I don't think this kid has any idea how serious this situation is. I mean granted $150 isnt to much but through all three of us he is up to $450 maybe more cause of shipping.


and also alecks could you send me the info on him(address, phone number, ect.)

Alecks, could you ask your brother to contact me please, or send me his email address. For Jon I will forward that IP info hopefully tonight to you and Alecks (been very busy around here lately, sorry for the delay).

A good con man can always make a bad thing sound like everything is working out for the good. "The check is in the mail" That is how they work and do it so good. It is always someone else that is causing problems, and they are always on your side trying to make things right but PayPal or what ever he can come up with to stall you he will use. Like get paid next week, Pal Pal frooze my money or what ever. I work with a guy just like this and they live this way all day long and BELIVE in them selfs and make it work so good. The stories will get better and better. next he will be sick or in a car wreck some reason to stall while he runs to cover tracks. Hang on! Good luck Steve

Ill find out if i get my refund on friday, it looks like i wont the dispute on pay-pal.....

if i didnt, no new cam for me for a while. and a law suit for him.

he bailed all of his money out of his pay-pal account....

im so pissed, i wanted another camera so bad.

F*** this kid, and every thing he stands for.

I think I'll be doing a story on this episode for the website. Look at it this way: at least it was *only* $150 and not thousands of dollars.

Hope I'm not too late to the party; my sincerest condolences to the affected individuals.

For what it's worth, some mild sleuthing (really just a Google search for "gage luce") provided me with some extra information: it seems our friend is a seventeen year old skateboarding aficionado from Santa Barbara, California (don't take my word for that location, that info may be out of date for all I know). And get this--I've got a picture of the doofus: http://forums.rollerwarehouse.com/fo...ic.php?t=19786 Scroll down to the third post; it's a user named "Gage", and his profile on that forum lists the same website as his profile here (http://www.slo4online.com). He makes reference in that thread to shooting video, so I think it's safe to say it's the guy we're looking for. Some scam artist! Using the same handle everywhere he goes, showing his face all over the internet...rip-offs just aren't what they used to be, huh? ;)

That's all for now. Not sure how much help it'll be, but I thought you guys'd like to know; I'll keep snoopin' around, see if I can't come up with anything more substantial. Here's hoping we get the punk (not that I'm old enough to call anyone a "punk", but he IS young, and he IS being a pain, so...)!

UPDATE: Searching for the email address he listed in his profile on that skating site brings up a few interesting posts of his on other message boards, indicating that he was looking for a VX1000, or other similar camera, in early 2004 (Google cached page: http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache...mail.com&hl=en). Then, later that same year, he was in the market for a newer cam (http://www.dvvideo.com/talk/index.ph...e;threadid=206).

Oh, and scratch that bit about him being seventeen--I found more info at http://forum.beatbasement.com/member...member=Roll8o5 that tells us he turns twenty this year, on November 27th. Anybody got any good gift ideas?

Ooh! Ooh! Check this out (more with the Google cache: http://64.233.161.104/search?hl=en&l...2Ffeedback.php):

"Date: Oct 16, 2005
From: Gage Luce
Subject: revolution
Message: hey im moving to the phoenix arizona area on thursday and wondering if you might need some help at the shop, in other words I NEED A JOB!!! haha if you are willing to hire me give me directions and i will fill out an application and what not i worked at inlinewarehouse for about 5 months getting payed under the table!! soooo yeah please respond"

Again, I don't know what good any of this will do you all, but I figured the more information you've got to work with, the better, right?