With respect to those involved, I'll keep names out of this, because there are two sides to every story, and with respect to the rules slagging some one off is a bit rude. This is more a less a guide to those wanting to start customs or partake in them or sessions, and is generally things to look out for to avoid being scammed. (as I feel like I have).

A few months I made an off handed comment in a thread from a young lady offering customs/ sessions etc that If she was coming to Australia, I'd be interested. She messaged me and said it was possible, gave me her rates and made it seem like an expensive, but a once in a life time possibility. I thought about it for a few days and transfered the money (which was a lot.) for a date in mid November. After the transfer I received another message from the lady advising me of an investment deal she had going. For an extra 500-600, i'd get a 30% return, plus 2 customs and a whole year of downloads from her and her sister site. At this point I was feeling sick, and knew I had been scammed. I'm now waiting on paypal to tell me if they can recover my money for me.

Advice for those wanting sessions/ customs.
1) Only go with those known for offering such services.
2) If it seems like its too good to be true, then it normally is.
3) Keep in contact with the person, it's a lot of money to hand over to a person, and while you don't want to annoy them, I'm sure they'll understand.

I'm not looking for anything free or sympathy, I've just been taken for a ride (again) and I wouldn't want this sick feeling on anyone else.

So, she lied and didn't send your magic unicorn?

I've had two customers recently mention they were ripped off by women in this community (and not just random women but a well known person with her own website). It's not my place to call anyone out but I do think it's only fair to warn others of this behavior. It would be nice if there was a forum or page on here where people could publicly post about their experiences ordering videos from producer and let producers share their experience about customers. Something like ebay's buyer/seller rating system would really benefit the community.

Paypal will refund your money but you do have to act quickly, I think you only have a month to get your money back.

Definitely in the pipeline. I'll be adding such a system in the coming months. For now, the forums are open for communication on these matters.

M

One other tip: if the model you are contracting with lives in ANOTHER COUNTRY (never mind across a very large body of water)...then it's probably NOT a sound investment/venture...one way to help ease the potential loss (from a possible scam or flake-out), is to offer only half the money upfront (per signed agreement), the rest upon arrival (or delivery of the video, in the case of a remote custom)...this may not always be practical, and the model could refuse...but then, you're not out any money

...scams, or just complete out-right flakiness, can happen, though, at any level (or proximity)...one reason why I never made agreements with models over the phone or via email...I always meet with them first (at a safe/neutral public location)...if they bother to show up for the initial 'meet and greet', then, most likely, they will show up for the shoot, too (this only failed me once, although the model claimed she got "lost" on the road)....plus, I pay after the shoot...I realize that's not the same with customs that could be scams....but it seems that those who want customs so badly that they'll pay money for them up-front through a remote transaction are often setting themselves up for a scam or con...

...just remember that you are the paying customer (and the model wants your business), and that you can also define the terms of the transaction. There's always another model out there (you may have to search for her, though).

Although I acknowledge where the OP is coming from, I'm always a little uncomfortable with threads like this that don't name names. I know it's a difficult situation and you're trying to be discreet, but I tend to feel that it casts suspicion upon other models who do deliver and it's a bit unfair to them.

Still, hope you manage to get it sorted.

I kind of agree. If you think you've been scammed, you should do what you can to recover funds, but also warn others who may fall victim to the same traps/hooks.

Based on what you said initially, I was able to determine only 2 possibilities from your posts this year that even qualify, but yeah. I'd hate to guess and be wrong.

Sorry you're going through this process. I've basically decided that customs with people that haven't been around for years as "established businesses" are never going to be a part of my purchases for this very reason, but that's only because I don't want the headache.

I don't want to sound like a dick(Which really means i know i am coming off as one). Too many people think with their junk instead of their brain. With all the people complaining about being screwed when sending money to strangers, i regret not joining the site pretending to be a nigerian princess willing to do customs. With the proceeds, i could afford to be a prince by now. ( no offense).

If the deal was she would come to Australia, just wait until she gets to Australia and put the money in her hand after the shoot. If she refuses, it's probably a scam.

OP: I am really really sorry to hear you lost money in this way. Really hope paypal can help

With regard to not calling out the alleged scammer's name, In fairness to the OP while not naming names he makes it a work of less than a minute to find out. He even details the thread he made the comment in, so anyone worried about being scammed can simply view his post history, find the post he is referring to & the model he makes the comment to and go from there. I did and it took less than a minute.

