Comments on: An email from the FlashEurope venue

By: airun

airun — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 12:04:03 +0000

Hello!
I’m who some time ago wrote about that I rented together with some erasmus students a flat in Barcelona in the street comte borrell 122 (Harold rented to us and we gave him the money for 3 months but he didn’t give anything to the real owner, and also he didn’t pay the rent for the last 10 months). I just wanted to inform you and specially to Atomick that he doesn’t need to speak good spanish to call to Meta media Studios, cause Meta Media Studios is also Harold’s fraudulent company… I know cause he recieves many letters in the flat for Meta Medaia Studios, and also for IQ Networks Dynamics. You should know also that he told us that he would come back to the flat in 6th april maximum, but he didn’t came back… and a friend of him called Anke, who is living in Barcelona, that is the only person with who Harold is “in contact”, told us that he was coming back on 20th april,but he didn’t come back also…. This man disapperad… We think he is in Köln maybe, but we are not sure.. The owner of the flat is taking legal steps with him, but the legal steps are very very slowly… So everything is a big shit… and this man is the worst of the worst…

By: Matt Voerman

Matt Voerman — Fri, 22 Apr 2005 04:03:18 +0000

Perhaps it’s worth dropping Flash Europe’s ISP a line to let them know the situation so that they can pull the site.

By leaving the site up, the reputations of the speakers who were originally associated with it (in good faith) are possibly being damaged.

By: Flash Ant: Flash and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) Blog . :: The sorry end of FlashEurope

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 05:28:17 +0000

[...] ount it was sent to. Case in point: Emma. She just posted a comment regarding h [...]

By: Flash Ant: Flash and Rich Internet Applications (RIA) Blog . :: The sorry end of FlashEurope

Thu, 21 Apr 2005 05:27:58 +0000

[...] ount it was sent to. Case in point: Emma. She just posted a comment regarding h [...]

By: Emma Steer

Emma Steer — Wed, 20 Apr 2005 12:04:55 +0000

I tried to recall funds through my bank and found out today that there’s no money in Harold’s account. So Don’t bother if you’re thinking about attempting it.
I know I’m not the only one in this situation. I don’t know if it’s worth chasing this guy or not, but if anyone else is thinking of contacting fraud units or the police, and need more evidence, people involved etc, feel free to contact me.

Emma

By: Nathan Moody

Nathan Moody — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 22:52:16 +0000

*Sigh*

I am only responding because others may be in my position.

Today I requested a recall on my funds I sent to FlashEurope.If I don’t get my money back in a week, my only option is to start a wire fraud investigation.

Whether the conference is happening or not, it’s been a MONTH since I sent my money for registration. I’ve never been exposed to such laxidasical, irrepsonsible silence in 15 years in the multimedia industry.

BTW, the above post about the CIA - the info is true according to WHOis, but I’m betting it’s a joke or a faked name. But that doesn’t make the trail easier to follow.

I actually called the numbers there (they are for Network Solutions) and I learned that the host of FlashEurope.com is secure.net - itself a weird site with a 1999 copyright notice - run by some group in Colorado, USA. The host for FlashEurope’s email, uvision.net, is bouncing all emails to registration {at} flasheurope(.)com and has yet to answer a phone call (I have placed several).

As I am not made of money and my Spanish is still a bit rusty, I have not called META Media Studios, another sponsor…curious how they don’t seem to have a major web presence…

“wyrd” had some hopeful comments on 01.26.2005 on a related post here at FlashAnt, saying within a week he’d have more info. He sounded so hopeful. What happened?

By: dctrl

dctrl — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 14:20:50 +0000

checking WHOIS i get:

Registrant:
LangleyAirforce Base CIA Virginia
ATTN: FLASHEUROPE.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA. 20172-0447

Domain Name: FLASHEUROPE.COM

Administrative Contact:
Langley Airforce Base, Langley Airforce Base f68gb58k8fu {at} networksolutionsprivateregistration(.)com
Langley Airforce Base CIA Virginia
ATTN: FLASHEUROPE.COM
c/o Network Solutions
P.O. Box 447
Herndon, VA 20172-0447
570-708-8780

Technical Contact:
Network Solutions, LLC. (HOST-ORG) customerservice {at} networksolutions(.)com
13200 Woodland Park Drive
Herndon, VA 20171-3025
US
1-888-642-9675 fax: 571-434-4620

Record expires on 17-May-2007.
Record created on 17-May-2004.
Database last updated on 10-Feb-2005 09:12:30 EST.

Domain servers in listed order:

NS1.SECURE.NET 192.220.124.10
NS2.SECURE.NET 192.220.125.10

This listing is a Network Solutions Private Registration.

any more questions…?
so what should we do to get our money back?

By: Erik-Jan ten Brinke

Erik-Jan ten Brinke — Thu, 10 Feb 2005 11:10:49 +0000

They could at least spend 5 minutes on updating the official website to explain what’s going on. Disappearing off the face of the earth is surely not doing any good and every day of silence will only feed the distrust.

By: Matt Voerman

Matt Voerman — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:57:43 +0000

Irrespective of who at the company is handling the details of the conference. One can’t help but feel that their total lack of communication to all and sundry hasn’t done them any favours (especially with speakers or attendee’s). They certainly have their work cut out for them to repair the reputation (and credibility) of the Flash Europe conference name.

By: Guy Watson

Guy Watson — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 21:52:55 +0000

Craig has spoken with Harold and that person represents an agent that handles booking of the venues - details are being worked out with another individual at the company apparently this person is not aware of that.

Kind Regards
Guy