scam Archives

Bleeding Cool has received a number of people grateful for this article, that stopped them being scammed in a similar fashion. Well, this next one should be an obvious one, as ever, if it is too good to be true, it probably is. OctoPDF offers the chance to download graphic novels and other books for free, via[...]

You are a small press comic book creator. Someone from Switzerland gets in touch. They want to make a big order but insist on using a particular courier

Scam Of The Year So who has been left out of pocket by the work of ne'er-do-wells this year? The year began with UK toy and merchandise store Mother's Basement ceasing trading, leaving hundreds of people out of pocket of hundreds, even thousands of dollars each But before making it official, the company registered itself as a[...]

Over the weekend, we ran a piece highlighting claims made by the Fans Against Fraud website regarding Connor Cochran and Conran Press over the

This makes the recent Scamwatch piece published by this site an even more shameful situation than it already is. One of the dirty little secrets of the Tunnels & Trolls community is James Shipman and Outlaw Press At one point an official licensor and third party publisher of the game, when it turned out that he[...]

On June 3rd, a small indie role playing game company called Rarr I’m A Monster Publishing posted a a new RPG book, Monster Menagerie, for sale here. It

This weekend, the Facebook page of El Paso comic store Mayhem Toyz & Games came under attack as a number of on-line artists discovered their private

1 Kung Fu Skratch! #1 Armarauders #1 The Antler Boy and Other Stories Chloe Noonan: Monster Hunter: Digital Omnibus Scam #1 Anathema #1 The Mire Deadhorse Vol 1: Dead Birds Super! #1 Rockstar Scientists #1 Afterlife Inc Vol 1: Dying To Tell: Tales From The Afterlife Dumbing of Age Vol 1: This Campus Is A Friggin' Escher Print Diskordia #1 Doc Unknown #1 The Infidel, featuring Pigman #1 Orphans #1 The Accelerators[...]

I also write ads for one of the largest agencies in the world – so it wasn't a huge surprise when Joe Mulvey called me to get my take on advertising and comics, for his article on Bleeding Cool last week. It was even less of a surprise taking into account that Joe was kind enough[...]

Here's the thirty second radio ad for ComixTribe's Kickstarter appeal for the SCAM: Ultimate Collection volume, currently running on the WFAN sports station in New York, KROQ in Los Angeles and WAAF and WKAG in Boston and more… [audio:https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/5041898/SCAM%20by%20Joe%20Mulvey_30Radio_Kickstarter%20PreOrder_VerA.mp3] And South London Hardcore talks to Kevin O'Neill about his life, his loves and the new League Of[...]

We've covered the story of the sketch scammers of Detroit, who fakes a seris of sketches from Fiona Staples, Robert Kirkman, Rob Guillory and Norm Breyfogle, as well as signed products, backed them up with forged Certificates Of Authenticity and either sold them or traded them for high value items that they could then sell[...]

For the last few days, we've been running stories on the sketch scammers of Detroit, con men selling and trading faked sketches and signed books, with forged Certifcates Of Authenticity exploiting the names of Robert Kirkman, Rob Guillory, Fiona Staples and Norm Breyfogle On eBay, through CraigsList and directly at stores. A number of comic retailers[...]

Bleeding Cool has received confirmation from Todd, if confirmation were needed, that these are fakes. He has already scammed one respected dealer and is continuing to do so He really is a shit. We ran a very similar story a few weeks ago But he doesn't seem to have stopped. Masquerading as one "Greg Garwood", Josh Hoopes[...]

Several comic book retailers have reported lately being hit by a "Visa gift card scam" Here's one account from a retailer who wishes to remain anonymous. We recently were the victims of credit card fraud.  What happened was someone came into the store on a Sat when we were very busy and picked out several high[...]

Now it seems that Josh Hoopes has set up the same scam at ConceptArt.org, again posing as someone called Greg Garwood and providing an e-mail address too… Remember, this is not Wizard, none of this is true, he is just trying to scam people or their work and money… It was pulled from People Per Hour[...]

He has been approached by infamous comics scam merchant, Josh Hoopes, using his Joshua John pseudonym Unknowningly, Gary wrote back; From: Gary Madden Our home page shows product- interior shots and briefly explains in  text what we do and how. [long details of the company offerings, including company video] So my initial thoughts Can you do it? I'll need[...]

This is the artwork that a publisher, who had been scammed by Josh Hoopes, received The problem is, we don't know who actually drew it Whoever it is, has not been paid for their work, and may be expecting someone else to be paying for it If you know the style, the work or the[...]

Bleeding Cool first featured the micro-distributed comic book Scam from Comix Tribe at the beginning of the year Since then it's been picked up by Diamond and gone all macro-distributed and is available in many more shops in two weeks time. And to help it on the way, the producers have booked 48 sheet billboard ads[...]

And that, for the estimated 2000 Diamond accounts, maybe 200 of those may represent the vast majority of those comics' sales. Recently, books like Sacrifice, Our Love Is Real and Scam have specialised in micro-distribution, high profile, high concept, very professional looking books that have circumnavigated Diamond and distributed directly to select stores Although the books[...]

Last week, he passed away. But before that happened, someone tried to scam his friends using Tony's reputation This e-mail was sent out to many; From: Tony DeZuniga <xxxxxxx@xxxx.com> To: undisclosed recipients: ; Sent: Sat, Apr 28, 2012 5:39 am This message may be coming to you as a surprise but I need your help.Few days back we made an[...]

Rick Olney appears on the About Heroes East Coast Podcast. As of writing, the podcast has no comments. I think that may change shortly. He begins the

Apologies to all Sacramentoans but Sacramento means one thing to me. The home of comics' most nefarious villain, Josh Hoopes. Known for committing many

Our Love Is Real and Sacrifice from Sam Humphries, Red Ten and Scam from ComixTribe, with strong salesmanship, promotion and developing a fanbase. ComicTribe has now doubled the amount of stores in the US and Canada carrying their books, from twenty-five to fifty Now that's out of around two thousand stores, but it's concentrating on the[...]

Indeed, it's become something of a calling. His latest scam beggars belief however. He has taken people who has has previously successfully scammed – then targets them again Using the identity of one "Beth Smith", posing as his own ex-wife. Josh wrote to one South African who he had scammed for $1500, to pay for a non-existent contract[...]

But no one deserves this. Talking to Alison Granito, wife of Rob Granito, the scam has been uncovered. I already told you that Josh Hoopes had been talking to Rob Granito, helping him, sympathising with him, joining with him as painting me as their mutual nemesis And I wondered what his angle was Now I know. Josh has[...]

Well, the identity of the artist has been discovered, and it is unlikely that Lalit was paid a thing. It's worth bringing this up because there is evidence that Josh Hoopes is operating his scams again, using the alias Ron Runstrom Publishers, writers, artists, be warned Make sure you know who you ar dealing with[...]

Yesterday, Bleeding Cool exposed the new fake identity and scam details of Josh Hoopes, as an artist Ron Runstrom, using other people's art to gain commissions. In previous scams he has then commissioned other people to do that work, without paying them, and running off with the money. And so it appears again For one writer, "Ron"[...]