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   Fraud

   11.19.02
  

It is a shame I have to write this, but the parties involved have left me no choice. Today I am writing to report and warn that our love for Sierra games is being exploited by a bottom feeding scum sucker in Israel. Counterfeits have plagued every form of collectible at some point and now it has struck home in our hobby.

At first I refused to believe it because, I mean frankly, how could the cost of reproducing Sierra games be worth the time and effort considering the market is relatively small. Well, apparently Eyal Katz has figured out a cost effective way and is producing and distributing counterfeit games. I encourage you to read my story and do whatever you can to make sure no one else falls victim to Eyal's scams.

This is my warning NEVER BUY ANYTHING FROM EYAL KATZ IN ISRAEL

   My Story

  

On Thursday, October 24, 2002 while browsing ebay I noticed three ebay auctions from davidwolf5: Wizard and the Princess (Apple), Wizard and the Princess (Atari) and Cranston Manor. I e-mailed the seller stating my interest in the games and asked if he had any others he would be willing to sell. He responded shortly after:

On Thu, 24 Oct 2002 15:35:59 -0600 david wolf 'katzavinoam@bezeqint.net' wrote:
hi
I have more copies.
I can sell them to you if you want?
150$ for all 3 games.
or you can try your luck on the bids.
in any case in the next few weeks i gona get
out more old stuff out from the
boxes i got.
if you want to do the deal we can use paypal.

David.

  

I agreed to the transaction and paid for the games via Paypal. I was a bit hesitant because in August of 2002 I purchased a Cranston Manor from Eyal Katz (another seller in Israel) and I hadn't received it, but I proceeded anyway. After the transaction went through I was looking at the transaction details to make sure my address was correct and I notice that the name on the account was none other than Eyal Katz. I confronted David Wolf demanding that he tell me who he really was and I got this response:

On Tue, 29 Oct 2002 00:14:35 -0600 david wolf 'katzavinoam@bezeqint.net' wrote:
hi
what is the problem ?
eyal katz is my uncle ?
katz is the second most common family name in Israel?(after choen). i don't have an account that way i use his.
hey man you have to trust more people
i gave you the tracking number you can trace in the Israeli mail website.
David

  

So I decided to give him the benefit of the doubt and wait to see if I would receive the games I purchased. Fast forward to Monday, November 4th, 2002, I received the package from David with the three games. Upon first inspection I was quite pleased but as I looked closer I realized that what I received was not original. I have taken several pictures comparing 'REAL' products with the ones I received from David (keep in mind the images are large to preserve their quality of detail).

  

Authentic On-Line Systems Disk Sleeve --- Sleeve received from Eyal
Authentic WatP --- Wizard and the Princess received from Eyal
Authentic WatP Atari Disk (de embossed lettering and "Adapted" line) --- WatP Atari disk received from Eyal
Authentic Cranston Mace --- Back of Cranston folder received from Eyal
(the lettering is different because it is a different version, the Mace is the item to study)

  

Meanwhile I begin to receive e-mails from several other ebay members stating their concerns because ebay NARU'd davidwolf5 (when I questioned him about this he said he was having "credit card problems"). When I told them to compare their games with the ones they received from David they also found striking differences. As I looked for more proof I decided to fire up my old Apple II and test the disks, all disk read attempts failed. I looked again at the auctions and I noticed that davidwolf5 listed the games under "Computers & Office Products:Software:PC:Other." This is something that confuses many people, at the top of some of the On-Line Systems folder is says "DOS 3.1 & 3.2" this is Apple DOS not PC-DOS. These games were NEVER released on the IBM/PC format under the name On-Line Systems. Emulated versions were, however, later packaged with the Roberta Williams Anthology and The King's Quest Collection. So just for kicks I tried the disks in my PC 5.25" drive and low and behold they read! The files contained on the disks were time stamped between 1992-1995, 10+ years after the games were written?!? And the files themselves were mainly just junk.

