talkmagic.co.uk

I am yet to ever hear someone in the act of committing a crime say

"very sorry folks but I am currently doing this illegal thing."

It's always going to be after it, which then does indeed seem like you are only apologising because you have been caught, so often it seems like it's not really worth apologising at all, which then brings the people out of the woodwork saying

"he didn't even apologise"

The best way to look at these situations is much like the computer in "War Games" playing tic-tac-toe against itself.
"The only way to win, is not to play."

Barefoot Boy wrote:

mark lewis wrote:

Barefoot Boy wrote:It ill behooves you to talk about forgiving, Mr. Lewis!

You should have your bloody feet hacked off. I would forgive anyone immediately who would commit this dastardly crime.

Which crime? Hank Lee's? Or the crime of someone hacking my feet off?

The latter. I thought you were supposed to be a mindreader. Anyway I wish to inform you that I will be scamming all the magicians at the CAM convention. I shall be pitching to them just as if I were on a street market. They won't know what has hit them. They will be buying svengali decks without knowing what they are buying. Hank Lee should have come to me first for advice on ripping off magicians. I have been doing it for years. You should have seen some of my ads in Abra in the seventies. I think I have some of them somewhere. I will post them if I can find them.

Incidentally I know who the victim is but I shall keep quiet about it because of my well known sense of decorum. I shall merely say that $500,000 to him is like $50 to the rest of us.
For some of us taking a holiday to the Isle of Wight would be a major expense. This chap has been a little further. Outer space as a tourist I kid you not. I am not sure of the cost but I imagine a little more than a trip to Brighton.

Hank is a nice man, I liked him when we talked over the phone, I liked his humor, his ads and I liked his website. In other words, he had everything you need to be a successful c****. It is a prerequisite that you are nice. I happen to know someone who says he once met Maddoff and felt he had met a nice man.
Anyone having been in business for half a century like I have knows there will always be some who cannot resist the temtation to be fraudulent when the opportunity arises.
You have been told: do not buy at new web shops, buy at shops that have been establishe for many years, buy at a netshops that do have a brick and mortar shop, a phone number and a street address. Hank had everything going for him.
Make no mistake, the Texan gentleman may have lost more than anyone else and it is unlikely he is just the tip of the iceberg, his loss is too big for that, but he certaily is not the only one whose credit card Hank has charged fraudulently. I was one of them and I know of some others. What makes me sad, what is much worse than one fraudulent dealer, is the fact that there seems to be a "cosa nostra" in the magic business community that will make it impossible to warn others. I tried in the case of Hank, I tried in the case of the dealer that advertised you could return an item within a given period for a prompt refund. It was a blatant lie, but the "cosa nostra" prevented me from warning others. And that makes the crooks untouchable, at least until someone calls the police.
Kaarlo von Freymann Helsinki Finland

Ironically Hank Lee must be the safest dealer in the world at this very moment to purchase merchandise from. Think about it.

mark lewis wrote: They will be buying svengali decks without knowing what they are buying. Hank Lee should have come to me first for advice on ripping off magicians. I have been doing it for years. You should have seen some of my ads in Abra in the seventies. I think I have some of them somewhere. I will post them if I can find them.

I have seen them all. They are terrific and I think you SHOULD post them here so everyone can get a kick out of them.

I think there are only two available that I have access to. I shall post them if I can find them. But I had all sorts of nonsense ads week after week in Abra and I got very good results from them. In fact I bet I got better results from Abra than any other dealer. I still remember that Ken Brooke said he would be lucky if he got one order. I still remember selling the little plastic cups and balls to magicians and they had no idea that they were getting a beginner's trick. I advertised it as "cups and colours" and made a big deal out of it without actually saying what it was. I still remember Ali Bongo was daft enough to buy it from me which I got great pleasure out of since he sold it to me myself when I was a kid and wandered into Dick Chavel's magic shop in Tottenham Court Road.

Getting back on topic, the papers filed with the Courts make interesting reading - http://medford.patch.com/articles/read- ... df-9464351 . Even though the victim, wealthy Texan 'RG', may be able to afford such outlay, it's still a sobering warning to check your credit card statements with a fine tooth comb!

