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Beware of Jessica Spong! In late March 2006, I was contacted by Jessica Spong, a newcomer to the model horse hobby in Gothenburg, Sweden, asking to buy a model I owned. The model was a customized Breyer Classic Arab Mare that had been haired and painted in fleabitten grey by Camilla Johansson of Sweden. I needed money at the time, so I agreed to sell the horse for $225 postage paid to Sweden. Jessica Paypaled me through her mother (Viveca Spong's) account, and I mailed the horse off once the money hit my bank account. Jessica asked that the box be addressed to her as Jessica Axelsson. After a week or two, I got an email to say that the horse had arrived safely, and I thought that was that, and deleted my correspondence with her. (Thankfully, much of it survives in my Sent Emails box.) Fast forward a few months. On July 4th, I logged
into my Paypal account to pay for an item I'd won on ebay. I got an
error message stating I couldn't send a payment if I had a negative
balance. Perplexed, I went to my account history and found that Jessica
had done a chargeback against me exactly 90 days after she had paid
me. So my Paypal account was suddenly $225 in the red, and the reason
given for the chargeback was "unauthorized." My initial thought
was that Jessica's mom wasn't happy about the purchase her daughter
had made, but given that credit card companies send monthly statements,
how could she not have noticed the charge for three months? Also, I
noticed that Jessica's email address, almostgorgeous@hotmail.com,
was the same one on the Paypal account. I fired off a quick email to
that addy asking what on earth was going on, and then I logged on to
the Model Horse Hobby References list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/MHHR)
to see if anyone else had any info on Jessica. (Please note that Jessica
has also used the email address: rocknroll_gal@hotmail.com) Sure enough, another hobbyist, Tara Oliver, had just gotten a chargeback the very same day for a horse she sold to Jessica in April. Both of us faxed our story and copies of our shipping receipts to Paypal that day in hopes of reversing the chargeback. Tara had also emailed Jessica asking what was up with the chargeback, and she actually got a reply: "something very tragic has happened. someone fingured
out my keywpord (probobly the guy lived with in england and used my
account) he was I wanted to believe her, but I was skeptical from the
start. If Jessica's ex-boyfriend had broken into her account, why couldn't
she log in herself, cancel the chargebacks, and then change her passwords
so he couldn't use her account? Or, if he had changed the passwords,
why couldn't she call Paypal and report the problem and have them cancel
the chargebacks? Something was rotten in On July 6th, I received an email from another hobbyist, Liz Bouras, who had gotten a chargeback from Jessica. Not good. The following day, a third hobbyist, Alexander from Modellpferdeversand, came forward with the same story and even called me long distance from Germany to commisserate. All four of us swapped information and submitted it all to Paypal. On July 10th, Alexander discovered Jessica's Webshots account: http://community.webshots.com/user/almostgorgeous In her Arabs album, I found pictures of the model I had sold to Jessica along with the model Liz had sold to her. Here are my screen captures: 2) The first page of the Arabs album The model called "amirmarion" is the one stolen from Liz. 3) The second page of the Arabs album The model called "nala" is the model Jessica stole from me. "Nala1" is my photo of the model. "Nala2" is the photo taken by the previous owner whom I purchased the horse from in Fall 2005. "Nala3," "nala4," and "nalatäcke" are all Jessica's photos. 4) The third page of the Arabs album In the photo titles "arabbus2," you can see my model again on the left.
Jessica kindly included some photos of herself and her(?) real horse in her Webshots album: 1) Her album of pix of herself 2) Her album of pix of herself with real horses 3) A closeup of Jessica and her horse and look! Another photo of girl and horse
Those last two photos are important because they match up with photos posted to Jessica's MySpace, also under the "almostgorgeous" name. I found her MySpace page on July 10th and found a *really* interesting post she made. I took screeen captures of everything. (Jessica has become aware of her folly recently and deleted the post.) But thank goodness for computer technology: 1) Jessica's MySpace front page on July 10th The photo is familiar, eh? Not to mention all her personal info. 2) The "happy frigin birtday" entry The last paragraph is as follows: "still hoping I get to collect my walter frawley´s black at the postoffice today, but I doubt I´ll get it since the company seams to have just dicovered my not-paying-keep-buying. darn! they were so stupid not noticing at first. I could have made a fortune. " "Walter frawley´s black" is Walter Farley's Black Stallion, a Breyer model that Jessica tried to order from Alexander of MPV (who still has the invoice). Damning evidence to say the least. Again, all of this information was printed out and faxed to Paypal to the tune of about $35.
On July 21st, I got notification from Paypal that they had found in my favor against Jessica, and that they would be submitting the information from their investigation to her credit card company. Unfortunately, her credit card company found in her favor on August 8th. I guess they'd rather keep a paying customer happy even if she is an admitted thief.... With the help of a very kind hobbyist in Sweden, Mariah Hjerppe, the four of us are still pursuing our case against Jessica through lawyers and the Swedish police. This is not over! Please also note that I plan to keep on doing business with hobbyists around the world---one bad apple will NOT spoil the barrel for me! If anyone has any further information or has also been scammed by Jessica, please contact me at: whitehorsepro@yahoo.com Thanks! |
