Fanboys Marketplace in Denton has had quite a strange series of events leading to its closure.
The place is known for its seemingly endless products, such as comic book merchandise, figurines and various other pop culture items shoppers could roam among for hours at the Golden Triangle Mall. It closed its doors to make room for a national retailer that will occupy its space.
The closure comes after the Denton location filed a formal complaint with the FBI regarding alleged malicious activities perpetrated by former employees, who were the store’s manager and assistant manager.
Mike Rogers, Fanboys Marketplace owner, said two employees were fired at the location due to accusations of accessing the company’s social media accounts without permission, posting inappropriate things online using those accounts and then locking those accounts to other people in the company.
“We don’t have [access to] Instagram,” Rogers said. “They had changed the user name on the Twitter account, but I got access back on that, and I still don’t have access to the TikTok account.”
Cybersecurity issues
The company released a news release alleging the cyber crimes on June 1, and Rogers said the accused employees were fired on the same day.
Both employees somehow managed to get access to the accounts.
Rogers said he was later notified by email that password changes for his social media accounts were being forwarded to an email account outside of his control.
He said there were a few social media influencers who noticed inappropriate posts from the accounts and contacted him about the issue. The influencers also reported the issues to Instagram. There is no longer a profile if a user tries to access the Fanboys Denton page.
He said the Fanboys Denton store’s computer storage was wiped clean, and the only ones who had access to the computer were the accused employees.
Both employees also had access to customers’ personal information, including addresses and phone numbers, but they weren’t able to access financial information.
Closure due to national retailer
Rogers said he was notified that he had to be out of the space by last Saturday due to an undisclosed national retailer that would soon occupy the space.
The Denton Record-Chronicle reached out to Aaron Ball, general manager of Golden Triangle Mall, to clarify the closure with no response by Thursday evening.
Rogers said it felt like a weird coincidence of events that had occurred.
Rogers said he is in talks to open up a space at the mall again due to the store attracting visitors. Fanboys Denton hosts events at the mall, including Fanboys Comic-Con.
“It seems to us that when people knew we were at the mall — people were actually coming to the mall more to come to see us,” Rogers said.
FBI complaint
Rogers said he hadn’t heard back from the FBI after filing the complaint.
Fanboys Marketplace urges its customers and partners to remain vigilant and report any suspicious activities they may encounter related to their interactions with the company. According to the news release, they have also set up a dedicated email address for individuals to report any information or concerns regarding the issue.
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