andy lee

Just stop posting & take a step back for a second or two.
Have you done this?
Now take a long hard look at this thread.....are you seeing how childish & stupid it all is?
This guy probably doesn't exist & if he does, why would you waste anymore time or energy on him.
There are some people, in this thread, who are on the verge of ruining this forum, if that hasn't been done already.
Its been coming a while & I've posted a lot less over the last year or two and I've noticed a lot of the other usual posters becoming more & more silent too. ES was a big part of this, but there are others too & it was such a nice interesting/different place to come to. It's a shame!
If you're that bored, go and watch a film or take a walk or how about interacting with real people, have a drink & a laugh.
This kid wants the attention...so just walk away.

I´m with you on that big time, dhessel!
@andy lee, if you feel to drop a line on this, maybe you can find the time to do so.
I have been promoting the idea of leaving it to authorities before. I do not feel like screaming it through
the vast number of posts. It is not a pleasure I want to learn to find.
Anyway, leaving it to the authorities is the legally right procedure in this regards matter, involving
the account ES, the scam victims, the forum posters and not least of all Andrew!
Andrew suggested that as well to leave it to authorities!
 

This whole thread is absolutely ridiculous. 
First of all you are the most naive people I have ever seen. All saying Ebrahim was amazing, and even a friend. Lol, how can you be friend with someone behind a PC you dont even know? 
It has always been clear to me that this guy is a pure lier, spending his time advising people based on research saying he used the gear when he did not. I have had a couple of debates in some threads with him and this was clear as water. 
Then the scam thing. So he sends a post in this thread saying he his the grandfather and he doesnt know at all how all of this happened ? Then everyone believes him. LOL seriously.. .And now you are all like we are going to destroy his life. Seriously ? You look like school kids.
People have been scammed because they are naive. You thought you were friends with this ebrahim cause you were naive. STOP to listen to everything you see on the internet, get out go get some real friends in the real life and grew up a little bit, honestly. 
Now I am sorry for the guys who lost their money to this asshole. Hopefully they get paid back.

Also, some advice to the financially scammed... DO NOT AGREE TO HAVE HIM SEND THE RANGEFINDER BY HIS MOTHER...
This is just another stall tactic and con. He thinks if his mother, or whoever this person is, sends the actual rangefinder then his name won't appear on the post, which is an admission of guilt. Since he doesn't believe the Internet is part of the real world and sees it as a fantasy land, he doesn't think any of this is incriminating, but if he physically sends the rangefinder then he will be culpable for his actions. 
DO NOT TRUST HIM. 
@Ed_David of course anybody who buys something solely on one person's opinion on a forum is wrong, but so is sending money to some guy in Egypt via Western Union and you are more than willing to go all Alinsky on him for that, but spreading misinformation or at best plagiarized and copy and pasted posts to prop a false persona that was devised to create a scam isn't worthy of your time or concern? Have you not noticed the kid has not actually admitted to anything except what he did? But he has yet to confess to exactly what that was. He has not once said that he scammed those people and this forum and other forums because... He has merely said... "I am sorry for what I did." 

I'm not trying to blow any smoke up my butt, but I have shot on film (very little) and I use the alexa and red and my sony f65 on all my jobs and I work on fairly higher-end commercials, budgets of probably 250k to 500k.
And you are right - he gave a lot of bad information.
But all of these forums do - reduser is notoriously bad for this.  An incredible amount of nerds on there pretending they know a lot more than they do.
The only forums you should really trust for actual advice is CML (cinematographers mailing list) and cinematography.com and Roger Deakins - this has real DPs on there like David Mullen, Geoff Boyle, and plenty more members of the ASC, AFC, CSC, etc.
I'm on this forum because I like you guys and I like seeing where this small tech is going.  It's fun stuff and useful tools for newer applications.  But, if you are making buying choices based on this guy - it sucks, but it's really on you.
As I say, again and again, you need to do your own tests.  Camera tests, lighting tests, lens tests.  I know most of you say you don't have money for this - but filmmaking is expensive as hell and you can rent from lensrentals and borrowlenses, or get the production you are working on to do the test.
With that said, I bought a dvx100 in 2004 or whenever when I first started out based on the recommendation of a juggler extra in a CBS documentary.  So I was just buying on a whim. I didn't look at tests or charts.
But please, don't listen to someone who says, " it's super cinematic like Sonys but not filmic." - WHAT THE BEJESUS does that mean?  Cinematic but not filmic?
If someone talks, make sure they have tests and charts and test video - and then think about it, and make your own conclusions.
Scamming someone of money is similar to scamming someone of judgement - and this ES guy definitely is guilty of both.
But like ES said when he gloated - it's on you and you're an idiot if you play into it.
ES is trying to teach you guys a lesson - that he's a genius and you are idiots.  
I'm extremely excited for his excuse tomorrow of why his mother couldn't deliver the package, or that the package was mailed to the wrong place and now he has to track it down, or some other great genius lie he'll come up with.
And I'm sure ES is very excited that I'm going to get not myself, but the entire community on here to instagram his friends and family.  I will give a VIDEO tutorial of how to do it on your computer.
I feel like if 20 people contacted me about my friend about him owing $1000 to people in an international scam, I may actually start to believe the person telling me this.
 
