I was taken advantage of by an internet confidence trickster.

[JDW]

I see topic about "risk" is now being debated. I had spoken of the risk in being nice to people or trusting them, but now the talk is about risk to this forum for having taken a righteous stand in allowing this thread to exist openly. But the risk to this forum is not less or more than the risk to any individual YouTubers who have bravely stepped forward to mention the individual (however indirectly or vaguely) who has been ravishing our community and others. In the end, the decision to hide this thread boils down to this: "let's hide, because a bad guy might threaten us."

I do wish to point out that this thread is quite near "private" already insofar it hasn't gained much traction, nor have we received many stories above and beyond @Mr. Fahrenheit. Look through all prior posts. There are hardly any first-hand stories posted. There are more first-hand accounts being reported in the YouTube comments section under Ron's video than here. It's almost like nobody knows about this thread at all.

I shall leave it to the board to decide where this thread leads and what shall be done with it. That is a board group-decision and not something I can decide alone.

In the end, I must reiterate what I basically said in my previous post today. Only good comes from loving others as you love your own self.

The world is only destined to get worse and worse if we collectively withdraw our trust, friendship and love from others, only because bad apples have harmed each of is personally. We must rise above the tragedies of the past and continue to do what is right when it comes to our disposition toward others, even people we don't yet know so well.

I will even take this a step further by saying that having the ability to love even your own enemies is not merely noble, but something we all should aspire to do. Even the most wicked among us could possibly repent and alter their ways, however unlikely that may seem. Restitution would still need to be paid by that person, but our willingness to "forgive" and then "truly forget" their evil is all tied into loving even one's own enemy.

We all reap what we sow. And I do hope within my own heart that I can possibly reap the future rewards of being as kind to other people in the same way I wish they would be kind to me. These are the seeds I intend to keep sowing.

 

[JDW]

By the way, Adrian's Digital Basement (a high profile YouTube channel, for those of you who don't already know), has chimed in here:

I strongly recommend reading through the comments under that video. I did. There are gems in there, especially from Ron.

I also recommend expanding and reading Ron's text description there too. He provides Google search phrases which lead to more horror stories. For example, the guy below tells of how he lost $7,000...

Coleco Chameleon Saga Draws To A Close As Creator Finally Pulls The Plug

"In the end, I am the only one that has lost anything"

www.timeextension.com

 

[JDW]

There's even a book on Amazon about the Coleco Chameleon here:

Amazon.com

Note the comment there by FutureMan. He specifically mentions "Sean Rox geek with social skills." Date: June 2023.

Since the book includes the experience of Mike Kennedy, I can only assume the book mentions or points to Sean as well. The following cast of characters gives evidence that is the case:

Smoke And Mirrors: Cast Of Characters

No, I've not read the book. Amazon says it is 396 pages long.

---

If you want to take a deeper dive into old posts, this one dated Feb. 2017 is a starting point, as it provide links which lead to other links:

Fwd: Re: [23b-Shop] Scammer alert: Sean Robinson

groups.google.com

One of the links dates back to May 2001, and describes scamming:

A Sean Robinson story - not pretty

groups.google.com

Then a year later in 2002, we see his arrest:

Sean Robinson Arrested for Grand Theft

groups.google.com

Here's a first-hand account about Sean that began around 1999-2000:

Coleco Chameleon .... hardware speculations?

forums.atariage.com

(Note that the post after that links to this ZIP archive of Court Records and screenshots of various posts about Sean.)

How has he continued this life of crime, going from one community to another? Well, the man was never clearly identified, it would seem. Most people just didn't know who they were dealing with.

 

[Yoda]

I have no idea whether this person would consider going to court for libel or not, but it may be wise to remember that by all accounts, his value system, moral compass, common sense and decency don't align with ours, so assuming that with the abundance of evidence, we would not be bonkers enough to try doesn't mean he wouldn't.

Secondly, while most of the content about him revolves around YouTube, thanks to Ron's expose a week or so back, the sheer scale of YouTube's size and corporate backing is a deterrent to action against them. This site is different and much more vulnerable since it isn't heavily financed and has no legal department to fall back on. More than that, we also hit directly on one of his areas of activity, and have personally identifiable governance, which would make us an easy target if he was minded to push back on anyone.

