Scammer alert: Angela van Vianen aka Angiiee/HoneyBear/lifelaughlove7/daya.cas/d.georgia, ET AL.

Oh my god, she's contact me about 10 days ago, about "my want to buy thread" minifee ante tan.
She's send my 3 photos about the doll last week and fore the doll's look great so I decided to buy and send my paypal payment on 06/11.
Following your announcement I sent her an email today to see if she thinks send me the doll, if she doesn't, I would launch a paypal dispute.

 

Hi Jadzia,

We recommend you don't wait for that email. Please start preventative action ASAP. She has contacted upwards of 10 people, answering a variety of WTBs. She does not have these dolls in her possession; she steals and crops photos off of the internet. Please start your paypal dispute immediately and let Paypal know that she is a known scammer.

 

Thank you Laelen, I'll follow your advice and open a paypal dispute right now.
I would give you news about it.

 

We wish you the best of luck, Jadzia. Hopefully she has not shuffled the money out of Paypal's reach already.

 

She was also Trying to scam people who were trying to sell their dolls. She was sending photos that you wouldn't guess as "not her's" I wouldn't have gotten suspicious if i wouldn't have gone and looked through her activity. when i realized she only had "1 doll" but she claimed to have 2 (at least) that's when i asked other people for advice about the doll she was trying to trade me for my ante elf. (then she posted a tan MNF chloe. it seems very weird that someone so new had a tan MNF and the same sculpt in NS.)

Mod's: Is there a way we can up the wait on new people getting into the marketplace? And maybe add a rule that people must have their written username in the photo, with maybe the date they start the sell date? or something? (along with any type of trades going on? ) Thank you.

 

I think the problem with adding the rule for putting watermarks and dates on picture sis that they can be cropped and stolen, still. That is what this girl did. She cropped all identifying marks of the original owners to claim them as her own. If you put the date and time across the sales thread picture, it kind of ruins the ability for the person interested in the item to see it.

I do think the wait time for Marketplace access should be upped as well. It might help weed out people who join only to scam others if there is a longer wait period to post minimum of over 100 posts. But for now, we should just be more vigilant. You can do a Picture search with any picture sent to you or seen on a forum and find it's source, which can help weed out any picture thefts if you are unsure of something. And if something sounds way too good to be true or suspicious, it probably is.

 

I disagree. If you put the watermark in a place that does not fully obstruct the item you're selling, but that would look suspicious if cropped out, that could at least make it much more difficult for someone to steal and use your photos. Any weirdly-cropped photos should definitely be suspect when browsing the marketplace. I watermark all my sale photos now (and all my doll photos in general). With art theft so rampant on the internet these days, it's really a necessity in my opinion. My husband's friend was trying to sell a gun part on a gun forum recently and some guy stole his photo and used it on his own sale page. I don't know if that guy actually had the part and was just too lazy to take his own photo, but either way it could have been averted if my husband's friend had put a watermark across the middle of the photo with his username. :/

 

I suppose you are right. I just do not like the idea of having to put my watermark anywhere that could cause the picture to look "distorted' or take away from what I was trying to achieve, personally. I try and place my watermarks in a corner and large enough that if you do crop it out, it will make the picture should look odd. But what was recommended so far is best, adding a picture with your doll holding your user name and date. I may need to do that with my next sales thread.

 

It's definitely not ideal, but it's preferable to having your photos stolen (especially if they are being used for monetary gain or deception). :/ I find that, if done right, a watermark can both be subtle enough not to detract too much from the photo, but visible enough to deter most thieves (and impossible to crop out without losing part or most of the photo's focal point).

Scammers and thieves really make me angry! >:[ I'm really glad DoA has started protecting members even more by letting us know about these people!

 

Honeybear also contacted me about a trade prior to her banning.

I posted up my Narin up for sale the other day and a day later, I got a PM from Honeybear inquiring about a trade for my Narin vs her MNF Seorin. I was suspicious from the start as she is a fairly new member that has only recently gained access to the Marketplace, has no feedback at all and she only had pictures of one doll posted on the forum(it was another MNF) and mention of that one doll on her profile.

