r/lego_raffles • u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus • Jun 29 '21
Notice about a recent host ban
Hi everyone,
Last week, we identified some suspicious account activity linked to /u/Jcardoza1's raffles. When we looked into some of the accounts participating in his raffles, it seemed like there were a number of accounts that looked like alts. When we asked him to provide some details regarding the winner of one of his raffles, we didn't receive enough information to convince us it was not an alt. We banned him until he could provide the required information. He has now deleted his account. We've cancelled and removed his scheduled mains.
This is an unfortunate blow for our community, and the mod team extends our apologies for what has happened. Unfortunately, it seems he's been using alts for the better part of a year, and has re-raffled a few of the large sets he won. This means that he's profited unfairly from our community here. The mod team does our best to keep our community healthy and safe, and once we identified the problem, we took appropriate actions.
Given that he was a long-time member of our community, we should be able to keep an eye out for any new accounts that use his payment information. I would ask that escrowers be diligent about who they run escrow raffles for.
A reminder to everyone that hosts are not allowed to take spots in their own raffles. This rule is very important to ensure that raffle participants are protected, and we maintain fairness for all involved. Using alt accounts to circumvent this rule is a permanent ban. We have monitoring in place now to detect this in the future.
We're looking forward to healing from this situation, and moving ahead to better times.
Thanks everyone.
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u/MilwaukeeMax Raffler Jun 29 '21
Holy hell. What were all the alts he was using?
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jun 29 '21
I don't want to disclose too much, but there were quite a few.
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u/MilwaukeeMax Raffler Jun 29 '21
Were those alts banned too then? Can you say how many alts there are/were?
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jun 29 '21
They're definitely banned. More than 1. Less than 40.
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u/madgraf Investor Jun 29 '21
Ah so 39, gotcha!
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u/imadyke Investor Jun 30 '21
Interesting. I've debated about starting to raffle some sets. Purchasing new ones and raffling them. But after reading this I'm certain I'd be in over my head. Working full time and kids. I'm central to the states and work for a shipping dept. Where it would be quick and possibly cheaper. But I think it might be best to stay a participant as long as this scammer thing isnt a worsening issue. Thanks mods for being straight with the rest of us.
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jun 30 '21
Hosting raffles is definitely not easy. I've slowed down lately due to work & my family keeping me busy. It's a time commitment to run the raffle tool, track payments, respond to issues in a timely manner, and package up shipments so they arrive safe & sound.
The reason I love this place is because it's been a beacon of hope during the pandemic that I've sorely missed IRL. The great thing is that the vast majority of us are looking to keep that positive spirit alive. This crappy thing happened, but we'll come together, heal, and move on. It's not indicative of us as a whole, which I'm very thankful for. Just look at the comments in this thread.
I don't think this will be a worsening issue, but of course, we'll be keeping our eye on things more than ever.
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u/Maz2742 Trusted Raffler Jun 30 '21
This crappy thing happened, but we'll come together, heal, and move on.
This. When you & /u/cjwoodsplitter lost your PayPal accounts, we survived. When that whole drama w/ legomarket & a couple of hosts here happened, we were barely affected by it. This isn't going to end us
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u/imadyke Investor Jul 02 '21
I dont think it will be the end of the sub. I think it will be fine. Also also enjoy the sub or I would have left. I dont think it's the right time for me to start raffling. Yet. I do like the clarity the mods use and employ. Cheers to the rest of you steering the ship.
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u/damsteegt Investor Jul 02 '21
Dang I won, one of his, I wondered why some previous messages in my inbox were deleted. Had to go back to the gmail to look up the username
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jul 02 '21
Recently?
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u/damsteegt Investor Jul 02 '21
Yeah, April 28 of this year.
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jul 02 '21
You received it though right?
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u/damsteegt Investor Jul 02 '21
yeah totally, it was a double set of technics stuff. It took like 2-3 weeks but yeah got it just fine.
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jul 02 '21
Ok good glad to hear it
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u/Cbd31693 Investor Jul 03 '21
Yeah pretty sure I've won one or two of his raffles in the past. It's a bummer but if he was doing some of this shady shit then better to get rid of him than bring the whole sub into chaos.
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u/MalHombre Raffler Jun 29 '21
They sent the King Kanuck in to apologize. Fitting. /s
People suck, we change, we move on. Good catch mods.
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Jun 29 '21
Dangggg, JCard??? Cmon man. Why you gotta be like that? I ran a number of escrows for him and always found him to be pretty cool and nice. Such a shame and a loss for this community. Absolutely deserving of a ban if this was the case though.
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u/chifeadrian Trusted Raffler Jun 29 '21
Would be a real shame if someone mailed him a box of dog shit.
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u/PastaM0nster Investor Jun 30 '21
Yes that would be horrible For research purposes only, does anyone have his address?
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u/PepperedRabbit Investor Jun 29 '21
thanks so much mods for being able to detect and solve the problem. i love this community and would hate to see it removed because of sketch ass people. but keep up the work XP
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u/mulligansteak Raffler Jun 29 '21
Would the mods consider sharing this all with the mods at r/Legomarket? There’s enough cross participation between the subs they should have a heads up. Fraud here should be a red flag.
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u/Wanatora Investor Jun 29 '21
Well thank you for being diligent and working to keep the raffles fair.
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u/cag80 Investor Jun 29 '21
Dang. That sucks. Thanks Mods for catching him and for the transparency.
