The Steel Guitar Forum

Hans Penner wrote:Marc, Ron did not send the PM.
A forum member did this at the request of Ron !.

Hans Penner wrote:Marc, I have not made my email address available anywhere on the forum.
He contacted me because a forum member supplied him with my email address.
He also wanted me to "go to the forum member list and supply him with another "Newbees" email address."

*bold highlights mine.

Wow! It's disturbing that we have forum members who would do this. Unsuspecting or not. Not cool.

Seems odd, though, because we can't directly access the email addresses of members ourselves. We can only click on a link to email someone through the forum, which does not reveal the email address and which is sent from the email address of the person writing the email (i.e., the Stooge)

True, but some forum members retain other members' info with whom they share emails in their address book.

F.I., look at all the problems others receive when someone hacks a members' email acc't and gets their address book.

Lots of members have web presence like a website, facebook, myspace, youtube, cdbaby, their own product, etc.
Often you can find their email address right there.

I just did one test only and BINGO!, I got the email address straight away.

I clicked on Jim Cohen's WWW button and went to his website.
I then clicked CONTACT JIM and hey presto!! there is his address in my email pop up window.

Say no more. No hacking required.

I think this forum is more secure than some of you guys realize.

he actually messaged my through YouTube... so he probably just searches pedal steel videos and emails people that way too with his "sick wife" story

I love that the forum email addresses are not visible, but they are only as secure as the members who use them.

I did not mean to imply that those addresses were harvested through hacking. That is only an example.

Maybe I can explain my point better: Say you advertise a guitar for sale. I respond to your ad via your forum email link. You now have my email address.

When you return a response to the address that is visible in my email, then I have yours.

Some people keep all these in their address book for whatever reason.

If an unsuspecting member is coerced into giving up that info, maybe thinking he's doing someone a favor, that is one method whereby they can be contacted by someone who is not a forum member.

This is one reason why I prefer to do most of my forum communication by Private Messaging. Complete buy and sell transactions can be handled that way with neither party having to know the other's email address. Frankly, I don't understand why people don't use it more. It's almost completely G.I. proof.

No address in your book, no way to pass it on.

I can't imagine anyone can see your PM's unless it would be b0b. Certainly no one who is not a forum member.

What I'm saying is, never send someone a forum PM on the behalf of another....don't ever give out anyone else' personal information such as email, phone numbers etc. Guard it the same as you would your own.

Most businesses have built in defense mechanisms or secure sites to deal with unwanted interference but many personal accounts may not.

Excellent advice Jerry.

This individual's activities tend to be spasmodic, and he does tend to periodically gather or harvest email addresses in bulk and send out his pitches via email.

He targeted British steel players a year or so ago, and I made that community aware of him as a result via the British Steelies Society web site at the time. Unfortunately, I gather that several people were stung in one way or another, and this is where he scores. In general, steel players (by their very nature) thirst for tutorial information, and he has capitalised on this. The simple solution for anyone who receives unsolicited email from this man is to mark his or her email address (he uses both) as spam.

Peter den Hartogh wrote:Lots of members have web presence like a website, facebook, myspace, youtube, cdbaby, their own product, etc.
Often you can find their email address right there.

I just did one test only and BINGO!, I got the email address straight away.

I clicked on Jim Cohen's WWW button and went to his website.
I then clicked CONTACT JIM and hey presto!! there is his address in my email pop up window.

Say no more. No hacking required.

I think this forum is more secure than some of you guys realize.

That is the primary reason I use a third party company for my "contact me" form on my website (and the fact that I don't have to write the form handler program in PHP to put on the server to handle forms information and email it to me). The form goes to this company when you hit the submit button, and then they forward the info to me at the email address I give them to send it too. The person filling out the form never sees my email address (which is one I have with my web host account and it forwards to my regular account. That way, if the one for the website gets hacked or anything, I just delete it and set up a new one and my regular email account is not affected). The only way they get my email is if I respond to them, which I normally do through my website email - unless I know them - again protecting my regular email address from them. It's really dumb to put your email address on your website (because it can be harvested) or to use the "email me" stuff in html that activates the persons email client and puts your email address in for them, making it visible to them, and much worse, they can now add it to their address book. If that doesn't bother you, then keep putting your email address on your site, or at least give them access to it. Me, I prefer to use an outside source to process my forms, and it costs me nothing. The company even has a form designer that lets you design your form online.

EDIT: I don't think you have access to a person's email address through YouTube or Facebook. I just looked at several videos on YouTube and tried to find the poster's email, but couldn't. Facebook also doesn't display your email address unless you choose to.

