Scammed on digitsmith EVERYONE BEWARE!!

This is a warning and an advisory to everyone on the Digitsmith boards as well as other similar web pages and to anyone purchasing or in the market to purchase used equipment:

Back in 2010 I had the HUGE inconvenience of contacting a SCAMMER by the name of Jay Maru posting in the classifieds section of digitsmith. He claimed to be a re-seller of used and repossessed equipment as well as running his own graphics/printing company out of Woodbridge Ontario Canada. I talked with him over email quite a bit, talked with him on the phone, received the serial number of the Summa printer I was interested in; as well as detailed pictures of the printer and the serial number.

I checked the sales history of the Printer and was able to see that what Jay Maru had told me as to the history of the Summa printer checked out. I went on to google maps and was able to view Jay's (brick n mortar) business via street view. I reviewed Jay's history on digitsmith as well as googled for negative feedback on anything related to Jay Maru. Everything seemed to be okay so I went ahead with the purchase. I did everything short of flying to Canada (from California) to meet with Jay Maru and have him actually print something for me with the printer I had intended to purchase (I wish I had now...I know, I know, bad decision; trust me, I've learned my lesson. At the time, I was unaware of escrow accounts).

After Jay Maru received the $6,000+ bank transfer, his prompt replies started to be, well, not so prompt. He immediately came up with excuse after excuse as to why he had not shipped the printer (for which he had already received payment). This went on for a couple of months. My patience quickly dwindled, yet I remained professional when dealing with Jay Maru. After his charades could no longer continue, Jay cut all contact with me. He would not return phone calls, emails, written mail, etc. I documented all of this in a journal; day by day. I wrote transcripts for each day I called either Jay Maru or his bussiness Digitalpixel Design & Print. I wrote down the time of day that I called, with whom I spoke to, and whatever the new excuse at the time was, as to why Jay could not come to the phone. Always with assurance that Jay Maru would call me back; which he never would.

Determined to make sure I was not jumping to conclusions thinking that Jay Maru was stealing my money, I set up a fake email account and contacted Jay under an alias; inquiring about a separate printer he had for sale (a graphtech fc7000). Whaddaya know??! He responded immediately! At this point I knew Jay Maru was the lying, conniving, dirty rat thief I thought he was (believe me there are not enough words to accurately label Jay Maru for what he truly is).

I tried anything I could think of. I contacted the Better Bussiness Bureau and filed a complaint with them; only to find out that they are essentially a intermediary in a dispute. They issue/deliver your complaint to the other party and wait for a response. What do you think Jay Maru did? That's right, nothing. So the BBB replies back that there was no response and they will cite it as a complaint in their records. I called the Canadian local police to see if there was anything they could do, how silly of me, no crime was committed. Jay Maru apparently didn't fraud me or steal my money. This is apparently a civil dispute that has to be taken to court. Since then Jay Maru has closed his old business Digitalpixel Design&Print and I assume HE has put up some sort of a completely unrelated website (Dawnlite - Shenzhen Dawnlite Lighting Technology Co) attached to his old web address digitalpixel.ca

At this point, I had to weight my options. I could not just let Jay Maru get away with stealing my money. Which amazingly, somehow, is not legally considered theft or fraud??? Do you know what it's considered when you send someone money under the understanding that you will receive the item as described by 'said seller,' but instead do not receive even a single speck of dust??

It's not theft or fraud...??

Nope. It's a dispute of contract...duhhhh.

Really??! Does this seem right to anyone else?? I swear this whole thing seems like something out of the twilight zone.

So after weighing the financial costs of flying to Canada and representing myself in small claims court, I decide to hire a lawyer. I received a lawyer referral number from my great aunt and uncle (Canadians) and called a lawyer. Turns out the lawyer I got referred to was also a judge in Woodbridge, and could not take my case as it was a conflict of interest. He referred me to a different lawyer in the area whom I eventually hired (however I wish these leaches would have better represented the likely outcome of this situation, instead they sucked as much money from me as they possibly could). Over almost two years later and paying for my lawyer to make three trips to court, I finally get a judgement in my favor. However, in the additional $4,000 I had to spend to get to this point (in persuit of justice), for some reason the judge only saw it fit to award me an additional $995 towards legal expenses.......

WTF?!?! Are you kidding me?? First how would this be justice served..I essentially paid an additional four grand for someone to represent me to have an unrelated 3rd party look at the evidence and say (paraphrased of course) "oh yes, I've looked at the evidence, and Mr. Maru, you should have to pay back the money you stole. You shouldn't be responsible for even a quarter of the legal costs it took to get here though, because you are a professional SCAMMER; but don't worry we can't actually make you pay."

The sad thing is, the judgement is only a statement from an 'official' third party which holds no actual power in making Jay Maru Pay me back. Unless however, I pay my lawyer MORE money to file more necessary forms to try to collect the debt; which still would not guarantee that I receive payment.

The worst part of all of this for me..

Is not the fact that I'm now $10k in the whole, or set back 2 years in my wasted time with the professional clown Jay Maru, or even the crazy amount of grief and stress Jay Maru has caused me over the past two years. The worst part for me is knowing that the lengths that I went to, to try and achieve justice in this issue, were all for waste. There has been nothing done to stop or prevent Jay Maru from doing this to another unsuspecting small business man or woman who frequently visits such sites as the digitsmith boards or other similar sites. Aside from a small infraction on Jay Maru's credit report, he gets to walk away clean and clear, ready to deceive and steel from another person..probably someone just like you.

My objective here is to give someone out there any kind of insight into the processes, results in my situation, and the aftermath after being scammed online. This is an attempt to help prevent anyone else from having to deal with crooks such as Jay Maru and the other worthless parasites of the internet and society. Unfortunately, justice has not been served in my situation. I tried to receive some type of legal retribution in this matter because I could not just walk away knowing that I did not try to get back what was, what I believe to be fraudulently coerced out of my possession. Instead, after taking the 'legal' route in trying to solve my issue, I walk away an additional $4,000 in debt from the initial $6,200 Jay Maru stole from me. I ended up with the stark realization that the legal system (not just the Canadian system, the U.S. is no better) is a racket in itself, filled with judges and shark lawyers ready to feed off of whatever is left of an individual after thieves have had their way, and gotten away.

Please everyone out there be warned, DO NOT EVER do business with Jay Maru.

Here are businesses he either has been or currently is associated with:

Digitalpixel Design&Print (Doesn't exist anymore)
MJ Enterprises
Adorn Graphics - http://www.adorngraphics.com
Profitbyweb - http://www.profitbyweb.ca

Here is a link to the crooks 2 facebook accounts so you may know him by face.

http://www.facebook.com/people/Jay-Maru/1046478964

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003176169739

Also Associated with Jay Maru is his father Babubhai Maru (who may or may not be dead; as that was one of Jay's excuses for not sending the printer) who is the owner of various (presumably shell corporations) Canadian corporations listed below; including (the late) Digitalpixel Design & Print:

Director of Vista Printers Inc.

Director of 6413412 Canada Inc.

Director of 7093578 Canada Incorporated (Digitalpixel)

Director of 7508166 Canada Incorporated

Director of 7170351 Canada Incorporated

If anyone has gone through something like this or knows someone who has, and has had success in retrieving their stolen funds, please let me know. As well, anyone may feel free to re-post this story and information on other sites as a warning to other people.