I gave her the benefit of the doubt as I was looking for another MSD and MNF Seorin sounded good. I asked her for pictures of the doll(she didn't provide any in the first PM) and asked if she was the first owner or not. Surprise, surprise, she didn't reply. Warning bells rang all over my head and I am so glad I dodged a bullet. (though I wouldn't really have traded with her even if she provided (photoshopped/cropped)pictures as I always recognize company/other collectors' photos)

 

She had been active in the Netherlands for a while, but our Dutch forum quickly got a lot of people informed. It's terrifying she has moved on to 'bigger pastures'.
I'm very sorry for the people who have been scammed by her and I hope their issues can get resolved. But I'm also happy she has been found out so now everyone can keep an eye out.

 

Dear DOA,

Thank you for this notice , this message has also been found by the dutch BJD cafe.
We have also taken actions againts her, but we still want to ask her victems to fill a report against her at your local Police station. Hopefully it will reach the netherlands so that our autorities will take action.

Greetings teenage - angel bjd cafe mod

 

I've posted everything I've got on her to the mods, speaking from personal experience: do not send this woman your doll, your money or heck, the lint from your pocket. If it's too late for that, start filing police reports / Paypal claims now and if there is anything I can do, even if it's just to vouch for her prior history, then please just let me know. I'm not on the forums much and haven't been since the whole mess with Angie (not a coincidence, sadly) but I always reply to PM's.

 

She has done this before in the Netherlands and the police were contacted about her. Which did result in people getting money/dolls back. I would advice people to file charges, since she is already on the police's radar.

 

With regard to the watermark discussion above, some of the photos used had been cropped so tightly that you would have had to have put a watermark across the face and neck for it to have retained.

 

This is good information to know to help me recognize what a scammer might look or seem like. That's terrible for all the people who've been scammed. X.x I'll definitely be putting my name in all my sale photos in the future, when I finally get mp access.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I827 using Tapatalk 2

 

Even so, a photo cropped that much (or small) should be suspicious anyway! And if you're buying a full doll, it's a good idea to make sure you see photos of the whole doll (so you know what you're getting). I think it's usually a good idea to ask a seller for more photos of the doll (unless there are a bunch provided already). If a seller is unwilling to provide more photos, then that's suspicious as well. Plus I wouldn't really want to buy from someone who is unwilling to work with me (the buyer who might be paying them possibly hundreds of dollars of my hard-earned money).

 

A friend of mine (not talking very good english that´s why I´m posting here instead of her) bought a head from HonneyBear. She opened a paypal dispute after reading this thread but Honneybear sent a tracking as answer.
Did she send any other package ? Is it recasted dolls ?
It is a scary situation as she might loose the paypal dispute now the seller provided a tracking.

 

As far as I'm concerns, still nothing.
She told me last week she was overwhelmed because of the world cup footbal and yesterday that she was hospitalized.
I'm turned my dispute paypal to claim, so wait and see.

 

Hi Sjota,

Please communicate the following to your friend. We have no reason to believe that she would fulfill her end of the bargain honestly; the pattern of her behaviour suggests otherwise. Please advise your friend to keep the dispute open to ensure her continued protection. Honeybear has only contacted members with photos that did not belong to her.

A tracking number does not guarantee that there is anything in the box, much less a legitimate doll. It could be anything.

If the package arrives, please ensure that your friend opens it with a video. She should contact paypal regarding her concerns that a fake product might be sent to her. The DoA staff cannot advise further than this; speaking to Paypal about possible solutions is the best action to take.

The staff wish her the best of luck,
Laelen

 

Please let your friend escalate the paypal dispute. This girls is a fraud she did this in the Netherlands 4 years ago. If I go to the post office in the Netherlands I can ask for shippingpapers with trackingnumbers as much as I want.

 

Another thing is you can escalate the Paypal dispute to item not as described if the box arrives and it's empty, damaged, or a fake. The tracking number does not guarantee that the item is correct or arrives intact. Paypal tends to side with buyers rather than sellers.

