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Retro inspired PS5 cancelled after receiving “credible threats to their safety”

Retro inspired PS5 cancelled after receiving “credible threats to their safety”

by Hashtag Daily TrendsJanuary 11, 2021

SUP3R5 have cancelled all orders and deleted their official Twitter account. In the deleted tweets, they said “We take these threats seriously. We aren’t willing to risk the safety and well-being of our team, or the potential impact this would bring to delivering your order.”

See their important update …

SUP3R5 Twitter

Earlier this month on January 8, the company reported that it was having trouble processing orders and payments, and there were several complaints against SUP3R5.

UPDATE: SUP3R5 have added this statement to their website

So, what happened?

We know this has been an incredibly disappointing, frustrating experience for many (if not all) of you. We feel the same way. This is not what we had in mind when we decided to do this. With all of the attention this generated, naturally there’s a lot of speculation going around. So, let’s set the record straight.

First problem: “Scam Panic”

We’ve been using the term “Scam Panic” to describe the first problem we encountered after we launched our storefront and Twitter account. We think it’s perfectly reasonable to be skeptical of an operation that spun up as quickly as we did. However, we began to see people on Twitter and YouTube actively pushing the scam narrative, some even claiming to have proof of this. This was hurtful, confusing, and unfair – given that we hadn’t even sold anything at that point – and thus had no reputation to prove or disprove it. Nobody had any proof of anything, really – only that we’re new. We began to respond to these accusations as best we could, explaining that we are new, we have no reputation, and if anyone feels uncomfortable trusting us with their hard earned cash because of that, please do not buy anything from us.

We encourage people to watch the “proof” videos out there if you can. Our observation is that these videos had a healthy amount of skepticism and annoyance about us existing (which, again, is understandable and alright with us), but were promoted as “proof” of a scam. While they did provide an unusual form of site feedback for us (which we listened to and updated our site accordingly), our best guess is that the creators of these videos took this approach to attract viewers through a clickbait title at our expense. We understand that views matter for monetization, and it’s hard to fault someone for jumping on a good opportunity to drive more views their way. We hope it worked. We hope that in the future, they exercise much greater consideration for others before throwing out unfair accusations.

At the time of this writing, refunds have been processed for 98% of all orders, with the remaining 2% completing sometime this week. As far as we know, scams don’t generally provide timely refunds, or bother to write explanations like these.

Second problem: Payments

We knew that there would probably be some problems with payments, given the traffic we were expecting. We did not expect there to be payments taken without orders being secured. This was not okay, and as soon as we discovered this was happening, we immediately began working on reversing the erroneous payments.

On top of this, our payment processor for standard payments disconnected from our site during pre-orders. Because of this, suddenly everyone lost the ability to delete their cards from their profiles. With the scam narrative already circling around, this sparked speculation that we were keeping everyone’s credit card numbers to steal them. This isn’t true, and we hate that we even have to say that. Also, this concern ignores how payments systems work, and the strict standards in place to prevent theft of credit card information.

Our payment processors are Stripe and PayPal, both of which comply with PCI DSS, which is the global security standard for all entities that store, process, or transmit cardholder data and/or sensitive authentication data.

PCI DSS compliance involves 3 main things:

  1. Handling the ingress of credit card data from customers, namely, that sensitive card details are collected and transmitted securely.
  2. Storing data securely, which is outlined in the 12 security domains of the PCI standard, such as encryption, ongoing monitoring, and security testing of access to card data.
  3. Validating annually that the required security controls are in place, which can include forms, questionnaires, external vulnerability scanning services and 3rd party audits.

TL;DR Your card information is safe, and we have no way to access it, even if we were set on doing it.

Third problem: Hostility and threats

Working through scam accusations and payment problems are one thing. As soon as we began receiving threats to our safety, we saw no way forward that would be worth the risk. Nobody should ever have to deal with the psychological distress of receiving credible threats to their safety. Nothing is worth that. We received multiple threats, some of which appeared to be actively trying to locate us to inflict physical harm. This is not what we signed up for, and that’s why we decided to cancel orders and refund everyone.

At this point, if things calm down and we see a safe way forward, we may try again. If we do, it will be with a quiet, invitation-only approach. Those invitations would go to those who had secured an order previously, stayed within the order limits, and did not list their pre-order on eBay.

We hope this clears up some of the rumors and speculation out there. Please be kind to one another, and please be patient with us in the interim while we step back and re-evaluate.  “

If you have your heart set on picking up a black PS5, there’s a chance you might still be able to get one. Although the first batch of black PS5 consoles sold out, the SUP3R5 website says to check back soon.

The consoles were designed to be capitalise on the 20th anniversary of the PlayStation 2 console, creating a black design with blue highlights. The design also featured the inclusion of the original multi-coloured PlayStation logo for extra nostalgia.

ps5 retro ps2

Image Credit: SUP3R5

It’s unclear when new PS5 stock will be made available to buy in the UK, as fans wait on the first major restock event of 2021.

Several retailers have indicated that they would be selling PS5 consoles in January. However, it looks fans will have to wait for a new message to be shared by the various companies to know exactly when this will be happening.

Credits: SUP3R5

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