Firstly I'd like to start by saying I don't want to be making this post at all, mostly because of the sheer embarrassment and humiliation of it and secondly because of its length and 'woe is me' nature.
But regardless of this I'm going to take the hit to provide you with a tale of caution and offer you a word of warning about buying things from unorthodox sources.
My tale of woe all starts fairly recently when I decided I was going to treat myself to some nice new gear for once after having had such a rough time over the last few years with my autism and co-morbid mental health issues.
I've never felt worthy of having nice things and ordinarily can't afford them anyway, but as things have finally become so bad, I've just started to think 'sod it, everyday is practically my last, so I might as well indulge while I'm still here'.
I'm beginning to think of this as palliative carelessness.
But funds being what they are I'm not possibly in the position to do such things so I had to get creative and set about raising some cash by selling some stuff off, so off went some unused vape gear, old toys and some other loft-based items, plus I switched bank accounts a couple of times for the signing on bonuses and conveniently had a small windfall and a small gift from my Dad, and with that I was finally in a position to go ahead.
At this point all was going relatively well, and I had something to look forward to for once - apart from the crippling bouts of indecision I go though when buying things.
But then it all went pear shaped.
As you might have read, my parents sadly lost their dog after Christmas and it all went wrong from there.
Well, what's that got to do with it, I hear you ask?
Well, let me tell you.
Me being me, I took it all upon myself to find them a new one and begrudging signed up to FaceBook - something I swore I'd never do as I loathe that platform - to find them a reputable breeder, but inevitably ended up elsewhere too...
Against my better judgement I ended up in some high-end vape groups and had my head turned by all the exotica.
This was a huge mistake.
It's a completely different world to anything I've encountered before, and buying directly from modders is quite different to buying from shops.
In some ways it's better because you have that personal contact with the modder themself, but in other ways it's worse because of randomisers, odd payment methods and the extra organisation involved.
All of these things are not suited to me well at all, particularly in my current mental state, but still I went ahead anyway and started participating in some events even though I'm in no fit state to be making proper decisions and my behaviour is still incredibly erratic, impulsive and out of character.
Anyway, it all got off to a good start when Valentin Lopez Gomez of Mod Corporation tipped me off that he was going to be putting a viking Hoko-E on his site imminently and I'd be able to procure it if I moved quickly, so that was exactly what I did - as it was one of the models I wanted - and everything went well, albeit as a slightly uncomfortable, and tricky experience having to verify 'Wise'.
But here's where thing took a turn for the worse.
I decided I wanted an APEX too and watched for the drops patiently, and when they dropped some beautiful mods one evening I entered but unfortunately missed out.
The next day I then posted how disappointed I was to miss out and just had to hope they produced another batch like it. And with that, I thought that was the end of it, but it wasn't...
A short while afterwards, I received a PM from 'L'Atelier's Raphael Real' informing me that there was one left and I could have it if I wanted.
Excitedly I started thinking about it immediately and within half an hour I had decided to go for it.
Unfortunately, I was extremely confused and impulsive at the time and shouldn't have been anywhere near my computer let alone my finances.
Now, I'm not completely naive about how these things work, and even in my confused states, I still know there are scammers at play, so I tried to be cautious and closed messenger and re-contacted 'Raphael' through his 'official' link to try and protect myself.
However, all the 'official link' did was to take me back to the original conversation I'd been having and reassure me it was genuine.
So now thinking everything was okay I proceeded with the transaction and followed his instructions to make the purchase.
I only became suspicious that things weren't right when he said the payment had been put on hold and asked me to make it again, and then he would then reimburse me a couple of days later.
Naturally this set alarm bells ringing, and when he suggested I paid by credit card instead, it only heightened my suspicions, as he was pretty persistent and trying to hard to get my details out of me.
Fortunately I was still lucid enough at this point not to give them to him or make any more payments, but that didn't help me much with the one I'd already made. In fact nothing did.
After panickily then doing a bit of investigating it turns out the official link wasn't an official link at all and it was that of a cloner who had cloned Raphael's account and impersonated him so well, I couldn't tell the difference.
By this point I was in abject despair, frantic and in tears.
I contacted PayPal but they didn't want to know and neither did my bank, so for several days I thought I'd lost all my money and I wasn't getting an APEX.
But then on Tuesday night I decided to contact my bank one last time and finally spoke to the right person. She was sympathetic, listened to my story again and decided that I had indeed been scammed and they would reimburse me for their part of the transaction, which accounted for almost 90%.
Feeling emboldened by this I contacted PayPal again the next day, and after getting cut-off several times from their Indian call center, I explained the situation again to the gentleman and that my bank had changed their tune, and wondered if they would do the same.
And to my surprise they did - sort of.
Whilst they said they couldn't reimburse me the money directly, they said they would give me a PayPal credit for the remaining part of the loss and effectively make me whole again.
So in effect I've now been completely compensated for my loss and got away with it.
Whether I deserve to is another matter, and that's for you to decide, but now all that's left is me feeling like a prize chump, beating myself up, and having lost the little confidence in myself I had.
Without doubt, this is something that's going to scar me for the rest of my life and something I'm never going to get over, but it's something I'm going to have to live with.
However, the story doesn't quite end there.
The real Raphael Real and Mac Cim at APEX couldn't have been nicer or more apologetic to me about the whole thing, and even though none of this was their fault, they offered to let me que jump and have a mod the very next day, despite this meaning I would effectively be buying two APEX's.
But as I liked this one even more and still needed to get it out of my system, I bit the bullet and went for it.
So, for a time not only had I bought one APEX, I'd actually bought two....
That was stupid you might say. And well, you'd probably be right, but that's what I am - stupid.
I also didn't want my experience to be tainted, or let the scammer ruin my dreams, so I did also feel I'd salvaged a little something too.
So, after all that, I did actually get away with it and escaped with only the humiliation and wounded pride.
I was very fortunate to be reimbursed for the scam and after much toing and froing can only be relieved that there was a least one person at my bank will to listen.
The guys at APEX were nothing but professional throughout though and neither Raphael Real, Mac Cim or anyone else at L'Atelier APEX Project bear any responsibility for any of this - the fault is entirely mine and that of the scammer.
In fact, they were so nice, communicative and supportive of me and my situation, I can only commended them for their humanity, understanding and generosity of spirit.
I'd happily buy from them again (if ever I'm lucky enough to be in that position) and would have no hesitation recommending them and their mods to others.
However, if ever I'm lucky enough to buy some more of their gear I'll be far more cautious next time, and make sure I do it through the correct channels and when calm and clear headed enough to make such decisions.
I hope I haven't bored you too much with this long ramble, but I've learned a harsh lesson in the last ten days and I just wanted to pass it on, even though I'm highly embarrassed to do so, because I wouldn't want to see any of you make the same mistakes as me.
Now there's just that small matter of the new puppy.
She arrives on Sunday, so that's something else to look forward to - and it leaves my FaceBook experience not as a complete disaster... but I don't think I'll be staying.
Peace, love and blessings all.
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