# Sticky  SCAM ALERT - EXPRESS D digitizing (banned member)



## splathead

Digitizers, please be on the lookout for any suspicious or out of the ordinary inquiries/orders for your services.

EXPRESS D is up to more dirty tricks. Last week he created a fake email account convincingly enough to fool another member here in providing over $600 of digitizing work for some of his customers. She thought the email was coming from a T-Shirt Forum moderator (me) when, in fact, I had no clue what was going on until she contacted me this morning for payment.  

What to watch out for:

1. He is based in the UK, so spelling of certain words may be different. For example realised instead of realized.

2. Be wary of any email coming from companies ending in gmail, yahoo, etc. Most legit companies now will have their own domain name email address. 

3. Don't change your payment/deposit terms. Money up front, always. Even if it's for me!

I'll leave it up to the digitizer to give her side of the story if she is up to it. I recommended she contact the companies whose logos' she digitized and their replies confirmed they paid EXPRESS D for the work. 

If there is any silver lining in this it's that they loved the work and were going to stop using EXPRESS D and start using them instead.

Be careful out there.


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## tfalk

Joe, please check your PM's when you have a minute, thanks!


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## digidana

So, on 3/17 I got an email from "the moderator" of this list asking for a design to be done. I did the design on a sunday and sent it over quick, because it sounded like he was in a rush. I got an email back saying the "quality was GREAT!"...and that there was a long-term project in the works; he wanted to know if i'd be interested in doing 3-5+ designs per day, starting Monday (3/20). I said sure!

I typically require prepayment or a credit card on file before I do designs, but I made an exception in this case because he was "the moderator", and therefore trustworthy, right? We have had a few communications off list, so I agreed to weekly a paypal payment.

There were a few emails that raised some concerns, but I gave "the moderator" the benefit of the doubt.so....I did $690 worth of digitizing, and then the emails start bouncing. uh oh!

I email from my junk yahoo account, and I got a "[email protected] doesn't exist" error. UH OH!

I PM the "moderator" on this list about his emails bouncing, and he didn't know what i was talking about. At that second i realized it was ExpressD digitizing. 

ExpressD and the moderator had sour grapes over the moderator blocking his account, ExpressD was using language in a post that my husband wouldn't use (and he was a sailor!). i assume that ExpressD was also angry at me, for defending the moderator and standing up for great customer service and it put me in the cross hairs for his scam.

So the scam worked this way; ExpressD had opened a gmail account using "[email protected]" and set up an account using splathead joe's address to send me designs. ExpressD basically stole $690 worth of digitizing, and tried trashing the moderator's reputation. Two birds, one stone.

I should be furious...but i find it funny and can't get the smile off of my face. i emailed all of the companys whose logos that i had done and have heard back from several. They complained about ExpressD's terrible customer service, and love the quality of their new designs. ExpressD has told his customers that he's never heard of me. 

so....to splathead joe...i'm SO sorry for doubting you! and to ExpressD, it must be exhausting being so devious...good luck sleeping at night! I think you're hurt yourself more than you've hurt me or joe. Karma has you now.

Dana, Dixie Designs.....will digitize for food.


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## Biverson

Can you post the website and company ExpressD represents? That'd be helpful. It'd also be good because there are 2 Express digitising websites that are only different with an "s" or a "z" and you wouldn't want to actually spoil the rep of the one not at fault.


Also, how did you know this email was setup by ExpressD? Just curious.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk


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## digidana

they are at:  http://www.expressdigitising.com/

first i knew because it would have had to have been somebody that had a beef with both me and joe...so it would have had to have been somebody from this list. i've managed 50 years without an enemy, and i immediately knew it was them. second, they are in the UK, and at least 8 of the designs were for companies in the UK. third, i've heard back from several of the embroidery companies that confirmed, that yes, they had sent their logos to ExpressD for digitizing.


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## djque

The spelling is also wrong in the email which would be a dead giveaway


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## digidana

djque said:


> The spelling is also wrong in the email which would be a dead giveaway


i didn't give the misspellings a second thought. i just thought joe was a bad speller (sorry again joe!)...tho, joe did pick up on that right away when i shared the emails. i didn't even know that expressD was in the UK until joe mentioned it and i started researching the designs.


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## tfalk

And just for more wood on the fire, if you check into express, the person behind the company is Ricci Shah... I don't remember where I found that, the domain is set to anonymous registry in Queensland Australia.... "They" got all bent out of shape after I posted a question about their lack of delivery here... they never sent me a design I paid for, then got offended because I posted instead of calling their phone number... Up until that point, the ONLY contact I had with them was their website and email. I assumed they were overseas and never even thought to look for a phone number. Apparently that is offensive enough to them that they started attacking my websites as well... 

Clearly not someone I would ever consider doing business with again.


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## wrkalot

Thank you!! It was only a matter of time.


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## Wildgoose

No experience here with Express D but I'd put a stamp on work by digidana. She has helped me out several times as I try to learn to do my own digitizing and does great work as a digitizer. Not sure if she even wants me promoting her here but I guess the mod can kill my post if it's an issue.


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## splathead

Our guy was back. Using a different IP address, joined here under the name of EDIGI.

An astute member, who must be a detective, sniffed him out.

My original advice stands- be careful out there.


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## digidana

nice catch!


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## in_amanda_we_trust

$600 dollars is crazy money. Anyone would be daft to fall for that surely? My company use some guys in India that only charge £5 per digitization. They always need the density and pull compensation sorting out though, but great service for the money.


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