Scam warning: @fatpandadesign = @getslothyy = Ben Schwartz
Hey all,
Yes grab your popcorn because I'm going to report to you yet another scammer.
Known Steem accounts:
Known Discord Ids:
- slothyy#2322
- Panda#3993
- psychsherpa#3610
I would strongly urge everyone to avoid doing business with these IDs.
Fuck, just the fact that this guy has so many aliases is shadey enough as it is.
Before I go any further, I'd like to thank @therealwolf for providing many of these screenshots. He did the real detective work and deserves most of the credit for helping track this scammer down.
Background
Ok I'll try to keep this brief. About a half a year back I had a delegated SP givaway and one of the winners was @fatpandadesign. He is smart, charismatic, energetic, and nice fresh face with cool projects.
I made about 3 or 4 loans to him, which he paid back in record time, quickly gaining my good graces. Then he had a Pandacoin ICO, and I foolishly gave him about 2000 usd worth ethereum to buy his worthless tokens. Oh and then Woops, wouldn't you know it, he suddenly had a seizure, and he is in the hospital and blahdy blah, it's going to take him a while to get the ICO going, derpy derp.
About a month and a half later, he just sort of faded from view and I had realized that I was almost certainly been duped.
I should have posted about it sooner
I'll fully admit I should have posted sooner, but I had already been reeling from the Zeartul scam and the Viva scam, and it's pretty embarrassing to admit to yet another scam. And it did take a while for the Panda scam to sink in. My bad, but I'm correcting it now.
In Recent news...
Fast forward to about a month ago another new, smart fresh face approaches me: @getslothyy.
He's cool, he is hip, he is smart. He's got this great Gaming discord server, and he strangely eager to do business with me. He wanted loans, the subscription service, etc. Luckily I was smarter this time, and actually took his Owner key each time I loaned.
Imagine my shock when @therealwolf tells me that @getslothyy and @fatpandadesign are one and the same!
(again the result of @therealwolf 's detective work)
Proof that links @getslothyy to @unmentionable, which I already knew was linked to @thefatpanda.
He admits it here. Right from the horse's (or panda's) mouth.
You know, if I had any doubts that maybe FatPanda was just a guy who had fallen onto hard times and poor health, and wasn't really trying to scam me, then this revealation kills it.
FatPanda = Ben Schwartz
Here is a video that has already been available on the internet:
Title: Ben Schwartz of Fat Panda Design & Coin Panda Crypto ICO testimonial
The video was done by Mariza Monteiro who is another person scammed by Ben.
What sort of person would take a large amount of money from you, and then come back to you under a different name, without telling you?
These are not the actions of an honest person. FatPanda/Slothy is clearly a scammer up to no good.
Summary: FatPanda/Slothy/Ben Schwartz is a scammer and not to be trusted.
I'm not the only one he has scammed. He got @therealwolf pretty good as well, and some others I won't mention in this post.
I tried to seize the @getslothyy account.
This will mark the first time I have ever repossessed an account. I feel that was justified since Panda took 2000 usd from me and the slothy account is worth around 300 usd or so. I was going to give the Owner key of this account to @therealwolf to reward him for his detective work.
However, Panda attempted to do the account recovery procedure which resulted in a Mediation counsel, including Someguy (Anonsteem) and some members of PAL. I won't talk about it too much here. I do think the mediation was handled fairly, but unfortunately I had to give the key back to Panda.
I tried to make this contract with Panda:
https://steemit.com/bank/@neoxian/the-coffeenana-bank-of-neoxian-daily-contracts-2018-04-30
He has broken this contract by not paying me, so I am free to act against him (flagging him and writing this post).
The danger still exists
Even though I'm exposing him. This guys is clever, charismatic, and highly intelligent. He very well might be back, under a different name, to ply his tricks again. What will it be? @cheekymonkey? @bouncingbear? He seems to like the animal themes.
