I've been a long-time customer of Mr. Lewis, since back in the SRTransporter days. I've been with him through no-shows, name-changes, and even a small period of time when he lost his PGP key (found it a week later and successfully verified identity.)
He has officially gone rogue. I had a sub-100g order that went missing, so I emailed him about three weeks back about it. He got back to me in a timely fashion and asked how I would like the reship. I replied tracked, after which he then told me he would only be able to send it out if I were able to put up money for another 112g order (I know, I know. I took a stupid risk and lost.)
Having worked with him for several years (and also now having learned my dang lesson) I decided that I could potentially afford to lose the money if anything happened.
Well, I did.
After sending his standard direct deal order template, I replied with bitcoin to the specified address and the message containing the order. Since then it has been a week with no response. The scam reports started rolling in on Nuc and other markets, and the rest is history.
Mr. Lewis, if you happen to read this and feel a slight twinge of guilt, send me some fucking drugs! More than likely though, you're rubbing your hands together on a pile of bitcoins (which I understand, but do not respect.)
Just putting the word out there.
He was providing 100g increments at USD 8.50/g; if any vendor can get anywhere close to that and provide excellent service with tracking (not from NL,) you will have a new customer for the life of your business.
It kills me too, because I'm in a unique position to move a half key a week with zero exposure and effort, and the pieces will just simply not fall into place. This is very, very frustrating.
Perhaps it is time to get a job.
It does make me laugh how 90% of the comments on these scam reports are beating up on the OP.
We should be a little nicer, esp to those who aren't crying over the loss and understand they put themselves in a vulnerable position. Otherwise people will stop reporting. I get it if the OP were really bitching and moaning over the loss. But for those, like this OP, who understands that he put himself in a vulnerable position, we shouldn't kick them while they're down. In life, we make certain decisions and sometimes they don't pan out. It happens. We take it like a man and move on. And hopefully warn others.
Op - sorry for the loss. It sucks. But thanks for taking the time to warn others. Merry Xmas and hope you had a good holiday besides this shitty situation. I got ripped off in an exit scam too. I FE'd as well. It happens to the best of us. And guess what? I still FE for certain vendors. I know I could get ripped off again, but that's the risk I take.