Lee Kelly

That is interesting that you have such good things to say. I think this sort of posting should be encouraged instead of the usual bitchy comments made on forums. If someone from Rode did get wind of this they would be quite chuffed and it would inspire them to continue their level of care.

That is interesting that you have such good things to say. I think this sort of posting should be encouraged instead of the usual bitchy comments made on forums. If someone from Rode did get wind of this they would be quite chuffed and it would inspire them to continue their level of care.

I hope i am wrong again, however anyone thinking they are getting their money back is tripping. This is way deeper than we think.
No 19yr old would bother with all this creation of accounts and characters etc. Why invent some grandfather who is the guru of cinema blah blah blah why not just claim yourself as the all knowing? Oh wow kid, your 'grandfather' knows camera, where does that get YOU in life? Nowhere. What is to gain from fabricating a person that is not yourself, they get all the kudos and youre just the kid.
As others have said, get your iphone or similar and post a video of yourself (and the grandfather for shits and giggles) and explain the whole thing that way. As it stands for now, its not hard to invent a FB or IG account with photos and 'friends' etc in fact that is the simplest thing in the world to do! My dog has an IG account.
Collecting money from WU under the name ES is a little trickier however, there is no reason that this isnt as popular as 'John Smith' in Egypt. Hell, if this is deeper than we think, the REAL ES may be a completely unknown victim of ID theft and not even remotely associated with this forum, cameras, or anything. ID theft is a huge problem around the world and seemily easy for plenty of people from developing nations to specialise in.
Ed obviously feels he did wrong but I dont think you did wrong at all. If you did this to me (or my dog) and I was innocent, my friends and family who ACTUALLY know me would know within seconds that this was not true. I wouldnt even bother defending the charges.
I think you missed the point. Well done.

Some people seem to be able to consider these sorts of crimes soft. Its a faceless crime in many ways. The thing is, internet crime and this kind of theft is cowardly but just as harmful as having someone sneak into your house while you are sleeping and taking something from you. He may not have bonked you on the head and stolen something from you but he still stole something from you.
Seriously, its on the news too often how many poor naive lonely usually elderly people are scammed in a similar way out of countless sums of money. Sure, some part of me thinks if youre naive enough to believe someone on the internet and give them all your money then what do you expect, but at the sametime on the other end is a sly scheming ripoff merchant who has premeditated the scam without issue. In this case that same person has then taunted the victims because they thought they would get away with it.
As far as I can tell, the image we have of this guy might very well not even be who we are talking about. How deep does it go and across how many different platforms? The FB and IG accounts could be just as fake as anything else.
Maybe I am a dick for believing in justice. Maybe if a 'kid' is taught a lesson early on, they might remember that kick in the arse and think twice about doing it again.
He stole from people and taunted them about it with arrogance.
I hope that it is not actually some kid in a jam who made a mistake and is now feeling like his world just ended because as I did say in an earlier post, the whole internet thing is not worth killing yourself over. I 100% promise every one of you that you are never likely to deal with ES in a professional fashion within the film industry and if you did, it wont be something that you remember and affect his career in any way. The internet never forgets as someone said just up there, but the internet is also the quickest medium for gratification and just like you swipe left and double tap, within seconds something else fills that little hollow space between your ears. I bet you cant even remember the name of the person who started this thread without looking at page one. People barely remember important milestones in history let alone some quick buck camera forum scam.
For example;
What year was Kennedy shot?
What year did the Titanic sink?
When did Princess Diana die?
Who was Prime Minister of Australia 3yrs ago?
Who owns the Star Wars franchise?
What year did 911 happen?
 
plenty of you and me will not know the answers to many of these questions off the top of our heads and these are SIGNIFICANT moments in history. ES is a teeny weeny nothing. A teeny weeny scam artist and fraudster but still nothing.

This is kind of where its heading...
 
 

The thing with most alien abductions is the victims always seem to talk of anal probing? Call my an old romantic but if i was probed anally by an alien, id be keeping that shit to myself and crying in the shower like Ace.
 

