So we ran 3 contests for 3 beta keys on VG (all are over now) - we've finished reviewing 2 of the contests and only 1 remains to be reviewed - and there were some great entries (though we've caught a few people plagiarizing and banned them), but as the results of one of the contests was revealed one of the contestants decided to pull a fast one (and got away with it).
I fucked up and some thief stole the winner's beta key. The thief is actually the runner-up finisher of this very contest: helloqwerty. What had happened is I commented on aullinar's profile to PM me to claim his prize, then helloqwerty must've saw this and being the little sneak he is he quickly made a fake account by the name of aulinar (one "l" instead of two) and sent me a PM to claim "his" beta key. When I received the PM I didn't think twice of it and responded with the beta key. So I goofed up by not making sure and instead overlooked the account name. The kicker is that in case the real aullinar didn't claim his prize in the next few days helloqwerty would get it instead, but I guess some people are desperate and low enough to try and steal someone else's reward.
So I guess you could say he was clever for at least at least thinking up the way to steal it, but still that's pretty low - especially in a contest such as the one that was held.
Anyhow, this is the guy's (thief's) email address: jehebi@gmail.com ..just thought I'd share the wealth.
Good news..
Our staff has an extra beta key as a backup in case the winner - the real aullinar - decides to claim his/her prize. So aullinar, if you're reading this (member of TL?), please contact us as soon as possible.
I guess this just a wake up call - at least to myself - that there are some bastards out there that will try anything to get what they want.
On April 07 2010 16:25 redtooth wrote: am i the only one that thinks it was a clever move by him? not going to go so far as to say he "deserves" it for pulling such a scam but props to him.
if it was EVE I would applause it but this is real life and people not getting to play beta is serious business. So this sucks.
On April 07 2010 16:25 redtooth wrote: am i the only one that thinks it was a clever move by him? not going to go so far as to say he "deserves" it for pulling such a scam but props to him.
if it was EVE I would applause it but this is real life and people not getting to play beta is serious business. So this sucks.
i've read that people have lost tens of thousands of dollars on eve. that seems like serious business to me. but as a bystander i can't help but be impressed as i read those stories.
On April 07 2010 16:25 redtooth wrote: am i the only one that thinks it was a clever move by him? not going to go so far as to say he "deserves" it for pulling such a scam but props to him.
if it was EVE I would applause it but this is real life and people not getting to play beta is serious business. So this sucks.
i've read that people have lost tens of thousands of dollars on eve. that seems like serious business to me. but as a bystander i can't help but be impressed as i read those stories.
none of it is "real" money when they say they've lots tens and thousands of dollars they mean that if they were to sell their isk they could possibly make that much money. However no single man has that much isk...except maybe the head of goonswarm. I scammed in eve and made a little over 10billion isk in two months if that puts things in perspective.
god dammit. A few turds in the punchbowl spoils it for everyone. Really, if every person on this planet who thought it was acceptable to take the cheating way in life were rounded up and put into a kiln, we'd all be a lot happier.
On April 07 2010 17:02 sc4k wrote: god dammit. A few turds in the punchbowl spoils it for everyone. Really, if every person on this planet who thought it was acceptable to take the cheating way in life were rounded up and put into a kiln, we'd all be a lot happier.
they'd just cheat and you'd wind up in the kiln :D sad but true.
No, the jehebi@gmail.com email was his used on his regular VG account, but on the fake account (aulinar spoof) he used aullinar@mailinator.com. I was tracking his account on VG earlier and he was even trying to change the email from jehebi@gmail.com to something else.
On April 07 2010 16:25 redtooth wrote: am i the only one that thinks it was a clever move by him? not going to go so far as to say he "deserves" it for pulling such a scam but props to him.
A capital "i" would be deadlier than adding a "l" to the account, so I guess he's not that smart.
On April 07 2010 16:07 Ftrunkz wrote: Holy crap what a hustle. Kudo's to that guy :|
yea, sorry. you got duped. unfortunetly, there is little compassion and empathy on the webz. morality is relative and god is dead.
how can you blame this guy though and moreover even have the gumption to post his email!? how are you any different from this "bastard" by sharing a stranger's email which implicitly asks the willing to flame him. an apology and a "i failed" would suffice.
sucks dude. i don't know what you want us to do with his email address, though... if you want to email bomb him do it yourself, don't ask others to do your dirty work
Don't post his fucking e-mail, expecting someone to nuke it. I don't know about the policies over at VG, but normally I think that would even be illegal, assuming it's not publicly available on VG. What you should do is post your own e-mail (or a temp e-mail, whatever you want), and hope someone feels sorry for him and corrects the mistake for you.
