General Category > FAQ on games

Illusion Mage & 3D Magix Pro *is* a scam

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kat:
UPDATE II
It's been confirmed that you might be able to get a refund or get your money back on Illusion Mage/3D Magix Pro purchases through your bank or payment gateway so it's imperative that you follow the steps below, and where/if necessary, point them (the banks etc.) to this topic so they can confirm the refund request/reversal event against the facts presented here. However, and as mentioned below, it's important to understand that getting a refund on the Illusion Mage scam may be dependant on how your bank works, not all of which have the same refund policies in place. So check with them to make sure.

UPDATE I
If you've found yourself at the receiving end of the Illusion Mage, 3DMagix, 3D Magix Pro or whatever else '"Seth Avery" decides to call this 'product' and want your money back, there are a couple of things you can do to properly seek remedy against the payment. Note that these may vary depending on your geographical location so, although Mr Avery states clearly there is a 60 day refund policy, if you're in the UK making a purchase, your 'right' to expect what you paid for is protected under a 14 day return/refund Statutory Right (this has to be a legitimate grievance by the way, faulty goods, goods not as described and so on.. it's not normally binding where you simply change your mind after purchase - remedy in those situations are at the discretion of the seller, not the buyer).


* First... Make sure you submit a support/customer ticket with ClickBank and/or the various sites running the scams so your request is officially logged, this is important. You should receive and automated email reply of such.
* Second... Contact your bank, if you used a Credit, Debit Card or other bank based payment. Or PayPal and issue a charge-back or refund request making sure to state that you didn't receive what you paid for, goods were not as described and/or they may in fact be distributing 'illegal' copyrighted material or other statements to the affect that it's made clear the product is entirely different to what you were expecting (software updates excluding)
It's then just a question of seeing what response you garner from the Banks, unfortunately there's not too much more consumers can do beyond this. If the Bank or your payment gateway doesn't cancel or issue a charge-back on the transaction then you'll have to consider the money lost.
Get 3D Magix Pro and Illusion Mage for FREE! That's right, download the very latest version of these industry leading 3D software applications free by clicking here! Why pay nearly $100 for a "deluxe" or almost $50 for a "standard" version or even more when the price goes up when you can GET IT FOR FREE!. Start making models like Pixar in minutes, Dreamworks in mere seconds. Everything you need is included. Click to download FREE 3DMagix and Illusion Mage.
If you clicked those links above, congratulations on not being duped.
Yep, that's right, 3DMagix and Illusion Mage are out-and-out scams. Although the 3DMagix scam is from 2009 and  relatively old  (read up on this here), it appears  the 'owner' of that one, a guy by the name of "Seth Avery" if the Illusion Mage web site (illusionmage.com)  is to be believed, is behind this latest version;  essentially Blender 3D re-packaged together with some  ripped PDFs and other stolen community authored material.  And forget about support, unless you regard tutorials and a web site based FAQ as support *rolleyes*.

Although the GNU/GPL license does allow you to re-sell and re-package Blender and associated materials from the Blender web site, Foundation and Institute, you're effectively obliged to clearly state the origination of the material you're selling. Not doing that, or obfuscating the fact, is not only misleading, but could be considered 'fraud' where money is involved, i.e. the deliberate intent to misinform customers so as to trick them into  purchasing (bait and switch?). This is what the owner did with 3DMagix (before it got pulled) and is currently doing with  Illusion Mage. And although Blender is mentioned on the site, it's not clearly stated that it's a third party application that's being bundling  under GPL as part of Illusion Mage (just what is Illusion Mage then if not the 3D application?). The other material in the package is also likely included without the original authors knowledge, or remuneration for that matter.

