Beware of contractors outsourcing your projects (Arun, Jasmeet, AppMechanic, Paramjot)

So basically, there is a person name Paramjot Singh https://forums.unrealengine.com/memb...85163-Paramjot who uses multiple sources to get Game related jobs(mostly Unreal Engine 4) and outsource it a very cheaper price to other Unreal Engine 4 developers sometimes even 1/3rd the actual price. He doesn't inform the developer that he is hiring a 3rd party person to work on the task or the client that their work has been outsources and the amount he is actually taking.

Few months back I had hired him over upwork, this account https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/us...bce18f239b143/
And while going through a fb group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ue4jobs/, i found the exact details of my job being posted there, I tried to reach for the person who might have worked on the task and found out that he had hired the person only for 8$ per hour while he had charged me for 24$.

Later while browsing through the forums, i found out other posts where he was looking for jobs that had been just posted over upwork.
And he deleted all the forum posts when being approached about outsourcing the task. Although for the time the post was on forums, I was approached by multiple developers about working for him without knowing him to be a contractor.

I had asked the MOD to restore the post so others could be aware of it. But he again deleted it immediately.

Later when I asked upwork about it, they replied that action has been taken on the profile. https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/us...bce18f239b143/
I don't know the exact action but I think the profile is banned and I am not able to search him over upwork anymore.

Currently he made another id here on the forums to try to get jobs.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...ing-Animation)

Also he admitted on this post about outsourcing. But in reality Arun Kumar is a fake person probably his friend whose ID he has been using to get jobs and oursource them.
https://forums.unrealengine.com/show...270#post634270


Although a good thing about him posting on forums is I found out the current upwork id he has been using.
https://www.upwork.com/o/profiles/us...e1333369f1505/

I had a discussion with this person over upwork some weeks back and I didn't notice anything off until I found out some portfolio items on his and Arun's portfolio on forums were the same. I dug a little further on Facebook and found out that they both were on friend list. So I assume he is also using his another friends ID since original id Arun Kumar got locked.

I am not providing any facebook id links since it might not correct for privacy reason. And I didn't want any personal attacks on the person. But I wanted to post this to make the developers and the clients about the kind of scams going on our community.
But yeah, do check the forum links if you can before the person deletes them.

So yeah, if you worked for this person or gave him any tasks, you have been cheated really badly.

Kilobite scam

This isn’t exactly current news and some of you may have heard about it when it first happened, but I did find it interesting and decided to contact the developers to see what their current thoughts were on the project. Most of the events here have happened about two years ago, and there are Kickstarter backers that are trying to figure out what happened to their money.  Before going on, take a look at the gameplay trailer for Knuckle Club to see why it got my attention.


More details at:
https://blogjob.com/oneangrygamer/2016/04/developers-kilobite-allegedly-scammed-their-followers-out-of-40000-usd-and-got-away-with-it/

Panzer Gaming Studio

Steam Greenlight and Steam Early Access were introduced by Valve with the best of intentions. They were idealized as a way for less financially well-off game designers to create their passion projects, without having to go through big publishers; a way for Steam’s dedicated community to vote for what quality content they wanted to see on the world’s largest digital games platform. Of course, this is the internet, so nothing ever works out quite so utopian.

Fast forward to 2015, and both of these services are filled to the brim with cheap, half-arsed zombie survival games full of pre-bought or pre-stolen assets. The latest (and arguably greatest) offender on this ever growing list of Steam scammers is Panzer Gaming Studios, whom you might recognize as the developers of Left to Rot, Time Ramesside and/or A New Reckoning, depending on how long you’ve been following this sad, hilarious story.

Full story:

http://www.gizorama.com/2015/feature/opinion/meet-panzer-gaming-studios-steams-weirdest-scam-artists

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Readers should be aware of the return of one of Steams most notorious Steam sellers. The Steam user who goes by the name “Panzer Gaming Studios” (Jason Welge) is currently attempting to sell a bundle of three hastily made games consisting of almost entirely of pre-purchased Unreal developer kit assets. You may have heard reports of his shady dealings in the past . Outside of general concerns regarding the quality and content of the developer’s games themselves, there have also been reports of his refusal to pay for the work of independent freelancers.

Full story:
https://techraptor.net/content/notorious-steam-seller-returns-with-shady-steam-bundle

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Scam Artist: Panzer Gaming Studio

Type of Scam Artist: Asset Collector

Position of Scam Artist: Employer, Developer

Resolution: No Cooperation

How to Detect:
Employer who asks for free work

Does not pay for works done

Poor code quality

Trials of Ascension (Scam Game)

Scam Artist: Brad

Type of Scam Artist: Employer

Position of Scam Artist: Employer

Resolution: No Cooperation


How to Detect:
Employer who asks for free work

Does not pay for works done

Huge thread on their shady practices (more than 2000+ posts)
http://www.mmo-champion.com/threads/1536961-Trials-of-Ascension-Shady-Practices-and-the-Big-Crowdfunding-Debate

PuyaCEO, Puya3D, Josh_SG1

PuyaCEO or Josh_SG1 is a well-known person asking for free work.


PuyaCEO is an artist without ANY portfolio and threatens others using his lawsuits, insults


You can see PuyaCEO's insults.
http://www.moddb.com/forum/thread/the-steam-house/page/2#thread




http://forums.devshed.com/hire-programmer-57/hacker-gay-com-xtube-com-350-500-a-614505.html

Puya3D makes trouble to others, by fake-posting on Gay Sex:




Josh_SG1 then later, threatened lawsuits to others.




PuyaCEO's art quality:

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/puya-3d-development.124045/

Type of Scam Artist: Doesn't deliver
Position of Scam Artist: Employer, Fake Artist
Resolution: No Cooperation
Community Username: josh_sg1

How to Detect:
Does not have any portfolio, despite trolling the Unity forums for 5+ years.

Michaelw352 - former Unreal Moderator

Here's the report card for Michael:

Type of Scam Artist: Asking artists to work for free.
Position of Scam Artist: Hiring Agent, Developer without Portfolio
Resolution: No Cooperation
Community Username: MicahelW352

How to Detect:
Doesn't pay when deliver artists deliver on contract.
Victims who argue against Michael gets put on the Unreal scam page.

Epic has removed Michael's moderation rights.
Epic should re-review the list of scammers, since some of them are innocent parties.

Updated article, part II