DesignsDesk.com Contest never pays his designers. Never made me a payout. New York Internet

I am an employee with Designs Desk and I just wanted to update this thread to let everyone know that this transaction (as we expected) turned out to be from a scammer which has now resulted in a fraudulent transaction. This scammer waited until the last day of the chargeback period to issue a reversal and since this individual is officially a scammer and the transaction has turned out to be fraudulent... I have attached all of the individuals information he sent us, just in case this helps someone else out in the future. Since our company has just received a chargeback for the original transaction, we just wanted to let everyone know that if we hadn't stood strong during this individuals continued threats and hostile complaints, we would have lost money and the scammer would have been a little richer. Instead, this scammer now has a little less money to continue his scamming ventures. Please be careful what you read on RipOff Report, as it seems anyone, even a dishonest hacker can leave negative complaints about your company. If you need a great logo at a reasonable price, please check us out at DesignsDesk.com!

I am a customer support team member at www.designsdesk.com and I am responding to this complaint on behalf of Designs Desk. Designs Desk is a crowd sourcing website that allows businesses and individuals the opportunity to post a project and have multiple designers submit design concepts. After the project is complete, individuals get to pick their favorite design from a number of submitted concepts. The complaint above was created by a 20 year old from Albania named Arber after he attempted to scam our company.

Scammers attempt to create a fake buyer account and post a project while simultaneously creating a designer account in order to submit fake design concepts and ultimately award themselves once that project is complete. They do this because once we pay the project award, they don’t have to worry about the original CC holder issuing a chargeback. When this happens, our company loses not only the original chargeback amount but also the project award payment sent to designers. We pay out hundreds of projects every month and fraud is very rare, but we do take it seriously and have implemented certain precautions in order to protect ourselves. In this particular case, almost every red flag pointing to a fraudulent transaction was initiated and the project was placed under fraud investigation.

The original project itself had a misspelled title and a one sentence design brief description with spelling errors throughout. Arber created a designer account that day and submitted one logo concept and that’s it. Serious designers submit at least 2-3 logo concepts if they enter a project and they usually enter mulitple projects at once. This is the only project Arber ever participated in. There were no modifications or changes to the logo and out of 20 concepts Arber was “chosen”. As you can see below, it was very difficult to communicate with this individual and conflicting information regarding duplicate names, duplicate accounts, international transactions and impatient behavior demonstrated fraud was an issue. One simple example I can give, is that fact that Arber’s IP address indicates he is located in Albania, when this complaint above states he is in Alabama. This has been the case throughout, but I’ll let you read the full transcript with Grammar and Case Sensitive spelling unedited, exactly how we received it.

January 15, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, Unfortunately, it appears your project have been placed under review by our fraud investigation department. According to our records, the IP address (es) and credit card information for the project that was posted have been associated with credit card fraud. Your project has been flagged as fraud and unfortunately, we will be unable to release any awarded project funds until our fraud department completes their investigation. If you have any supporting evidence to refute these claims, please feel free to send us that information. Warm Regards, Stephanie M.”

January 22, 2106 “What this has to do with me” “????????????????????????????????????????????????” “IF YOU DON’T RESPOND AND FIX THE ISSUE IM GONNA LEAVE BAD FEEDBACK EVERYWHERE”

January 22, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, Unfortunately, our fraud department is still investigating this issue. They have contacted PayPal and have requested additional supporting evidence to make a decision on this case. Our Fraud department is waiting on PayPal's response regarding this investigation. We appreciate your patience as we try and resolve this matter. Here are some reason why this project was flagged as fraudulent... Both Buyer and Designer accounts are international, Both Buyer and Designer accounts have unconfirmed PayPal addresses, Buyer account name was created under David XXXXX but Design Desk Contract was signed Frank XXXXX, The Designer account is brand new with only one submitted design for one project, The Designer email address used to sign up with Designs Desk is different than their PayPal email, The Designer account is using two different names, Designer Feedback was never provided after project completion. If you have any supporting evidence ​or comments to refute these claims, please send those answers to support@designsdesk.com. Warm Regards, Stephanie M.”

January 22, 2016 “Greetings, We are a team of designers who participate in projects, Just because the name in the email is different then the paypal dosent mean that it's fraud! E.x :  if the email is a custom name (@domain.com) and u check the whois and say that it's not ur name in it?? that's not even logic! Let me know the CORRECT DATE I WILL RECEIVE the payout  otherwise i will fill up a complaint in BBB.”