This time around however, there's an extra dimension to the story, and that's the article spam that's flooded the Internet.
Messrs Avery has taken it upon himself to write and submit biased and self-serving reviews of his products to various article syndication web sites that get picked up and posted to other sites (it's why you can't find any actual support or complaints about the package and products because they're simply drowned out by the article spam he's posted). A lot of it AdSpam, web sites set up for link back and traffic revenue generation from Google Adverts which are placed on these pulled articles. And more often than not,   articles don't undergo any vetting before being published (these web sites all carry 'disclaimers' for this very reason) along with an affiliate link that earns the good sir income every time one is clicked.

He's been exceptionally busy for the last couple of months in fact, submitting 'fake' reviews and articles to all manner of junk review sites; posting links and fake comments to others saying how good the product is; even posting fake anti-scam articles on anti-scam web sites to deliberately trick those looking for imformation about this scam into thinking it's not and buying into it. It's a win-win; he gets sales from the product, and income from Advert and affiliate traffic. Trouble is, it's all done  fraudulantly.

So... If you purchased this 'package' (get in touch as we'd love to get your personal take on this scam), delete it and issue a refund or charge back through PayPal or whatever medium you used to buy into the con; you'll not see that cash again if you don't. If you see a video on YouTube or an article on the web, flag it or comment to reveal the scam and get the articles and information pulled.
Other names under which the scam may be found - "IllusionMage", "IllusionMage 3D", "Illusion Mage 3D", "IllusionMage3D", "Illusion Mage scam", "Illusionmage scam", "Illusion Mage 3D scam"

kat:
It appears that the 3DMagix scam is back, this time as "3DMagixPro" (3dmagixpro.com). Same deal, same 'package', different presentation (but the same as Illusion Mage). This time promoted by "Cody Landon" a "Software and Graphics Engineer" - can't be that good of an engineer if he can't tell he's reselling Blender 3D and community generated content again!.
Again the scam is deceptive in it's presentation on just what you're buying, if 3D Magix Pro isn't a piece of software (Blender 3D in this case), then just what are you buying (that is meant in terms of who owns the material being sold and not the bullet point list of 'features', "Cody" didn't write it, so did he get permissions for inclusion)? If the previous iteration of the 3DMagix scam and the Illusion Mage scam are anything to go by it's likely nothing more than other peoples stolen and uncredited material packed up into a 'product' of dubious origins. Buyers beware. Oh and just as above, forget about support of any kind. Don't say you haven't been warned.
Note the striking similarities between the 3D Magix Pro (below) and Illusion Mage web sites.
The 3D Magix Pro scam is purchasable through PayPal via a 'company' called "Frontier Inc." ("Frontier Entertainment" - not to be confused with the said same Frontier Entertainment game developer, one can quite easily speculate that the 'name' was chosen as yet another tool to purposefully deceive). Illusion Mage is purchased through clickbank.net (which seems act as payment gateway for a lot of similar looking 'services').

