warning: acid jones - etsy scam

Considering they joined etsy less than a month ago I would be very wary of that. And what an odd place to contact someone about a video. I haven't heard of them before, but I would definitely stay away. Sounds super sketchy.

 

It is a scam

 

Yep I got that too!
And if you've never heard of Marina Joyce, she's a youtuber that started acting strange in videos and people started saying she had been kidnapped or was abused in her home. Now people are saying she has schizophrenia.

I have no idea if she is actually involved with acid jones or if they are using her name to look more legit.

 

I literally came back to this forum to see if anyone posted about this! I also got the same message from her, sounded like total bullcrap. This is the message I got in case you guys are curious:

 

I honestly think this is a scam, it's better to not send anything unless there's proof that they will definitely return the doll and give the money to you. It's too good to be true, and it's better to be safe than sorry.

 

Haha, I got this message, too, and immediately deleted it based solely off the message title alone. Didn't even bother to read the body because it is obvious spam (clearly in the same vein as the Nigerian prince money scams).

 

I got it too. It's 100% a scam. The obvious red flags are that they're not fully saying what they're doing and they use Marina Joyce as a name drop without actually explaining who she is or anything. Also they ask you to send your dolls which should be a huge robot yelling "Danger! Danger!" I posted it on tumblr to warn people and several others have said they received the same thing. Please use common sense. No one should be asking you to send your ENTIRE DOLL for a video. Especially not someone named "Acid Jones"

 

I received it too, it's obviously a scam. I didn't even bother replying, just laughed it off because it's so fishy. I wonder if this person is looking through reviews on BJD items to find potential victims though, since I don't have an etsy store to connect me to the hobby on that site.

 

That is so sketchy. I wonder if there is a way to report them on Etsy? The message doesn't really have anything to do with Etsy, so maybe it would be possible to report them. I am sure you can just block them, but I am wondering if there is a way to prevent others from falling for this.

 

It's interesting that their name is Acid Jones but their etsy url is quietsprout, like Acid Jones is such a peculiar name to choose as a pseudonym!

After a little more digging I uncovered a brand new dA page under the same name opened about a month ago - I wonder if they're planning to start contacting people there too?

There is an artist on Instagram called quietsprout, but I suspect it's a coincidence as they don't seem to have any connection at all to BJDs (not that this means they can't be involved, just that I feel it's highly unlikely) and doesn't seem to be terribly active, but has been around a fair old while by the looks of things.

 

I got a message as well, but mine was worded differently with a name, location, an actual phone number and Instagram accounts listed. She also mentioned Marina Joyce as well as Miranda Sings, but says she "hasn't been in a video yet". In mine, she was asking me to send clothes for her to model. I replied and said my clothes are doll clothes, not human, thanks anyway, and she replied, saying she had a doll. I told her I prefer to handle everything in my shop by myself, and she said ok and thanked me. So it is a real person replying to the messages, but I also felt it was super fishy.

EDIT: I looked at both Instagram accounts, and they are both mostly drawings and selfies. In the description, she says she's 14. Looks accurate by the photos. I traced the phone number, it is from the area she told me, listed under a man's name, which very well could be her dad. I think this could be a scammer, but could also be a young teenager trying to make a name for herself in a not so safe way. I will say, she was very polite and friendly in her messages, but I would still not feel comfortable sending my things to a complete stranger.

EDIT EDIT: But I do find it amusing that she's promising all you guys so much cash, but told me "Right now, I can't afford to purchase things, but if you wanted, you could send me a package of one or a few items and I'd return them after I was done modeling."

 

I wouldn't put it past a teenager to try a scam. It could very well just be one dumb teenager hoping she can get another dumb teenager to send her a doll for free. It would certainly go with the total lack of creativity in the scam setup.

 

If this is indeed a 14 year old, it does not make me trust them any more about the transaction and the doll being in safe hands (even though I started collecting at 14).

