Starkeeper_75@hotmail.com

I have had the same exact experience! I great communication with her online with MSN messenger and through email and as soon as I paid her, nothing. I am afraid I am out a bridesmaid dress and my wedding dress. If I don`t get a refund or the dress, I don`t know what I`ll do. I don`t have the money to start over!

Hello Andrea,
If you paid through paypal and it is less than 30 days,
You might get your money back. For me it is too late. I did not know about this option.

My story is the same. Tons of responses up until the time of payment. I keep getting told she is sick, but things aren`t adding up. She hasn`t been online in a while, so I am hoping for the best. But, I too am worried.

Leave your email address so we can talk about this more.

Seems like a lot of us are going through difficulties with her. I just sent her a certified letter cancelling my order and demanding the return of the money that I did pay her towards the dress. I have also submitted a complaint through paypal. So hopefully someway I will get my money back.

Same story here. I ordered my BM dresses through Melody 2 months ago. I have had decent communication with her during these months, but have not been able to get ahold of her in the past week. She told me she was in the hospital and that she recently moved. Where to another country?? I am so frustrated, worried, and sick to my stomach! My wedding is in two months and I will not have any BM dresses! Who knows if I can get them anywhere else in time! I also don`t have the money to replace them! You don`t screw with girls` weddings!!Please post or email me if you learn anything new. If you have an address or other phone #`s let me know!
Mymail_aj@yahoo.com

See my message under Angel Dust Creations for a couple of options.

I have the same complain as all of you about starkeeper_75. Eversince I paid her 2 months ago, I lost contact with her. Seeing all the concerns I am reading I finally dicided that I was trick by her.
I filed a complaint today to the FBI. I advice that people should do the same. You could fill the complain form through: http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
I do not know what else to do!
Thanks!

Here`s some more. It appears that this Melody, starkeeper or whatever has been buying wedding dresses on ebay in order to fill your orders. If she could find the style and size, she would buy it and ship it. If not, you are out of luck. We contacted the dress manufacturer that she was going to use to fill my daughters order. Their seach of clients (by name, zip town, etc.) indicated that they had absolutely no contact with her or her alias. She is a fraud. File your complaints, and if you paid by credit card, contact the company and inquire about fraud protection.

In the mean time, report her to the police & FBI.

What was her ebay id? I have seen a dream_maker 809 on there, but w/only 1transaction. I was told she was under starkeeper_75, but she hasn`t used that for a while. What other id did she have on there?

O.K., Im a little confuse. My credit card has told me that they are not responsible for this. PayPal also is not willing to take responsobility due to the payment was made over a month ago. I have her home address, but don`t know if there is any point of me driving 2 hours to find a none existing address or that she has moved. Some one please e-mail me at alvarezdeborah2002@yahooo.com.

I`m a paralegal and a friend told me what was going on. I`m sorry this is happening to you specially when buying your wedding dress is suppose to be a memorable time. I`m also getting married and I can imagine what you girls are going through. I spoke with my boss Nelson Burgos; esq. And he stated that you have a right to dispute the charges. For those of you who have paid with credit cards you have to call them and dispute the charges and asked for the charges to be reversed. You MUST notify your credit card company in writing. It doesn`t matter if you have already made your monthly payment. The process of this is as follows: Your credit card company puts the amount in dispute on hold, they will investigate the reason for your dispute and ultimately the charges can be reverse from paypal, paypal will then be out of the money not you. But they have insurance for fraudulent charges. While the charges are in dispute and investigation should follow. If you want you can also filed a complaint not only with paypal, but with the FBI and your local police. If this person is ever found criminal charges can be brought and you can also sue her in a civil matter which can be done by all of you also known as a class action suit. If you are interested in legal proceedings after she has been found please e-mail me or you can call the office at 301-585-7277. My heart goes out to all of you. Regardless of what you decide to do please keep me updated with your progress. Thank you and good luck!!!!!!

Dear Jackie- Thank you for the helpful information. I am in the process of filing a fraud claim with my credit card company and I have already filed a complaint with paypal, which they told me was denied because I was over my 30 days. I had no reason to complain in the first 30 days though. I assumed my dresses were on their way. I already ordered a new set of dresses as my wedding is 2 months away. I called the designer and they said they have no such client as Melody-Melanie-Reed-Schenck. What a fraud!

Are you from the area in which Melody is supposedly living. I noticed the 301 area code?

Hi everybody, I am in the same shoes as all of you. Luckily my credit card company did refund my money. Yours should too. I paid her back in Feb and they reversed the charges today. She is working under quite a few names. I have given up hope on her. I hope that all of you are as lucky and are able to recover their money

Jackie- I forgot to ask, what is your E-mail address. I have a question that I would like to ask you. My case is just a bit different

Watch out for her, girls. She IMed me offering to sell me a gown she saw I had posted about on www.theknot.com. I asked her which she had in stock for immediate delivery and she told me which gowns. I told her I wanted different gowns/ colors/ sizes, and magically they were all suddenly in stock, too. She had forgotten.

She sent me out a "contract" which was a misspelled e-mail with very few details, except that the dress would arrive in 10 days. I wrote back changing the contract (thanks to my one year in Contracts class at the Ohio State U. School of law...) and she approved the changes. The changes included that I would pay her only through an escrow service at www.escrow.com and that I would pay the associated fee. If the gown never showed up or showed up past the deadline, she would pay the fee (approx. $25).