Yeah I would expect that violates some privacy policy or at least it should... It was pretty low of the guy. Clever... but trashy. Nice that you got another key though.
I don't know if anybody mentioned this but could you possibly mail Blizzard and have them disable or ban the key he stole and give you a replacement for the real winner?
On April 07 2010 20:50 LordWeird wrote: I don't know if anybody mentioned this but could you possibly mail Blizzard and have them disable or ban the key he stole and give you a replacement for the real winner?
Is this really possible? You would need some identifier from the key... and solid proof that the person came by it through malicious means. Even then it might break some Blizzard policy. Still it wouldn't hurt to check with them...
On April 07 2010 16:07 Ftrunkz wrote: Holy crap what a hustle. Kudo's to that guy :|
yea, sorry. you got duped. unfortunetly, there is little compassion and empathy on the webz. morality is relative and god is dead.
how can you blame this guy though and moreover even have the gumption to post his email!? how are you any different from this "bastard" by sharing a stranger's email which implicitly asks the willing to flame him. an apology and a "i failed" would suffice.
Hammurabian ways leave the whole world blind.
Some of the posts in this thread makes me really angry. I can't believe some pseudo philosophers are actually siding with the guy and calling him blameless. You may not agree with his ways of retaliation, but to equate him with a cheating scammer? What slander! How are you any different from that "bastard" huh?
Oh, if you prefer to be robbed blind that's your business.
In what way is this remotely original? He's just the first faggot to succeed at the scam. What's with the damn praise and admiration?
Well people siding with the scammer are just those who would steal a key given anonymity and opportunity, not surprised there are a lot on a fansite like this.
good for him he saw an opportunity, ran with it and succeeded. he gets a key, the winner still gets a key and you learned a good lesson not condoning it in any way but saying he's the scum of the earth or a faggot for "stealing" a key (it's not stealing if you give it away, scamming is more appropriate) is a wee bit silly. just a game, people. a game in beta. posting his e-mail in hopes that someone will spam/nuke/hack it isn't exactly taking the moral high ground either. just putting it in perspective.
On April 07 2010 23:51 JeeJee wrote: good for him he saw an opportunity, ran with it and succeeded. he gets a key, the winner still gets a key and you learned a good lesson not condoning it in any way but saying he's the scum of the earth or a faggot for "stealing" a key (it's not stealing if you give it away, scamming is more appropriate) is a wee bit silly. just a game, people. a game in beta. posting his e-mail in hopes that someone will spam/nuke/hack it isn't exactly taking the moral high ground either. just putting it in perspective.
That's all fine and good in theory, but don't play it off like a victimless crime here. I don't think Spartan implied he was taking the moral high ground whatsoever.
Perhaps try contacting someone at blizzard. If you can give them enough info to believe you they might ban the key and give you guys a replacement.
On April 07 2010 15:57 Spartan wrote: So aullinar, if you're reading this (member of TL?), please contact us as soon as possible.
You probably aren't this dumb, but just in case somebody tries to get you again, don't believe anyone except the aullinar from vg is actually him. (anybody could read this thread and make an aullinar account here and pm you)
Edit: And as others have said, take down his email. Best case scenario is he loses an email address, (which will take all of 7 seconds to replace) and your site can be seen as having attacked one of its former members beyond a simple ban. (using what should be private info, no less)
On April 07 2010 23:51 JeeJee wrote: good for him he saw an opportunity, ran with it and succeeded. he gets a key, the winner still gets a key and you learned a good lesson not condoning it in any way but saying he's the scum of the earth or a faggot for "stealing" a key (it's not stealing if you give it away, scamming is more appropriate) is a wee bit silly. just a game, people. a game in beta. posting his e-mail in hopes that someone will spam/nuke/hack it isn't exactly taking the moral high ground either. just putting it in perspective.
That's all fine and good in theory, but don't play it off like a victimless crime here. I don't think Spartan implied he was taking the moral high ground whatsoever.
That's true, i didn't mean to play it off as a victimless crime. obviously the VG crew has lost a beta key here. the moral high ground comment wasn't for spartan as much as it was for the majority of the people in the thread that insult the scammer for his/her immoral actions but don't bat an eyelash for spartan's (there were a few exceptions though). like someone quoted earlier here, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind
To the few siding with him because he was clever enough to get a free key, think of it this way.. I'm sure you'd be pissed yourself if were hosting a free contest for a free beta key and get hoodwinked the way I did. Or rather a more realistic scenario.. what if you were going to give a present to a friend for whatever reason and found out it was somehow taken from you and now you have nothing to give to your friend.
