It has to do with the online world and since I haven’t been doing much online traversing nowadays, I figured I might as well talk about an online scam I ran into recently.

So the latest in online via email IRS tax scamming and information phishing is this little gem here that goes something like this:

This was copied and pasted directly from my email.

Poor grammar, a random spammy message that didn’t show up until the copy and paste (the bit about James and Joseph – WTF, man? the hell does THAT have anything to do with my taxes?), and the fact that I never signed up for the website in the FIRST place (much less made a tax payment) red flagged this message as a “phishing” attempt or some sort of scam attempt.

To test my theory and suspicions, I opened up the link in a virtual environment where the worst that could happen would be limited to that one virtual environment and… guess what? My antivirus software went nuts over it – complaining that the link linked to malicious malware or a site that contained malicious malware.

Awesome.

When I checked online, sure enough, I found a message posted by the IRS that warned people of similar scams.

The link to the official IRS article is HERE and an excerpt of the website page is here:

So yeah.

Scam, fraud, and phishing attempt confirmed which means: DON’T click on those links if you get similar sorts of emails!

But that’s not all!

After about a few weeks of receiving such emails and reporting each one as phishing, I started receiving emails with subject titles like this:

Notification: Federal Tax Payment Batch Has Been Rejected

ORLY?

Company Federal Tax Payment Batch Has Been Failed

‘Has Been Failed’?

EFTPS notification: your account is blocked

Ahhh yes. My nonexistent account would be blocked because of… why?

And they just keep coming.

And coming.

And coming.

And I keep reporting…

And reporting…

And reporting.

And so should you.

Over and out,
Aith

Have you ever bought an item or won an item in an auction on eBay thinking that you had won an item of a specific sort only to receive the package… and then realize that there were surprises in store for you?

It’s been a while since I’ve received any surprises through eBay auctions, but I guess my Tonberry card was feeling neglected because it suddenly activated on me and what was already a good bargain became a VERY unexpected (but much appreciated!) steal of a deal.

The item in question that became a steal of a deal is this:

Originally, I was bidding – or I thought I was bidding – on just that – the Pokemon HeartGold version boxed game with the manuals and Pokewalker accessory for the Nintendo DS and DS Lite.

After some communication with the seller to (ironically) confirm the contents of the auction, I made my bid and then won the auction for less than $30.00 with Priority shipping included.

Because I wanted to catch the Nintendo Wi-Fi Mew event before October 30, I asked the seller if they would mind shipping it with Priority if I volunteered to pay the additional shipping. They agreed to it and promised to try and ship ASAP as long as I could make my payment in time.

The payment was made faster than you could yell “Pokemon!” and after that, it became a waiting game… that lasted a grand total of two days. The package shipped on Monday and it reached me on Wednesday (today).

I was definitely anticipating the arrival of the package so I was really happy (and relieved!) to see the package in my mailbox and after taking care of the other pieces of not-so-interesting mail, I set up my table to get ready for a photography session.

In the middle of cutting open the bubble envelope, I realized that the package inside… was bigger than my SoulSilver box.

Wait… what? What was going on? Didn’t I buy the HeartGold version of the game?

I hurriedly cut away the rest of the top of the envelope, reached inside, and pulled out THIS:

WHOA! Talk about surprises!

Here I thought I had won an auction for the game set ONLY… only to receive the Wal-Mart limited edition bundle set that includes the boxed game with the Pokewalker accessory, a Ho-oh and HeartGold-themed Pokewalker jacket with a wrist strap, and a Ho-oh figurine!

Since I had only purchased the game set with no extras I thought that maybe some of the items in the bundle were probably missing and so I opened up the box and pulled everything out to see what the deal was.

Maaan oh man. Just take a LOOK at this!

I was kind of expecting for something or other to be missing since I had made the assumption that I was buying the game set only (the game box with its contents that you saw in a earlier picture), but inspection of my package shows that NOTHING is missing.

The limited edition Ho-oh figurine is there and so is the limited edition Pokewalker jacket cover with its matching wrist strap. Despite the box being a bit squashed in some places, everything packaged inside the box is in near-mint condition.