Then, she actually went to the escrow site and figured out how it works. The buyer pays the escrow service plus a small fee. The escrow service notifies the seller that the money has been received. The seller ships the item and ONLY THEN is allowed to receive the money. (She wanted me to pay by paypal, which despite their posted guarantees told me over the phone that they guarantee that they will TRY THEIR BEST to get your money back from the seller in the event that there is a problem, but they`re only 65% successful.) When she saw that she couldn`t just take my money and keep it for months and months, she balked. Despite our contract, she blocked me from her e-mail list and the MSN messenger list and hasn`t responded to any communication from me since then. I`m assuming she`s moved on to scamming people who are less knowledgeable about escrow, paypal, or contracts. Watch out for her. In case she is pulling any of this on you, here is her contact information. Get to her quickly, as there are rumors on other message boards that she has told people she is planning on "moving out of state very soon". If you paid her and she keeps making excuses, call Paypal or your credit card company immediately. If they can`t help (for example, you can only file a paypal claim 30 days after you pay, but no later) then CALL THE POLICE. She has taken the payments for many dresses, but only delivered two so far that I can confirm. She may come through for some people, but to me, it wasn`t worth the risk. I suggest using bridesave.com, pearl`s place, or another discount bridal "warehouse". Good luck to you all.

Crystal Masters (CEMasters@ hotmail.com)


Angel Dust Creations contact information:
Melody L. Reed (Melody Reed-Schenck),
301-697-8864 or
301-689-0059 or
301-722-3679

Starkeeper_75@hotmail.com
12708 Mcmullan Highway, Cumberland, Maryland 21502 or
518 Bedford St, Cumberland, MD 21502

Hello All,
I had a similar situation but I wans`t ordering a dress so $$$ loss would have been less. She had told me stories that I seen others mention as well. I was fortuante have money refunded. Please put a complaint with BBB as I did and others but I am not sure if it is showing yet, last I looked it wasn`t and I sent a complaint awhile back. I am also telling others to complain through FBI internet fraud site, it is an online dispute and personally I wouldn`t want to be messed with FBI. They have resources to do a lot of back checking. Calling and speaking to my state polce who called her seemed to work to having money refunded. If she does have children it would be in her best interest to make things right for all or else I can see her going away, especially if customers rallied together with one lawyer. This site seems to be connected to party pop and if you go to the party pop message boards you will see more complaints under starkeeper and Angel Dust Creations. Let us all work together for justice.

Please see this message as well:
Our office recently received a complaint in regards to Ms. Reed. In order to direct your calls to the proper agency, you may contact Deputy Warren Carter at (301)777-5959, Allegany County Sheriff`s Office. I am familiar with this subject and I am in possession of her new address. I hope that our department is able to assist in this problem. Deputy Carter can be contacted Monday thru Friday during the daylight hours.

Lt. Craig Robertson
Posted 04/30/03 by Lt. Robertson

Leticia, you can e-mail me at Jackie@burgoslaw.com or jackielsosa@yahoo.com. I hope to hear from you soon.

Upsetbride, I`m not in the same area as of Melody, I work in Silver Spring, MD. But I got good news for all you girls my friend Debbie called me and told me that Melody was incarcerated as of two days ago. She was even told that you can go visit her. All you girls that were scam call Deputy Warren Carter at 301-777-5959. If I can be of any help please don`t hesitate to contact me at 301-585-7277 or e-mail me at Jackie@burgoslaw.com. Upsetbride maybe now you`ll be once again a happybride. Take care.

Hello Jackie,
My boyfriend just call Deputy Warren Carter, and he confirmed that Melody Reed was there and release this morning. He also asked us if we are willing to come to US (we are from Holland) to testify agains her
In court. That is just to much to asked from us. We do not understand the law system in US. Can we just press charges , so she could be stop with her activity, without being in US physicaly? Doesn`t the US goverment procecute her, this is obiously a crime (in our case an international fraud)?
It is just wrong what she did/does!! A happy event like marriege should not be clouded with bad memories.

I contacted Deputy Warren Carter this morning and he needs any victims who wish to persue their loss. Please call or email him ASAP so he can add this to the file as he does the investigation. The more victims the better chance she will pay for what she has done!
Deputy W.T Carter
Allegany County Sheriff`s Office
301-777-5959
Wcarter@allconet.org

I contacted Deputy Warren Carter this morning and he needs any victims who wish to persue their loss. Please call or email him ASAP so he can add this to the file as he does the investigation. The more victims the better chance she will pay for what she has done!
Deputy W.T Carter
Allegany County Sheriff`s Office
301-777-5959
Wcarter@allconet.org

I would be glad to partake but I was one of the fortunate souls who got money back. I do have many emails stating how she shipped and shipped my order againand about death in family and so on. If any of these would help, I wil gladly assist. I believe we got our money because we had the state police contact her immediately and I believe we were at the beginnignof her major scam run

Re: Melody Reed (update)
Well I just spoke with Deputy Carter and this is what he told me. The States Attorney has agreed to go through and press criminal charges. There will be a grand jury hearing and then they will return an indictment and it will immediately go to a jury trial. For those that have contacted him about your issues, you need to send him a typed signed statement detailing your complaint so he can enter it into evidence at the grand jury hearing. You can send this to him at 708 Furnace St, Cumberland, MD 21502. Grand jury meets the end of June.
Posted 05/13/03 by Ellen

Hi Everyone,
My story ended up better than most of you here. I had found starkeeper thru party pop wedding board. I own a discount bridal and sell used, discontinued, samples, etc. Well I was looking for a certain gown and starkeeper said she could get it. Great I thought. Then I needed another style and yes again she could get it. Seemed like she could get anything I asked for. Well, then a little red flag went up in my head and I asked her for references. Lord and behold I never heard from her again. Like the others, she kept in contact while I was asking for gowns. Boy do I feel good for asking her for ref. I am so sorry that all you other ladies have had such terrible experiences. I have been ripped off by 2 people and know how that feels. Good luck to all that can take her to court.
Cathy