Otherwise, the points made in @badferday 's thread proposing a forum for outing scammers still stand, however egregious this one seems to be. That the board decided not to proceed with the proposal was, in my view, very wise, which makes it odd that we have this thread under way as it is now.

What would be enormously helpful is if anyone can point to a record of conviction for this guy. What people have said about him doesn't really offer much in the way of legal cover, and police investigations or even charges aren't the same as his being found guilty.

 

[Kai Robinson]

The board has already made it's position clear in an official capacity, so i'm taking my board president hat off here - I have absolutely NO issue with anyone sharing their experiences with anyone, literally none.

As @Yoda points out above, TD has ZERO finances to fight any kind of legal case, should one arise. Hell, keeping the lights on at this point is hard enough - hence no dedicated section for scammers. Why? Well because they're typically bastards. Bastard who would jump at the chance to take down anything negative surrounding themselves, even if it means burning everything to the ground to do it. All it would take is a single legal case to sink our whole community.

For what it's worth, I personally think it's very important for things like this to be brought to light so that they cannot avoid justice, either legal or moral.

However, that doesn't mean we'll censor anyone willing to tell us all about a bad experience with someone, just remember - we don't do doxxing, we're not a recruitment centre for an internet army - warn people by all means, share stories openly, but please don't involve the forum.

If people can keep to the facts of the situation and act reasonably (regardless of how unreasonable the 3rd party may have been) and keep cool heads, keep on making threads here to your hearts content as far as i'm concerned.

 

[Yoda]

If people can keep to the facts of the situation and act reasonably (regardless of how unreasonable the 3rd party may have been) and keep cool heads, keep on making threads here to your hearts content as far as i'm concerned.

Please don't take this as questioning the veracity of the story, but to take @Mr. Fahrenheit 's interaction with this guy as an example, what is being reported in that story is problematic from the standpoint of inviting him to post it.

If I read it correctly, eBay investigated what does otherwise appear to have been a case of mail fraud, and did not agree. We all know that's typical eBay, but if the perpetrator were to file a libel case, that eBay finding would be a near perfect argument that a defamation had taken place - as demonstrated by @YMK 's response that it 'fits the definition of mail fraud'.

Absent actual evidence, the story is an example of he said/she said. Personally, I don't doubt that @Mr. Fahrenheit is telling the truth and this guy deserves nailing to a tree, but at the very least a defense against defamation is going to need solid evidence the person claiming to have been defamed did actually do what they are accused of.

I'm not sure that the site itself has much legal jeopardy since there's no money for damages, and mostly therefore just the risk of being shut down, but you guys on the board are more exposed, and somewhat easy targets. I tend to agree with the idea this guy isn't going to take any action, but if I were one of the board here, I would be suggesting to the others that nobody associated with the site's governance, administration or day-to-day moderation post anything that could be taken as encouragement to post details of this person or his scams, and that what - if anything - you do post is to remind everyone to only post factual and supportable details.

Maybe I'm just being over cautious. I first picked up a law book when I was 10, and a lifetime later, I would have to say that was probably not wise either!

 

[Breezy]

I see topic about "risk" is now being debated. I had spoken of the risk in being nice to people or trusting them, but now the talk is about risk to this forum for having taken a righteous stand in allowing this thread to exist openly. But the risk to this forum is not less or more than the risk to any individual YouTubers who have bravely stepped forward to mention the individual (however indirectly or vaguely) who has been ravishing our community and others. In the end, the decision to hide this thread boils down to this: "let's hide, because a bad guy might threaten us."

I do wish to point out that this thread is quite near "private" already insofar it hasn't gained much traction, nor have we received many stories above and beyond @Mr. Fahrenheit. Look through all prior posts. There are hardly any first-hand stories posted. There are more first-hand accounts being reported in the YouTube comments section under Ron's video than here. It's almost like nobody knows about this thread at all.

I shall leave it to the board to decide where this thread leads and what shall be done with it. That is a board group-decision and not something I can decide alone.

In the end, I must reiterate what I basically said in my previous post today. Only good comes from loving others as you love your own self.

The world is only destined to get worse and worse if we collectively withdraw our trust, friendship and love from others, only because bad apples have harmed each of is personally. We must rise above the tragedies of the past and continue to do what is right when it comes to our disposition toward others, even people we don't yet know so well.

