Attn Designers: mc303 (ICQ: 136107410) is a scammer!
 

This guy has ordered one 2 templates at http://www.maturedesugn.com, but didn't paid for them when he got the files. Here is an URL of his site with our design: http://www.spunkbuckets.com

One again, his ICQ nick is mc303, the ICQ UIN is 136107410, and this guy is a UK citizen.

deposit up front.

scammers are ALWAYS looking for designers who dont demand a deposit.

:( thanks for the warning

Always ask for 50 % of $ upfront ... I normally ask full payment from unknown customers

Lately I am forced to ask 50% upfront due to people/scammers like this. Recurring clients never pay upfront though.

Actually we did a design for him already and he has paid for it. I didn't send the HTML files in 1st time (I did show him as snapshot of the page) when he paid. The second time I thought there should be no prob with him, but I was wrong...

The only time i dont ask for a deposit upfront is when the client is a return customer. =)

The biggest tip I can give new designers to the industry is that showing resolve and patience goes a long way. Don't be so eager to make money that you forget to follow some saftey precautions. Most serious purchasers not only want good quality work, but they're willing to pay a decent dollar for it too.

thanx for info
and don't forget about upfront

That was the case. He was a return customer...

and unfortunately, scammers know they sometimes have to earn a little trust before they can do what they do.

Scammers sometimes spend years working victims, its nothing to work over some designers via icq.

Unfortunately, i insist on payment from all customers, I try to explain to them that due to the nature of this biz, I cannot and will not start on a project until I have some money in my hand.

I like to trust people too, but its better to just get the money out of the way and in my experience, trust is easily shattered in this biz.

Thanks for a tip, Fletch.

Yikes sorry to hear that.
If he has not paid for your designs and you have the PSD's and he can't prove they are his you can have it taken down.
go to his host and if they don't do anything go to the upstream.

always, always, always get $$$ upfront from someone you do not have history with...

Thanks for the warning

Actually that would be hard to do... He paid us for http://www.spunkbuckets.com and for one gallery template as well. After that he has asked us to make 3 various color schemes for those pages (the files were uploaded here: http://www.maturedesign.com/ready/spunk.zip). But he didn't pay. He said that 4 first table cells in tgp/index.html have different heights(!). He said some of them are 182 and but others are 183 height :) When I told him that all the cells have no fixed size and just stretching to fit the thumbs (180x135 each)...

Sorry to hear about that asshole :(

But we never have asked for a deposit upfront, I guess we have been lucky.

Got burned one time about 2 yrs ago or so for a few hundred dollars, but I made sure to let everyone know online about this guy.

Best of luck,

Todd

Sorry to hear that :( but thanks for the warning.
I myself have never asked for upfront payments but some of the clients offered it anyway.

Also got a few scammers of my own :)

because you are a big company

its MUCH DIFFERENT working as a freelance designer.

As you have said, you dont design, you simply do what you do.

But with us guys who do ALL THE DEALINGS and end up doing ALL THE WORK as well, it can be a headache.

Luckily I havent been fucked over in over 1 year or so as well.

But its different between a company employing designers vs designers that run their own show.

Webinc rocks, but some like to dea with solo guys like myself who dont have to charge for the middle man ya know.

yeh Fletch I hear you.

but if someone burns our company I will put them on front street right onto the industry boards, sad but true you know.


As I have told you before, there is no middle man. Our team of 9 gets paid just like anyone else.

thanks

Todd