New York, NY
Quoted from crwjumper:I would never give Jonathan another penny. Throughout this whole ordeal he has been communicating with me and still has never admitted what he did to us. He is a very skilled con man who uses gaslighting and mixing the truth with lies to make you believe he is your friend and an honest man.
Make no mistake. Jonathan is not a friend. He is a liar and a thief and if you send him any money you are making a big mistake. What he did he did without any regard for our personal situations. He attempted to steal over $150,000 from us. This was something that he carefully planned and executed prior to the pandemic. He gathered funds by promising to deliver pins that he had no intent to deliver to us.
When speaking with him he acts as if he is your best friend - he is not. He is a very convincing liar and a thief. He will make you believe that he has nothing but the best intentions and gain your trust. He did this to a large part of us in the pinball community for several years and then when we all trusted him he attempted to steal a huge amount of money from us. This is the worst type of person. He shows absolutely no remorse and refuses to admit that what he did was wrong.
I guarantee you this: If I had not written the original post, obtained a lawyer to begin legal proceedings, and threatened to put him in jail he would still have all of our money. During the last couple of years when he was stealing our money he continued to promise each of us that he would pay us back or deliver pins. But he never gave back one penny. He told us that he had so many different problems happening to him and his family as a stall tactic, but still would not return a cent. But when he realized that he could be held accountable and possibly go to jail, he suddenly found plenty of money to pay us back. His first payment to me was $12,500. This was my (our) money that he had readily available but had no intention to give back.
He relies on his access to inside information to give us tidbits of truth mixed with lies. He is a pathological liar. He believes that he is an honest and innocent man but he has no ethics.
In the future he will gain back the trust of many people who he has scammed before and those who do not yet know him. He may deliver pins at good savings for a few years. But after he gains trust he will steal again. A leopard never changes his spots.
Thanks for making it clear how you feel, and that you didn't allow yourself to be forced to endorse this jackass as a condition for getting paid back.
It's been said many times, but just because a few scammed Pinsiders got their money back doesn't mean everybody did. Pinside is just the tip of the iceberg and there's doubtlessly many more people who we've never heard of who were victimized in this con, likely to help pay some Pinsiders back.
You guys are lucky that Amusement Scam of America has enough to lose - a house, a family, etc. - and the resources to pay you back. My advice to this community is quite while you are far, far ahead on this one. Plenty of distributors with stellar reputations who we know won't steal your money, even if they won't tell you want you want to hear and offer to sell you games that don't exist.
Regina, SK