 

Thank you very much for your advice. I told my friend to record the box opening but I don´t think there will be any as the tracking number still doesn´t work.
I told her to absolutly not close the paypal dispute.

 

Wow, this is all so scary and sad. Thank you so much Mods for alerting us!

 

As expected, the head she received was a really bad recast. She informed Paypal about it.

 

Honeybear told me that my doll will be ship tomorrow, so I think it'll be a recast too, because an other french person received a doll recast from her.
What a shame to do that !

 

Sjota, could you please ask your friend to post to Ask the Moderators with the details of her transaction? Any photos, videos, or information that your friend can provide us will be very helpful.

Jadzia29, we would also like to request that you post in Ask the Moderators when the package arrives with any photos or information that might me of help to us.

The situation is deeply unsettling and we would like to document everything as well as possible to prevent this from happening in the future.

 

No problem, When I received the parcel, I'll take some photos.
I still no tracking number, I don't know if she post the doll or not.

 

Up, just for information, I win my money is back on my paypal account, I'm so relieved.
I don't received any parcel, so for me this case is over.
Now I would be very cautious when someone contacted me to do business.

I can go on holiday with peace of mind.

 

Thank you for alerting us of your conclusion, Jadzia. We're glad that things worked out in the end.

 

I want to say a HUGE thank you to the Mods who have posted this information and who are doing so much extra work to ensure that our community is protected and informed. It's this kind of stuff that keeps DoA members safer from the scammers of the world. Thank you! I hope all those who have been targeted are able to recoup their losses.

 

Please note update to first post.

 

Unfortunately, please note another update to the alert above.

 

Mods, delete this if it is inappropriate, but... I'm so glad I went with my gut! I was approached by this person under one of her new aliases to do a trade, but seeing that she had no feedback and only recently joined the forum, I declined. Phew! THANK YOU for being SO on top of things. You guys have one heck of a hard job!

 

Filed claim against her and got my money back! Thank you mods for being so on top of it!

 

This is just plain awful for everyone in the community. New members suffer too because of people like this. I really really sorry that this has been going on and very thankful you guys are on top of it so well. Just plain wrong to take advantage of people in this way.

 

daya.cas has approached me on 08-28-2014, because my WTB thread: " Hello, are you still looking for minifee hands? I have nomber 4 & 8 hands in tan skin. Let me know if you are interested. Daya Castellano " I was very happy, and answered, but she never replied to me. Lucky me.

 

than you so much for posting this, I have just saw it!. This person almost sold to me a minifee ante in tan skin color a few days ago. After PMing each other many times I decided not to trade her ante for my Soom Kivi or buy ante anymore, since I was not sure about her ante, she gave me a lot of excuses to show me her certificate of authenticity and box and papers and told me a lot of lies, so I decided not to buy from her. I was very lucky, since her last message was very suspicious and after that she was banned....

I hope the police in her country will take actions again her and she can not try to cheat people anymore, this is very sad! u.u

 

Added another paragraph of warning to the first post.

Yes, be careful, because part of her MO is to answer people's WTB/WTTs in signatures. Do remember that signatures are visible in the parts of the forum that are visible to people who aren't logged in. If you use your same ID or something similar across sites, it's possible for someone to find out what might be your email addy and contact it on the chance it might be you. So be careful about offers that may come "out of the blue"!

 

Wow, this is very good information to know. I'm new to this site, and really don't join a lot of online communities. But, collecting BJDs is a really expensive and emotional hobby, and I wouldn't buy dolls from sellers without serious commentary and feedback to credit someone as legit. And that's for companies! Buying off sellers second/third-hand, etc....that's a looootttt of risk. If it becomes a legal matter, and you don't have enough location/physical information to give to the police or sue, I'd be extremely hesitant to consider sending $100-$1000 period. Thanks for watching the forum so closely MODs!!!

 

[h=3]d.georgia has just message me today offering a trade... LOL[/h]i'm happy i read this here first.

 

UPDATE: Our forum nemesis used the recent open registration to acquire more accounts for herself. Be aware that member adubois was removed for being an alias of this person, as well as the newly active member aleks. Please see the first post for more information - if I can still fit more characters in!

