Posted in: Recent Updates | Tagged:

Fake Michael Turner Scammer Now Tries To Scam Bleeding Cool

Last night, I ran a piece on the Fake Michael Turner Scam, in which someone sells clearly faked Michael Turner sketches on eBay, sometimes using a real sketch in the listing, sometimes not.

In the comments section of the piece, a user called Turner Fan posts;

Hello. I would just like to say that I have purchased many original sketches in the from this eBay Seller being mentioned and they have never sold a fake anything at all. It's kinda sad think that people will spout complete and utterly false accusations at those few left on eBay that are actually honest still these days. While their may be many people out there unscrupulous enough to sell fake items, I know from experiences with this seller that they are not one of them. People like those slandering this seller are nothing but little children who are trying to get something for nothing apparently. Slanderous people such as these are doing nothing but tainting the memory of the greatest artist who had ever lived, Michael Turner. It is a sad world that we live in when people actually listen to false claims against those who can be seen as being an honest seller with numerous positive comments having been left for them. SHAME on you Rich Johnston for perpetuating these slanderous lies from dishonest buyers who try to taint those few honest sellers left on eBay and get items for nothing and do not care who's reputation they may destroy in the process!

Strong stuff. The Bleeding Cool commentators were having none of it, and accused Turner Fan of being the seller in question. He replied

To simply correct you, I would not be anyone who has sold any artwork on eBay thanks and I would appreciate it if you would stop falsifying my identity and saying that i am someone that I am not. Furthermore, I went and looked at the seller's current and recently completed auctions of various artwork pieces and there are differences in all that can be clearly seen with the naked eye. Do you people actually not look at anything before you make your negative comments and gossip posts? Anyone can see that each of those sketches are in fact different from one another and not fake copies as you seem to believe. I would suggest opening your eyes and looking at details before commenting and trying to ruin someone's reputation with unfounded falsities.

At which point the person who listed the ebay items, DB–Fathom Forever joined the board, posting;

Hello. First off, we would like to thank all of our wonderful buyers who let us know about this site and the false comments and accusations that are being thrown around upon it. It is nice to see that at least this site has the decency to let people know that what is posted on here is just gossip and pretty much nothing more than that. People will always have their opinions and will always try to discredit others because they have things that they do not. We were fortunate enough to obtain much of what we have in our collections over the years before the untimely passing of Mr. Michael Turner. It was a very sad day when we heard this news indeed. Now, we see that people are trying to taint our good reputation just because we are now trying to share our most fortunate acquisitions with the world. This is probably the second saddest day that we have experienced now. In today's world there are many scammers and unethical people out there who are always trying to make the "quick buck" as they say. However, this is no reason to falsely claim that anyone who has more than one piece of artwork from a great artist is peddling nothing but fakes. We cannot honestly believe that we are the only ones to have ever had more than one sketch done for them by an artist. It seems though that because we do have a nice collection of items, we are being slandered on gossip websites for no other reason than that we actually took the time and made the effort to obtain a variety of pieces over the years of our travels to the various comic book conventions in many states in the U.S. People will always believe what they want to, but that does not mean that their opinions hold a drop of truth to them at all. You can all believe as you wish about us, but that in no way makes what you believe to be true at all. We value our customers and their satisfaction in all of our transactions, which is reflected through the feedback that we have received over the years. If the praise of 150+ unique buyers are not proof enough to show that someone is honest, then there really is nothing more than can be said. Continue to believe as you wish we say, it is your right to do so, but we will continue to listen to all of our past, present, and future buyers and know that we are who we say we are and that our items are as we say that they are. Thank you.

Which in normal circumstances may have made me feel a little nervous, worried about legal writs and considering that I may have got the situation completely wrong.

If it wasn't for the fact that both Turner Fan and DB–Fathom Forever hadn't posted using the same IP address, namely 71.227.65.17, that traces to an area in or near Jackson, Michigan. Oh and look, the address registered for the eBay seller is a few miles up the road.

So not only is this clearly a scammer, it's also a stupid scammer who can't even try going to a nearby internet cafe to make their sock puppet identity.

Enjoyed this? Please share on social media!

Stay up-to-date and support the site by following Bleeding Cool on Google News today!