victims, Cohen highlighted how not all hope should be lost. His company helps victims by identifying scammers, doing so by way of tracking the money movement in the blockchain. Typically, criminals opt to move to an exchange to cash out their crypto, and Cohen highlighted that many exchanges are quite eager to stamp these criminals out.