Warning about Anna Browne - "Tail Maker"

**AniaR** · 06-01-2018, 08:37 AM

I had tried to make this post a few weeks ago before my trip, but I broke the mernetwork. Hahaha So we had to delete the thread and here I am to re do it.

Long Story short, Anna Brown is a girl who uses multiple aliases online to scam and harass other mermaids. She has been banned from the majority of mermaid groups, but also from this forum.

Many people have had bad experiences being scammed, and then harassed when they stand up to it.

Here a google docs link to a file I created with as much proof as I can personally find.

If you've had an issue with her, please post here. You can block out names in screen shots to protect identities.

You can see the file here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/vx2zeqhajb...rowne.doc?dl=0

A quick summary:

Lying about quality of tails and skill level, over charging and then harassing when mers publicly review
Leaving fake reviews on other's mers and tail makers pages
Lying about a known autistic mer-fan and trying to convince the network that he sexually harassed her
Reaching out to new community members and lying about existing ones
Using multiple accounts on FB to avoid bans
Using alt accounts/emails on mernetwork to avoid bands and suspensions
DOS Attack on Mernetwork
Using alt accounts to create a tumblr that openly bashed Finfolk (despite being in the Pod Squad)
Marking up used mermaid tails to sell
Marking up (drastically) mer-chandise (like purses) to scam mers
Fake/Scam fundraisers

Please be aware of people like this and don't be afraid to speak out. Fraud schemes are real!

**AniaR** · 06-01-2018, 08:54 AM

Here's her current Etsy: https://www.etsy.com/ca/shop/SiliconeCove

Few screen shots from some recent drama that didn't make it into the doc:

A "silicone" tail that "UPS" made look like this, lol

**Keiris** · 06-01-2018, 01:28 PM

OMG WHAT A HOT MESS!! No talented tailmaker would turn that out! No shame at all.

**PearlieMae** · 06-01-2018, 07:02 PM

Been looking for my string of screenshots from the demented mind of Anna Browne, but i think i deleted them when i had no room to download video of a monkey scratching its butt and sniffing his fingers.

Priorities.

**Merman Storm** · 06-01-2018, 08:49 PM

From Wikipedia:
"Silicone rubbers are often one- or two-part polymers, and may contain fillers to improve properties or reduce cost. Silicone rubber is generally non-reactive, stable, and resistant to extreme environments and temperatures from -55 °C to +300 °C while still maintaining its useful properties"

That is as hot as an oven on broil. No way it was melted in transit.

**Keiris** · 06-01-2018, 09:13 PM

Originally Posted by PearlieMae

Been looking for my string of screenshots from the demented mind of Anna Browne, but i think i deleted them when i had no room to download video of a monkey scratching its butt and sniffing his fingers.

Priorities.

Bahahahahah! Pearlie!!!

**Ransom** · 06-02-2018, 05:57 AM

Seriously, this is messed up. I hope Brit gets her money back -- whatever that... abomination is, it's got no business being sold to anyone.

Thing is, AB's entire setup requires new victims since she can only do it once per person. Hopefully enough new mers know to do their homework and reach out to the right people.

**PhaylennMurúch** · 06-02-2018, 04:44 PM

Originally Posted by Ransom

Seriously, this is messed up. I hope Brit gets her money back -- whatever that... abomination is, it's got no business being sold to anyone.

Thing is, AB's entire setup requires new victims since she can only do it once per person. Hopefully enough new mers know to do their homework and reach out to the right people.

I've been dealing with her for over a year now, you'd be surprised at how many people were conned into giving her multiple chances. How many folk just didn't say anything publicly when they got attacked or scammed by her, because there is a stigma against talking about your bad experiences and destroying someone's reputation and/or business.
(I had a horrific experience with Mermaid Morticia and Siren's Calling. When I posted about it I had SO many people come forward and say that they too had bad experiences but were too afraid to talk about it publicly. Had I known of her behavior before hand I wouldn't have dropped hundreds of dollars on her to make a tail)
So she's been scamming people for over a year now and it's only been since like November that people are becoming aware of it.