The whole thing is even weirder now.
If it's a scammer trying to pass as a teenage girl, do they really think we'd be more trusting towards a kid in a deal involving hundreds of dollars???

And if it's just a kid, then clearly they're lying about a lot of things (already having connections to two somewhat big youtubers in different countries, even though she never made a youtube video) and went through quite a bit of trouble to contact that many people. There's being young and naive, then there's thinking people are completely stupid!

 

Acid Jones is climbing in your window, he's snatching your dolls up trying to steal them so you better hide your kid delfs, hide your Williams and hide your Heliots because he's stealing everybody out here!

 

I saw this on FB too.

 

Yeah, I really have no idea, just saying that the info she gave me in the message does check out (other than the guy's name linked to the phone number not being the name she gave me) so it very well could be a young teen trying to make it big. Maybe one of the big YouTubers followed her on Twitter or something, and that counts as "a connection" to her? (Not gonna lie, when I got a postcard from the Free Willy kid, that felt pretty big and important to me as a preteen. XD ) I do get the feeling that even if she does mean well, it won't end well. I mean, honestly, if you can't afford to buy anything in my shop, you definitely can't afford to ship a full BJD back to someone, much less pay them! haha

But of course, there have been teen scammers in the hobby before, or it could be some dude using his family member/friends' daughter's Instagram to scam people. Which if that's the case, is not only a scam but also totally creepy that he's using this girl's photos and pretending to be her.

 

I would say anything offering you that much money to do something that sketchy ($5-20 per item, paid for 5,000 views, etc.) is probably something to keep away from.

 

Hmm I was followed by an Acid Jones on Etsy recently. I'm not selling anything on there yet so I didn't think anything of it (I'm followed by loads of people wanting to promote their stores so nothing new there), but I'll certainly keep my eye out for anything fishy like that and raise it as an issue if it becomes one.

I would certainly make Etsy aware of any messages you're getting as it will hinder them as a safe environment to sell/buy from.

 

Has anyone reported this obviously false seller to Etsy? Seems to me it'd be a good idea to nip this in the bud before somebody actually is foolish enough to fall for the scam.

 

I just made a YouTube video about this to warn people.
I hope they have never scammed anyone before and that we prevented someone from falling for it.
If this was legit, Marina would have posted about it on her official accounts, and there would be no need to send any dolls because Im sure there are collectors near her, who would meet up and they could be there behind the scenes while she makes the video.

 

I haven't received the message but if they have $200 to pay someone to send them their doll then why don't they just buy a cheaper BJD themselves? Resinsoul makes some nice ones for $200 and under.

 

No way. Psshhh.

 

Also I saw on FB somebody messaged them on etsy and I saw the same person on Instagram claiming to have dolls for trade and they had photos of other peoples dolls claiming to be their own. I saw somebody ask what sculpt one was and they said it was a minifee. Which it was a minifee. A minifee karsh. But I do not think they knew what the actual sculpt was since it wasn't theirs. I commented saying that the 2 minifees were not theirs because they belong to a girl who makes lingerie for dolls. And they ended up deleting my comment and blocking me then soon after someone had posted about them aswell they set their profile to private. So be careful on instagram as well. They are iroxykunbjd on instagram (where they have dolls listed for "trade") and their other account on instagram is toxic_sprout (somebody got a message about wanting to trade bjds from this account)

 

Interesting. They also told me they have an account on Instagram as Toxic_Sprout and Resisting_The_Decay. The girl said her name is Vanity, she's in Florida.

I also got a message on Etsy shortly after from someone going by Neabulae Prince, asking to trade dolls with me. They didn't say what dolls they owned, or ask for a specific doll of mine. They had joined Etsy the same day they messaged me, and have no sales and no followers, no profile info. I just told them I was happy with my crew and they never responded. However, they did end the first message with a little "", same as Acid Jones did....now I wonder if they're the same person...

 

If someone did go through with it, wouldn't it be worse for the scammer (because they would give a shipping adress)?

