Good morrow, folks.

I have completed several (half a dozen or so) good trades with Darth Maul, of high value (one for example, included his trading me two EomE's), so was quite surprised at the sudden rash of Bad Trade threads about him. Because of this, I have undertaken a little digging, and come to the conclusion that shenanigans are indeed afoot, but that Darth Maul himself may not be the culprit here, but rather another victim.

I present to you the following, and ask you to draw your own conclusions.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I have chatted with Darth Maul frequently since our first trades, by both email and AIM. Regarding the current situation, I made an arrangement with him wherein he agreed not to contact me at all via PM, but rather to only deal with me in emails and AIM.

I then PMed him an offer of two Mobilize. In the emails with Darth Maul, I'd made it clear that the PM offer was a test only.

I received a PM in response, despite my agreement with Darth Maul that he would not contact me via PM. In this PM, "Darth Maul" said he only had two Mobilizes in his collection. In discussions outside of VSRealms, Darth Maul has discussed having more than a playset. Aside from the response in a PM, this was an immediate inconsitency.

I responded in another PM, asking additionally for address confirmation.

I received another PM in response, in which was stated:
This PM struck me as particularly odd - reluctance to share his address, and also "I am going to school now"... when the PM was sent at 2:38AM. And yes, I do have the forum timestamping set for my correct time zone. Also, the Darth Maul I'd been emailing with does not currently go to school. Whaddaya know, more incosistencies.

When I later caught up with Darth Maul on AIM, I asked him to check his PM boxes at VSRealms. There was no record of any of the PMs I had sent, nor was there any records in his sentbox of the PMs that had been sent to me. I still had the PMs "Darth Maul" sent me in my inbox, but there was no record whatsoever in his.

For the record, further discussion with Darth Maul has revealed that he occasionally uses a family member's residence for trading, if he won't be present to sign for a package himself. My trades with him have been to an individual with the initials RG and a street address number of 2324, and his family member has the initials BM and the street address number 1616. Due to forum rules, I will not be publicly divulging any further information on the addresses involved, but Darth Maul has informed me off the forums that both address are legitimate.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

In synopsis, I would propose that parties unknown have been accessing Darth Maul's PM inbox, making trades, and then deleting the PMs. These parties are then in a position to provide a false address, or, if they are local to Darth Maul, even to intercept mail from the mailbox before he or his family member checks it. Whether or not the cards end up being received at either of Maul's posting addresses, since he has no record of a trade that he didn't set up in the first place, he's not in a position to make good "his" end of the deal.

In an effort to resolve this, I urge those who had dealings with Darth Maul that went awry, to please contact him with the trade details. I offer my services as a middle-man for communication if required, though obviously I accept no responsibility for the completion of any trades. Darth Maul has already stated that he will honour the trades where able; I ask that you respect that, so that we can all get on with things with as minimal further grief as possible.

Gdaybloke

Again I must state.......and the plot thickens! (I'm getting good at that)

Well I traded Darth Maul Using Aim, we started through pm where he offered me a whole bunch of good heroclix for all my good VS. But when we continued on AIM he knew exactly what the deal was and we even continued to work the deal out on AIM. And yet the trade was never completed cause his end was never received by the escrow. Maybe he's smart and knows what hes doing. Hes probably acting stupid about the pms, but playing you on AIM. And he deletes all records himself.

Now I have nothing against the guy because you might be right. theres a chance that he is Honest. But i rather not take chances and have people like that around. So if your going to back him up please make sure to have concrete proof.

Chicken, you're well within your rights to be dubious - that'd be why I said for folks to draw their own conclusions. You may be right - he may be playing me for a chump - but personally, based on our past experience, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. If it turns out I'm wrong in my conclusions, that's as may be.

The only way to get concrete proof that someone was diddling his inbox would be to check the IP addresses of all the PMs people received from him, to see if there's a discrepancy. I'm not a mod/admin on these forums, so I don't have that capacity.

However, based on my dealings with Darth Maul I believe him to get a decent trader, and the inconsistencies I described in my first most lead me to believe that someone's been deleting PMs on him, the most likely intention being to discredit and ruin his reputation as a good trader... which is what's been happening.