January 24, 2016 DD – “Hello Arber, It can take up to 30 days to complete our fraud investigation, especially since we are waiting on PayPal to further investigate and provide information regarding the Buyer's original payment. It has been 9 days, so you need to be patient because there is some serious evidence that points to fraud, although we hope everything turns out to be perfectly legitimate. Your repeated threats to post negative feedback on the "BBB" are not necessary and that's not going to speed things up. When a user is using 2 completely different names when interacting on Designs Desk, that is in fact a serious red flag as 9 times out of 10, it turns out to be fraud. It's even more concerning when both parties in the case, the Buyer and the Designer are BOTH using 2 different names to conduct transactions on Designs Desk. You will receive notification as soon as our fraud investigation is complete as we work with PayPal to verify the Buyer's identity. We hope to complete this investigation as soon as possible, but you will receive this notification no later than February 15th. Assuming we get approval from PayPal on the legitimacy of the buyer's original payment, we will be happy to submit the payment for your payout. We ask that you continue to be patient while we complete our investigation. David T.”

February 15, 2016 “Unfortunately i cannot wait 3 months and unless i got the transcation reference and all details on the payment so i can folloe up with PayPal and unless i dont take these information i will leave it to BBB. I am expecting payment today as agreed. Send me a notificiation as a seperate e-mail.”

February 15, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, We understand your frustration and apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. Unfortunately, we had some Designer / fraud issues in the past which resulted in the implementation of certain safety measures to ensure protection of payments. Just to reiterate, we have already contacted PayPal for more information and your repeated threats to post negative feedback on the "BBB" will not speed up the process. Since we are waiting on PayPal to further investigate and provide information regarding the Buyer's original payment, we need you to be patient because there is some serious evidence that points to a fraudulent transaction, even though we hope everything turns out to be perfectly legitimate. When a user is using two completely different names on Designs Desk, that is a serious red flag and 9 times out of 10, it turns out to be fraud. It's even more concerning when both parties in the case, the Buyer and the Designer are both using two different names to conduct transactions on Designs Desk. Again, you will receive notification as soon as our fraud department has completed this investigation with PayPal to verify the Buyer's identity. We hope to complete this investigation as soon as possible, but no matter what, PayPal will officially confirm or the charge-back period will expire in 75 days from this date and the funds will be released. When we get approval from PayPal on the legitimacy of the buyer's original payment, we will be happy to submit the payment for your payout. David T.”

At this point there had been no chargeback and even though the transaction was most likely fraud, our company decided to assume the risk and send the payment to Arber since it was only $120. Unfortunately, the payment was unsuccessfully sent because his PayPal account was not verified or registered.

February 24, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, Unfortunately, we attempted to send your award payment to your PayPal email address unsuccessfully. I have attached a screenshot for your review and this is again, another red flag concerning a fraudulent transaction. Per the Designs Desk Terms & Conditions, we are only able to send payments to verified PayPal accounts. You will need to verify and confirm your account with PayPal in order to receive any award payments. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments. David T.”

February 25, 2016 “Hello, Please process payout to: XXXXXX@gmail.com”

March 1, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, Unfortunately, due to the complications included in this email thread and because your PayPal account has been changed recently, we need you to provide a screenshot of your PayPal account that shows the account holder's name for the new PayPal account you requested in order to move forward with this payment. Otherwise, you will automatically receive your payment after the charge-back period expires in 60 days. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused. David T.”

March 1, 2016 “Hello, I have upgraded to Paypal business so the name don't show as normal paypals but i have attached the screenshot where you go in profile.. you can see it. Please after this don't make anymore games as you are making me go in grave without being old due to delay responses,repeated requests etc. I just want to take my profited money as i don't have the time to loose with feedbacks ( you know that many users if something is 3 years okay and a small downtime happens in hosting they will leave bad feedback ! ) Even if you everything has been perfect all these 3 years.”

Unfortunately, the screenshot of Arber’s PayPal account stated the business name “imaginary.f solutions” which was another red flag.

March 7, 2016 “Any update?!! I expect  today the payment.. Hello ????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!”

March 7, 2016 DD - “Hello Irsid, Unfortunately, we are still waiting on upper management to approve this new award payment. As soon as we get approval, I can go ahead and process that award payment. We appreciate your patience while we resolve this matter. Brandon R.”

Even though our company has responded to this individual as Arber and Irsid (the name Gmail had based on his email address irsidhoxha@gmail.com) he never replied that his name was one or the other.