I guess when the seller told me that everything was nearly new and barely used, they really meant it because… wow. Just… wow.

Yeah.

I’m definitely surprised and for once, it’s in a good way!

Not only did I receive my package in record time for it having traveled across the country, but I received way more than I had bargained for besides.

Way, way cool.

To the seller who sold me this item, “THANK YOU; you really made my day and I hope you like the glowing feedback I left for you!”

Over and out,
Aith

Previously in THIS POST HERE entitled Achieving a Perfect Grade where I reviewed the Perfect Grade Necklace Set featuring a sterling silver replica of Squall Leonhart’s Griever necklace and a scaled down replica of his Revolver gunblade on a keychain, I mentioned that I used to work with fine and bridge jewelry.

So… yeah.

Once upon a time, I used to work with fine and bridge jewelry (including fine watches) where I was constantly exposed to high end sterling silver and other jewelry crafted from fine metals along with fine watches. In addition to selling jewelry I also inadvertently became something of a jewelry appraiser and jewelry consultant as customers would frequently bring in their (older) jewelry with questions on authenticity and repairability.

In the industry – just like in the collectibles field – there are guidelines to follow when determining a piece of jewelry’s authenticity and quality and after all those years… I think I can say that I know a thing or three about both authenticity and quality.

With that said…

I’m going to just be straight up about it.

It REALLY pisses me off to see all those knockoffs of the official Griever necklace replica passing off as the ‘official’ real deal.

Why?

Because fans are regularly getting jipped out of their money for knockoffs that they believe are the genuine article because the sellers are selling them and marketing them as the real thing.

Even worse, the knockoffs aren’t even good quality, but… do the fans know?

For a lot of them, NO. In fact, a lot of them – many of whom I have encountered in the past – have no clue that they not only own a knockoff but a low-quality knockoff to boot…

Which brings me to this next bit:

Here’s a quick down and dirty rundown on how to identify a knockoff:

• IF THE METAL IS STERLING SILVER it will be heavier than all other conventional knockoff materials and will bear the mandatory .925 stamp somewhere that indicates its status as genuine sterling silver
• THE CHAIN IS CHEAP in looks and feel and isn’t smooth, highly polished, heavy, and thick
• THE PENDANT LOOP FOR THE CHAIN to hook on looks like an upside down U
• THE STAMP ON THE BACK SIDE, if it has one, IS MISSING PARTS of the official inscription (most notably, the © SQUARE engraving)
• THE PRICE IS TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE because the original non-sterling version was definitely worth more than $25.00 and the genuine sterling silver is worth WAY more than $25.00.
• IT IS A RE-RELEASE because Square only ever released that particular version in a single run and that’s IT.

If you ever wondered at the quality difference between a knockoff of the Griever pendant and the real thing, I would have to say that you have NO frickin’ IDEA just what a HUGE difference there is.

Even in comparison to the sterling silver knockoff (YES, it most certainly IS a knockoff as it does not have the official stamp on the back like mine does and Square stopped manufacturing that particular official replica ages ago) being sold at myimportstore.org which advertises it as:

the real article – the genuine thing, the Real McCoy, whatever you want to call it – EASILY outclasses it.

How?

1) QUALITY of the pendant

If you read the comments, you will see that there is a manufacturing issue that renders the bottom point of the pendant bent. The original sterling silver one is in no way, shape, or form, BENT which is easily proven by looking at my close-up photos.

Also, if you didn’t catch what I wrote earlier, I will reiterate and say that Square only ran the FFVIII jewelry pieces for this particular replica for a very limited time (and in the Perfect Grade sterling silver case, a limited number of 10,000) and EVERY SINGLE sterling silver Griever piece put out by them was stamped/engraved with “Sleeping Lion Heart”, Silver, the required .925 tag, and © Square.

You can verify this stamp by looking at my picture of the back of my pendant and also the picture of the sticker on the back of the box. You can also verify that Square (now known as Square Enix) stamps all of their official merchandise from phone straps to figurines to statues to games to jewelry by looking at any other officially licensed Square Enix merchandise.