This isn't her only ploy as well, Anna has been banned from buying Avon for her shit, she is constantly in any BST group, not just mermaid related, trying to get people to buy her overpriced crap.
And I'm going to be honest, there's a sale in classifieds that has all of her trademark keywords, "Authentic" precious metals or stones, pointing out how much the seller spent on making it vs how much they're selling it for, etc. I just looked and it seems like that person has been banned already.

**LaenaMarsh** · 06-02-2018, 07:04 PM

Well, here’s another Anna Browne story. I have 9 months of chat logs and paypal receipts if need be, but I haven’t had time to pull out the salient parts and redact personally identifiable information. Honestly, they’re pretty boring, because up until the tail arrived Anna and I were on pretty good terms, and then after we start talking about a settlement they just get repetitive, but I have them if people feel like they need more proof. I have included our correspondence in May so you can see what went down when the tail got here badly.

Anna reached out to me in October of last year after I’d commented that I was sad a pretty tail had sold out. She said she was starting out in the tail-making business, and was looking for someone to pay for materials cost so she could have the practice and pictures of a completed partial silicone tail to show. She was outsourcing a lot of the steps to people like Aquatails and Fancy Fish, so I was pretty confident that she was taking on a reasonable chunk of work for a new artist.

So Thanksgiving comes by, materials are coming in, everything’s looking good. By Christmas I’m showing my cousins pictures of the painted tail, and it looks great! Then on into February I’m having to poke her on the regular for status updates, which is about what I expected since she was a student, but she says the first layer of silicone is on, and maybe we want to do flesh colored scales around the top to blend it all together? It sounded pretty reasonable, so I paid her for more materials and she sent me some pictures of samples, but ultimately decided to get them from another artist. I was thrilled she was working on the tail.

She was radio silent for a while after that until she messaged me to tell me she was deleting all her social media accounts in April. I suspected that if she was incommunicado I would never get my tail, so I told her that I was reasonably confident I could fix it myself and she could send it along, because hey, it only needs another layer of silicone and scales cut into it right? How hard can that be?

I paid her for shipping, only to be told that she didn’t have time to ship it before she left on a 2 week vacation. I’ll admit, I was pretty nervous at that point that I wouldn’t hear from her again, but she did ship it a few days after she got back. While it was in transit, Brit got her tail with all the silicone curing issues so I got to wait and see what would show up on May 5.

It was consistent with Brit’s issues with the silicone peeling away from the neoprene and the gross, sticky feel of not properly cured silicone, with the added bonus of dirt and hair cured into my silicone layer. Also, little specs of octagonal blue glitter on everything in the box, including embedded in the tail’s silicone. Not in an ‘applied to the tail’ kind of way, just in a ‘did not clean the craft herpes from your workstation’ kind of way. As soon as it got there, I reached out to her with pictures. At first she tried to start a fight, telling me that it wasn’t possible, blaming dirt getting into the box during shipping, and accusing me of peeling off the silicone layer myself.

For a while there, it looked like she was trying to find a way to fix it within her budget, but the solutions she offered just weren’t acceptable. I proposed a settlement, and she left me hanging for quite a while, probably thinking I was going to go away eventually, but once I gave her a 24 hour period to answer she finally opened the document, along with the bombshell that if I returned the tail to her to fix, she wouldn’t even start on it until September (not that she’d ever explained to me how she would if silicone isn’t adhering to the neoprene). We didn’t reach an agreement, but at least I have a solid answer: she’s unwilling to fix this in any kind of reasonable way.

If I were going to do this again, what would I change? I don’t think any of these things would ultimately have changed how this whole situation turned out, but I probably would have seen it coming a lot faster. I didn’t insist on a hard and fast timeline because I knew a lot of dates were dependent on other people and her ability to work on it was going to be dependent on school deadlines. I didn’t want to execute a new update to the contract every time the date had to slip, but in retrospect, I should have put up with the hassle. I also think that I should have insisted that she didn’t take on any other tails, or at least not paying commissioned work, until my tail was done. I wouldn’t recommend this with an established tail artist with a track record of delivering tails, but with a new artist whose stated goal was to work out her process I don’t think it’s an unreasonable request. Looking at the timelines, it seems like progress on my tail all but stopped once Anna started working on Brit’s tail. On a practical level, I’d also have the aquatails neoprene tail shipped directly to me to be altered, that would have saved me some worry.

