UltimateGleeks is a SCAM!
Posted by Rob on Feb-26-2010 under GleeFan.com Update, Random
I’m sorry to have to tell you this, but the man who runs the Twitter account @UltimateGleeks is a conman.
I’m sure that most of you have seen a Twitter account called @UltimateGleeks, especially since for a short period of time, we were ‘partnered’ with the man who runs it. He told me that his name was Zachary Jaydon and he claimed to have a position at Fox in the LA office as a marketer. He explained to me and other Glee fansite owners that part of his job at Fox is to create an “official unofficial” Glee twitter account so that Fox can maximize Glee hype on social networks like Twitter. He went by the name ‘Zachary Jaydon’ to the people he contacted, claiming to be a resident of LA & Orlando. [I now know that he changed his name from Jaydon D. Paull to Zachary Jaydon after one of his arrests.] After talking with him extensively for 2 weeks, I decided to check up on him a little more. I Direct Messaged Chris Colfer, asking if he’d ever met a Zachary Jaydon, and of course he said no. Only problem is that this Zach guy claimed to have a working relationship on a first name basis with Chris & the other cast members, which seemed odd to me if he was just a marketer. Then his lies became increasingly elaborate until I had to try and figure out all I could about this guy.
Turns out, when you type “Zachary Jaydon” into Google, the auto-complete feature adds the words ‘fraud’ and ‘in jail’ to the end. Surprise! With a little bit of research, and a call to the Fox office to see if they could look him up, I was able to figure out that he is not a Fox employee and in fact is a known con man who has been charged for robbery. He has a fake bio which makes him out to be a multi-platinum songwriter (and even goes as far to say that he was a series regular on the Mickey Mouse Club.) All this has since been removed from IMDb and Wikipedia since Wikipedia admins discovered his history with fraud. I wouldn’t have even believed it was supposedly his bio if it hadn’t mentioned details of his personal life (like living in LA & Orlando, acting, and being in the SAG… all lies) that he had mentioned to me over the phone. He’s been to charged in Ohio, (as well as in Montana, I believe) so I checked his phone number he’d contacted me through and it is indeed a Cincinnati, Ohio area code.
This man is a professional con artist and was more convincing than you can possibly imagine. He seemed to know the industry well enough that he was able to convince me he was legit, at first. Then was able to talk his way out of any of my suspicions. He has conned several famous music artists in the past including Ben Bledsoe and the band Close to Home, which I believe may be related to his possible arrests. Here are cached pages of a blog that contained many posts about his fraudulent ways, but the blog has since vanished. (Suspicious, much?)
[Edit 3/10/10: It seems that the cached versions of the blog posts have disappeared (possibly Jaydon's doings), but the original blog's author emailed me a link to her new blog about him here:]
The Fraud Files
Currently, he has been contacting influential members of the Glee online fandom and pretending to be a Fox employee seeking to work with the Glee fansites to maximize the online hype for Glee. When Travis (@gleeks) asked to see his @fox.com email for verification (which all Fox employees have), he said that he was instructed not to use it since he would be working directly with fans and didn’t want his company email to get spammed by thousands of Glee fans with questions. Good answer! Too bad Fox has confirmed with me that he does NOT work there.
More than once, he has started rigged contests offering signed Glee DVD box sets and CD’s. I myself even fell for it and let him do contests with me, but he obviously has no prizes to give out. I asked if he could send me pictures of the contest prizes, and he kept making excuses like “Oh, I sent them in an email. Didn’t you get it?” Then he told me that he had some “stock” images in his email that he could send me, but they all ended up being images that I found when using Google image search. Luckily, the people at Fox came to the rescue and gave me some legit contest prizes to replace with his non-existent ones. Also, you’ve probably noticed his tweets like “The musical numbers featured in the “Back 9″ are insane! I can’t wait for you guys to find out! Get ready! @UltimateGleeks” I can guarantee you that he doesn’t know anything that hasn’t already been made public. He just wants to seem like he has some inside knowledge so that people will trust him. Nice try, but we aren’t falling for it anymore!
Just as bad, he fed me fake news and spoilers for 2 weeks before I caught on. To him lying came so incredibly easy, it’s truly disturbing. He just made up spoilers that he found out from “office meetings” on a daily basis. The tour cities he gave me and the spoilers about the roles for season 2? Unfortunately, he made them up and lied to my face. Lately, Zach has taken to trying to ruin GleeFan’s legitimacy. Check out the last 20 comments or so on this page: Enter the Official GleeFan.com Gleek Talent Showcase! Round 1 I’ve looked at the IP addresses of all the comments, and I can promise you that every single negative one (except for Jo, who is a real person) is Zach commenting under a fake name. [Here’s the proof that he made ALL of those comments from the same 4 IP addresses!] Since every device (cell phone, computer, etc) has its own IP address, this proves that he was continually commenting with fake names in order to try and make my site look bad. Too bad he didn’t know that WordPress tracks IP addresses from commenters! Then he even steps in as Ultimate Gleeks and tries to make himself look like a saint. HA! The only reason I haven’t deleted them is because I wanted to reference them here. I thought it was kind of funny that people were “pulling” their videos even though they hadn’t even submitted them to me!