I'm also going to ask my friends at anonymous to start helping.  They may laugh at me, or they may think it's pretty funny to f* with ES.
 
We will see ES what they will do.  
 
 

Except the problem goes much deeper then this petty scam.. see the bigger problem is this kid has been compulsively lying to everybody in just about every forum post for the past 3 years. He's given false advice to possibly hundreds if not thousands of people (if you include lurkers). That type of behaviour is pretty unforgivable, he may have led people to loose thousands in wrong gear investment choices. The kid is an extensive compulsive liar and for that alone he certainly shouldn't be given a free pass to further contributions. The worst part is he is very convincing with his arguments which are often well thought and informed (he probably spends all his free time watching and comparing camera gear footage, reviews, vlogs  and knows a thing or two about film stock thanks to grading with film emulations etc) and he enhances his conviction with casual mention of his decade spanning career in high budget film/TV/production work, name dropping Alexas, film stock and all kinds of bogus info to add credibility... Let me just illustrate you this with one example, a single post by ES with his Saadawi Senior Media empire CEO / hospital ER physician/ Senior PhD Radiologist hat on, giving advice to a hesitant C100 buyer :

Was wondering the same thing since all the photos he posted are with a crop Canon body and some DIY gear - if that's even him. If not that makes most of his posts complete bullshit. 

I'm with you on this Bioskop.Inc ,
this is International criminal activity with no regard what so ever for EOSHD members , not to mention 3 years of lies on this forum ,
and suddenly everyone is friends again and all is ok .  come on guys  Its not OK ! wake up !
ES is a very sophisticated criminal who stole from EOSHD members and they need paying back asap. We have to wait and see if that EVER happens.
 
Be very very cautious about anything said by ES its not all of a sudden all true.
 

The only problem with this most recent love fest is the unexplained FB post where he mocks Tomas for falling for the scam. That is not the behavior of a kid who made a stupid mistake out of desperation... but you guys want to give him a second chance?! You probably think it's your fault when your wives turn you into a cuckold too. 
Zach was banned for overly promoting his t2i in the goober way that he does and I don't hear any cries for his return, but you want to give a pathological liar that has repeatedly lied and stolen from this forum a group hug...
I know who to sell my next lens to. 

Ebrahim Saawadi came back firstly to try to throw off suspicion, and then to try to throw people off his back when he started to see some real world ramifications for his crimes. 

He used this forum in a terrible way. He is not one of us, and he is not our friend.

I'm with you on this Bioskop.Inc ,
this is International criminal activity with no regard what so ever for EOSHD members , not to mention 3 years of lies on this forum ,
and suddenly everyone is friends again and all is ok .  come on guys  Its not OK ! wake up !
ES is a very sophisticated criminal who stole from EOSHD members and they need paying back asap. We have to wait and see if that EVER happens.
 
Be very very cautious about anything said by ES its not all of a sudden all true.
 

It's Andrew Reids forum the ban is his decission ,
I have read every post since this all started days ago , and kept it all open . the thread should stay open and not be deleted as a lesson for all on this forum ,
not everyone is your 'friend' and not everyone tells the truth all the time , NEVER use Western Union ...EVER!
First of all ES needs to pay EVERYONE back .

It's Andrew Reids forum the ban is his decission ,
I have read every post since this all started days ago , and kept it all open . the thread should stay open and not be deleted as a lesson for all on this forum ,
not everyone is your 'friend' and not everyone tells the truth all the time , NEVER use Western Union ...EVER!
First of all ES needs to pay EVERYONE back .