EDIT AGAIN: The company I use is www.jotform.com . They don't charge if you have less than 100 emails per month. $10/month up to 1000 per month, and $20 for up to 10,000 per month

My Chinese horoscope always says (for the year of the boar) "You are naïve in the fact that you have very high standards and you think that everyone else does too..".

So I am not a newbie or a thief, but maybe a dumbass...I posted looking for backing tracks and figured this fellow was a backing track merchant...

I am the same guy that has thought that certain posts from certain people on this forum were legitimate and true when in fact the poster was pulling peoples (Bo) legs...

I guess I am naïve. I don't steal music or even listen to it for free except on the radio. So what I'll take from this discussion is that I am a naïve pasty and leave it at that.
Tab

Tab, many of us have been scammed. No shame in that... the pedal steel community is a trusting group. Just join the "lesson learned" club.

Those with knowledge yet in denial or are providing cover, aid and or comfort are the ones I would look slightly askew towards.

John, I have a question for you, I am cleaning house and I was wondering if perhaps you might be interested in what I have listed below? I am listing this as for sale to help me with some bills I have on the table here.

I am letting go of my backup discs I created from my country and western collection and courses and I wondered if you were interested in all this. These discs contain over 800 albums with country music.
The era these cover is from the 50's till today's country music. I copied a partial of the list I made below so that you can see what is that I have here. There are also a lot of instrumental albums (125+) included but there is no list from those yet.

Also letting go of 20 psg courses and 1500 backing tracks (list is attached to this email.)

A lot of these albums are highly collectible and sought after by many. If you want these backup discs let me know..........$80 for all.

Kind regards,

Jerry

P.S

here is the list (remember.....it is only a part of what is on these discs.) and if you need samples of anything let me know and I will send them to you.

Buck Owens - 48 albums
Country roads - 12 albums (variety albums)
Emmylou Harris - 26 albums
Johnny Cash - 63 albums
Loretta Lynn - 46 albums
Ray Price - 10 albums
Willie Nelson - 64 albums
Marty Robbins - 23 albums
Gene Watson - 19 albums
Hank Thompson - 9 albums
Jim Reeves - 20 albums
Lynn Anderson - 20 albums
Chett Atkins - 3 albums
Vern Gosdin - 11 albums
Tony Booth - 7 albums
Waylon Jennings - 63 albums
George Jones - 106 albums
Barbara Mandrell - 21 albums
Darrell McCall - 5 albums
George and Tammy - 13 albums
Mr.Music man - 10 albums (variety albums)
Porter Wagoner - 16 albums
Alison Krauss - 20 albums
Rhonda Vincent - 10 albums
Mel Street - 10 albums
Keith Whitley - 17 albums
Dale Watson - 5 albums
Mel Street - 10 albums
Ricky Skaggs - 4 albums
Marty Stuart - 1 album
Bobby Flores - 6 albums
Amber Digby - 4 albums
Porter Wagoner - 16 albums
Billy Currington - 1 album
Charley pride - 2 albums
Dierks Bentley - 1 album
Jamie O'Hara - 2 albums
Daryle Singletary - 5 album
Bill Gaither - 2 albums
Jerry Douglas - 3 albums
Kenny Chesney - 1 album
Keith Whitley - 12 albums
Justin Trevino - 7 albums
Miranda Lambert - 1 album
Paul Overstreet - 2 albums
Ronnie Milsap - 2 albums
The Cox Family - 5 albums
Tommy Hooker - 2 albums
Brad Paisley - 10 albums
Alan Jackson - 20 albums
George Straight 36 albums
Suzy Bogguss - 5 albums
Patty Loveless - 5 albums
Shane Worley - 7 albums
Top 500 country songs - 10 Albums

Misc albums - 60-100 albums

Instrumental PSG albums - 126 albums

Only one Marty Stuart album? PASS

I got this email last week. it started with Hi Leon long time no see. The rest was the same. he got my friend two years ago.

Steve English wrote:Any good con man will keep a few patsys in his pocket for his "good" references. This one's certainly got a few on the Steel Guitar Forum. Shame on those of you who are smart enough to know that you're most likely purchasing someone else's intellectual or copy-written property. And for those of you who are ignorant, it might be in your best interest to wise up, or, at the very least, run the risk of being the fool that's separated from his money.

The fact that he has repeatedly used fraudulent practices in order to sell product via the internet is well documented by myself, and many others on this and several other forums. These are not allegations, they are documented facts.

The scumbag has been threatening to sue people for exposing his fraudulent activities for years. The man's an idiot and obviously doesn't understand what constitutes slander and/or libel. He thrives on attempts of intimidation and scare tactics when confronted with his cons and frauds. There's a sucker born every minute, and there will always be scumbags like him to take advantage of them.

