How I got scammed through "Ebrahim Saadawi"

[HelsinkiZim]

1 minute ago, mercer said:

I like your idea, I meant for him to make a serious movie based on this. That would be crap. What you're suggesting could be pretty funny. Part of his punishment should be to supple stock footage from Egypt. 

Yes!

Ok, Im gonna stop talking about it and write something quick tomorrow and post it as an editable doc so we can all edit it. I've already captured the paper trail for these purposes. Just hope the thread doesnt close in the next few days for proper screengrabs.

Nuff said...

[Emanuel]

And this is addressed to your detractors, Ebrahim...

 

[HelsinkiZim]

5 minutes ago, Emanuel said:

Good advice to you, Ebrahim! Take advantage of this whole embarrassing situation. Now that everyone knows your story, you can even enlarge the basis of people with eyes on you. Once they're really curious on your talent or lack of it. Wanna more motivation? This must surely challenge you. Once again, everything is in your hands! :-)

 

LMAO

You and me brother, in his hands. Mic drop.

We are getting into trolling territory here, so I must now retire to the boudoir. It has been fun.

[squig]

You're all on drugs, that's it, isn't it?

I come clean about my Chewbacca abduction and the kid is still lying his arse off. Ebrahim, I'm sure your friends and family already knew you're full of shit.

The following is stuff I shared privately with other members:

If Ebrahim was scammed ask yourselves why he wrote a post stressing that the rangefinder scam isn't an offence. Do does that sound like something a victim would do?

Do you think if this kid had access to a 1Dc he wouldn't be showing it off on the forum? The one about the serial number being another number if it's not the serial number, I love that one.

I can tell you guys if this happened while I was a mod at cinema5D we'd be discussing a permanent ban. We banned a guy for a lesser evil.

Excerpts from some of Ebrahim's dubious 1Dc related posts:

Feb 1: Post on 1DxII specs “Canon went full in. I just wish they do the same for the 5D IV that I can afford and not cripple the video mode.”

Feb 23: “Since it looks we'll be shooting Technicolour Cinestyle on the 1DXII if we want a LOG workflow,  This is trying Cinestyle on 1DC."  Looks like upscaled Canon 1080p H.264, not 1DC 4k.

May 18: Ebrahim started a thread: Canon 1DX-II vs. 1DC - Which one would you buy?
In the first post he said: “I am torn between the two”

May 24:  “If I buy the 1DXII I'll be pulling focus with the touch screen more than the focus ring I am sure”
May 29: “I have been testing that signal a lot lately on the 1DC.”
June 1: “I’ll get the 1DC now. Made my decision for me when I am setting on my  couch! Thank you ALOT. You're a very valuable addition to the forum. “
July 5: “It's my favorite camera (1Dc) of all time and I spend a lot, and I mean A LOT to get one for my company, triple the price of a new unit (country customs) reproaching epic/F55 territory in price.”
July 9:  “The 1DC is a LONG and SLIM camera! Nothing funnier than how it looks with my Ninja Blade on the hot shoe. VERY awkward to hold.”
July 11: “I've shot 35mm film for decades…”  and “If these differences don't make a difference AT ALL then I have wasted A LOT of time and money shooting on the 1DC and could've just shot the a7s MK one since the day it came out”  and “filming is a hobby that I enjoy besides my work as a hospital ER physician/Senior PhD Radiologist”

I find it more than a little strange that there’s no unboxing shots, no first footage, no “hey guys guess what I got”. My take is Ebrahim (21yr old student) has been playing us from the start grabbing info off the web and passing it off as his experience. The kid’s a wannabee. I haven’t come across anything he’s shot, no camera tests, nothing but talk.

If anyone is still buying anything Ebrahim says I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

[Ed_David]

Damn it - people are bored?

I gave a stunning twist!  I beat the confession out of him like a corrupt cop in the Wire.

Here comes in Mr. Good cop - 

Anyway, okay, Ebrahim - I believe you - you were scammed.  Now can we just get to some points I would like to address.  This will clear everything up.  If you explain this, it will really help your case.

1.  Why is the police note "written in kids handwriting" as a reader of Egyptian said?

2.  Why is your handwriting from your twitter account so closely matched to the writing that the "hacker" did with the slr rangefinder?  Especially the pressure on the "u" and the "m" - that's not a typical way of writing those letters.

3.  Can you point us to websites that talk about your father or grandfather, either as the head of Sa'Ad Media or of the Radiology Center he has? Or newspaper articles, or anything?  What are the names of the films he made?

4.  Do you have photos or video of your father/grandfather?

5.  Can you point to any websites that you posted that your Canon IDC camera was stolen?

6.  Can you send us the receipt for your purchase of the Canon 1DC?

7.  Why is the cost of importing your 1DC $20,000 USD, when the import tax rate in Egypt is 4%? 

8.  Can you show us BTS of your 1DC?  Or your dad or grandpa's 1DC?    

That's all I have for now.  If you answer these, I am sure more people will believe you.

You have my word that I will not reach out to any more friends/professors/family members of yours - under one condition - you answer each of the above questions.  Let me know your thoughts.

