This is the story of a Con Man named Jason Pine.

This had originally come to my attention 11 months prior, but I had lost the thread on this and it was stuck in limbo for reasons which will become clear at the end. Enough time has passed that I think it is okay to share this story now.

11/7/2017, 11:30AM — A Kickstarter creator posted a warning message in a game design community group warning people against a scam that they had fallen prey to. Through an interview it was disclosed that they had lost thousands of dollars in cash and product to someone who had contacted them on Kickstarter.

Creators on Kickstarter are no strangers to e-mail scams. The platform has been around long enough that scammers have evolved very precise tactics to phish for information, or fleece cash from bright eyed creators who have just received a massive windfall from their supporters.

This is about a more subtle threat to game designers, one which designers fall victim to much more frequently:

Shady business partners.

Victims names have been changed for their protection.

Alyce Wrote:

I was contacted by Jason Pine of “Professor Qwbli’s” to sponsor his “Play with Purpose Initiative” program. I gave him a lot of money and copies of my game in exchange for promises that he would do a lot of things. I am learning from my mistake and hope others can too. Excited game designer’s make easy prey for getting ripped off. It was last year, he messaged me through kickstarter. (My first red flag) I thought I did good due diligence

—

Kickstarter creators are bombarded with all different kinds of spam messages. They are passionate, naive dreamers whom are about to receive a windfall of cash — the perfect marks. When you skip a few weight classes from garage game designer to being your own publisher after 1 campaign, you’re bound to attract some unwanted attention.

It’s easy to think that you are too smart for someone to get the best of you, that you are too good at recognizing and deleting messages from Nigerian royalty — but I think it’s something that does not get talked about in the game design community.

Eager for the opportunity to dissect a scammer’s e-mail, I asked Alyce N. Pate, creator of BlockStack to share the e-mail that she had been sent from Jason Pine.

Here is the message she received from Pine:

Good morning Alyce!

I was really excited to hear from you. BlockStack is a perfect game for us and I am certain it would be a favorite among teachers, students & parents! We would love to have it with us and help make BlockStack a household name – it has that kind of potential. I am sure you believe so too. The key to that happening is getting as many people to play the game as possible. However, we would need to move quickly if that were to happen.

We finalized our sponsorships a couple weeks ago. We have marketing and promotional efforts moving forward on Monday, so we would need to have everything finalized by the end of the day tomorrow. The good news is that the process is rather simple and that can be achieved, if you were indeed interested in becoming a sponsor.

A few things to note on this year’s sponsors:

We are including a second year (2017-2018 school year) at no additional cost for first time sponsors. Meaning your sponsorship would run through August of 2018.

We would produce a product video highlighting the educational value of BlockStack

We would produce an online professional development workshop to inspire teachers to use and show them how to use BlockStack in their classroom.

Through our programs, events, assemblies, conferences, workshops and exhibits we would get BlockStack physically played by more than 45,000 people over the sponsorship period and exposed to over three times that.

I would also be purchasing games to sell at events and our new brick & mortar, which will be the country’s first play-based learning center. We plan on opening others across the country within the next 12-24 months. I would expect to sell 200-400 games over the next two years.

As a reference on short notice, please feel free to reach out to Rebecca Anderson (randerson@setgame.com) at SET. They have been a long time sponsor.

Below are all the other details. Please look them over. If you have any questions, I would be more than happy to jump on a call. If you would like to become a PWP sponsor, I would simply send you a PayPal invoice and we would schedule a Kickoff Meeting for early next week, if possible, so I can learn more about your company and its mission, as well as go over all the particulars and brainstorm on other ways to collaborate.

Again, timing may be a challenge, but I would LOVE LOVE LOVE to have BlockStack with us! It would be a huge it!

I look forward to hearing from you!

Jason

PLAY WITH PURPOSE SPONSORSHIP

DURATION: 12 months, plus an additional 12 months at now cost for first-time sponsors

COST: $1,800

GAMES: 72 (we will work with you to ease the burden on your inventory. We would initially need 12-18 to get started, the others can arrive when is most convenient for your inventory)

BENEFITS:

Product play, demos & discussion at all 2016-2017, as well as 2017 & 2018 Play With Purpose Conferences & Workshops

Product play, demos & discussion at all 2016-2017 as well as 2017 & 2018 conferences, events & appearances

Product play, demos & discussion at all 2016-2017, as well as 2017 & 2018 Family Game Nights & Parent Institute

Guaranteed inclusion in our after-school program curriculum

Extensive social media campaigns and giveaways

Entry for the 2016, 2017 & 2018 Outstanding Educational Value Awards

We will provide monthly feedback on your game from our experiences, as will as testimonials, pictures, videos and social media of your game in action

ROI tracking in terms of your online footprint and social impact, as well as sales tracking

Play With Purpose will be launching an EdWeb community in January 2017 and will hold monthly FREE webinars that will featured our sponsors games

Your game will be featured at The Play-Based Learning Global Summit in February 2017

Your game featured in an exclusive online professional development workshop or product podcast

We will produce an exclusive product video for your game, highlighting the educational benefits of the game, as well as adaptations and modifications created by our Contributing Network of Teachers for use in the classroom.