He already has over 3,600 followers on Twitter and to be honest, I have no idea what he plans on getting out of this. So far, he has gotten nothing from me of value, but I believe his goal was to try and somehow get money out of me and the other unsuspecting Glee fans by selling non-existent Glee merchandise. (He spoke about some custom Glee character bobble-heads he thought we should sell on GleeFan.com, which sounded incredibly suspicious to me.) I’m not quite sure where he plans on going with this, but trust me on this: He is dangerous. He is a smooth talker. He will gain your trust and then stab you in the back, just as he did to me. I’ve been working on this blog since last May and this guy mysteriously popped up out of nowhere a month ago. Who do you think is more reliable?
So what can you do?
#1: UNFOLLOW HIM. If you follow him on Twitter, CHANGE THAT. Seriously. I can guarantee you that all his “exclusive” news is 100% fabricated and his contests are rigged. Everything he tweets is common knowledge. There is no point in following him at all.
#2: Tweet the truth about him. You can link to this post if you’d like or just tweet that people unfollow him. Here’s a shortened link to this post: http://bit.ly/c7VfcY. There are a lot of genuinely awesome Glee Twitter accounts out there, but he is NOT one of them.
I’m sorry for having worked with him, but now that we know the truth, we must stop him.
Note: I cannot prove any of the details of his past without a shadow of a doubt, so forgive me if any of them are inaccurate. However, any part of the post dealing directly with things that went on between him and me are 100% true.
I thought there has been something wrong going on. At least you can correct it now. :)
just unfollowed. so uncool!
Wow, this whole thing is shocking. And to think I was going to enter in one of his contests – I’m glad I didn’t. Thank you so much for setting everything straight. I’ll be sure to unfollow him right away and spread that he’s a fraud. Thanks again.
Thanks for letting us know Rob. Don’t get yourself down about working with him – he fooled everyone, not just you, and you worked it out.
The UG twitter page has already been deleted – “Zach” or whatever the hell his name is clearly knows he’s been caught out and has vanished.
And don’t worry: He didnt spoil GleeFan’s rep in my eyes. And I’m sure it won’t have in anyone elses either.
Thanks for posting this. Urgg, this makes me mad. What kind of person does this? Off to go unfollow him. Thanks again!
Ok, actually it hasnt shut down, I just accidentlally typed ultimategleek not gleeks in the url which is why I got the page doesnt exist from twitter.
Even still though: He’s still a fraud and frankly a total asshole (excuse my french)
Oh, that is SO not cool. Unfollowed and reported for spam.
This is terrible
I knew there was something not quite right with him! I’d ask him questions about the tour, thinking he’d know but no response. He’d request #FFs and never actually follow through an reciprocate.. Glad you discovered this before he conned more and more people!
To be honest I had my suspicions about both you and he. I wondered how you were getting all this information about everything at first. Then I started to just trust the info. You pulling back the curtain on him just earned you my complete trust.
I do have to ask though, what spoilers re: Season 2 Casting are fake and what are real. To me, this is the most important question that can be answered by you.
How uncool. I can’t believe there’s someone out there who would take advantage of the Glee fans. I’m just so shocked by this; I’m not sure what to say.
But thank you, Rob, for telling us. :)
Unfollowed.
Only followed for the #FF promo, and he keeps tweeting his username with every message. Plus, repetition from there to @Gleeks got irritating. Finding this out isn’t that depressing.
Wow! This guy is horrible! what a low-life! Trying to scam us innocent honest glee lovers!
I’m unfollowing and blocking him.
Thank you for figuring this out Rob! But don’t feel bad! It happened to all of us!
Seriously, what an absolute tool! What kind of person would do this?
Thanks Rob. I just unfollowed him. His tweets always seemed suspicious to me. He never provided any real information that I couldn’t get from other sites. BTW James, your french is perfect
So, that’s where you got the so called ‘leaked’ tour dates from? What a fucking loser – pisses me off. I blocked his sorry ass.
I’m happy to say that @ultimategleek’s followers are dwindling by the minute :D
Unfollowed, made a tweet, and retweeted a tweet from someone else.
yea… that kind of sucks. so is he the one who gave you the info about season 2 casting? I’m like DB389….. I just want this info to be clarified.
Unfollowed too. =D
Don’t forget to remove that link from your twitter info page on this site. ;)
Btw, I googled too and found from 4 sources that he’s a con artist and a liar -_-
I’ve never followed this person… his username wreaks of douchebaggery. He’d just be an ultimate gleek while we die hard fanatics are just bread to him or something?