 

Aleks had contacted me about a trade. So glad it was Election Day and I wasn't able to get my part out. Thank you mods for keeping the community safe.

 

I just read on the Dutch bjd forum (BJD cafe) Angela van Vianen is active again on a dutch website called Marktplaats.

She uses the username: AvV (& RdV a few months back)
Link to the dutch BJD forum regarding the topic of Angela van Vianen
Link to the dutch website/account she is using to sell and buy bjd's
Link to the same Marktplaats page (dutch auction website) but using google translate in English.

Because you can only see the thread on the bjd cafe if you are a member of the dutch forum I will give a little recap what is been discussed. (only important information regarding her.)

When people notice she is active again on for example forum, marktplaats people will report her immediately. She is already been reported it's just a matter of waiting till her account get blocked again.

Topic started on June 18th, 2010
Last Entry Today, November 25, 2014
Name: Angela van Vianen Age: 20
Location: The Netherlands City: Den Haag/'s Gravenhage

Usernames used:
Angell33
Sunshine_Angel
BJD-Lover
Miss BJD
Little Miss Sunshine
Twilight Lover
Miss-Eileenlover
Mari
Angie Vian
RdV (Rianne de Vries)
AvV

Scam Trick she uses:
- Fake Bank statements, confirming she transferred the money to you.
- Claiming she payed and needs the doll fast for example a birthday. Asking you to sent the doll right away even though you haven't received the payment yet
- Swaps, But never sends her stuff out.
- Claiming she doesn't have a camera or using stolen pictures of other peoples bjd's.
- Excuses, someone died (multiple times..), somebody else is sick. She is going to a rough time.
- Claiming she changed and regretting what she has done. Trying to start over.
- Claiming somebody else is writing her emails.
- She threatens you

Few tips buying and selling bjd's on the dutch website "marktplaats" or Other similar websites:
If you don't live in the Netherlands or Belgium I wouldn't recommend buying and selling on Marktplaats. Their Regulations aren't the best and you will have a hard time getting your right if something goes wrong (even for dutch citizens it is quite difficult without stepping to the police.) Marktplaats doesn't have a feedback system which makes it difficult to see if a seller or buyer is trustworthy.
- Photos ~Make sure the seller has a few original (self-made) photos of the doll of deferent angles he/she is selling and doesn't mind sending you more if you contact them. Make sure the photos aren't stolen or company photos only. If the doll has damage ask for a clear picture regarding the damage.
- Description ~ Always read the description a few times, if you still have questions you should contact the owner. The owner needs to give you clear answers about the doll. (Damage, yellowing, certificate, age, doll-box)
- Active & Join Date ~ Look at date she/he joint marktplaats. Make sure it isn't only for one day or maybe a month. Even though someone who just joined can be legit make sure she/he meets the requirements to be trustworthy seller.
- Pick-up & Delivery ~ for something small (envelop size) it's normal to only have a Delivery option as a seller. But for Dolls it's a must to have a pick-up option. Even though you might go with delivery it shows the owner is open for you to visit their homes and look at the doll close-up before making the choice to buy it.
- Feedback on other websites ~ Ask for their DOA, Bjd Cafe, Ebay, Etsy Username/Feedback (thread) Maybe other websites? Google their usernames if you think it's necessary.
- Payment ~ Always wait with sending the dolls out till you receive a full payment on your bank/paypal account. Do not trust screenshots of bank statements claiming it's payed.
- Sellers/buyers information ~ Make a note with the sellers/buyers information, Their address, full name, username, Phone number/email.

Please be careful!

 

I warned two people who bid on the dolls 1 I was on time the other One I was to late. I gave her some advice and I hope everything ends well. Angela is a disgusting person not does she only scam people she also lies about her family that her grandmother died and her uncle has cancer she threatens you when you ask your money back I know this because she did this to me and another girl!

 

If you are scammed by Angela van Vianen (or other people from the Netherlands) I recommend to report it on the following websites.

