Fraud alert

[Harvester]

Robert J Santos of Glendale, NY.

He has dropped off the face of the earth. His email address is no longer valid. His phone number of two years ago now belongs to another that does not know who he is.

He was a sponsor for Nocturnal Rites last year with no issues. He was a sponsor for Mob Rules this year. I have been trying to track him down for months. I gave him the benefit of the doubt for too long. Needless to say, I'm taking a big hit to the wallet thanks to him.

If you know him, please inform him that he should not ever try to step foot in Atlanta at the festival.

 

[Sumeet]

I obviously have no actual knowledge of this person or situation at all, but one can't help but think, based on what you're saying... is it possible that he's dead? Or is there specific evidence that's he's simply trying to avoid detection?

 

[Harvester]

Death would indeed be an acceptable excuse obviously. However, I'd rather play the percentages on him simply skipping out.

 

[Sumeet]

Fair enough!

 

[J-Man]

Glenn, have you talked to either Ken Golden, Lance, Zane, or Ned, or Jeramie to see if maybe he has ordered stuff from them and they may have an e-mail and Phone# and maybe mailing address, just a though.

 

[JenniferLynn]

And is there any way that those of us able could help offset the hit to the wallet??

 

[Jibrille]

http://pipl.com/ is a good free site if you want to try to hunt down older sites he used with that e-mail you have.

 

[ICEDEARTHFAN]

I checked My Space and Facebook as well as White Pages.I was hoping to find someone on either My Space or Facebook that showed Progpower as a like,but haven't found anything yet.I saw the same people Ambr saw on other search sites

 

[mattbrood]

And is there any way that those of us able could help offset the hit to the wallet??

I'd be willing to chip in as well

 

[Kaosaur]

Seriously? Personal address information on a public forum?

Glenn, have you asked if anyone (or multiple anyones) would be willing to step up and sponsor Mob Rules? Or if that's done already, how is there a hit to the wallet?


Btw, just to pull on people's conscience a bit, the senior Santos listed with his phone number is a Vietnam veteran (the most decorated from my state; had a role in designing this: http://www.vietnamveteransplaza.com/) and probably would not appreciate the potential harassment. I sincerely doubt he is the person in question here.

 

[Diamond45]

I'd be willing to chip in as well

Same here.... I will be more than willing to chip in extra to help defray the cost.

 

[AMBR]

Seriously? Personal address information on a public forum?

Glenn, have you asked if anyone (or multiple anyones) would be willing to step up and sponsor Mob Rules? Or if that's done already, how is there a hit to the wallet?


Btw, just to pull on people's conscience a bit, the senior Santos listed with his phone number is a Vietnam veteran and probably would not appreciate the potential harassment.

A quick click on the web brought up all that public information. No one is asking anyone to call these people, just giving Glenn some leads. If the info is that easily accessed in a simple internet search, it's not private.

 

[Kaosaur]

Sure, but what purpose does it serve to post it on the thread for everyone rather than just PM Glenn about it? I mean if we're truly trying to help here...

...having personal information like that out for everyone to see only encourages harassment. I would feel slightly differently if it were confirmed to be the guy...but we don't even know.

 

[AMBR]

Sure, but what purpose does it serve to post it on the thread for everyone rather than just PM Glenn about it? I mean if we're truly trying to help here...

...having personal information like that out for everyone to see only encourages harassment. I would feel slightly differently if it were confirmed to be the guy...but we don't even know.

I disagree, but will delete all the same.

 

[Harvester]

Seriously? Personal address information on a public forum?

Glenn, have you asked if anyone (or multiple anyones) would be willing to step up and sponsor Mob Rules? Or if that's done already, how is there a hit to the wallet?

Personal addresses and telephone numbers are available on the internet on a multitude of sites in a few clicks. It takes more work to get that information removed from the web than to find it. I'm not going to get involved in this aspect of the discussion as it seems unneccesary.

As for your other question, the answer is no. My concern right now is not just the money collection, but to get the word out that this person cannot be trusted on any level. It would be idiotic to pursue legal measures for this sum of money so this leaves me with the only other action I can take that possibly affects him.

I'm totally perplexed at why you would even ask the last question. Of course it's not a hit if I replace them. I would think that extremely obvious.

 

[Harvester]

To all those that asked about chipping in, thanks. However, I'm not going to do that as everyone has already done that with the mystery band this year.

I truly appreciate the offer though.

 

[Kaosaur]

I'm totally perplexed at why you would even ask the last question. Of course it's not a hit if I replace them. I would think that extremely obvious.

I saw somebody else as a co-sponsor for the same band. I don't pretend to know the ins and outs of the sponsor list and that's my fault for not really being that involved anymore.


As an aside, and I don't mean this to be an attack at all, but I recall when major issues like this happened in years past there seemed to be more clear explanations of things and a lot less hostility. I know this is more of an "in the circle"/family kind of forum, but as someone who is pretty much an outsider these days, I found the initial post and some of the reactions to be incredibly distasteful...except for the offers of support of course. Anyway, it's your fest and your forum. I'm not going to raise more of a stink than saying I don't like it. Back to (mostly) lurking.

 

[Harvester]

I found the initial post...to be incredibly distasteful....

Put yourself in my shoes. I COUNTED on the money promised me. A verbal agreement in an email is a legally binding contract. I try for months to track the guy down quietly with no luck. My deadline for deposit payments and visa reimbursements comes due. I now have to pay that missing money out of my own pocket.

So let's go back over the initial post with the facts:

1. Was this fraud? Yes. A legal contract has been broken.
2. Did I lose money out of my own pocket based on his actions? Yes.
3. Would I allow him to attend the show in Atlanta based on his actions. Hell no. He would be tossed out in a heartbeat. There was no threat of violence.

There was nothing distasteful said in the post. I didn't even call him an asshole like I wanted to.

Yet, I'm suppose to simply be quiet & polite about the situation? Just let it go? Are you rich enough yourself to let someone fuck you over and say..nah..no worries? If so, congrats. I'm not. I work my ass off for this festival and every little bit counts.

I think it best that you return to lurking as nothing further is going to be accomplished in a discussion between us.

 

[kingdomgone86]

Perhaps Robert should invest in some of these...

 

[GoRillaBoy76]

Well I just want to say that I hope that Mr. Santos is alright and not dead or deathly ill, or any there is no other life threatening problem to his family. I know that times are hard for every one and I can understand how someone who could afford to be a sponsor last year may not be able to this year, but if that is the case he should have contacted Glenn and let him have known about it, so that Glenn would have had time to find replacement sponsors. So if it is the case that he just backed out, then yes Glenn has every right to upset (pissed seems like a better word), heck the dude left him to pick up his end of the check, who would not be mad about that? And yes this is Glenn's forum and he has every right to say something about it.

Yet I know how quick many of the members on here can be to want to just become a cyber lynch mob. So lets (for the time) leave this between Glenn and Robert, because maybe something awful did happen and we just dont know yet, or (big) maybe, mr santos will still get in touch with Glenn and give him the money.