 

[HelsinkiZim]

3 minutes ago, squig said:

If anyone is still buying anything Ebrahim says I have a bridge I'd like to sell you.

10 bucks for that Brooklyn one that puts you buy the shake shack.

[mercer]

It is pretty effin interesting when you read how well Old ES wrote in English compared to Young ES.

[sudopera]

5 hours ago, Ed_David said:

Its not torture

To clarify

I message his friends. Tell them hes in trouble for scamming 1k usd from buyers.

He then says make it stop to me. What do i want?

I say a confession.

He confesses.

Then he asks me To lie to his friends and tell them he didnt scam people. After i told them he was in trouble for scamming people and pointed them to this thread. I told  him ok. Saying i would lie to them was a lie. I didnt tell them that it was another person because i know and pretty everyone else here knows hes a pathological liar who created a fake dad or grandpa.

 

He wanted me to lie to his friends and say everything was okay.

Its not.

And the only ones who will help this guy is his real life friends.

Not us.

We are nothing to him.

Just objects to steal from and endlessly lie to.

And still honestly f him for ripping off three peole who honestly didnt know better.

He also hurt the reputation of this site.

Which is a shame.

Cause i think this is a great site.

And to that you say...so do i.

Well im an idiot but i never scammed anyone or lied about myself.

I use my real name.

I post.

I try to share.

Again im sorry.

I went too far.

But man reading the third scam victim made me turn into that guy from la confidential played by that australian guy russell crowe

I don't see absolutely any problem with this, only it would be more appropriate that guys that were scammed did that and not you. But still someone had to, otherwise i think that imaginary 1Dc thief would be hard to catch for Egyptian police, well because he is imaginary.

[Ed_David]

1 minute ago, mercer said:

It is pretty effin interesting when you read how well Old ES wrote in English compared to Young ES.

No way, dawg.

You are looking at Mr. Senior with rose-colored eyes.

I mean, 

"June 1: “I’ll get the 1DC now. Made my decision for me when I am setting on my  couch! Thank you ALOT. You're a very valuable addition to the forum. “"

[HelsinkiZim]

3 minutes ago, mercer said:

It is pretty effin interesting when you read how well Old ES wrote in English compared to Young ES.

Until you have tried to learn some ancient Scandinavian language, you will never understand how easy English actually is. With a basic understanding, you can Google translate your way into Hemingway highway.

[mercer]

1 minute ago, Ed_David said:

No way, dawg.

You are looking at Mr. Senior with rose-colored eyes.

I mean, 

"June 1: “I’ll get the 1DC now. Made my decision for me when I am setting on my  couch! Thank you ALOT. You're a very valuable addition to the forum. “"

Yeah maybe, but there is definitely a difference between the two. If you look at the fb reply Tomas showed us, it seems more in the style of Old ES... I don't know something still feels fishy about this whole thing. If that FB reply didn't exist the whole story would make more sense. Maybe there was never an Old ES, but there was an Older ES. 

[squig]

I say we give Ebrahim 30 days to pay back all the money before we go full medieval on his arse on his social media, and give all the evidence we've collected to the Egyptian police. My uncle (by marriage) is Egyptian by the way, so I could ask him to facilitate the police report. I've had enough of this kid wasting our time with his games.

[Lee Kelly]

This fits quite well.

This is how I will sign off.

SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!!!!

and if the relevance of this clip doesnt resonate atleast watch the movie as its one of the greatest. They sure dont do em like that anymore. 

SEXUAL CHOCOLATE!!! (mic drops..fade out)

[HelsinkiZim]

49 minutes ago, squig said:

I say we give Ebrahim 30 days to pay back all the money before we go full medieval on his arse on his social media, and give all the evidence we've collected to the Egyptian police. My uncle (by marriage) is Egyptian by the way, so I could ask him to facilitate the police report. I've had enough of this kid wasting our time with his games.

If this is not already Marcellus Wallace, then we are truly fucked as humans.

The fact is that he is untraceable. I still sometimes have a glimpse at those Instagram pics and I wonder how someone so perfect can write stuff so stupid. And the 'elder' who was on vacation who 'chimed in' to let us know he earned 1 000 USD a day as CEO and President of Saawadi Building with holdings in some media company and some post on some faculty, and had no time for scams, is apparently long gone.

No we have Saawadi Jnr the peacemaker teenager.

Jeez, folks. Let's unite, vote for a ban, move on, take some lessons.

NOOBODY is getting their money back. Period.

Has anyone been to Africa before? It is different rules. Your naivety is thinking that because someone is in Afirca they don't have access to information like we do. They do, and the education system is actually awesome for kids from rich parents. Better on average than in Europe or the states. Some of my peers from African schools did well, went to Cambridge, Harvard etc - and some wanted the easy way and went into fraud. I (maybe) saw it first hand. Over many many years. Some went left and some went right. Some driven by educational pedigree and some by BMWs.

All are very comfortable and happy now, and crime free.

We were all educated and smart, but some used that to take advantage of people who looked at them as poor Africans. A fool and his money are soon parted.

If anyone knows SEO, they know how to play the long game, in the world of high stakes purchases reputation is everything and if you think that cannot be manufactured you are naive again.