  

Then later, as I am going through past e-mails received from the website I see an e-mail from an 'avi' requesting scans of games:

On Wed, 02 Oct 2002 23:04:55 -0600 avi 'katzavinoam@bezeqint.net' wrote:
hi
am interested in some pictures scans of some of your sierra games .
can it be possible for you to send me a scan of your Mystery House - Small On-Line Systems Folder.
i need 300-600 dpi scan of the game folder front back,front and the inside text and also a scan of the disk gold label.
I am going to open a museum of sierra on line art with all the games scan and content .
and I need your help cuz you have so many rare games.
i do not collect games nor i have the money to buy those games .
your help will be most appreciated.
b-regard
avinoam

  

Gee, same e-mail address as David Wolf. Hmmm...wonder why he wanted such detailed scans of every inch of my games.....

So here was the final proof I was looking for and proceeded to confront David about the issue. He insistently denied everything stating that they are real and that he was a distributor for Sierra in Israel and had a lot of leftover stock. After several fierce e-mails he finally responds with this e-mail:

ok
I will come clean
as you probably know I am eyal and David wolf
why I did this cuz i wanted a fresh start in e-bay i knew every one will know en expert is selling those games and I didn't want
them to know this .(looking back foolish thing)
when I saw the 2 games I listed are for 9.99$ I raised it for 10$
that why e-bay kicked me out.
ALL THE OTHER STUFF is carp and are not thru
I did distributed the games in Israel for sierra till 2 years ago .
that why I have a stock.
...
send me back the games all 4
i will send you 3 copies of other games .2 wizard and one Cranston.
they are not good as the one i sent you .
i will have a picture of all 3 soon.
if you don't agree for this you would lose everything .
I don't care about e-bay or paypal
i already got my punishment from e-bay of my stupidity.
ps i will send you 10$ as well for razing the bid .
I expect you not to carry on with this and forgot this after you get the games from me .
one person told me you lye for part of the word part of the time but you can lie all the time to the whole world .
again i am sorry for what i did
eyal katz

  

So he finally decides to admit that he has been lying and offers to replace my games. That e-mail was received on Wednesday, November 6th. As you can see he lies again in this e-mail. He states that he only raised the bids on his auctions $10. If you look at the bid history of the auctions you will see on the Wizard and the Princess (Apple) for example, he raised the bid on 10/25 from $10 to $22.50 then on 10/28 from $25 to $29 for a total of $16.50.

  

Also he states that, if I return the games that I feel are fake, he will send me pictures of games from his collection and replace them with those. In a later e-mail he also promised to refund a total of $100, $50 before I send the games and $50 after. On 11/6 I packaged up the four games and sent them to Eyal via Express Mail ($22.75), tracking number EU754068760US. According to the latest tracking information the parcel has been in Israel for over a week. I haven't received the other half of the $100 he promised, I haven't received any pictures of any games, I haven't received replacements, and Eyal seems to be ignoring every e-mail I send him.

  

So the worthless excuse for a human being has robbed me of $355 and two weeks out of my life for wasting my time dealing with his lies.

  

So I encourage anyone out there to NEVER, I repeat NEVER do business with this clown because undoubtedly you will get scammed here is his information.

E-mail Addresses: katzavinoam@bezeqint.net, rolandmt32@bezeqint.net, in fact I would question anything from @bezeqint.net
Names: Eyal Katz, David Wolf, avi
Ebay Handles: eyalkatz, davidwolf5
GameTZ Handle: glorfindel god (bad trader reports are growing by the day)
Address: Izhak Elhanan 10A, PO BOX 2523, Ramat Hasharon, ISRAEL, ZIP CODE 47218

  

Please use caution when purchasing any of these games from anyone in Israel, of course I am not saying everyone in Israel is a crook. What I am saying is, if there is a person selling Sierra games in Israel there is a good chance it is Eyal Katz operating under one of his aliases. NEVER send anyone requesting high resolution scans of your games unless you know them. If you are in doubt please let me know and I will be happy to help.

  

For more information and another take on this issue please visit The Ye Olde Infocomme Shoppe