PheeBay Vladuz - Real Deal, Imaginary Friend or Publicity Stunt Gone Wrong?

[The Bar Keep]

After nearly a day to take a look at what happened at blujay.com and review the facts of what happened I have decided to take some steps to put a stop to the nasty deeds of a certain forum (PB). As many of you already know there has been a poster claiming to be Vladuz, who we all know to be someone who has hacked eBay many times in the past. In my opinion, the poster at the PB forum is a fake Vladuz that was conjured up by PB staff as a publicity stunt as far back as March the 8th of 2007, see link to screenshot below:

*please note all screenshots and forum posts are in Eastern time*

Vladuz First Alleged Post at PB

Please note the post with blatant disregard to hurt and suffer online sellers have endured due to the real Vladuz. Now take a look at the next screenshot where the owner of PB shows no concern for a poster claiming to be Vladuz other then to comment at his amazement (no concern):

PB site owner acknowledges their famous poster

The original thread goes on as PB admins and the Vladuz imposter exchange back and forth without regard to what their little publicity stunt says about their responsibilty to online sellers. See links below:

Vladuz Second Alleged Post at PB

Vladuz Third Alleged Post at PB

Vladuz Forth Alleged Post at PB

Vladuz Fifth Alleged Post at PB


Notice the PB forum admins talking about how their stunt has helped their traffic in this next screenshot:

PB Admin Brags About Vladuz Boosting Their Site Traffic


Now that we have seen the tactics of the PB forum when it comes to publicity stunts fast foward to the incidents that happened at blujay.com to shell_world's blujay store. Screenshot of the reported person posting under the forum posting ID for Shell_world in the blujay forum:

Poster posting from hijacked blujay account

As the Blujay owner has stated this account was taken over due to a weak password. Possibly done by a competing site to cause problems & install fear about blujay. I know this because I spoke to the owner of blujay last night via phone about the hijacked account. For the record at the time of my phone call the blujay owner had no idea that this had even occured. Of course a new PB publicity stunt had already begun by then - posts in the PB forum had already been made asking the fake Vladuz there if he was responsible (please note all screenshots are on eastern time):

PB Admin starts thread asking if the poster in PB was responsible

PVH Comment

Comments

Comments

Note this next screenshot which is a post by the same poster from the PB forum claiming to be the real Vladuz:

Vladuz BJ Post

Next is a screenshot of PVH(another PB admin) posting at PSU about the same time as shown in the above screenshot which was the PB Vladuz imposter posting in blujay:

PVH PSU Post


Now what has taken me on this incident is that the PB owner (posting ID Sunray) was nowhere to be found while the Vladuz poster posted in PB or in any other forum. I wonder who the person posing as Vladuz really is as well as who the person is that managed to get into that blujay store and delete over 500 listings. Isn't it convenient that the PB owner Graham just happens to be out of town when the fake Vladuz shows up? A little too convenient if you ask me. Regardless of any of this supporting a hoax as well as idolizing Vladuz is hurtful to all online sellers. A publicity stunt like was done at PB back in March as well as the one pulled at blujay by, well you can draw your own conclusions as have I however mine have been reported to the propper channels.


To the blujay store owner whose store this dreadfull act was perpetrated upon, your welcome!!! I spent at least 10 hours trying to get ahold of the blujay owner yesterday and to my amazement when I finally did get ahold of him he was glad I alerted him to this problem. Adam is not a bad guy, he just isn't around as often as he should be.


Joe - The Bar Keep

[2boysandtoys]

  ----- So (again, and perhaps for the last time - I am NOT BLOND) if I'm following this, pheeebay is faking Vladuz visits to their forum to boost their rankings? 

I'm sitting here scratching my head and wondering - why?  I realize that page views and visits improve rankings, but at the expense of real online safety and business?  I guess I should also not be completely surprised - a site that proposes unity on the surface, and then creates a dust bowl to discuss other people most likely would do anything to build themselves up - eh?

I tell my teens all the time, and have for their entire lives - those who build themselves up by tearing others down are the most miserable alive.  They loathe themselves so much, they attempt to bring others to their level.  I guess it's not limited to individuals, but also aligns with our previous brief discussion on 'group think'.

So very grateful I never joined pheeebay.     Joe for the insight, details and information.  I feel for the person hacked - was this store picked at random or was it targeted? Just curious if anyone knows?! 

[The Tavern Wench]

We interrupt this thread for the following announcement:


This topic was split from the Original Topic:  Vladuz apparent strike on Blujay.com!!!


Although the BluJay Store being hacked and this topic appear to be intertwined, I felt it was best to divide this into two separate topics.

Thank you - TTW

Now back to your regularly scheduled posting....

[The Bar Keep]

Thank you Deb, I agree and out of respect for the blujay store owner (who by the way is the victim) the topic needed to be split. I added a poll to this new thread so we can get a feel for what everyone thinks. Personally you all should know what I think, IMO it is a publicity stunt that has gone very bad.

I believe PB should be held accountable for the first stunt they pulled back in March of 07' as well as this latest stunt. Imagine what that blujay store owner must have felt like seeing Vladuz claiming to have hacked their store and then later on the, (IMO) fake PB Vladuz come in and claim otherwise. It is obvious that this PB publicity stunt has gone way too far.

I have a few questions for PB since I know they read here everyday.

#1 How can you support sellers and a person who has victimized them at the same time?

#2 Has the proper authorities ever been approached by any of the PB staff about Vladuz?

#3 Has Elvis ever attended PB?

#4 How is it that PB can call upon this Vladuz in their forum and receive an answer within hours of the question?
#5 Is Graham posting as this imposter Vladuz?

#6 Is JYJ DeepRiverMan?

#7 Will the Easter Bunny be attending PB in the near future?

#8 Wouldn't it have been a better idea to have the fake Vladuz post in the dustbin to attract more members?
#9 How can the PB staff face sellers knowing how they look now that your little publicity stunt has been outed?


No need to respond PB, your silence in this matter speaks volumes. By the way no need to start deleting threads or editing posts at any forum, we have screenshots and they say it all.


 

Joe - The Bar Keep

[The Tavern Wench]

Well now Joe...you know my personal opinion on this one too, 

According to PVH...

click to enlarge

...It's a fact that Vladuz is buddies with the PB Crowd and we all know they always tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.   



I have a question I'd like to add to the list:

#10 Do you know where Hoffa is too?

[2boysandtoys]

OMG....I've been cleaning for a bit, and came back to the list above....

#3 Has Elvis ever attended PB?

#6 Is JYJ DeepRiverMan?

#7 Will the Easter Bunny be attending PB in the near future?

#10 Do you know where Hoffa is too?

 

[Mojavelyn]

#3 Has Elvis ever attended PB?  He's next on the list.

#6 Is JYJ DeepRiverMan?  About the same amount of intelligence, 64.

#7 Will the Easter Bunny be attending PB in the near future?  He's scheduled after Elvis.

#10 Do you know where Hoffa is too?  he's after The Easter Bunny and not in following as scheduled, but chasing.