Fraudulent Flute Vendors! Beware!

[Geoffrey Ellis]

Sorry to hear that Geoffrey. It's pretty infuriating t have someone trafficking on your good name

It is a trifle annoying, to be sure . However, I'm mostly sorry for the buyers. I don't really worry that my professional reputation is going to be materially damaged by this stunt, since I believe that most players who receive one of these pieces of junk in the mail are going to immediately recognize that it's a scam. The gentleman who sent me that photo certainly did--he didn't believe that he had gotten an actual flute of mine that was just of sub-par quality. So he's not likely going to hop on social media and talk about how rotten my Essential Flutes are, which would be very damaging. And I sincerely hope that anyone else who ends up falling for this reaches the same conclusion that he did. So while I'm disgusted by the perpetrators of the scam, my sympathies are with the buyers who stand to trade good money for a crappy flute, and are likely never to recoup it.

[Geoffrey Ellis]

No need to hide your shame Geoffrey, everyone has to start somewhere.

[GreenWood]

Sorry to hear that Geoffrey. It's pretty infuriating t have someone trafficking on your good name

I think anyone who bought from them would realise soon enough that they had been scammed, so I don't think that would affect Geoffrey's reputation as such. Possibly some customers might not buy his flutes though because they heard somewhere there was a scam going on, so that might affect how people approach his enterprise.

Even Hakam Din places videos of other flutes being played by their maker on same page as their version being sold....it is a very thin line.


@ Geoffrey

Glad you took it in jest ... wasn't sure. Actually the above I was writing in reply to PB+J before reading your reply, so that concurs for whatever that is worth.

I would say emulation is the sincerest form of flattery... but not in this case, I'm just surprised their page hasn't been taken down yet it is so obviously a fraud. It is a fully registered business after all, not some vendor on EBay.

[Nanohedron]

Sure, sure, that's an Ellis, alright. (◄ sarcasm)

Something worth considering is that when a legitimate maker's work is commercially presented at a considerable discount, by definition the seller would be taking a huge loss. So why would anyone seriously do that? Rather, it's got to be a bait-and-switch, and a pretty obvious one when you think about it. They're doing exactly the opposite and raking in mucho profit in bad faith. I mean, just look at that thing.

[Steve Bliven]

Case looks nice tho....

[Just checked, it's not on the UIE forum—yet.]

Best wishes,

Steve

[Nanohedron]

Case looks nice tho....

I dare to think it's worth more than the unstrument it holds.

[GreenWood]

Stranger and stranger

https://registry.mbr.mt/ROC/index.jsp#/ ... =C%2050435

So checking on the auditor mentioned, as I find no reference online but ads. to the owner

https://timesofmalta.com/articles/view/ ... out.746544

But same person ? Checking via listed address at the registry above

https://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/58014142?e=true


The host server of Ayaan products

https://pt.godaddy.com/whois/results.as ... xZfDB8WXww

Via NameCheap in UK


What I cannot figure out is this. Why would a company that wanted to stay in business place clearly fraudulent advertising to possibly sell a few flutes ? It has a range of other cheap products it does business with, so why add a dimension that could have the company in court, fined or closed. It isn't "that" easy to start up new registered businesses as some might think. I suppose maybe they didn't sell as many kilts as planned so just went on to use the company to scam as far as possible . Either that or they are mafia without the slightest knowledge of business and came up with a product format that they thought would be presentable enough to use for some kind of false accounting. Also, often a business/employment front is needed for visas and so on, where the pretend turnover is paid for by the persons migrating.