Link English & Link Dutch - The Police, here you can make a report about internet scams.
Link English & Link Dutch - Juridische loket (translation: legal counter) On the right side of screen you see the button chat click on the button and click on "start a chat" Now you can chat with a lawyer they will give you information/links what you can do (most of them speak english)
Link English & Link Dutch - Opgelicht?! (translation: Scammed?!) it is a dutch television program, they warn people about scammers and when they hear a name multiple times they will make a case against the scammer.

I understand it can be very difficult if you are scammed internationally. I hope these links can help you out. If you need help translating certain things or you need help with something else, you can always contact me.

 

I already reported it to the Dutch programme opgelicht and the police will tell you its a civil case so they wont do anything about it and therefor Angela can do whatever she wants because she is not punished for her crimes!

 

Yes, but I hope they get to her eventually, if people keep reporting her they have to do something at some point. I wished the police would take scams in hobby-communities more seriously especially if it involves so much money as a bjd for example. Even though the police wouldn't arrest her directly these reports will come into her files. When she crosses the line and breaks the law at some point they will use it against her and maybe people will get justice for the crimes she commit.

It also important you inform your local police office maybe they will contact the dutch authorities.

 

IT is very difficult in the netherlands police sometimes refuse reports.
If Angela sends the bjd in the end no matter in what condition she hasnt done anything illegale according to the Dutch law.
The Dutch eBay where she advertisses on doesnt do anything unless they have enough reports about a user then they will ban the user however the hudge flaw in this system is that a few months later a banned user can make a an account again with a different name and that is how and why Angela can scam people over and over again!
And because according to the Dutch police the scams are not on big scale and not big amounts of money it is a civil case.

 

What the hell is people doing? Why are they playing with our feelings making us believe they're interested in selling/bulling and then steal our money so shamelessly They take advantage of us because they know we love dolls and we are willing to pay what they worth andn behind the screen they're all very brave :S

 

Little update:

She is still active on marktplaats under the same name. Marktplaats is ignoring the messages/warnings about her. She sells Recasts (some she admits being recast) she changed some of the ads from being recast too claiming to be legit dolls. Please keep a eye on her, especially if you live in the Netherlands.

 

She's still active in The Netherlands now going by the name A Verdoes (Marktplaats)
I fell for it not recognizing the name =.=
But.. I have a friend in RL who knows her personally and she confronted her with it and now she promises to send it this weekend..
I've got the police on the case and my bank + her bank both know about it.
So I guess we'll see what happens, if I receive my package (minifee body) I will inform the police but also tell them to still keep an eye on her.

 

Unfortunately Angela Van Vianen has returned to DoA.

DoA member name alliee. @alliee
The alias name she used Allie Verdoes.
Email: allieverdoes @ outlook.com

@ShiniInsanity
Thank you for posting your above message.

 

And she was active again on the Dutch Marktplaats. Seems like she tries again every single month.

She has also tried to get into Facebook BJD sales groups.

 

Thank you for the info update regarding alliee. She contacted me regarding my WTB Feeple60 body post and provided me with pictures of the doll plus the doll and the box together on my request. I saw that she joined the forum only in October and her feedback thread was still fresh and empty, but I remembered that long time ago I was like her- freshmen and had to start from somewhere. So I gave it a go.
I payed her via PayPal for the body. She told me that the payment was on hold for 21 days. It happens sometimes when you have a bad feedback, or your account is new or haven't been used for a while. She refunded me the money and we tried it again. Second try resulted in the same situation: payment is on hold for her until 14.01.17.
Recently I saw that she was banned from the forum and confronted her about it. She replied that moderators asked her for ID confirmation, which she refused to provide and was banned. She confirmed that she will send the doll when the payment is through. That rang the bell. I was on a vacation and decided to wait until now. I started investigating and found this thread.
Today I messaged her again for an update.

 

Hello everyone, I have an update regarding my case.

My dispute escalated to a claim. Today I got all my money's back because there was no response from the scammer.

I would like to thank everyone for your support and hope not to fall for a scammer again.

Eka

 

Wow that is some... err... "dedication"?

Well anyway, stay safe everyone!