If you want to clear your name then perhaps you could start by explaining why the phone number and address you gave me match exactly the ones given to Met Art for the fraudulent purchase?

i only owe the police, balboa the buyer and met art the apparent legitimate owner an explanation. will not be dragged into an open trial. if that makes me guilty, so be it. i will pm you balboa, feel free to copy and paste our conversation.

Ohhhh, this is fun!


(Saying this now that balboa is in the clear. Very very happy for him.)

Ashbeck is guilty!!

what a mess!
can't wait to read how this will end...
not here to judge... but i hope those who got scammed will get their satisfaction!

Boom..






Now for some popcorn, "give it to him Rock' "

Well you may want to just post it yourself and try and clear your name.

Ashbeck gave me permission to post the private message and so I shall (in full and unedited) for full disclosure. I am now keeping out of this discussion because I have my print and frankly no longer care who is guilty or not. The situation is now for the police to resolve.

"let me clarify certain things because i am slowly becoming the victim.
i messaged you with a difference item for sale which later got sold prior to us agreeing on a price.
j0ker had messaged me several weeks prior to the purchase was even made with several items for sale and i know of three other members he also messaged. being that not too long ago another member on here sold several works and then disappeared with the payment, i wasn't too keen on dealing with a new member who couldn't/ wouldn't transact via face to face as such i suggested if he was willing to send me the print, after i had received and certain it wasn't a fake, i would wire the funds which unbelievably he agreed. i also asked for an identificaction which he honoured by supplying a copy of his passport. up to this point, i believed i had done my due diligence and was protecting my money.

now where the story got interesting, he claimed he would send the print to his contact in the uk (a gallery) who would unframe,package and redirect to me. he asked for my number as its needed by the courier company.

i had his passport, i hadn't sent a penny off my money and pest control confirmed the print was intact authentic and registered to the name he supplied.

please point out out any red flags i had missed. joker said he needed cash and was currently in the states and as such he couldn't honour my request for a face to face deal.

fast forward couple of days and the print arrived, funnily addressed to him but i assumed the gallery thought he was forwarding it to himself in the uk. i checked the print again with coa at hand and again pc confirmed its legitimate. at this point i honoured our agreement by sending him his payment.

now several questions i wish to raise, can you confirm at any point met art actually called that number and spoke to joker. did they ever receive any calls from my number? or was the number only ever provided.

also can you please confirm if they actually accepted any proof of id for the delivery address.

galleries do it all the time, you send them your work, they receive, inspect then pay. i was at all times protecting myself from being scammed.

if i had known it was dodgy, why would i have suggested refunding you your payment while a take it up with met art before you pointed out the fact that would mean we are both knowingly handling stolen goods.

i have nothing to hide and as such i am more than happy to be interviewed by the police.

till this moment joker hasn't signed back on here nor has he replied. yet i am supposedly joker. i doubt i would have used my home as the delivery address of a stolen merchandise or offered to refund you.

anyways i am glad it got resolved in your favour . i am now left to somehow clear my self of all wrong doing."

While we could continue to comment after ashbeck's protestations of innocence, and cut,paste and post the 2 requests we sent him for his contact details which were swerved like a world class matador , sorry, he did actually tell us his name was Mark. We will leave it up to authorities, if they are so minded to determine the proof or fiction of the fable sent to Balboa.

For those paying attention an extremely shady Napalm has yet again reared its head on Ebay. Stay away!

um

www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Banksy-Napalm-_50005485455.html

Wow... This is like Poirot!

So, to summarise (story from Ashbeck)...

US scammer (j0ker), sells a print he doesn't own to UK buyer (Ashbeck), uses stolen credit card but with UK buyers details, and has the print sent direct to UK buyer...UK buyer then pays US scammer!

And Ashbeck then quickly resold it to Balboa without apparently knowing... Genius when you think about it, if true ?!!

But this doesn't really make sense if the Gallery in the UK and the person Balboa were talking to had the same email address...

Lessons to be learnt here for sure!!

always follow the money - who is holding the cash after this convoluted mystery?

I'm not gonna lie. It's gotten to the point where I have no clue what's going on.

I however have come to the conclusion that Finkle is Einhorn... and Einhorn is in fact Finkle. Holy shit!!!!