I'm with you on this Bioskop.Inc ,
this is International criminal activity with no regard what so ever for EOSHD members , not to mention 3 years of lies on this forum ,
and suddenly everyone is friends again and all is ok .  come on guys  Its not OK ! wake up !
ES is a very sophisticated criminal who stole from EOSHD members and they need paying back asap. We have to wait and see if that EVER happens.
 
Be very very cautious about anything said by ES its not all of a sudden all true.
 

You can't ban Zack Goidwin for playing the lighthearted doofus and not ban ES for being an international criminal. That would just be ridiculous. 

It's Andrew Reids forum the ban is his decission ,
I have read every post since this all started days ago , and kept it all open . the thread should stay open and not be deleted as a lesson for all on this forum ,
not everyone is your 'friend' and not everyone tells the truth all the time , NEVER use Western Union ...EVER!
First of all ES needs to pay EVERYONE back .

I'm with you on this Bioskop.Inc ,
this is International criminal activity with no regard what so ever for EOSHD members , not to mention 3 years of lies on this forum ,
and suddenly everyone is friends again and all is ok .  come on guys  Its not OK ! wake up !
ES is a very sophisticated criminal who stole from EOSHD members and they need paying back asap. We have to wait and see if that EVER happens.
 
Be very very cautious about anything said by ES its not all of a sudden all true.
 

I have monitored this every day read every post and I have left it all running while Andrew has been away filming,
I think the forum handled it very well , we have all been lied to over a long period of time by the highest rated member on the forum ,
A crime has been comitted with a web of lies and forum member are victims of this crime.
ES has no loyalty to EOSHD or its members we are all pawns to his game , he didn't care who he scammed the money from.
I would ban him with out hesitation.  everyone scammed MUST be refunded asap.
An example must be shown we will not tolerate this on the forum we all love and contribute so much to.
ES fate lies in Andrew's hands its his forum. 

Yeah all you guys should exchange emails and passwords... You know to keep in touch...

I'm lol'ing so hard

I'm with you on this Bioskop.Inc ,
this is International criminal activity with no regard what so ever for EOSHD members , not to mention 3 years of lies on this forum ,
and suddenly everyone is friends again and all is ok .  come on guys  Its not OK ! wake up !
ES is a very sophisticated criminal who stole from EOSHD members and they need paying back asap. We have to wait and see if that EVER happens.
 
Be very very cautious about anything said by ES its not all of a sudden all true.
 

They're Trolls & they did it for 3yrs (is that a record?), the scam just happened.
And yes, if this guy/s are allowed to stay here & carry on trolling us, then fucking idiots is about right!
Don't like like it, boohoo....I call them how I see them.
Is this epic thread the Trolls final victory? Probably.....

What the fuck are you guys on!
The guy/s (probably more than one hence the up'n'down English) scammed people, shall I say it again SCAMMED PEOPLE!
He got caught out & now you want to make friends with this piece of shit again?
You're a bunch of fucking idiots.
A thief comes into your home, steals from you & your solution is to let him back in?
This guy & his friends are laughing so hard - welcome to the wonderful world of being scammed & trolled.
The guy should be banned & the thread should stay as a permanent record, for us & everyone that might google this piece of shits name. When you get convicted of a crime it stays on your permanent record & you have to admit that you're a criminal everytime you apply for a job or whatever you might have to do for the rest of your life! The same should apply for this idiot - he committed a crime & this should forever be his grave..

I have monitored this every day read every post and I have left it all running while Andrew has been away filming,
I think the forum handled it very well , we have all been lied to over a long period of time by the highest rated member on the forum ,
A crime has been comitted with a web of lies and forum member are victims of this crime.
ES has no loyalty to EOSHD or its members we are all pawns to his game , he didn't care who he scammed the money from.
I would ban him with out hesitation.  everyone scammed MUST be refunded asap.
An example must be shown we will not tolerate this on the forum we all love and contribute so much to.
ES fate lies in Andrew's hands its his forum. 

Guys. A few deep breaths might be helpful. Believe me, I am as angry as anyone here and I want to be compensated. Ebrahim has committed himself to do something about that in the coming day, and providing evidence of it. We shall see about that quickly enough.
Regardless, there is the issue of proportionality one how one should respond, certainly if you're not directly affected. Who decides what the 'punishment' should be and who should deliver it? I think @dhessel made some similar remarks. I feel this community (and it's administrators) can decide how to deal with the situation here. Whether that means a ban or keeping this thread on the site can be debated.
Reaching out to a large pool of strangers (Ebrahim's contacts) and dragging them into this mess might be a bit much at this point, though. But that's just my 2 cents ... (or actually $275...blegh).