He will try to do business with his next mark, by taking a series of loans and then paying them back very quickly (using money scammed from others no doubt). Once he has gained your trust, he will go in for the "kill" and have some big deal where he needs 2000 to 6000 usd from you. And then once you give it to him, Oops! He has suddenly suffered some disaster, such as a seizure, or he gets beat up and is in the hospital, or his sister has cancer (see his latest post about a lost laptop). I swear this guy has the worst luck ever, wouldn't you know it?
This guy is an online grifter; this is how he makes his living. I'm sure he is not just in Steem, but probably in Dash, Bitcoin forums, other loan platforms.
He will set up some cool, hip new discord and invite as many high profile people over as he can.
Another thing he does is swoop like a vulture on anyone I loan a fair sum of money to. He will try to get that money from them, claiming he is an expert trader and can double it quickly.
I'm on to your tricks Mr. Panda, and now hopefully everyone else is too.
Thanks for bringing this to our attention and sorry for what happened. I also loaned him a bit of SBD's(60SBD)to help him out with his dying sister and the job he had just been fired from and then of course his laptop getting stolen.. crazy stuff to make up to scam people... what a horrible person. After a couple of days he said this:
Glad that time didn't come before he got exposed.
Nooooo, he told me that he was installing updates on his computer and that he was super happy with it! Oh noooooo. :C
Unfortunately I believed in their stories and I lent 70 SBD and 80 STEEM more than 1 month ago :( What the fuck did I do when trusting someone like this :(
Sadly many people have fallen for his scams. Last I heard he was mugged and hospitalised in Thailand with his passport seized, only his story changed from post to post. I was initially duped and followed getslothyy a little while back as I started gameplay streaming. I cut all contact when I learned he was fat panda and warned many people not to lend him money.
This I hope will serve as a warning to people not to blindly trust people online. Sorry for your losses Neoxian.
I intend to keep the gaming community going, even without this pendejo. We had something good going, and I refuse to let it die because of one bad apple. Hopefully I can keep your good graces...
what is gaming community??
I hope so, it's a very popular community.
Hope you can keep it going, it is a great little community.
Yeah, I remember that Thailand Story was my first run-in with the panda... it immediately felt super fishy!
smooth talking dude
Hi @neoxian. Remember he introduced you to me. When i first raise the alarm to people close to him immediately many labelled me as unsympathetic because of the numerous issues that he is facing. What i found strange was him telling me there is a hack in playing steem dice and he is able to return a profit that was just too unbelievable. But to avoid losing friends with people who still trusted him at that time, i merely distanced myself.
But you neoxian has been very understanding. I took a contract when SBD was low and it skyrocketed late last year and you didnt press on the same sbd to be returned instead made it easier for me. Thx.
This is a reminder to be on your guard constantly against this type of person.
Thanks to both of you
Sorry to hear both you and @therealwolf got scammed, and thank you for providing this information to all of us.
Seriously, these scammers are the main reason people starting to distrust one another. We can't even help people in need without feeling fearful of being scammed.
Thank you for making us aware and we must really take action against them.
Oh no, I'm so sorry to read that. It's sad that people would take advantage of kindness from others but I guess the world is made up of many different people.
thanks for information, the good @neoxian
I'm one of the mods of Gamers United. While all I have is the posting key, I will NOT let this group fall to shreds on account of one bad apple. Excise the tumor, save the body. If there is anything I can do to help, let me know. DM me in Discord, or find me on Twitter. Handle is the same there.
A new discord community was set up after The Unmentionables discord group folded that he ran at the end of 2017 and we sent a message to every user of that, that it came to light that he was using the unmentionable account for his own profit, not to help the community like it was set up for. The new discord group has gone strength from strength. All it needs is a good leader, the people will understand and follow you.
Well, hopefully I can fit that bill...
You are probably going to have to set up a new discord server and a new steemit account. I can support that new account.
I will probably take you up on that offer. If I can keep the spirit of what made GU awesome intact, I'm gonna do it.
We all cant be aware enough of this...super messed up dude and also that you couldnt get the money back in second attempt.
awesome detective work indeed!!