Three Best Practices Roman Reenactors Can Use to Avoid Vendor Scams

In the last few months I have personally seen growth within the legions. Legio XIIII Gemina, who I march with on occasion, for example, exploded with new members this past year. With reenacting you are going to have new blood, itching to get their gear as quickly as possible, so they can get out on the field. Unfortunately there are many scams and bad merchants that can cause a new milite to waste their money, on garbage, or empty promises. I decided to write about the signs to look out for, when dealing with merchants, so as not to be tricked by a scam, or a less than reputable business. Coincidentally this is not a new thing. Even Cosplay and Comic art has seen similar activities, leading to a loss of money and sometimes interest, because of it.

This article was not only based on experiences of people who have dealt with these issues, but also in my time teaching in a pre-law (we have seminars on consumer protection and fraud) and hopefully this guide will help people in their happy hunting for kits. By no means this is no "who is the best vendor (that is for a later date) but how to avoid the horrible ones.

So here are a few things you should look for in a business dealing so that you can avoid some heart ache.

1) Be Careful of Wiring Money!

You found a vendor online, who makes that one item you need for your kit. Great! And they can produce it slightly cheaper than other well known artisans.So you pick out what you want, send the message to the vendor, and get the response that you can pay for it via Western Union or Bank wire...Seems innocent enough. But is it? One major issue with wiring money such as with Western Union, is that perfect for scams. So much so Western union even lists the type of wire scams that can be done to people.

Wire services such as Western Union or Moneygram (and even many bank wires) offer 0 protection. Once the money is wired, you have no guarantee of receiving your item, or the ability to receive a refund if the item never comes. In fact the number I scam conducted through Western Union is whats called the Internet Purchase Scam. You purchase an item, send money through Western Union, Whomever received the money (they can get it at any Western Union Office, even out of Country) and just do not send the item.

Simply put if you are going to purchase an item, and have to wire money, make sure it is a craftsman who is trustworthy, or has customers ho can vouch for them, you will be sending money at your own risk. Otherwise for your own protection you should only use paypal or in the case of a big vendor, they may have online debit or credit options. These give a huge layer of protection from fraud. It also gives you an avenue in case you do not receive the item. I would also add money orders or bank checks as methods of payments to avoid. As they share all of the same pitfalls of Western Union.

2) Do Some Quick Research!

Sounds easy enough. But sometimes you see that item you absolutely need. Or at a price that is so low, you lose all reason. This week alone I have seen reenactors fall victim to ordering something off of eBay or Facebook, and receiving something totally different, or a total piece of junk, nothing like what was pictured. So I implore every reenactor new and old, do a little research on the merchant before entering into business. Ask around for people who may have done business, do a little google search see if there are pictures of their work.

Now with the internet age there is an epidemic of vendors stealing stock photos, or photos of others work and passing it off as their own. You see a picture of an awesome helmet (or not so awesome) and you click buy on Ebay. and wait for shipment, and once you open the box realize its either A) not what you ordered or B) a horrible copy, poorly made or with bad proportions. But if there is only a way to avoid this.

In fact this is also such an epidemic issue amongst costumers and cosplayers. There are hundreds of Merchants on Facebook or Ebay, who have pictures of professional looking costumes, at low low prices. And yet when it arrives, it is usually poorly stitched, made of material nothing like in the photo. And then a quick google search brings up artists accusing these merchants of stealing photos for this purpose.

Fear not, the internet can be both a curse and a blessing. Often when I am confronted with a new vendor, and especially if they solicit pictures without me asking, I will often conduct a reverse image search. This will often help in my decision of dealing with them, because it will either show the pictures may be original, or they may have been in fact stolen by an other craftsman and passed off as their own.

Here I will help you conduct your own reverse search, using a recent example on Roman Army Talk.

1) So we have a vendor (while it has a 2016 date, it was a repost this week on Facebook) who wishes to sell us a Roman Helmet. It was posted on a few Facebook Pages, RAT Marketplace, SCA Market etc. Seems harmless enough. They have a picture. Pictures make everything trustworthy on the internet. But better to be safe than sorry, since that Helmet is familiar to us.

2) Save the photo. Just a simple Right-click >Save as> Jpeg will do.

3) Go to https://reverse.photos/ and follow directions. Its as simple as hitting the upload button and uploading a picture.

4) When it is done it will give a list of sites that the picture appears. google stores the URL of any picture found in a search, at any size. So lets look at our results.

Oh my. It appears this reverse search goes on for pages. As you can see the two photos in the search are both different sizes and one was rendered B&W. What this tells me is that the vendor is using a photo taken from a different vendor, and passing it off as their own work (in academia we call that plagiarism ). Which means tou can run into the possibility you are getting whatever they send you. It could be what is in the pic, or it could not be. Or if its a hand made project it may be wrong or extremely poor quality. They may be eyeballing the proportions and using sub standard material. Or in the case could be former workers from a major manufacturer (such as Deepeka) and using their older patterns. Either way you run the risk of heartache.

3) Do You Know the Person?

The internet and social media offers us a level of anonymity. Which means do we know who you are trying to conduct business with? This sort of falls into the do your homework category. Not simply to avoid fraud, but also to reduce headaches. The Roman Army Talk has many merchants selling their goods (or hawking crap). Are they well known? Have you done business with them before? Has anyone else? There have been cases where people have either ordered from a supposed vendor a year ago, and are still waiting on stuff, only to be met with excuses. Or they were sent sub par equipment. As part of researching a vendor, make sure to get input of people who have dealt with them in the past, to get an idea of what to expect.

That being said, many of the craftsman and vendors often do small batches at a time, or are only vendors on the side. This is no fault of theirs if it takes a while for the product to be finished and shipped (unless they make promises they cannot keep. For example I have been waiting a year and half for something that was supposedly going to take a month to ship.) This should easily be figured out by communicating with the vendor, or with other people who have purchased in the past.

Hopefully these tips can help you be a smarter shopper, and avoid losing your hard earned money on a scam or on garbage. That way you can spend more of your money on gear. So just remember make sure the vendor is reputable, do your research, and try and pay with Paypal or with secured credit/debit card. Until next time, happy buying.

Vae Victus

Marcus Cestius Pullus