I can't take any responsibility for any of Darth Maul's trades, I just suggest that folks take him at his word when he says he'll make good on the trades, and give him a chance to do so. Since, if my theory is correct, he may not even be aware of the terms of the trades in some cases, I also suggest that people make sure both sides of the deal have the terms straight.

The darth maul that ripped me had initial BM and the street address 1616. Legitimate? well I got ripped sending to the 2nd address.

I am actually getting annoyed right now. In all my life I have never seen so many people come to the defense of a ripper. This is just stupid, he has ripped several people, including myself of their entire collection and people are on here who did a few trades with him sticking up for him.

Get a ####ing clue!! He is a ripper, a scumbag, and a lowlife, and gdaybloke, he is playing you to try and clear his name, just like he played cosmic doom while he was sticking up for him.

I don't know what esle to say. For everyone reading this thread thinking of trading with maul: DONT. He will rip you, especially if it is a big trade. I don't know why there are people on here trying to clear his name, but don't listen to them. If you value your cards at all, do not trade with this piece of trash, and do not listen to all the propaganda concerning him.

Indeed he is playing you for a chump while he tries to rob another person or 2 of their collection.

The real question here is why the #### did a mod not step in yet and do something?

I think someone got ahold of his password...

I appreciate your fervor, but if it turns out I'm correct in thinking that someone had his password/hacked his accounts, and made deals without his knowledge in an effort to discredit him as explained above, I hope you'll be man enough to apologise for your comments.

In the meantime, would it not be more productive to try to resolve and complete your trade? Or would you rather write the cards off and remain righteously indignant?

My point here is that a LOT of fingers have been pointed at Darth Maul. Further pointing achieves nothing.
Opening communication channels in an effort to resolve things, especially if someone WAS hacking Darth Maul's account, will be much more productive than slinging more mud.

Again, I can take no responsibility for these trades, and I acknowledge the possibility that he may be playing me, but based on my past experience with him I consider him to be a good trader, and based on my digging, I consider him the victim of shenanigans right now.

If I'm proven wrong, fair enough. If I'm proven correct?

As soon as he saw "another person with his name ripping people off" he could have just changed his password and avoided more ripping.

1) alot of fingers have been pointed at darth for extremely good reason. If it is some kind of identity theft how come he has not come on here to defend himself? Instead hes talking to you over im, what good does that do any of us who he ripped.

2) Man enough to apologize? Absolutely, if I check my mail and find 9000 yugioh cards sitting there, including 4 card troopers, 4 magical stones, 4 destiny draw, 4 malicious, 6 cyber dragons and everyhting else that was promised to me then I will happily issue a public apology. Until then though I stand by the what I have said.

3) Past experience, especially in an online trade site, means nothing. I have seen now how easy it is to rip people off. Build up a good trader rep and then get people to send first and bang. You could easily rip half a dozen people off before someone even posts a negative thread about you. Then you can rip another half a dozen people off while these threads resolve. Pretty good scam in my opinion.

4) "opening communication channesl in an effort to resolve things" sounds great. Than why doesn't darth maul himself come on here and open these communication channels. No offense bloke, I know your trying to help and I am not trying to be a jerk, but who appointed you his lawyer. If he really wants to resolve things than tell him to get on here and try and resolve things, not go through you. Until he does that personally, I disregard everything else.

Victim of shenanigans? Big ####ing deal, I have played this game for a long time and was forced to quit due to financial problems. On my way out I tried to make some money off the THOUSANDS of cards I had. over 50 complete decks, and virtually every money rare produced up to MTU. Instead I got nothing, so dont tell me about shenanigans.

If someone IS hacking his account then the original Maul is NOT responsible for any of this.

and in case you missed it the first time

you told me that the initals BM and the address 1616 was legit, that is the address I sent to and got nothing, just wanted to point that out.

If someone is hacking his account how come he did not come on here immediately and let everyone know so that way noone else could be ripped.

Again, if someone WAS hacking his account he could have avoided it by changing his password. But he probably didn't, so that he can keep up with his evil. And he would have probably gotten away with it to, if it wasn't for you meddling kids.

Well this hackingthing....I would not trust that really at all.
And Ryu is right. No mod stops it. So its ok. Rip anyone!