March 8, 2016 “Well,it was promised that the payment of $120 to be sent on document delivery.i am still waiting for the payment,hopefully it will be sent this week otherwise i will truly belive that you guys are just a scam!”

March 8, 2016 “Any update??? Hello??”

March 15, 2016 “Are you guys joking or what is going on here?? It's been almost Two months and you guys are trolling me every time!!! This needs to end at some point. Kindly ,as everyone's patience can end up at one point,and i can express my irritation somewhere else. I am requesting my money i won  in the contest of $120. You gave me one date, it passed  you blamed "PayPal" for it,you tried to send $120 to my paypal  unsuccessfully,i fixed the issue and requested to be sent again,you delayed it! You put the date in 3/15/2016  to be making the payout& now here are you guys!!!!! Please proceed with the payout of $120 as agreed today.”

March 15, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, Unfortunately, after further review and for the reasons outlined in this email thread, our fraud department has concluded that there are too many red flags associated with this project and your payment award cannot be processed until after the charge-back period expires. The charge-back period expires after 120 days of the original transaction which was January 1, 2016. Therefore, we will be unable to process your payment award until May 1, 2016. We apologize that your first project has caused you such inconvenience. You have only submitted one design to one project and you can continue to work on Designs Desk as fraudulent projects are very rare. You can easily win another project on Designs Desk and receive that award payment before the charge-back period expires on your first payment award. The more projects you enter, the more project you will win. Please let us know if you have any questions, otherwise, we will send you a confirmation as soon as the payment award has been completed on May 1, 2016. David T.”

March 16, 2016 “I am sorry i cannot wait until May 1  as i have soo much invoices to pay! I will proceed with my review.”

March 16, 2016 “Hello, i am expecting payment  of $120 because of your own statement "We hope to complete this investigation as soon as possible, but no matter what, PayPal will officially confirm or the charge-back period will expire in 75 days and the funds will be released " Assuming that the contest and the payment was made on 01/01/2016 06:33pm  (From the public records) In case you don't know how to count you can use this http://www.timeanddate.com/date/durationresult.html?d1=01&m1=01&y1=2016&d2=16&m2=3&y2=2016 Unless i don't get paid tomorrow i will publish my Discovery of this shady company along with promised dates (as you change whenever you want )”

March 16, 2016 DD - “Hello Arber, We apologize for any confusion regarding dates and charge-back periods. Per the email on February 15th that I wrote... I was simply letting you know that no matter what, you will only have to wait 75 days from that time period (if you do the math 75 days from February 15th is May 1st) Again, per the email on March 1st that I wrote... I was simply letting you know that no matter what, you will only have to wait 60 days from that time period (if you do the math 60 days from March 1st is May 1st) Just to reiterate, I am writing this email on March 16th letting you know that you will only have to wait 45 days to receive your payment if no charge-back is issued. Again, 120 days from January 1st is May 1st... So no dates have been "changed whenever we want". Your continued threats and lack of work ethic on Designs Desk further prove that you are not serious about your "sooo much invoices to pay" per your last email. You could have easily participated in a number of projects since January and received legitimate project award payments. The fact that you have only submitted one design to one project, left no feedback after that project was completed and have done nothing else on Designs Desk further illustrates that you are not a serious designer and raise further red flags. The reason you cannot find any complaints online for our company is because we have had no issues in regard to project award payments, as the vast majority of our projects are legitimate and completed in a timely manner. We have made thousands of award payouts and have had no issues in the past with duplicate account names, vague design briefs, unconfirmed PayPal accounts and new designers threatening the legitimacy of our company. Again, we apologize that your first project was involved in a fraud dispute but if you had participated in more than one project, you may have already received another project award payout. Instead you prefer to continue and harass / twist statements in order to threaten payments rather than consider the facts. If I had the authority I would have already processed the payment for you, but I don't. Senior staff has that ability and they have concluded that the numerous red flags associated with this transaction have to be considered. David T.”

March 16, 2016 “So you are basically suggesting me to keep working for a company who hasn't processed my widthdrawl? That seems legit. "No worries bro , i don't have money at the moment but keep working ,maybe some money will fell from the sky and i can pay you " To protect my creativity investiment i need to see results,i cannot work for everyone for free,and i had tons of requests where i did them and they didn't gave the work back.I don't work for free. I have already made a report on ripoffreport. It is up to you. Let   me know in May 1. i will get my payment and never deal with you guys !”

Please keep in mind the project in question was titled ‘Ashtung” which in Germany “Achtung” literally means “warning”, “caution”, “attention” or “watch out”.