New Projects

Our first brick & mortar and the country’s first play-based learning center: Professor Qwbli’s Play-Based Learning Center & Qeslora Intergalactic Museum & Space Shop

Monthly FREE Professional Developments workshops

Play With Purpose Academy (Online Workshops)

Play-Based Learning EdWeb Community

The Play-Based Learning Global Summit

Play-Based Learning Curriculum books

Q’s Play-Based Learning Resource Center (a first-of-its-kind social network devoted to sharing play-based learning resources)

Mobile Play Mobile

Some of our Current & Past Sponsors

Silly Street

Jax Games

PeeceMakers

PieceKeeper Games

Ikos

Bananagrams

SET Enterprises

Asmodee

FoxMind

Out of the Box

Endless Games

Calliope Games

Talicor

and more

Play With Purpose Conference Locations

Milwaukee

St. Louis

Chicago

Detroit

Southern California

Cleveland

Boston

Grand Rapids

Phoenix

Indianapolis

Columbus

Other Events/Appearances

Arizona Association for Gifted & Talented (AAGT) Annual Conference

AAGT Parent Institute

California Association for Gifted

Illinois PTA Convention

Indiana PTA Convention

Wisconsin PTA Convention

California PTA Convention

Illinois Elementary School Principal Summer & Annual Conferences

Michigan Elementary School Principal Summer & Annual Conferences

Ohio Elementary School Principal Summer & Annual Conferences

National Association of Educators Convention

National Association of Elementary School Principals Convention

LA Festival of Books

Temecula Hot Air Balloon & Wine Fest, Temecula

ASTRA

Great Homeschool Convention, Ontario CA

California Homeschool Expo

Pumpkin Festival, Calabasas CA

National Gifted & Talented Conference

Texas Association for Gifted

Alyce Wrote:

There were so many red flags that I rationalized away, that now I just kick myself because they are obvious. One new “bad guy” tactic I learned was how he kept making excuses and pushing things back until it was past the time I could appeal to Paypal or the bank. I had opened an issue on the payment, but was persuaded to wait. I didn’t realize that after a set amount of time I couldn’t reopen it.

—

Alyce’s next action was to contact Rebecca Anderson, the reference offered in Pine’s e-mail. It is clear from the tone and content of the message that she had been captivated by the ideas presented by Pine.

Good morning Jason, I just emailed Rebecca and am waiting for her response. Timing is always an interesting thing. I don’t know if you realize this but I hadmade all the sets of Blockstack myself for the kickstarter. (Something my husband didn’t approve as the project moved from filling the garage to his living room and kitchen) I have spent the last 6 months working with a factory on China to get the game manufactured correctly. Just this morning I approved the shipment of 1000 copies of the game and expect to receive them next month (beginning of Oct most likely) What is the kickoff meeting you mentioned? I assume it would be a conference call. What more would you need from me? Than you, Alyce

Hi.

That’s a lot of work!!! Wow! October would be fine. If I had one copy to use to start with, that would be great. We would discuss the shipping of games later. The last thing we would want is for you to be stressed about inventory. We would work something out that make the best sense for you.

Yes, the kickoff meeting would be a conference or Skype call. I hope you will be ready to place an order for 5000 copies, because that will happen! It is a great game and we would help get it played!!! It would be with us everywhere we go! I totally see this game taking off!

What I need fro you would be a kickoff meeting, digital copies of logos & graphics and you reading monthly update emails. During our kickoff meeting we will look at other possible ways to collaborate too!

Hopefully Rebecca will get back to you soon. I look forward to hearing from you! I am super, super excited, as my four year old like to say, about the possibility of having-with us! It will be huge!!

Thanks!

J. Pine

Professor Qwbli’s Play-Based Learning Center & Qeslora Intergalactic Museum & Space Shop www.qwbli.com jpine@qwbli.com CHECK OUR PROFESSOR QWBLI’S INDIEGOGO CAMPAIGN: http://bit.ly/29kZQfq

Shortly after this, Alyce wired $1800 in payments to Pine, as well as provided him with large quantities of Products, for all of this Jason Pine and his cohorts would only offer excuses and string Alyce along for over a year, never delivering on the promises and deflecting all demands for refunds.

Communication was primarily over e-mail, and you can read all of them in this archive: The Pate E-mails

Some names and select content have been censored by Alyce and myself to obscure her identity.

While reading these e-mails, you will likely feel a deep sense of dread and sorrow at how Alyce is taken in by the enthusiastic charlatan’s wild exaggerations. The difference between a big business opportunity and a scam are sometimes difficult to discern in the moment. Entrepreneur’s face risks and challenges every day in their businesses; in Alyce Pate’s case she took a risk on Jason Pine and even though she lost, she didn’t let that loss cost her her entire business.

From the boardgame community, thank you Alyce for sharing your story so that we could learn from it.