Getting to the point, glad to be following the most credible and trustworthy site for all awesome Gleeks :)
I was getting suspicious about one of his recent tweets you mentioned up there. I mean, how would he know ‘exclusive’ glee news etc. and keep getting so many prizes to give away? I was already sensing the sketch…and now it’s true. Sad, sad, person.
Also…what on earth is #FF? What are the benefits of that, I’m so confused!
report @ultimategleeks for SPAM!
Thanks for the heads-up! I already unfollowed him. I was already close to unfollowing that account because he tweeted at least once an hour and it was flooding my twitter.
WAIT SO:
ALL THE CASTING DETAILS, A LIE?
THE TOP TEN WAYS TO GET CASTED?
KURTS R&B.SOULFUL. BOYFRIEND?
LEA MICHELLE COUNTER PART?
ANOTHER FEMALE ROLE?
What is true now and what is not?
This makes me thing of a wonderful song that Finn sang. I’ll stand by you! We all love Gleefan.com
That’s really scary, it’s a shame that he put you & others through such trouble. I unfollowed & blocked him. Thanks for the warning and for all the research you did. Keep up the great work!
Oh man, this is terrible. I always thought something dodge was going on because that guy never followed up on his tweets. I’ve unfollowed, blocked and reported that guy’s account as spam. I felt weird doing it at first, but after reading your post, I know I’ve done the right thing. Thanks for doing such a throuogh job on investigating this guy. You didn’t just point fingers – you did your homework. Cheers.
Michael:
I remember reading most of that casting stuff on other web sites, and I’m pretty sure a most/all of it came from the actual Glee workers, not the ultimate gleeks guy. So I would guess that the lea michele counterpart, R&B football player, etc. are unchanged.
Thank you Hm! I was slightly worried!
Thanks for letting us know Rob. Unfollowed and retweeted. I’m sorry for you and for all of us who have been taken in.
Keep up your good, honest work!
[...] sondern auch Gewinnspiele und Fanartikel zu verkaufen. Auf der Homepage von gleefan.com sind alle weiteren Details nachzulesen. Rob bittet auch die restlichen Follower die sich noch nicht von [...]
he added me and i knew something was fishy. the only twitter i trust is the one you and travis run. He was immediately blocked. Some people really have the nerve.
I thought he seemed shady.
Does this mean that the suspected roles for Season 2 (Kurt’s BF, Rachel’s rival and Mercedes R’n'B singing love interest) are all fake??
Does this also mean it’s not worldwide auditions?
:(
Xx
Crappy to hear that us glee fans have to worry about that kind of stuff
Dumb guy. I cant belive somebody could be so bad. Its scary. Luckly you tweeted chris and rang up fox. Hrrrr!
What a horrible guy
how sad…and embarrassing for this guy. and he continues on… very laughable.
George, the three roles for Season 2 still stand as reported. Only the R’n'B guy and Kurt’s BF are not the same guy. That spoiler was passed to Rob from Ultimategleeks. He was passing fake spoilers trying to prove he had inside info. Aussiello from EW said it was false in his blog.
The on-line auditions are still going to happen.
the guy is still reporting on his twitter? does this guy even think about how sad his life is?
Maybe if enough us report him as spam the good folks at Twitter would delete his account!
Thank you, Rob, for providing us fans with information we can trust! I know we all really appreciate all the trouble you’ve gone through for us, especially in uncovering this fraud!
That’s terrible! I didn’t even know that account existed until I read this, but still. I reported him for spam and hope people unfollow him.
…so they’re not coming to Dallas? :(
I just emailed you about Jaydon, the truth about him with proof in the pudding:
http://thefraudfiles.blogspot.com/
Please warn all fans!!! Sounds like he’s doing the same stuff he did with Ben Bledsoe (who was part of the “Single Ladies” number on Glee, that was it I believe) and Close to Home: fake news, fake contests, manipulating fans, and fake ‘trips’ and ‘prestige’. Thank you for posting this!
[...] So that’s all for site updates. Hope you enjoy! As for what Chris is doing right now… well, I know that he saved the day by informing the people behind the Glee Network that the @UltimateGleeks Twitter guy is a fraud. Okay, I might be exaggerating his role just a little bit… (If you haven’t already heard about this scam, click here.) [...]
when i 1st read this post i checked on wikipedia the name Zachary Jaydon i also his twitter and it was real.now that @ultimategleeks has written a post about that they are all dead links and everything, ive tried again and they have been deleted. he says that he “can not remain silent any longer” but i think that before denying everything said in this post he had to delete any proves. don’t believe anything that he says.
[...] UltimateGleeks is a SCAM! | GleeFan.com | A blog and fansite for Fox’s Glee.Posted by spidra via FriendFeed [...]
Long story, but I can confirm 95% of what Rob is saying.
Okay, well not 95%, but that Zachary Jaydon is indeed behind UltimateGleeks.
[...] UltimateGleeks is a SCAM! | GleeFan.com | A blog and fansite for Fox’s Glee.Posted by spidra via FriendFeed [...]