I must say, I was a little disappointed by some of the condescending posts in this thread. The guy was just passing on a safety notice about particular lenses that have a cult following but could actually be quite dangerous to young organs. He wasnt trying to sell a product to protect anyone or any other kind of promotion and was arrogantly cut down by enthusiasts (at best) when he actually took a more scientific approach and was acting on advice from people who specialise in radioactivity. 
Regardless of what else in this world gives us similar values of exposure, I dont think this info was handled very maturely. You guys could have easily just said, something along the lines of, 'thanks for the info Jr. I love my lens and will keep using it but thanks for looking out for us.'
This forum should be more supportive of its members and not falling into troll territory.

All you perfect humans who are concerned with peoples feeling on a forum need to lighten up. Nobodys life is being ruined. Its a forum mostly used by hobbyist lens enthusiasts. Unless you are a 15yr old kid being called names online, I dont think we need to worry. Not that making jokes about kids being bullied online is appropriate but I just dont get that stuff??? Must be a generation thing? Maybe all the ecstasy parents around my age took in the early 2000s did have an impact on their kids because when I was at school we would all be pricks to eachother and none of us ended up hurt enough to end our lives. 
Point is, this is the internet, hardly real life. Its a forum booo hooo. Fact is someone who uses this forum has a name associated with fraud and some of us find this interesting with the main idea of getting to the bottom of it, mostly in the hope the account holder is innocent and the scammer gets punched in the dick and nobody else makes the same rookie mistake and gets scammed like this again.
There is no witch hunt or lynch mob, its an online forum. His actual friends and family will still love him.  

Im not a rich man but if I ever get scammed by someone like that, I would VERY happily spend the $1000 or whatever to fly there and find the guy and scare him VERY well.
That is not a threat, it is a promise. Scare/beat the shit out of/take every dollar he has and then enjoy my holiday.
We had a recent Tax scam here where I was called by 'the taxation dept' saying there was a warrant out for my arrest for tax evasion. This happened just after I had made some purchases and perhaps the sellers did not declare the full value on customs forms (naughty sellers!) At first my heart sunk. I thought it was legit. My wife googled around a bit and discovered it was a new scam. They leave you a phone number to call to sort out payment (to avoid further legal action of course) so I called and pretended I was really sorry and wanted to make it right and can I come in to their office with a cheque right away.
Geez I wish he gave me an address...
Not too many instances when I believe in violence but if you steal from me I will hurt you and take everything you have and leave you crying on the floor naked.
This kid needs some time on the floor naked and crying. Whos keen for a trip to Egypt?

Im not a rich man but if I ever get scammed by someone like that, I would VERY happily spend the $1000 or whatever to fly there and find the guy and scare him VERY well.
That is not a threat, it is a promise. Scare/beat the shit out of/take every dollar he has and then enjoy my holiday.
We had a recent Tax scam here where I was called by 'the taxation dept' saying there was a warrant out for my arrest for tax evasion. This happened just after I had made some purchases and perhaps the sellers did not declare the full value on customs forms (naughty sellers!) At first my heart sunk. I thought it was legit. My wife googled around a bit and discovered it was a new scam. They leave you a phone number to call to sort out payment (to avoid further legal action of course) so I called and pretended I was really sorry and wanted to make it right and can I come in to their office with a cheque right away.
Geez I wish he gave me an address...
Not too many instances when I believe in violence but if you steal from me I will hurt you and take everything you have and leave you crying on the floor naked.
This kid needs some time on the floor naked and crying. Whos keen for a trip to Egypt?

Im not a rich man but if I ever get scammed by someone like that, I would VERY happily spend the $1000 or whatever to fly there and find the guy and scare him VERY well.
That is not a threat, it is a promise. Scare/beat the shit out of/take every dollar he has and then enjoy my holiday.
We had a recent Tax scam here where I was called by 'the taxation dept' saying there was a warrant out for my arrest for tax evasion. This happened just after I had made some purchases and perhaps the sellers did not declare the full value on customs forms (naughty sellers!) At first my heart sunk. I thought it was legit. My wife googled around a bit and discovered it was a new scam. They leave you a phone number to call to sort out payment (to avoid further legal action of course) so I called and pretended I was really sorry and wanted to make it right and can I come in to their office with a cheque right away.
Geez I wish he gave me an address...
Not too many instances when I believe in violence but if you steal from me I will hurt you and take everything you have and leave you crying on the floor naked.
This kid needs some time on the floor naked and crying. Whos keen for a trip to Egypt?