I will even take this a step further by saying that having the ability to love even your own enemies is not merely noble, but something we all should aspire to do. Even the most wicked among us could possibly repent and alter their ways, however unlikely that may seem. Restitution would still need to be paid by that person, but our willingness to "forgive" and then "truly forget" their evil is all tied into loving even one's own enemy.

We all reap what we sow. And I do hope within my own heart that I can possibly reap the future rewards of being as kind to other people in the same way I wish they would be kind to me. These are the seeds I intend to keep sowing.

If we allow the actions of a few to affect our interactions with the rest of the collective we will grow bitter and become a group that no one wants to be apart.

I don’t post much on this forum, however, one of the things that attracted me to it was the openness and kindness displayed to fellow members.

As in all aspects of our life, we should always be quick with our kindness. I am in no way insinuating we should be foolish, but rather judge people by the merit of their actions. I pray that the attention this incident has brought about will not destroy the good that has been created within the retro community.

The retro community as a whole is built on personal connections to others that are in need a hand. James’s message above inspired me to think about the people I trust in my life and how many times I have been let down by them and yet I still have some sort of relationship with them. It is good that the community is warning others about this behavior. I just worry that the result of individual’s pattern of behavior will affect the willingness of the group to welcome and trust newcomers.

 

[JDW]

If we allow the actions of a few to affect our interactions with the rest of the collective we will grow bitter and become a group that no one wants to be apart.

Very true.

In my earlier posts, I sought to speak to us as individuals first, but it is true that a collective bitterness, sour spirit, and general pessimistic outlook can impact us negatively as a whole. I do wish to make clear that I was not saying this forum has such a problem. I do feel that we here at TinkerDifferent really do things differently, which means "better" than other places. I don't say that to condemn those other places, but rather to say, EVERYONE IS WELCOME.

Maybe I'm just being over cautious. I first picked up a law book when I was 10, and a lifetime later, I would have to say that was probably not wise either!

I would agree about being overly cautious. People who pick up law books tend to go down a certain path. It's almost like studying pathogens and then having a fear of catching nearly any kind of disease. Sometimes we take our studies a bit too far. My mother was on a health kick in her younger days when I was a child, and I was pumped with all manner of things, carob instead of chocolate, swallowing fish oils by the spoonful, and vitamins-a-plenty. This isn't to speak ill of my own mother, mind you, but just to give an example of things we do when we get into a certain mode.

As I said before: LIFE IS A RISK. And sadly, the bulk of the posts in this thread are now about RISK MANAGEMENT more than an informative BE AWARE! and AVOID BEING DUPED! thread that it should be, and still can be.

Please know I don't speak ill of any of you who have pounded on that subject. You have a lot of liberty here at TinkerDifferent. Go right ahead and post what you feel. I simply want to see more posts from people who are victims because I think that is really why Ron created this thread in the first place.

Stories like that of Mr. Fahrenheit are important. Stories by Ron are important. Stories by Adrian Black are important. Stories by Dave are important. And as you can see from the links I posted, there are other stories and even a paperback book in print. There is also the report of an arrest, although that was many years ago.

First hand accounts generate awareness. The very fact awareness has been lacking through the years is why this particular individual still to this very day is out and about tricking people out of their hard earned cash.

Some argue "it's risky to talk about this." But such statements also argue this: "it's better to play it safe and avoid generating awareness so that nobody can say a negative thing against us." That argument is NOT about DOING THE RIGHT THING. It's about law books and lawyers and numerous what-ifs.

Consider well that sort of thinking is also why so many people NEVER STOP TO HELP when something bad happens to somebody out in public. FEAR is the core reason. But most of that fear is unfounded. Few are the Good Samaritans of this world who stop to do right regardless of the consequences.

Honestly, I feel odd continuing to debate RISK when this thread should be focused on STORIES posted by the poor and unfortunate VICTIMS.

Ron was a VICTIM, despite the fact he wasn't directly ripped off. His reputation was ripped off and people Ron was connected to had money stolen from them, as per Ron's report. Ron was basically used a tool, and he wasn't aware of it for a while. Then Ron became aware of it, saw how a bad guy used him, then decided to BOLDLY GO WHERE FEW HAVE GONE BEFORE and make a YouTube video to tell the world THE TRUTH.

That is why I believe this thread is really about AWARENESS and needs to continue to be. Too much talk of "RISK" merely muddies the waters of awareness.

