theOtaku.com embargo on news to expose convention fraudster

Paul

Paul

Ghost of Animes
Administrator
Popular general anime website theOtaku.com have recently placed an embargo on their regular news reporting to expose a fraudster (name: Jeff Borncamp) who poorly organized an anime convention (The Anime Tour for The Cure) in Las Vegas and then allegedly fled the event early, having stolen thousands of dollars from convention funds; the money was intended to be invested in a cancer research charity.

The convention itself was a disaster; advertised as three day event, it was eventually scaled back to one, low attendance, guests failed to show up, dealers were lied to, security was canceled early and the convention had to be closed right before the evening's dance commenced - even MTV arrived to film the convention; just as it was prematurely closing.

Read the whole story, including profiles of Jeff Borncamp and investigations into his organizations, over at theOtaku.com.
 
This just goes to show, you can't trust anyone if they aren't backed-up by the right people. I remember reading about someone in the UK who has been exploiting anime fans in a similar way, organizing phony conventions etc, so before you go to a con or a meet-up, make sure you check that the people organizing it all are trust worthy - especially if you have to hand over money.
 
Hehe, I know a few other people in US who have done a bit of scamming. It's sad though, that fans can be taken advantage of that way, considering that often to get involved in fun events, you have to do a bit of trusting to take the plunge.

One good way to tell if a UK con is fairly trustworthy is word of mouth, length of time it's been running, that cheques are made out to the name of the convention rather than a person, and if the con commitee display some real names ^_~
 
Such a shame. The fact of the matter is that anime fans so sorely want any exposure they can get to the stuff in the Western World, expos included, that such a scam is relatively easy to pull off. All I can hope is that the effects won't be too long lasting, nor give a bad name to the anime fandom.
 
I'm a member of theOtaku's blog community and only found out a few days back; I was pretty upset when I read about it. I think (or hope, at least) that they'll be pursuing him to get everyone's money back. Apparently it's not the first time he's done things like this, either.

(Thanks for putting the article up for me, Paul- sorry for not noticing the 'Report News' button :p)
 
Paul said:
This just goes to show, you can't trust anyone if they aren't backed-up by the right people. I remember reading about someone in the UK who has been exploiting anime fans in a similar way, organizing phony conventions etc, so before you go to a con or a meet-up, make sure you check that the people organizing it all are trust worthy - especially if you have to hand over money.
Click to expand...

butch-cassidy said:
I think the one they are refering to is KyuuCON [http://www.otakunews.com/uk/article.php?story=552]
Click to expand...

Oh god this isn't Ryan Gentle is it? XD; He was doing all sorts of crap at Ayacon 05 if I remember rightly, like claiming he works for google for 56k a year or something. He also tells people he lived in japan and had a gang but the jealous Yakuza shot them all. He also stole £50 from the Glasgow anime society.

A freind tells me he tried to hold a con where people paid into a bank account in his name, too, so I'm thinking either a coincidence of the same guy here. I've been told that Ryan's supposed to be a really bad liar, yet sadly folk will still think he's telling the truth :(

Consider this a warning, people, if Ryan Gentle starts talking convention and money, RUN AWAY. :p

EDIT: For those who dunno about Ryan Gentle, or for more tales of all things idiot; Go here: http://stopryan.blogspot.com/
 
Yup, that's the chap. Anime fandom is great for how innocent and happy it all is, but certain people will pick on that naivety too. It must feel so bad to be scammed by a fellow anime fan.
 
It's not necessarily just the naivety of anime fans specifically- it's just people. There are scams being run everywhere and, unfortunately, there will always be people too trusting to give it a second thought, especially if the apparent reasons behind it seem more compelling than usual.

Some people just think their plans out better than others, too. Jeff BornCamp (and a couple of other) didn't just draw in fans, but anime dealers, a major cancer charity, the organisers of the Anime Vegas convention, voice actors, theOtaku.com and MTV. It's the scale of it that's shocking.
 
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