I also wish Anna had tested her materials before jumping in. Because she didn’t test the neoprene/paint/silicone arrangement, she’d invested a lot of time and money before the problems in her process became apparent. More than anything, I wish she was less combative when I got the tail and my fears about its condition were confirmed.

All in all, I’m not as bad off as I could be. The fluke and fins by fancy fish are in good shape, and I can put them on another tail. I’ve been channeling my energy into making my own tail, which should be fun. I plan on livestreaming it over Twitch, so maybe check it out. It’s my first time doing a lot of the steps, so you’ll probably get to see me fail at least once. We’ll probably also have mermaid chat going along with a colorful cast of characters, and you are welcome to stop by and share your own stories and advice.

Pictures to follow:

**AniaR** · 06-02-2018, 07:47 PM

I think Anna very strategically and manipulatively tries to do things that seem nice for others in order to balance out this stuff. So some people don't feel safe coming forward, because they feel like she's done them something nice and it would be rude to say something.

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-02-2018, 11:07 PM

Originally Posted by PhaylennMurúch

And I'm going to be honest, there's a sale in classifieds that has all of her trademark keywords, "Authentic" precious metals or stones, pointing out how much the seller spent on making it vs how much they're selling it for, etc. I just looked and it seems like that person has been banned already.

So can we get a mod to confirm if SalemMermaidTrials is a sockpuppet of Anna's or nah?

**AniaR** · 06-02-2018, 11:22 PM

if a mod banned her, it's because she's a known IP address of Anna

**WNCmermaid** · 06-03-2018, 05:49 PM

~First let me start by saying that i DID get my money back, no thanks to Anna. I was lucky enough to have the support of the mermaid community and went straight through paypal and cut off all contact with crazy. She tried contacting me through a friend and offered to "fix" the tail and send me another finfolk or other covered in whatever she calls silicone. I told said friend that I wanted nothing from her and that if I wanted to ruin a perfectly good tail then I would buy my own when she gave me my money back!
~Second I want to apologize for how long it has taken me to get this information up here as I am still learning.
~Third THANK YOU ALL FOR BEING MER_MAZING!!!
Anyway, that being said I want to share my story here for everyone so this will not happen to anyone else...
So it all started when I created a facebook page just for fun because let's face it, that's how all the greats start right!?! The name of this page must have gotten her attention because it was only a week or so and there she was....
https://www.dropbox.com/preview/Scre...%20%281%29.png

She prayed on the fact that I was new and had been looking for a tail for so long. Unable to get one because of the big cost in one chunk she happily took my payments, little did I know what I was sending payments for. She talked like she was friends with a well known tail maker and that she would get tips from him for my splash inspired tail. She also spoke of molds for scales and sent me pictures of different kinds saying she had a mold for one and would have to make one for the other. She talked like she had been at this for a long time! When i asked for photos of some of her past work she would say she was away from the computer or that her friend had them if she even answered the question at all. The whole process made me so uncomfortable but I had 2 other mers telling me she was trust worthy so I proceeded. I continued sending payments with the hope that a beautiful tail would be the outcome, I even tried to google her name several times and nothing came up! I stalked as much of her social media as I could but found nothing.
So the 3-4 week turn around she had originally told me about was beyond passed and she had had no contact with me in weeks, I started to blow up every person that I had a contact for that I knew had a contact for her including her "business partner" she always responded I will give her that much. eventually someone got a hold of her and she replied to me apologizing to me for the delay but making no effort to fix it in any way. At least we are back on track some what at this point...
Next issue, she sends me a picture of the updated work and the fins I had asked to be put on the hips were hanging around on the ankles! Oh well "Ooops my bad, I will fix it if you pay for more fins" She said she had sewn them on already and well me being this far into it I said whatever I have to do to finish and get my tail by my scheduled photo shoot for mothers day (my hubs had paid for makeup, venue, photographer, the works!) So she ordered half of what she should have and glued them on the hips so they couldn't flop and called it done. Well My deadline was her first excuse, she had to give everything time to cure and I made her rush it. Needless to say I missed the photo shoot!
She then gave me the whole bit about how she had to go to ups instead of the normal place she sends so she hopes they send it right and the reason she charged so much for shipping was for the insurance and for the packaging. She was sure to include that she let ups package the tail so if it arrives incorrect or messed up that I should take photos and let her know immediately so she can get the money from the insurance and "fix" it. (A scam on top of another scam) Well this thing arrived a hot mess!! The pictures don't do it justice! It is disgusting!! The fins that she put some nasty orange paint over and supposedly sewed on peeled off with little to no effort. {https://www.dropbox.com/s/yf6yora31k...60933.mp4?dl=0} I will say she did put a Finis Wave in it which was surprising