The board has already made it's position clear in an official capacity, so i'm taking my board president hat off here - I have absolutely NO issue with anyone sharing their experiences with anyone, literally none.

Thank you, Kai.

TD has ZERO finances to fight any kind of legal case...

When I read that truth I couldn't help but remember this...

 

[Yoda]

I have found references to a Sean Lee Robinson having claimed in correspondence to be a lawyer. If anyone associated with this gets any seemingly official notification or threat from a lawyer regarding any related allegations, I would strongly suggest you request the lawyer's Bar Number. Every lawyer accredited and licensed to practice law in the US has one, issued by their State Bar Association, and they are required to provide it if requested. Clearly, Sean wouldn't be able to. A Bar Number can, of course, be tracked on the internet via the state bar association to confirm it is authentic and to whom it has been issued. Hopefully that will help everyone should 'his lawyer' begin pushing back.

Also, while if you know what you're looking for, it's not hard to find court documents online, the sources in this instance look a bit sparse and haven't been much reported, so: The posts by x=user(1536) here https://forums.atariage.com/topic/2...-hardware-speculations/page/470/#entry3897510 contain court references to convictions for Grand Theft and in https://forums.atariage.com/topic/2...-hardware-speculations/page/472/#entry3952025 the same user posts what is said to be a segment of the DA's opposition filing to Sean's petition for the expungement of those convictions, pulled from an email from the author who was (then) a law clerk in the office, but at the time of writing, an Assistant DA.

For ease of access, this is the ADA's segment, which while not a 'proof' of Sean's wrong doing, is nevertheless a matter of public record, and thus not actionable by Sean for being repeated here. (And Sean, if you're reading this, DM me with proof of your ID, so I can furnish you with an address for service - I'd be happy to see you in court).

"On Thu, Apr 7, 2016 at 3:22 PM, Albright, Greg <[email protected]> wrote:
Here are several paragraphs from the opposition that I wrote:

This was not simply an isolated, one-time incident in which the defendant screwed up. The defendants convictions resulted from sophisticated confidence scams that stretched out over a period of nine months. His methods did not involve a single act of taking the victims money and running. The defendant actually communicated with each of his victims repeatedly, and either assured them that their merchandise was on its way, or he attempted to shift the blame to a fictitious company that he created to further his crimes. When the police were finally involved, numerous victims handed over dozens of pages of e-mail messages from the defendant, in which he continued to try to earn their trust by assuring them that he was a legitimate seller and by offering excuses that the delays were not his fault. It was defendants continuous and deliberate deception that made his victims experience ongoing frustration and suffering throughout that time.

The defendants criminal sophistication is clear. He chose many victims from out-of-state, which makes confrontation and prosecution difficult. He used his wifes name on E-Bay to build up the positive feedback ratings on the site. He explained that the more positive rating a seller has, the better the chances are people will bid on their items. In other words, the more likely people will trust him and fall victim to his scam. He created false shipping companies, with false employees, and created false shipping invoices, all to convince the victims that he was a genuine seller, and to try to shift the blame for the victims losses on someone else. He even sent e-mails back and forth with a fictitious shipper, Brian Johnson from BJ Shipping. The police were unable to locate a business license or any other proof that BJ Shipping or Brian Johnson ever existed. The defendant had Anonymizer and a firewall installed on his computer to prevent others from finding out who he is and to keep victims from tracking him down. Anonymizer software allows the user to send emails and prevents the receiver from finding out where the messages were sent from. The only practical purpose is to disguise where the e-mails originated from, which no legitimate business would do.

The defendants basis for his motion is that he is a changed man who has been rehabilitated. But this court cannot ignore the fact that the defendant is a compulsive liar. He lied all throughout this case. He lied to his wife, over a period of two years, telling her that he was employed by Sprint. He got up every morning and pretended to go to a job he didnt have. He lied to each of the victims, telling them that he was a legitimate businessman and that their merchandise was on its way. He told them that the problems were not his fault, and blamed them on a fictitious shipping company that he made up. He even had the audacity to accuse the victims of being unreasonable and threatened to sue one of the victims for defamation of character.

Once the defendant was arrested, he repeatedly lied to the police. During interrogation, he evaded responses with one lie after another. He initially told Detective Anderson that he worked for Sprint. When asked for some documentation of his employment, he said that he had no ID card. When asked for a pay stub, he said he did not keep them. He then said that he worked for Sprint part time, but had not worked in about a month. He finally acknowledged that he did not have a job with Sprint, and had not worked for two years. When the detectives asked him why he did not pay back one of the victims money, he said he tried to but the victim changed his e-mail address and would not return phone messages.