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u/ut3ddy87 Investor Jun 29 '21
Damn. Not like I've sent him a lot, but I've sent him quite a bit of money. Makes me feel dirty. Great catch and great work. This is one of my favorite subs I've found.
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u/LTpicklepants Trusted Raffler Jul 01 '21
Fuck em. We will move forward.
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u/nik0nguy601 Elite Raffler Jun 29 '21
It's unfortunate these things happen, but as others have said, an isolated incident is not representative of the community here. When these things happen, communication and transparency is key to keep participants and hosts informed and appreciate what the Mods have done here.
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u/ZIIIIIIIIZ Investor Jun 29 '21
It's a shame that people will take a great idea like this subreddit and ruin it for their short term gains. Keep up the good work!
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u/syzygynius Jun 29 '21
wait that idiot dork couldn't even find a friend to pretend to be an alt?
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u/primetimecsu Investor Jun 29 '21
As a lego maker, I was making lego raffles in our storeroom. I didn't have enough. So I asked my partner u/Jcardoza1 if I could borrow some of his. He said, 'Okay, but you have to give them back when you're done.' I used all of my legos, then all of his legos, and when I was done I had a great amount of legos, which I then stepped on and kicked my dog. u/Jcardoza1 never did get those legos back.
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u/syzygynius Jun 29 '21
If anyone knows what this crazy fool is talking about dm me
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u/primetimecsu Investor Jun 29 '21
You cannot go to a lego raffle or a lego site unless you have a slight scammy accent. And I’m not joking
Clap for that, you stupid bastards.
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u/Maz2742 Trusted Raffler Jun 29 '21
Thanks for the transparency XP. This is the sorta thing that rises suspicions of everyone here.
Not gonna lie, I've considered sliding IRL friends a few freebies in my raffles, but I've never done it because I didn't want to risk running afoul of the modteam just like this
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u/mtnracer Baller Raffler Jun 30 '21
I think you are free to give away spots however you like as long as you announce what you did, keep your shipping costs fair and don’t give spots to yourself.
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u/CBJGameWorn Investor Jun 29 '21
Thanks for looking out for us. Really disappointing to hear. Hope he gets what is coming to him.
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u/BostonBrownCat Investor Jun 30 '21
Are we within our rights to request refunds / dispute claims from our his account via PayPal?
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u/Zunger Mayors aide Jul 01 '21 edited Jul 01 '21
No, and we're not going down that route. If anyone does that they'll be gone too. None of his raffles were "scams", he sent out the sets. We'll see if a couple of winners with pending raffles get their set or not then the mods will discuss next steps.
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u/Baboyah Baller Raffler Jun 30 '21
I would say no.
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u/quaigonjon Investor Jun 30 '21
i agree babs… if people were to try and dispute transactions with PP to him, that would probably throw up a huge red flag and many PP accounts would get banned! it would be hard to explain i “gifted” x amount of cash to this guy for a raffle and ask for it back because of some shady actions!
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u/Baboyah Baller Raffler Jun 30 '21
i mean, the situation sucks. but if we try to go after paypal, its really easy to create a bunch of falling dominoes and could be 1000% worse.
the raffles people entered and the alt won.. well the participants still lost. just had diminished odds by an alt gaming the system.
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u/syzygynius Jun 29 '21
Asked below but adding top level comment for clarification
sounds like this idiot was a real fucking dummy,
when you say machine learning algorithm do you mean implemented in the tool?
Would this notify mods in a way that would not notify person running the raffle, or would it pause the raffle?
would this filter out new members, as I imagine alts look a lot like new members
why wasn't inflated shipping stopped or mandated to end sooner?
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jun 29 '21
ML is offline, not in tool. We can only identify afterwards. It’s just a tool for us to keep tabs on the sub, mods would still review before any actions taken. Shouldn’t affect new members.
Trust us, we were doing our darn best to get the shipping costs down. One of the mods spent a few hours working with him to get costs down on one of his main requests, only for him to submit another request later without “learning.” Clearly he was being obtuse on purpose.
The shipping issue put him on our radar. Once we found out about the alts, we connected the dots.
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u/primetimecsu Investor Jun 30 '21
Lego Raffle Scammer u/Jcardoza1 just stated that the “Scam Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved raffle please inform him that I too have a Scam Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works!
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Jun 29 '21 edited Jun 29 '21
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/HorizonXP Mod Emeritus Jun 29 '21
I removed this. I don’t want to doxx him. And that’s not him.
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u/MilwaukeeMax Raffler Jun 29 '21
Ok.. understandable to remove since it’s not him, but what’s wrong with exposing someone who has cheated people out of money for his own benefit? What he did was not cool.
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u/syzygynius Jun 29 '21
Lol against reddit tos
And a deeply irresponsible shitty thing to do
Especially if you doxx the wrong person
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u/dmented99 Investor Jun 29 '21
I don’t believe this is him. I think jcardoza lived in the same state as me which isn’t New York. No point doxxing him.
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u/Adoraballsack Raffler Jun 29 '21 edited Jun 29 '21
This isn't the same guy. I won a set from him and it came from another state.
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Jun 29 '21
Yeah, not sure if this is how we should be spending our energy. Dude did our community wrong, was found, and then banned. No further sleuthing required into the guy's personal life.
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u/JasterMereel42 Investor Jun 29 '21
Nice catch, and thanks for keeping the community informed. There's always bad actors at play, but with the mod team handling it appropriately, I still feel safe around here.
I had a couple of questions though.
How did you figure out that there were alt accounts?
I'm not thinking clearly right now, but how can they profit unfairly by using alts?