Conveniently, I have pictures of a similar sort of stamping/engraving done to an official metal phone strap that came as a decorative item attached to my Sephiroth Eau de Toilette bottle as shown here and in my review post.

Thus, if you ever bought a sterling silver Griever pendant (likely from myimportstore.org or someone who purchased from them or from their same supplier unless the pendant was handcrafted) whose stamp/inscription (if it even has one) does not match the one in my photograph, you can be assured that what you bought is unfortunately NOT the genuine article.

2) QUALITY of the chain

Again, read the comments about the chain and about how cheap it looks and feels and how it has even broken off for some. There’s no doubt about it; the chain that comes with the knockoff is a CHEAP Junk Shop-worthy chain.

The funny thing is, in all actuality, stainless steel is a really good metal to use for jewelry owing to its inertness and it is normally quite hardy in addition to being stable which is why there is a grade of stainless steel called “implant grade” which is used for surgical implants and body jewelry. Furthermore, a lot of cookware is made of stainless steel because of the same stability and durability. Bearing this in mind, if the stainless steel on those necklaces aren’t holding up, then there’s something wrong with the quality there!

In comparison, the chain that came with the original is HEAVY, THICK (seriously, think of a juvenile snake), HIGHLY polished, and of all things it does, it does NOT discolor in the same manner. If you looked at my pictures, you will agree that I am simply stating a simple fact.

Here’s another idea of how solid the real chain is:

That little clasp/clip that clips one end of the chain to the other so it can be looped around the neck? The end of the clip has stretched out a bit after ten years of wear because of the total weight it was forced to support.

Yeah. Heavy.

Remember that aside that I wrote about O rings? Here’s a perfect example of how a pendant and its chain can stress a connector piece too much.

3) MONETARY value

$200.00 USD for THAT thing?

Really?

For only a necklace whose only sterling silver part is the pendant and whose chain looks and feels cheap and has proven itself to BE cheap and, given what I have explained about the properties of stainless steel which you can easily research and confirm yourself, may not even be stainless steel to begin with?

Yeah. NO.

It’s not only a knockoff with questionable quality, but a ripoff as well compared to both the original prices for the official replicas – BOTH the necklace-only non-silver run AND the limited edition 10,000 Perfect Grade boxed set – and the market trend for silver.

If these knockoffs were actually a hoard of the originals, then the pricing is understandable as both the inherent value and material value has appreciated over time. But these are unofficial KNOCKOFFS that have quality control issues besides.

So why pay more – a lot more! – for a knockoff?

Yes, silver prices are skyrocketing through the roof, but… they’ve been selling their pieces at THOSE prices even BEFORE the prices for silver went climbing.

In other words, in case I didn’t say it clearly enough:

RIP. OFF.

This one up here whose pictures are worth a thousand words and whose quality and craftsmanship in ALL WAYS has lasted me constant use for ten years with minimal changes in quality?

Or this one down here whose chain – according to first person reviews! – pictured is actually NOT the chain that is shipped (and, according to the same reviews, the chain looks and feels cheap to boot) and whose pendant has a bent tip?

Yeah.

Even if you can’t hold it in your hands and then wear it around your neck to see with your own eyes in person and feel for yourself what the non-photographic differences are, the differences that can be seen through photographs alone – and especially given what the complaints are about the chain; the company is falsely advertising as the chain shipped is NOT the chain pictured! – stand out and NOT in a good way.

Someone else beat me to the punch by posting their thoughts on the knockoff version in a product review and I couldn’t agree more though I would have been harsher.

My review?

Yeah. Definitely harsh, but I stand by my words because I know what the truth is.

I have been an original owner for ten years and I have worked with sterling silver for almost half of those years. Where some things are a matter of personal taste and opinion, there are some things that are a matter of fact – facts that I have taken care to explain, illustrate, and even demonstrate.

But… hey.

If YOU are happy with whatever version you have, great. It’s YOUR money and if you’re happy with how you spent it, awesome!

Just don’t tell anyone who has ever encountered the real deal and expect them to agree with you when you say that, “it is just like the original!”

‘Cause it isn’t.

IT. JUST. ISN’T.

Over and out,
Aith