Education and information are our best deterrents to these types of unscrupulous shysters. This Forum, and our communications provides us with the necessary resources to recognize these types of crooks and their supporters.

Don't let the liars and cons stop any of you from reporting the truth. If anyone wants to forward the threatening emails that they have received from this crook,I'd be privileged to add them to my files. This douche is not going away. He'll just keep preying on the newer members and the unsuspecting.

b0b, please add this idiot's name to the sticky of who not to do business with! He's worst than all the others listed combined.

To our most notable con and fraud: Sue me you



WPOS.

I am no ones "patsy" and I don't appreciate the inference one bit.. I never said that Ron was a great guy that you could trust 100%.. I merely stated the fact that I personally had no problem in my dealings with him.. I can't defend his record, but the fact remains that some people were not scammed.. Thats all I was trying to relay.

Some people see piracy as a victimless crime. The market for CDs has shrunk to a small fraction of what is was ten years ago, thanks to digital sharing and unscrupulous traders who rip entire collections for resale. Legitimate CD dealers (including yours truly) are left holding the bag with large inventories of unsold products on their shelves.

Is it a scam? I'm not one to say, but I do find it immoral. The fact that someone lies about his name tells me that he knows it's wrong, too.

You get what you pay for, and in this case it's a diminished market for legitimate products. Support your favorite steel players by buying their products directly from them, not from some shady internet character who has made "backup copies".

b0b wrote:Some people see piracy as a victimless crime. The market for CDs has shrunk to a small fraction of what is was ten years ago, thanks to digital sharing and unscrupulous traders who rip entire collections for resale. Legitimate CD dealers (including yours truly) are left holding the bag with large inventories of unsold products on their shelves.

Is it a scam? I'm not one to say, but I do find it immoral. The fact that someone lies about his name tells me that he knows it's wrong, too.

You get what you pay for, and in this case it's a diminished market for legitimate products. Support your favorite steel players by buying their products directly from them, not from some shady internet character who has made "backup copies".

Well said. At the end of the day, these characters wouldn't exist without customers. At least the forum is making everyone aware of this issue. If people choose to buy pirated copies then there is little practical control available. In the long run, they are deterring players from funding new products with scammers like this about.

I was taken by this guy also. What I received were a bunch of 'data" discs that could only be played in Windows media player. Again he seems to have changed his email. I contacted him last week or so to see if he had any "New Materiel" for sale and he's been offering me all kinds of pirated goods. I never respond and he is growing more and more frustrated. Im waiting for an explosive email next.

THe email used is "Dia_ondten@h_tmail.com

He sent me a friend request on facebook
I thought it was strange
i declined

I've NEVER contacted him for any reason,but he has emailed me several times,with the same items for sale,same story & how I can't afford to pass this up...it's worth LOTS more than his asking price.

Maybe I can explain my point better: Say you advertise a guitar for sale. I respond to your ad via your forum email link. You now have my email address.

But you don't have to respond via e-mail! Respond via the PM (private messaging) service on the forum, and your e-mail stays private.


Yes, I know there are dunderheads who set up an "address book in Outlook", or some other service.

Dumb idea, IMHO.

The scumbag has been threatening to sue people for exposing his fraudulent activities for years. The man's an idiot and obviously doesn't understand what constitutes slander and/or libel. He thrives on attempts of intimidation and scare tactics when confronted with his cons and frauds. There's a sucker born every minute, and there will always be scumbags like him to take advantage of them.

I never, ever, ever, want to deal with a lawyer again....

Man, so glad I trusted my gut and searched the forums here before falling prey to this. I was this close!

My story is similar to almost everyone else's... same email etc. Starting hearing from Ron right after I joined the forum and never thought to look for him on here until now, but so glad I did. What ended up smelling fishy to me was how willingly he kept dropping the price for everything each time I would resist his attempts to sell the package. Almost fell for it at $60 but no chance in hell I do it now!

Just wanted to post here in case it helps another new forum member avoid this trap. Thanks guys!

Oh, man, you mean all those nice old Sho-Bud parts I sent him "for the kids" were for a scam he was running years ago? Bummer.

Even at my old age I am still amazed at how low some will go. How well do they sleep at night? Make no mistake. They sleep just fine.

As Ken Byng stated way back in the thread that he had warned the UK players about this guy. Back at the end of 2013 he turned up again like a bad penny and tried it with some of our members. Once again I warned members about him on our website and through our newsletter "The British Steelies society.
Unfortunately there will always be some unsuspecting new player who will fall fowl of this man and others sadly.

He is also on Facebook, and the strange thing is that on his friends list there are steel players from here and the British steel forum , they all seems to be in contact with him, maybe he is softening them up before he strikes again.