 

I got that message...It only made me laugh really hard. I felt suspicious because this message was not Etsy-related.

I hope that no one will be scammed because of that...

 

well, that came out ugly, lol. She/he is fishing as if you hit enough people someone will bite which is horrible. etsy has the given contact info she gave them I would like to see her get caught for potential fraud if not fraud [I hope noone has fell for this yet]

I just did teen or fake teen I think she's a scammer and could be dangerous to people mental health if they lost a dolly and there are trusting people out there

 

Hi! I don't want to be a bother, but I just got a message on Etsy from this Neabulae Prince. I was wondering if we could change the title of this thread to a warning on suspicious folks suddenly messaging many of us on etsy?

My biggest red flag was the brand-spankin'-new account and the fact I have only bought from Etsy, never sold.

 

yep, good idea post his link and message

 

I have been reading a lot of this on facebook. I looked them up and it appears that etsy has blocked them. They will probably make another account. I wonder if they've been trying this for a while under multiple accounts or not..

 

not sure but I raised hades with etsy over them over the potential loss of a doll beloved by someone. Just flipped over to etsy and they are still there, which one was blocked or did you just block them?

 

That's good, I hope lots of others did as well. It is rather odd that they would choose etsy over instragram or tumblr. But I had heard etsy was acting like it was no big deal.

 

Because they don't intend to actually pay anything or return the doll, they are hoping if they message enough people someone will be foolish enough to fall for the scam and the scammer will get a free doll.

 

currently, I am having my own issues with etsy and am not overtly impressed with the way they deal with few things but we will see

 

If you get a spam/scam message on etsy you can report it as spam using the option found under the "more" button when viewing the message.

 

Yes I get that. I was saying if it were true and they had $200 why not just buy their own doll. I know they are fishing for a free one.

 

I am glad someone put this thread up as I was going to get to it later myself. I have friends who have also got emails from Acid Jones and I got the one today from Neabulae Prince. I would not be surprised if they are all one and the same person. I reported them to esty them a messaged back saying I know they are a scammer and have reported them. They have not commented back which only confirms what we all know. I really hope they haven't scammed anyone out of their doll yet. At least the more it's talked about the more people will hear of it and be warned.

 

I think I would send POLICE right to the person who would be so naive to send a doll to ANY people that ask to send them one!
Sorry but I can't believe there' s people so naive... they are more guilty than the absurd person that want to scam people like that...

 

Don't blame the potential victim here. There ARE people out there who can't reason properly. Mental disabilities can come into play, or people who are just naïve enough to fall for this sort of ploy. Blaming them is rude and unnecessary.

 

I reported them to esty them a messaged back saying I know they are a scammer and have reported them. They have not commented back which only confirms what we all know. I really hope they haven't scammed anyone out of their doll yet. At least the more it's talked about the more people will hear of it and be warned.[/QUOTE]
can you put up the prince link so it too can be spread around?

trust me they can be: I have been a cardreader for a long long time and refuse to take advantage of people even though some seem to beg you to do so, it is sad: it isn't that I am blaming them but they want so badly something that they feel is missing they will fall into horrible traps

 

There are a LOT of rather young people in this hobby, and some very trusting souls. (I'm the parent to one.) Please do not blame people who are potential victims. Alerting and signal-boosting to the community to unscrupulous individuals like this is a far better way to protect the community than to deride individuals who *might* have been taken in by this scam.

 

A lot of scammers are lazy in every way and wont even come up with a credible story.

 

Same here -- in fact, I've only got literally two BJD-related sales from Etsy in my history, so it looks like the scammer is trawling the comments for some of the sellers to determine who to target with this message.

 

I'm just letting people know that this person has a Instagram account called toxic_sprout and is stealing people's pictures of their dolls and will message Instagram users with a picture of a doll saying that they are willing to trade when they don't have a doll to trade.

 

They've also changed their name from Vanity to Vanni to Nova on that same account. And it is now a private account, so I can't see anything.