Mandrake wrote:Getting back on topic, the papers filed with the Courts make interesting reading - http://medford.patch.com/articles/read- ... df-9464351 . Even though the victim, wealthy Texan 'RG', may be able to afford such outlay, it's still a sobering warning to check your credit card statements with a fine tooth comb!

Very interesting!

Lee's blog says he's decided to stand down and his family are taking over.

Over the past week, I've read a lot of stories about people having their credit cards charged but goods never being dispatched due to unavailability. It turns out that it's the Devil's own job to get reimbursed. And then there are these people (in the comments): http://medford.patch.com/articles/owner ... m-customer" target="_blank

I've dealt with Hank Lee on a few occasions. And on most of those occasions, the items I've ordered have been out of stock.

Trouble is, they don't specify stock status on the site itself, nor do they inform you of the impending wait once the order has been placed. In each case, I only found out when I tried to chase them up.

Getting a refund or substitution was no problem, but still a pain in the rear end.

Thankfully, I only ever paid them with PayPal, so they had no direct access to my credit card details. If they had, and picked me as their victim, they might have got away with as much as $37.50!

The biggest disappointment for me is a lack of discussion on the Big Green Monster forum. They're such a calm, laid-back and measured bunch over there - the frantic knee-jerks and screaming habdabs can only be hilarious. Freddie says that all posts on the story have been deleted, but looking at the site's front page I wouldn't have a clue where to start looking for it. Is it filed under the Association Of Mormon Separatist Balloon Twisters? Or under Uses Of Sausages In Mentalism??

Oh, and this (apparently from Gary Dunn) is fabulous:

Today's newsletter in full:

Hank Lee's Email Newsletter Friday, April 6th Greetings from all of us at Hank Lee's Magic Factory. I try to be a little funny every week. This week, I don't feel funny. I feel sad. I feel embarrassed. I feel, and there is no better way to put this, stupid. This has been quite the week. While it has been a terrible week for me, I know that it has also been a miserable week for my family, for my friends, for my employees and for you, my customers. In the special message I sent out last week, I apologized from the bottom of my heart to all. It was a totally sincere apology. I cannot say more than that. What completely surprised me was the number of supportive and positive emails I received from so many of you. In the hundreds, and that's no kidding. Not that I deserved it, but it was a ray of sunshine on an otherwise bleak week. I wish I had a time machine. And I wish I could turn it back. I truly wish that this had not happened. And, that is the truth. While I continue to get supportive emails from customers and friends, people on the forums are ripping me to shreds. I completely understand. My actions were so very wrong. I have no excuse. I have no rationale. But, I fully plan to atone for my actions and to accept whatever punishment is set forth. In that I am sincere. That having been said, there is a very large crisis of confidence right now, right here. A few folks suggested that perhaps it is time for me to step down from my position at Hank Lee's Magic Factory. While the idea is painful, I believe it is the correct course of action. So, as of today, I will remove myself from the everyday activities at Hank Lee's Magic Factory. I will be out of the daily loop. I will hand those responsibilities over to my employees, who will do a very good job for you. In addition, my family is coming on board to help. Aron will be answering the phones, processing orders and getting them out the door to you. He is a great person. Bonnie will be paying the bills, handling all charges and keeping the boat afloat. She's a fine wife. I will continue to help on the magic side: writing the ads, doing the weekly email Newsletter, etc. It will be a new, and far better Hank Lee's Magic Factory. I sincerely hope that this will help to re-build the confidence you have had in Hank Lee's for all these years. Removing myself and turning the operation over to people who are impeccably honest and above reproach is the right thing to do. I hope you agree.

Perhaps all the support (?) over on the Green Place will mean the new Hank Lee slogan can be borrowed from there too:
"Magicians helping themselves to Magicians Cash".
Frankly, if I were the Texan Millionaire I would have fired the PA immediately! You pay "staff" to stop this sort of thing happening.
Last time I saw something like this it was in a record company who just rubber-stamped everything, then wondered where all the cash had gone....
Bruce

From the latest email with another sale offer:

There are a few rules that apply, as with all things in life.

Well at least he's learned that lesson!