To the few saying I shouldn't have posted his email.. I wasn't saying I'm better than him, but there's no way you can compare me to be the same low-level scum that he is. I also am not expecting anyone to "nuke" his email. The actual reason I posted this for referential purposes. If he were to do something in the future to someone else, and someone knew his email address (maybe he did something to another admin on another site), then they could just Google his email address and come across this thread. It's moreso, like I said in the OP, just me trying to share the wealth - so what he has done will not be forgotten. And it was clear to me he didn't want to be marked by his email because last night I was tracking his online locations on VG and he was trying to find out how to change his email address.
Furthermore, if really wanted to leak all of his private information I would post his IP address(es), the UA of his computer, birthdate, and so on.
Anyhow, the real aullinar did contact me this morning and I forwarded his PM to the admin on our site offering his beta key. He'll get his key in a few hours at most.
On April 08 2010 03:23 Spartan wrote:And it was clear to me he didn't want to be marked by his email because last night I was tracking his online locations on VG and he was trying to find out how to change his email address.
Furthermore, if really wanted to leak all of his private information I would post his IP address(es), the UA of his computer, birthdate, and so on.
I guess that's a good reason to never visit Vile Gaming. :S
Edit: See if Blizzard can ban the key. Then, ban this guy from all future events+your site+whatever. Problem solved.
On April 07 2010 23:51 JeeJee wrote: good for him he saw an opportunity, ran with it and succeeded. he gets a key, the winner still gets a key and you learned a good lesson not condoning it in any way but saying he's the scum of the earth or a faggot for "stealing" a key (it's not stealing if you give it away, scamming is more appropriate) is a wee bit silly. just a game, people. a game in beta. posting his e-mail in hopes that someone will spam/nuke/hack it isn't exactly taking the moral high ground either. just putting it in perspective.
That's all fine and good in theory, but don't play it off like a victimless crime here. I don't think Spartan implied he was taking the moral high ground whatsoever.
That's true, i didn't mean to play it off as a victimless crime. obviously the VG crew has lost a beta key here. the moral high ground comment wasn't for spartan as much as it was for the majority of the people in the thread that insult the scammer for his/her immoral actions but don't bat an eyelash for spartan's (there were a few exceptions though). like someone quoted earlier here, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind
Okay, good thing we're talking about one person and a beta key and an email and not the entire world's eyes.
Eh, I did bring it up kinda to one of the Blizzard CMs that I talk to semi-often. I was merely keeping the CM updated with how my contests were going (he asked to be informed of the winners and such). I didn't ask him to ban the person though, but did provide the key code that was given away.
On April 07 2010 23:51 JeeJee wrote: good for him he saw an opportunity, ran with it and succeeded. he gets a key, the winner still gets a key and you learned a good lesson not condoning it in any way but saying he's the scum of the earth or a faggot for "stealing" a key (it's not stealing if you give it away, scamming is more appropriate) is a wee bit silly. just a game, people. a game in beta. posting his e-mail in hopes that someone will spam/nuke/hack it isn't exactly taking the moral high ground either. just putting it in perspective.
That's all fine and good in theory, but don't play it off like a victimless crime here. I don't think Spartan implied he was taking the moral high ground whatsoever.
That's true, i didn't mean to play it off as a victimless crime. obviously the VG crew has lost a beta key here. the moral high ground comment wasn't for spartan as much as it was for the majority of the people in the thread that insult the scammer for his/her immoral actions but don't bat an eyelash for spartan's (there were a few exceptions though). like someone quoted earlier here, an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind
Okay, good thing we're talking about one person and a beta key and an email and not the entire world's eyes.
I think his expression is suitable for the situation. I don't know why you're being facetious.
Edit:
On April 08 2010 03:59 Spartan wrote: Eh, I did bring it up kinda to one of the Blizzard CMs that I talk to semi-often. I was merely keeping the CM updated with how my contests were going (he asked to be informed of the winners and such). I didn't ask him to ban the person though, but did provide the key code that was given away.
That's a nice resolution to the situation. Good thing you have that contact.
Edit2: I can't type apparently. In addition, I think it's ironic that I used situation twice in this post and one was a reply to Chill. The Situation.
EPT
but you should have known by now that assholes exist! At least this aullinar guy gets to have his beta key
