As if the lockout wasn't bad enough..... WARNING

[A Watch]

My original post accused Shakedown and Old Skool of scamming poolies out of their money. While some people have not received money they are owed, this may not have been a scam but just a situation that got out of hand that included changed phone numbers and email accounts.

I am sorry for jumping on the witch hunt prematurely and calling out these guys a scammers. Should have let cooler heads prevail but I guess this damn lockout has me edgy

[dongjohnson]

What did you use as payment? You can get a refund by way of paypal and credit card easily, in most cases.

[metaldude26]

My understanding is that Shakedown has been going through some really tough times in his personal life and basically just wanted to rid himself of the hassle of fantasy sports so closed everything and basically attempted to excommunicate himself. Ethical? Probably not but I don't think it is his intent to scam people. He just wants out. Completely.

I happened to have been competing in one of his "fun only" leagues and he closed all of those too. Some of the other managers in the league who knew him better were able to track him down and get him to help get the site to renew our league and have since continued the league so it's not like he can't be reasoned with, it just might be really difficult/impossible for you to track him down.

But here's the thing, I've been in leagues with him for five or so years now and he's always been a very impetuous commissioner. He'll start a ton of leagues in a flurry and then drop them after a year and move on to his next project. Still, with me he was always reasonable (at least until this fall) with getting me or someone else to take over as commissioner. From what I've heard he hasn't always been that reasonable but this fall was the first I had seen of it.

Obviously I can't help you get your league or your money back but I don't want to tear the guys name apart. Maybe he's lost the right to be trusted as a commissioner but I'd gladly pool with Shake again. He was, in my experience, a smart manager and a really good guy to chat with.

So I'll reiterate, I know it's shitty how things went down but I don't think he was truly trying to scam anyone. Life just got way too hard and he felt it was best to just get out of the fantasy game entirely. It wasn't the best way to go about business, nor was it necessarily reasonable but I just don't want to see his name get dragged completely through the mud.

Edit:

Having said all that, I did not see his latest attempt to jump back into the fantasy game within the past couple of weeks until just now. I'm at a loss for words.

[arctic_rogue]

I never got scammed by him, but he did string me along for quite a while with a baseball league. I missed other opportunities because I had a spot in his league. About a month before the "draft" I messaged him and he gave my spot away. Granted, it's not as bad as taking people's money, but it still left a bad taste in my mouth.

I see metaldude's point about not scamming. But shutting down a money league, without refundnig money, would be fraudulent whether he is trying to do it or not.

[Axeman33]

And this is why I dont join money leagues online with people I dont know IRL. I am in one money league and its with co-workers/friends. I know where they live.

It sucks boys, but thats the reality/risk of these situations when you dont know the person holding your money personally.

[cdubb]

I didn't join OldSkools new league, but had briefly exchanged messages and said he used leaguesafe for funds.

Edit: sounds like he ripped a lot of ppl off

[ericdaoust]

First, find out if there is a refund policy that you can use with the service that allowed you to make the payment. If the payment was just a small one it might not even be worth going to that extreme though. Just be careful moving forward. There are tons of ways to get screwed over on the internet.

[A Watch]

Still waiting to see if this is as bad as it seems.... Some of the guys are saying that between all the sports leagues he set up it could be thousands. One of the one's I am in is 28 teams at $50 each.....

[A Watch]

Mostly I just hope this is a giant misunderstanding and I have to make a big public apology

[ericdaoust]

Still waiting to see if this is as bad as it seems.... Some of the guys are saying that between all the sports leagues he set up it could be thousands. One of the one's I am in is 28 teams at $50 each.....

At $50 I think you should look into ways to be refunded.

[frost]

@metaldude26

What Steve says is true. I have been in leagues with "Brandon" for four years, some other guys in my group have been in leagues with Brandon for 10 years. He was always the heart and soul of the league. He was a great commish and ran great leagues. Yes if he got bored with a league he would shut it down or get somebody to commish it, and then start another league, and that was just the way he was. I took over as commish in a basketball league he started and metaldude took over a hockey league he started. Both leagues are still going strong. However this year a few months ago he sent out an email saying that he was going through some medical issues and that he was taking some time away from fantasy sports. Fair enough, any of us would do the same thing in that position. He sent out a couple emial in the following months to check in, but then when the baseball season ended people started to want to get paid. I defended him and said that people should be understanding of the guy and his issues and that they would get paid. I even offered to make the payouts myself thinking that Brandon would pay me back when he was back. Then word began to spread that he had shut a league down just before the playoffs were about to begin and didn't give back any of the money. Eventualy Brandon responded to a text from me and said that he had spent the money on medical bills and he was just trying to buy some time to get the money back to make the payouts. To me that was a fair explaination. However no payments to my knowledge have been made. Full disclosure: I am owed money but not a significant amount maybe 100 dollars, but the money he collected is in the thousands. I'm not doing this because I want my money, I'm doing this because I love fantasy sports and I want to protect other guys from being ripped off. Even after everything I still trusted Brandon and then I see that he is starting to start new money leagues and start the whole thing again? I feel so betrayed. he shut down his facebook and twitter pages, changed his e-mail and his phone number. He is nothing but a liar and scammer. I considered him a friend, but now I know the truth. Dobber, please take precautions on your site to stop people usuing your boards to scam money. This guy used to be a mod for these boards for a short time. He is lying to you and using your site for fraud.

[Old_Smokie]

I have been in the CHDL league from the start and what I can say is that I don't honestly think that anything unscrupulous has happened. But one of the GMs has seemed to spook the others by mentioning that this league is a scam. I don't think it's fair at this point to be discrediting anyone as some of the members HAVE been refunded their league fees.

[ericdaoust]

Also don't discount the possibility that the person at fault could be posing as a dobberhockey member in order to attract other forum members into the scam. That is of course if this even is a scam.

[arctic_rogue]

At $50 I think you should look into ways to be refunded.

If there is repetition here of such behaviour, I think it would be a good idea for someone to contact the police. Not easy to trace, but worth a try for sure.

[DerekReese]

At $50 I think you should look into ways to be refunded.

After Shakedown left and the new guy Old Skool took over all our league and the money was to be transfered to leaguesafe.com for safe keeping. But only half the leagues fees are in the account. Where is the other half of the money? I sure hope Old Skool comes out quickly and lets us all know whats going on. The longer he waits the more guilty he looks.

I sure hope this is a misunderstanding and we can move forward.