This Week's Scamwatch (Josh Hoopes)

[Ibrahim Amin]

Hope it's okay to post about this on two different boards here (I also mentioned it on the Artist & Writer Showcase).

I was sold some material by the fraudster in question, and would like to find the real artist.

If anyone recognises this work, and could point me towards them, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks.

[khuxford]

I'd like to find the artist as well. That's quality work.

[Patchwork Comics]

Found his address, guess what, he just tried to scam me, fortunately I found this stuff out first. However, I was clever enough to play into his ruse. I told him I could only send him a check. He was dumb enough to send me his address and real name. His real name is in fact Josh Hoopes. You can send the authorities to his house if you've been scammed by him:

Josh Hoopes
3314 May Street
Sacramento, CA 95838

He's scammed a ton of people so far! Don't be next.

[turock2]

he appears to be now operating as Mike Roberts up front
and i dont think i was so lucky with the money!
it went to
Josh Hoopes
3314 May Street
Sacramento, CA 95838

[missyl]

I've just been scammed by him! He pretended to be Art (Arthur) Adams the famous artist and only when he took (forced) paypal money from my account did I find out his real name.

There must be a way to get this guy, since he seems to be scamming a lot of people. Can we call the police on this guy?

[JoshBot]

He tried to get me using the Mike Roberts alias too. He responded to a post I made on Digital Webbing and tried to pass off some of Mike Choi's X-23 pencils as his own. Was he using liveink@hotmail.es on you guys, too?

[spak]

I was contacted by him(magic_bella@yahoo.com) in Feb 2008 to color a sample page. I sent a low-rez jpg of finished color and also asked him about his studio and publisher of the book. After that, there was no reply. Then I was approached again in Mar 26 from Robert Salinez(art-wise@hotmail.com) with 2 inked pages to color as samples. Not knowing at the time that it was the same guy who never replied after receiving my color sample a month ago, I asked him to send me payment up front for samples. Then of course, I never heard from him again..... until, yesterday.
But this time, as Joshua De Lava, using same email as Robert Salinez(art-wise@hotmail.com, duh!). He asked me if I would work for a commission. I did a quick lookup(which I should've done in Feb.) and there he was, all over the internet, better known as:
Josh Hoopes
3314 May Street
Sacramento, CA 95838

I also found the color sample I did on one of his portfolio site in Photobucket(ID: riobravo_2008). I replied to his email telling him to take down the image I colored or I'll report him to Internet Crime Complaint center and Sacramento police for copyright infringement and identity theft.

And, this was his reply:
From: Joshua De Lava<art-wise@hotmail.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 18, 2008 at 10:22 AM
“if you honestly think my real name is Joshua Hoopes and that is my real address then I am way ahead of you.
As of a week ago I have stopped all that stuff and moved on.
Go ahead and check out the link again and you will find out it´s dead.
Knock your self out dick tracy, if this is what´s causing you to lose sleep at night then I feel sorry for you.
If you want to continue pursuing this then it sounds like you have a little too much time on your hands.
Don´t worry I´m done with all of it.”

I did see that he took down the pics in his photobucket gallery. I also did his IP address lookup. He is in fact in Peru, Lima currently. But his previous emails were actually from near Sacramento, CA. He says in his email that he’s done with his criminal act, but I’ve come to see in this forum that he was still active up until last month. So I decided to share this info with you all.

[El Torres]

I've been scammed by this guy, he was acting as "Mike Roberts" at liveink. About $300 that I paid upfront for some pages for one of my books. The sample pages he sent weren't from an artist that I could recognize.
Due to people like these, I'm not paying upfront anymore. I've been spreading the word to other writers too.

[diablo7]

well mike choi is flattered that someone tried to get jobs using his artwork

http://mikechoirants.blogspot.com/

[Michael P]

Boy, this guy has balls, don't he? "It's Marvel and DC's fault for not accepting my genius unless I pretend to be Art Adams!"

[diablo7]

he's kind of like the uncle from napoleon dynamite....i wonder what he would have did if he got a job and the publisher realized that he's not art adams because his art does not look like art adams...

[FunkyGreenJerusalem]

i wonder what he would have did if he got a job and the publisher realized that he's not art adams because his art does not look like art adams...

Probably whinge and call them biased and unprofessional, completely missing the point that people hire Art Adams to get art that looks like, and is, Art Adams art.

[Global Honored]

C'mon people, this guy can't be THAT bad. He is forwarding me a kazillion dollars right now from South America into MY bank account. Luckily he found me through email or he was going to have a time getting all that cash into the country due to those crazy inheritance laws down there. Plus...he says he thinks I may have won their lottery too. Seems like a swell fellow to me.

[MacQuarrie]

I'll print out copies and take them to the next CAPS meeting; maybe somebody there can identify the artist.

[FaithfulMonkeyButler]

I'll print out copies and take them to the next CAPS meeting; maybe somebody there can identify the artist.

martial there is a spambot. It's just copy/pasting the OP so it can place a spam link in its signature.