!! She of course blamed ups and tried to play that game but I am not stupid and I also had an amazing support system (the mer-community) silicone does not melt and scales should not be drawn on with sharpie! I am now making my own tail because she scared me from ordering something so specific to me I will not let her get me down I will turn this negative into a positive!! I also know this isn't everything but I will update as I can I've been at this for hours now haha

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-03-2018, 07:38 PM

Anna isn't in the Finfolk Pod Squad anymore. I think she deleted her facebook, so we'll probably have to be on the lookout for other aliases she could be trying to use.

**AniaR** · 06-03-2018, 09:34 PM

she's been removed from most groups

**BlueCorvidae** · 06-03-2018, 10:22 PM

Originally Posted by AniaR

she's been removed from most groups

So I'm going to point out the fact that people keep giving her a lot of money even when she's pretending to be a new and relatively unknown seller. Sure she's a blatant scammer, but people are falling for it anyway. EVEN IF they start wising up and not buying from anyone they know is Anna, that's not going to stop them from falling for her sock accounts. They haven't done their research before, why would they start now?

So I'm going to stand by what I said; Anna already made a new account to ban-evade and sell her garbage on the mernetwork. Even if she's been removed from groups or straight up deleted her facebook, odds are she'll just be back with a new account and a fake name. So be on the lookout for potential socks on facebook and other social media.

**Ransom** · 06-04-2018, 12:54 AM

Wow. This has to be the world's crappiest game of Whack-a-Mole.

I'd say the best thing to advise new mers would be to look out for red flags -- things like no photos of the actual items, lack of a track record (and her constant excuses that she couldn't send pics of her work) and shoddy-quality stuff in other shops.

If in doubt, the wider community will know more... though it's best to consult them before you've paid up, not after.

Any other thoughts?

Unfortunately all the scams are also making it much harder for legit entrants into the market

**Arking** · 06-04-2018, 01:22 AM

I was considering using caulk on neoprene after seeing some other threads using it. Marinus Mortimer had some amazing work I recalled seeing that gave me the idea. Seeing this has me second guessing whether I should do that. @_@ This is a nightmare scenario, it looks milky and not cured.

**gay-mermaid** · 06-04-2018, 02:55 AM

Originally Posted by Arking

I was considering using caulk on neoprene after seeing some other threads using it. Marinus Mortimer had some amazing work I recalled seeing that gave me the idea. Seeing this has me second guessing whether I should do that. @_@ This is a nightmare scenario, it looks milky and not cured.

i dont know what she is using but it sure isnt 100% silicone caulk. either she is mixing something into it that affects curing or it is something else entirely that she is passing off as silicone.

**LaenaMarsh** · 06-04-2018, 04:59 AM

Originally Posted by gay-mermaid.memory

i dont know what she is using but it sure isnt 100% silicone caulk. either she is mixing something into it that affects curing or it is something else entirely that she is passing off as silicone.

You could always do a test swatch... Take a square foot of neoprene, paint it with the paint you're going to use, and apply the silicone you want. Then at least you'll know what it will do.

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