The defendants criminal sophistication and compulsive lying show that he is a man who cannot be trusted. His failure to fulfill his obligation of full restitution after representing to the court that he had already done so shows that he is just trying to manipulate his way out of trouble. Given that the defendant has been convicted of seven felony counts of grand theft, this court should hold him to his plea and deny his motion.

Gregory R. Albright
Deputy District Attorney
Grand Theft Auto Unit
Riverside Co. District Attorney's Office"

The sad fact is that these convictions WERE expunged, so Sean's criminal activities are no longer in his record. However, they do still exist in the California state criminal record, and he can't legally challenge their reporting today.

 

[Yoda]

Please know I don't speak ill of any of you who have pounded on that subject. You have a lot of liberty here at TinkerDifferent. Go right ahead and post what you feel. I simply want to see more posts from people who are victims because I think that is really why Ron created this thread in the first place.

I'm not trying to 'pound' on this at all. What I'm trying to do is offer a bit of safe cover for you guys running what is an amazing excellent web site for us, and suggesting what might help to protect yourselves and the site from quite easily avoided repercussions.

I think this guy deserves a thorough nailing, but he won't get it if he wins. What I posted above is public record that he can't fight, but which would remove some of the sense he may have that TD is an easy target to push back on.

I am more cautious about legal ramifications yes. I taught law, I managed a fairly big legal department, and I have worked in the law for most of the last 40 years of my adult life. It's taught me that the good guys win when they don't trip over their own feet.

 

[JDW]

I'm not trying to 'pound' on this at all.

"Pound" is my frequently used term to say something has been stated and re-stated "repeatedly," even if each new post on the subject includes new and important information. And while that may be interpreted as a slight against anyone who has discussed RISK, it is in fact not, as per what I stated in my previous post about LIBERTY.

One of the great things here at TD is that you have the liberty to continue speaking. Even though I personally would love this thread to stay mostly focused on AWARENESS because I interpret that as the primary subject as per the title and content of the opening post, you have the liberty to continue speaking about RISK. I really do see the merits of that. I just didn't want RISK and the legal issues to outweigh AWARENESS. Because let's face it, when the legal stuff comes up, many people either skip it or let their eyes glaze over. I hope people will come to this thread to see there is a serious issue about a serial scammer, and that they need to avoid getting caught up in his trickery.

@Yoda , I also wish to humbly thank you for what you wrote in your longer post today, where you provided links and a quote. You want to see a good outcome for those who seek to DO GOOD. That is laudable and worthy of praise. So thank you for that. Truly! And should you wish to provide further information, please don't feel as if I am trying to stop you.

I am pounding on AWARENESS, yes indeed. And toward that end, I would like to point out 2 parts of Ron & Adrian's recent interview video which pertain specifically to that and how they are truly saving people from getting scammed:

1. The 25:53 timestamp where Adrian mentions Ron's video being like a bomb dropping on the community in a good way, exposing what's been going on. He adds it is bringing the community closer together and opening up our eyes. Indeed, my own eyes were made to be wide open.

2 .The 35:03 timestamp where Adrian answers Ron about what course of action people should take. Adrian replies that "When we all keep quiet about something, that's where things like this are able to be perpetrated against people." Adrian goes on to talk about taboos of speaking about this things online, but countering that by saying when people are being exploited, if there is no place where people can talk about it, it all just gets bad and stays bad. He continues: "Now is the perfect time to start to reach out to those members of your community and start talking." ( That is precisely what this thread on TinkerDifferent is about! ) Adrian went on to say that people who have had a monetary impact should reach out to local law enforcement.


I once again wish to thank @Ron's Computer Videos . He accepted RISK and bravely stepped forward to DO THE RIGHT THING REGARDLESS, thereby saving a lot of people from financial loss. This is showing the best of our community. And the fact TinkerDifferent doesn't treat it as a TABOO and doesn't ban it like other fearful forums do, shows we have strong values. There is a risk to doing right. That is true. But by hiding this information, a WRONG is done to everybody. Hiding or banning this info indirectly perpetuates criminal activity. Doing RIGHT is risky, but worth it.

Ron, THANK YOU!