USER SUSPENSION: HillBilly1918

[ADMIN]

**This post is informative only. User responses have been disabled.**

 

Members of the USMF community:

 

Today the administration was forced to suspend the account of community member "HillBilly1918" for fraudulent seller practices and lying to the administration.

 

This member posted a FOR SALE ad on Aug 3, 2008 at 10:01 AM. Among the items for sale was a DR armored patch noted as "WW2 DR armored patch 4.00" The sale went on to state "I like to stand buy my sales." (For the full ad please click DR Armored Patch For Sale Ad).

 

At 10:16 AM the same day, member camelgreen44 indicated he wished to purchase the patch. Less than 15 minutes later (at 10:30 AM), Hillbilly1918 quoted camelgreen44 in his reply stating "DR patch sold." See below image for the two posts:

 

 

Several members (including many that were not even involved in the transaction) noticed the follow up posts indicated that HillBilly1918 had backed out of the sale and thus reported it to the Administration. I contacted HillBilly1918 via PM requesting he follow through with the sale or face banning. He responded with the following story stating "His Side":

 

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

Subject: My side of the story

From: "Hillbilly1918"

Date: Mon, August 4, 2008 10:14 pm

To: "USMF Administrator"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Basically what happened was I had to cancel my sale to

Camelgreen due to an email that I had received at 10:25 before I ever

saw Camelgreens pm.

Problem was was that my email was down until around 3:30 or so.

Basically Camelgreen was not and never will be the first person to

buy the item.l ALWAYS SELL TO THE FIRST PERSON.

I made the mistake of acting to fast I guess.

I sold the patch to the first guy for the same price 4.00.

I even offered Camelgreen a free patch but he did not accept, instead

I got a rant about how I am a

dirty person.

If i still had the patch I would burn it. It is not worth all the

poppycock.

I still would have been complained about by the other guy because he

would have seen the time that camelgreen posted.

This is my side of the story, whether you believe it or not is up to

you, but I do not care all I care is that I told the truth.

I have not screwed anyone yet on my other sales. Please email me your

decision.

--------------------------------------------

This message was sent by [email protected]

on Aug 4th, 2008 at 10:14 PM from U.S. Militaria Forum.

--------------------------------------------

 

I fully realized that even in the best case scenario, he had told camelgreen44 he was the "winner" and then later backed out. Once he conveyed acceptance to an specific offer to buy an item on his general ad, HillBilly1918 had a contract with camelgreen44. However, despite the legalities, I gave him the benefit of the doubt and just requested he forward me along the e-mail with the date stamp on it from the supposed "first acceptance."

 

He sent me the following:

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------

Subject: Re: My side of the story

From: "Jeff Lee"

Date: Mon, August 4, 2008 10:50 pm

To: [email protected]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

thats fine. Camelgreen knows the patch is gone and has yet to claim a free one. Here is the email as follows:

 

Dear Hillbilly,

I saw your patches on the internet and I was interested in the following:

ETO advanced base patch

Demonstration Regiment patch

Seargent stripes Red ones

Black? navy patch.

Thanks,

Ross

 

His email is [email protected].

 

I was suspicious in that nothing, even behind the scenes code showed any evidence of anything but recently typed text. And, I knew (1) we don't have a member with that email address and (2) HillBilly1918 didn't put his email address in the ad so that an outside person could email in a "I'll take it."

 

So, I decided to see if it would be possible to obtain PMs received by a certain member within the past 48 hours, since I knew the system had logs up for a short time just in case of glitches. And guess what? I found the buyer (another forum member GERMAN-PATCH-HUNTER) who not only asked him not to say who got the patch, but who didn't send the money until today AND helped to try and provide HillBilly1918 with a story. A story HillBilly1918 then conveyed to me.

 

I think the following will be pretty self explanatory (I've reproduced them in viewable format below):

 

 

 

 

The extent of the deception by both members quite astounded the Administration here (and I'm sure it will several other members). Granted, we can't root out all fraudsters, but when we find one we are sure to act. We do NOT tolerate this behavior in the least. Individuals like these who would so easily deceive others l(as in this case) are clearly not welcomed on here.

 

Please use caution when dealing with any individual bearing the following or similar information (copied below from here and other sites):

 

Username:

HillBilly1918

WVUM1shooter

 

Name:

Jeff Lee

 

Location:

Morgantown, West Virginia

 

AOL Messenger:

deerhunter58585

 

Email:

[email protected]

*edited father's name out*

[email protected]

[email protected]

 

Banning is not something the administration here likes to do. However, sometimes a user makes it such that there is no other alternative. Any member coming across similar postings, private messages, and/or emails is encouraged to report those posts to the USMF administration.

 

Thanks.

 

ADMIN

 

 

**DISCLAIMER: Please note that all information above is being provided in accordance with RULE 6.2 - Privacy Exceptions:. This rule states: "Any information a member provides openly on the board (via a post, private message, or through board email), to a third party, on a third party website (such as Facebook or MySpace), or in any other similar way is subject to use by the U.S. Militaria Forum, especially if the member's membership is revoked, banned, suspended, or limited." For this and other Rules of the USMF Code of Conduct, please Click the Code of Conduct Link.**

[ADMIN]

The other member has now been banned and the reason posted:

 

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/ind...showtopic=24518

[ADMIN]

His fake account (aka WVUM1shooter) has also been banned. Here is an message shown in viewable form that we were able to recover from logs that seems pretty clear on the pair's intentions and motivations:

 

 

All in all, regardless of the fussing the two made in the PM to make themselves feel better, the facts are the same. Hillbilly / WVUM1shooter had a contract with camelgreen44. GERMAN-PATCH-HUNTER was aware of the contract but nevertheless made the choice to go behind another member's back for his own gain.

 

To Jurgen and Jeff:

 

I know both of you will probably be reading this later. The patch itself is

NOT

the real issue. USMF members were not disgusted by who the patch was originally intended for, the price it was later sold for, or any of those factors. Rather they were disgusted by the

lack of integrity

both of you showed.

 

Out of old fashioned greed both of you felt that your personal, moral integrity was worth parting with for momentary gain. I don't personally know the true value of the patch, but it seems that both of you decided that your own moral integrity had a price and you bartered for it. Not a very high trade in, I suspect. Not to mention a very sad choice.

 

If anyone receives any contacts from ANY individual similar to the above Jeff Lee character, please notify the administration immediately.

 

Thanks.

[ADMIN]

Also, please notify us if you receive a contact by any individual matching the description provided for: GERMAN-PATCH-HUNTER