 

I got a message from this person as well. Totally looked scammy, brand new account opened that day, I never sell bjd stuff there, it was very weird.

This was the message:


"


Sender: Neabulae Prince
Date: 2 days ago10:01pm EDT


Hi! I was wondering if you would be up for a BJD trade? I have a couple that I'm not connected to anymore and I'm not good at redesigning things. I understand if you don't want to, I was just asking around, just in case you did! Have a nice day! "


Could we please add Neabulae Prince to the title or make it clear in the title that there's more than one suspicious username being used on etsy?

 

I got the same message on my etsy account too ><
Hope that nobody will fall in this , it's definitely a scam !

 

I'm betting these scammers must be new to the hobby. I mean, do they not realize how close knit this community is? And when anyone get so much as a whiff of a scam they're quick to tell the community to watch out. Surely they don't expect people to just send them dolls. There are naive people and people who lack good judgement who might be conned into doing it, but on the whole hobbyists aren't going to fall for this and word of this scam has already spread far and wide.

 

That's what I was wondering too, like I don't think they really know much about the bjd community if they think no one would be suspicious and post a warning to tell other hobbyists...?

 

Perhaps that's why they're casting such a wide net in such a relatively short time frame, hoping to get a bite or more before the word gets out.

 

Perhaps? But seriously, this is the INTERNET, stuff gets out so fast that this scammer doesn't stand a chance (thankfully).

I guess the old saying, "A string will stop an honest man, but a brick wall wont stop a thief" is truer than I thought...

 

I guess the old saying, "A string will stop an honest man, but a brick wall wont stop a thief" is truer than I thought... [/QUOTE]
I bet they aren't really part of the doll community at all only checking on the dolls and how much they are worth and this is a hidden layer along with other boards they really aren't aware of. Plus, there are allot of collector that really aren't apart of any real community that have dolls they think they can bring down the ones on the edge. You look at any scam like this regardless of how ridiculous figure 50 times they might get one hit so the average of that one keeps them going. The same with the make up fakes out there that use pics of others dolls then get dlls and never send them back [or if they re forced looking heinous]. I have heard nothing back from etsy but I made it a point of also contacting a decent mod of theirs in Ireland nd she might be pushing to help. etsy is not on my happy list as I said before over safety and trust issues as well as any other type right now. They never had much of any customer support but I never needed it and was fine until they took away my paypal button and tried to force me to use their merchant services which I won't now I have to invoice customers with paypal after they buy something and it is a pain. Anyway, everyone keep spreading the word and I will too

 

as anyone else who has filed a complaint on etsy heard anything from them? I just got an email from Vinnie in security after I got a lame email this morning and responded to it

 

I got that too! Didn't know it was a scam. Just thought it was some imbecile who didn't understand that ball jointed dolls aren't that easily acquired.

Seriously, when I read how much she wanted to pay for me to lend them... I thought:
"Are they for real? These dolls cost way too much to be lent to a random unknown person! Must be some naive kid who doesn't understand how this hobby or the world works. No way they're getting their hands on my dolls that easy. Not with that mind set. They'd have to pay me for the entire value of the doll, plus shipping, plus full price for accessories, plus interest!! It would cost more to borrow mine then for them to buy their own!! A complete stranger to 'borrow' my dolls? Not on their life."

(Whoever said it here, for the price offered, they could just buy one of their own from resinsoul or bobobie. They are decent dolls for the price.)

Either way, glad I didn't fall for it. Though I can't see how anyone would tbh.

For a scammer, they're a pretty pathetic one.

 

Wow this sounds way to crazy! I personally would never just send a doll to some random stranger but it's crazy that so many people are getting contacted about this in the first place.

 

Someone should say sure to get & address that they are using to see if the police might be able to assist in tracking them? Though it might me a LONG shot.... they themselves might be stupid enough to give the real address...

 

It's a scam! I've seen a lot of people on Instagram also receive this message. Ugh why would someone even do that! That's so shady and unnecessary!