If I had say 10 accounts and all I had to do was build rep on each fro 3 years and then bank 3 000 on each account, that is 30 000 dollars. Which to someone in Africa, could be the equivalent of you winning a 100 000 lottery. It would be enough to survive on for a few years. It is worth the effort in ways you wouldn't understand unless you had nothing. For us there is working at bestbuy, Ikea, Hesburger/ McDonalds (until the bots take over) but for many it is the streets, hunger and death. Learning how to comment and talk about gear is literally a piss-take.

Can we not start to have these types of discussions about how naive and stupid we all are with our 'hobby' here that really should be our 'profession'?

As a professional, even giving your kid your account details is an instant fail in my opinion.

This is serious money and serious business we are in. Movies and tv may be dead, but video content is a billion dollar industry and it is no place for pure apologists and tech heads. We need to keep these leeches out of the picture. Its too expensive to feel sorry for ones and zeros.

edit: when I say apologists, I mean giving scammers the benefit of the doubt because we are a 'community' and when i say tech heads, i mean people who get caught up with the tech and never develop a business plan and a true real life strategy to live off of images.

[Lee Kelly]

ok ok this one is kind of relevant also. Everyone of these is ES.

As I said, if nothing else, watch the film its amazing!

[Ed_David]

50 minutes ago, sudopera said:

 

 

The minimum wage in Egypt - well for a housekeeper is $150 a month.  A kid in college probably makes around $50 a month.

http://sites.miis.edu/educationinegypt/files/2013/05/CIEsalaryEgypt.pdf

So the "scam artist" made at least $750, which is 5 months salary for say, someone working at McDonalds in Egypt.

That's a lot of money for a scam. And it's possibly more - if there are other victims who haven't come forward yet.  

In America, monthly minimum wage is $1100. Ten times as much.

So with this logic (and correct me if I'm wrong) - the scam artist made about $7,500, based on standard of living in Egypt (rough estimate) 

That's a lot of money.

$7.5k, especially if the scam artist was young and poor.  And let's say there are two more victims - that's easily a cool $10,000 USD.  For a young kid , damn that's a ton of money.

If you had that opportunity, you were really good at English, and smart and tech savy, would you feel the temptation? Especially if you tell yourself that you are ripping off greedy rich Americans who should know better?

I can see the motive.

Especially if I was young and needing money.

 

My final question is:

1.  The SLR magic rangefinder?  It was from SLR Magic or someone says that wasn't true?

 

 

[Guest Ebrahim Saadawi]

8 minutes ago, Ed_David said:

 

The minimum wage in Egypt - well for a housekeeper is $150 a month.  A kid in college probably makes around $50 a month.

http://sites.miis.edu/educationinegypt/files/2013/05/CIEsalaryEgypt.pdf

So the "scam artist" made at least $750, which is 6 months salary for say, someone working at McDonalds in Egypt.

That's a lot of money for a scam. And it's possibly more - if there are other victims who haven't come forward yet.  

In America, monthly minimum wage is $1100. Ten times as much.

So with this logic (and correct me if I'm wrong) - the scam artist made about $7,500, based on standard of living in Egypt (rough estimate) 

That's a lot of money.

$7.5k, especially if the scam artist was young and poor.  And let's say there are two more victims - that's easily a cool $10,000 USD.  For a young kid , damn that's a ton of money.

If you had that opportunity, you were really good at English, and smart and tech savy, would you feel the temptation? Maybe.  I can see the motive.

My final question is:

1.  Where did the money come from for the SLR magic rangefinder?  Was it a gift?

 

 

Yes that's the whole problem. 300$ is a ton of money for me a young 19 year-old (studying so even cannot work) to pay for James. But I will do it. Over my dead body. In small sums from my entire allowance. I'll accept to live with zero money but I just want to end this.  And the Rangefinder was in my grandpa's gear. I'll send it off to Tomas and Tim in the next few days. They agreed to be paid that way. It's just James 330$ now I will try to gather. 

[HelsinkiZim]

3 minutes ago, Ebrahim Saadawi said:

Yes that's the whole problem. 300$ is a ton of money for me a young 19 year-old (studying so even cannot work) to pay for James. But I will do it. Over my dead body. In small sums from my entire allowance. I'll accept to live with zero money but I just want to end this.  And the Rangefinder was in my grandpa's gear. I'll send it off to Tomas and Tim in the next few days. They agreed to be paid that way. It's just James 330$ now I will try to gather. 

Just let us know when it is in the post. Noone needs to hear about the details anymore. Put in post. Give recipient tracking number. Post here. That order.

[Ed_David]

Just tell the truth, Ebrahim, and they'll go away.

It's just ghosts haunting you.

[HelsinkiZim]

2 minutes ago, Ed_David said:

Just tell the truth, Ebrahim, and they'll go away.

It's just ghosts haunting you.

Jeez man, Ed, get out of this situation. It all just stinks. There is a seat for you here on the sidelines.

These messages sound crazy, seriously.

Extract yourself and rest easy.

The male version of the Lolita scam is going on now. You just gotta open your eyes.