kat:
This is what's was in the 3D Magix (Pro) package (see footnotes below). It can be safely assumed that this is also the contents of what's in the 'new' 3D Magix Pro and Illusion Mage 3D packages;
* [exe] 3DMagixBlender-windows-2.48a.exe
* [exe] vcredist_x86.exe
* [pdf] 3D Magix Blender Mini-Manual (2.25) by Eugene Lam
* [pdf] Blender Basics 2nd Ed. Classroom Tutorial Book for Blender 2.42a by James Chronister
* [txt] LicenseandSourcecode.txt
* [txt] Licenseforvideos.txt
* [dir] Bonus
* [exe] pixie.exe
* [exe] ArtOfIllusion272-Windows_1.exe
* [zip] pencil.zip
* "Pencil" v0.4.4beta by Pascal Naidon
* [zip] animv095c.zip
* [exe] "Anim8or" v095
* [pdf] anim8or_manualv095 by Steven Glanville
* [zip] CreateaToon.zip
* CreaToonInstall.exe (cracked) by unknown
* [dir] For Mac Installation
* [zip] OSX-10.4-py2.3-intel.zip
* Blender 2.47 QuickStart chart (Scribus 1.3.3.11) by unknown
* (misc. Blender installation files for Mac OS)
* OSX-powerpc.dmg
* [dir] Video Training **
* [dir] Step by Step Modelling
* modelling_the_arm.wmv (2.36?) by Jonathan Frammingham [1]
* modelling_the_hand_PT1.wmv [1]
* modelling_the_hand_PT2.wmv [1]
* Modelling-joining_the_meshes.wmv [1]
* Modelling-modelling_the_leg.wmv [1]
* Modelling-modellingthefoot.wmv [1]
* Modelling-setting_upreference_images.wmv [1]
* Modelling-setting_up-the_torso.wmv [1]
* Modelling-softcomp.avi (2.36) by tuxbot[2]
* modellingthetorso.wmv [1]
* [dir] Getting Started
* GettingStarted-3dview.avi (2.34) by Glen Moyes [3]
* GettingStarted-Interface.avi (2.34) [3]
* GettingStarted-Overview.wmv (2.46) by Cinemacchiato
* GettingStarted-vf1.avi (2.34) [3]
* GettingStarted-vf2.avi (2.34) [3]
* [dir] Feature Usage
* Features-camera.avi (2.34) by HeadCheese
* Features-nmap.avi (2.36) by Pim de groot (mifune)
* Features-ramp.avi (2.34) by Glen Moyes
* [dir] Advanced
* OverMyShoulders-volley-sessions.avi (2.36) by unknown4
* TexturizingWithMultipleImages467.wmv (2.47) by Cinemacchiato So... it's quite a sad collection then, relative to 3D Magix, 3D Magix Pro and Illusion Mage being the superduper, mega-excellant, pixar-liscious package that it isn't. It's all out of date, being for the most part about Blender 2.34 or 2.36, which must be about five or so years old now? Not only that but no real care has been given to the materials selection in terms of there being any particular learning chronology; "Seth Avery", "Cory Landon" or whatever his name is, has quite literally  grabbed some  files off the internet and bundled them together in RAR and ZIP archive  which he's  simply reselling 'as is'. There's nothing of any inherent value created by doing this. You can't even argue the "convenience" angle because the material is  useless given how Blender has changed since 2.34/6, especially with 2.5 series out now. The truth is out now, so hopefully this information will serve to inform the unsuspecting ahead of the fake articles and junk anti-scam reviews he's spammed the Internet with.
Is 3D Magix a scam? Yes.
Is 3D Magix Pro a scam? Yes.
Is Illusion Mage 3D a scam? Yes.
Footnotes:
**: Most if not all the videos included in the package are freely available from - http://www.ibiblio.org/bvidtute/. Material is released under artlibre.org license (which does allow "commercial use" but appears to require attribution and not just license inclusion).

kat:
Two images sourced (thx Walli) to their original owners (both of which have non-commercial use clauses on their work);
http://smokejaguar.deviantart.com/art/Industrial-Modeling-Basics-CC-69375720
http://night-fate.deviantart.com/art/manipulation-tutorial-18-126417602

kat:
Obviously with Christmas having just been and gone, reports are coming in that people have fallen foul of the Illusion Mage and 3D Magix Pro scams. The question then is, how do you/my mum/dad/aunty or the relative that bought Illusion Mage/3D Magix as a Christmas present for you or someone else get their money refunded? I doubt the "60 day money back guarantee" is worth the virtual paper its written on so...  what you need to do is issue a charge-back on the Illusion Mage/3D Magix Pro purchase through the debit/credit card, PayPal, or whatever mechanism was used to buy the fake product. Let them know the reason, that Illusion Mage/3D Magix Pro are 'fake' products sold through deliberately misleading advertising (point them at this topic if it helps explain things to them). You can then also let Clickbank.net know they have a fraudulent seller using their services, although it's doubtful anything will be done there as Clickbank appears to be used quite extensively by 'scams' of this nature.

Finally, as readers of this topic have already been doing, drop KatsBits (info@katsbits.com) a line and let us know about your experiences with the Illusion Mage/3D Magix Pro scams. The more awareness brought to bear on this scam, the better.

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