I also feel enormous sympathy for the OP. I know a couple of posters have come on and said, effectively, 'well that was dumb', but we all make mistakes, and for my money having the fault of trusting people too much, is a 'positive' fault to have as it reflects someone who'll give people a chance and thinks well of them. The fact that a few con artists take advantage of this positive trait doesn't seem to me like a reason to criticise the victim

Its a great shame all round

I will freely cop to it being a dumb move, and DrSteve, you wren't a dick, I did probably dserve that as I wasn't thinking logically. I did ask Paypal for a claim, so hopefully that will get sorted.

Zan, spot on, established people, like Ariel, Jayce etc have my support and backing and Reverendsl is right, I didn't want to name names, but there are hints if you follow my posts.

Osbaldeston, if anyone wants me to tell them who it is, feel free to message me. While you are right, it does cast a bit of a shadow over other models, in their defense, they post often enough to be sure I wasn't talking about them.

I cannot count how many customs I've ordered over the years. Probably over 100 over different fetishes including messy.

While I don't mind doing a custom with an individual model, it'll be a relatively small custom and only with someone who's a professional fetish model - very well established in the field. I don't care if they have a website. Anyone can have a website. I want to see an established record of custom clips - like a C4S store where they're constantly posting clips.

An example of being pretty sure you're going to get your project would be a model like Cali Logan, who does this stuff for a living. I've used indie models like Brianna Ray many times...who also does this stuff for a living. Not much risk.

Under no circumstances would I ever do a major custom with an individual girl. I'd only go through a studio. For example, I had no problem throwing major dough at the late Rob Blaine - Messy Fun.

I agree with the comment that there are enough highly reputable studios for WAM that there is no reason to take a chance with major money on an indie girl.

Ariel is right, before you oorder, talk to people, get references and us models should actually get up a list of references to be able t hand out!

Anyone ordering a custom video is sending money to a stranger. There are women who are well known in the community, have lots of praise from fans, but still rip people off because they know they can get away with it. Most guys are too shy to admit they have been ripped off because of responses like yours. Also if a well known model has 20 references from happy customers but only 3 customers complaining they never got anything for their money who are you likely to believe? It's not fair to blame the victim in these situations.

I'm not implying that people should be afraid to ever order customs from anyone but unless we as a community are willing to call out the people ripping off customers it will hurt all producers because people will not know who they can trust.

I'm currently in the unfortunate position where I paid $50 back in March for a custom video to someone who has been in the WAM community for many years and is a registered producer on UMD. Initially, there were a couple of excuses and then I stopped hearing anything altogether, but haven't been given a refund either. I don't regard this as being a scam as such, but I am understandably unhappy at having paid money in good faith and yet haven't received anything in return.

I appreciate that things can happen in life and that honouring commitments can suddenly become a problem. However, the bottom line is that there still needs to be integrity. If something can't be provided in a reasonable timescale, explain it to the customer. If time drags on and it still can't be done, offer a refund. Above all else, keeping open a channel of communication is vital.

Matty - I sympathise with what happened to you. Although what you did might seem a bit naive to many, we all want to trust people and regard them as acting in good faith. Most people are honest and trustworthy, it's just a few lowlife scum who are happy to prey on people's kindness and good nature, and it's a real shame that you came across such a person.

I hope this will be resolved to your satisfaction Matty unfortunately it's happened a few to many times I really hope messmasters measures bring an end to all the scamming

Managed to get all my money back, and learnt my lesson.

Good for you, Matty! That's great!

Norman

The problem with this, though, is that the customer might be a petty, petulant jerk who, because the model didn't give them exactly what they wanted or wouldn't do something they wanted, will come here with a bunch of lies to "get even".

Let's keep in mind that while the producers are a bunch of strangers to us, the customers are too. Why should I trust their reviews or warnings when they might be a small, petty person looking to give a bad name to a producer?

I think we need to be vigilant on both sides of this and make sure not only customers are protected from fly-by-night "producers", but legitimate producers have protection as well from problem customers.

Glad to hear it. I hope you don't run into anything like it again. That said, I'm still keen to do a clip with you as you're a decent guy even though we've only met once before.