Welp, lesson learned, let’s all pack it in, it’s over then right?

—

Not Quite…

There was something a bit off about Jason’s story. If his intent was just to defraud board game designers, why go through such lengths to prop up his businesses:

https://www.changemakers.com/aprenderbrincando/entries/play-purpose-initiative

http://sharpchicago.blogspot.com/

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/the-play-with-purpose-network#/

The Fake-news Style articles posted by his wife Anetka, a massage therapist whom is always noted as second in command in all of their ventures together.

Everything just seems a few steps beyond what you would expect them to do if their intention was to create an air of legitimacy to potential victims. Something wasn’t adding up for me, nor for Alyce.

From the Better Business Bureau page for Play With Purpose:

What these victims seem to be describing is similar to what we already knew they were doing. Pine is stealing money and games, but also seems to be selling products to teachers under the auspices of this Play With Purpose “Sharp as a Tack initiative”.

I began to research Jason Pine’s background and publicly available records to try to piece together more of the story.

Professor Qwbli’s

Despite reading multiple websites and “news” posts from local periodicals about it, I am still unsure of what exactly the Play With Purpose/Sharp as a Tack initiative is.

It seems to be some kind of Child education program heavily emphasizing analog gaming. All of the media surrounding the supposed education and development benefits of this program cite Jason Pine as a source, more on that later. After running around Chicago and California with this program, he and his family ultimately landed in Traverse, Michigan where they opened… a daycare center?

Just as he had mentioned in the Pate E-mails, Pine had opened his center and by all appearances… It’s real.

Qwbli’s home page

Jason Pine’s Youtube channel

Local private school facebook post about Pine in 2016:

Pine, his family, and business all seem to be thriving in Traverse City. This was what Alyce had been talking about when she said that she wondered if Pine was just a guy who got in over his head.

Unfortunately, I am a bit more cynical and I wasn’t willing to let him off of the hook. Everything surrounding Jason Pine’s credentials and work experience is a bit nebulous.

Though his Linkedin profile only mentions his work with his own company, and none of his history with Chicago Public Schools, despite that experience seeming relevant to his current occupation. Perhaps it is because he was only a Gym teacher for 4 years:

Using publicly available databases, I was unable to find any other registrations in other states in which he has lived. If he has truly been a teacher for 20+ years as he claims, he has been doing it illegally for 16 of those years.

I found similar inconsistencies with other people whom work closely with him, but nothing worse than what I would do if I was trying to lie on a job application… Except when I lie about my work history, it’s to get a better parking space; when Jason Pine lies about his work history, it’s to get teachers and game designers to pay him $2,000.

My head was spinning just trying to find the bottom of Pine’s mountain of lies. Meanwhile, Alyce had made another breakthrough.

Alyce Wrote:

Another victim of Jason Pine contacted me. he says: “I, too, fell for Jason Pine’s “program” last year and paid him a sizable fee and sent him copies of my game. Stay away from him and his program!” I’m inclined to believe that at one time it may have been a legitimate or semi-legitimate program, otherwise I’d like to think those referrals would have told me to stay away. I hoped maybe it was just me he pulled a fast one on, but obviously that isn’t the case…

A second victim of the same scam had come forward. Alyce was able to put me into contact with him and he showed me a long string of e-mails which followed almost the exact same formula: After receiving payment Pine would avoid, deflect, and deny; however the second victim was able to bring another dimension of this scam to light.

Pine had been selling their games this entire time.

Researching the games depicted in this photo, I was able to identify a slew of potential victims of Jason Pine’s fraud. From the list of 26 games, I was able to find contact info for many of the designers.

Of these designers 16 fit the M.O. for the release date established in The Pate E-mails and from our second victim. From these 16 designers, 5 responded to my contact attempts. And from those 5 Game designers, 4 admitted that they had been victims of Jason Pine’s fraud.

The Traverse City Shuffle

Thanks to Alyce and the other confirmed victims I could put together a cohesive theory now. Using his education connections, Pine struck out to start his own business after parting with Chicago Public Schools in 2008.

At some point, he hits on the notion that not only could he get away with making bad business deals and literally stealing money from people — but victims were less likely to pursue legal action because they blame themselves for falling victim to his scams, and he is able to operate inside of this bubble of safety known as “Doing it for the Children”

“Sure, Pine ripped me off, but it was my own fault, I can’t get ahold of him, and it’s all for the kids anyway.”

He runs the same schemes through a few different business ideas before finally getting away to Michigan with his growing family to finally settle down. Now, financed on the back of stolen money and selling fradulently obtained product, his daycare center business, against all odds actually sticks.

As Professor Qwbli’s Daycare Center opens up front to the Children of Traverse, Pine and his wife are in the backroom furiously ping-ponging e-mails from past victims. But the scams never stopped.

—

To date Jason Pine has eluded at least 4 of his victims, and collectively defrauded them out of over $20,000 worth of money, product, and their own time. When approached, asking them if they wanted to pursue legal action, or file police reports, they each stated that they would rather just let it go and consider it a lesson learned.