Has anyone ever been caught....

If you are going to buy hets (non-visible) then you are buying more than a snake and it's genetics. You're basically purchasing the seller's reputation so be very, very careful. Don't just depend on one source (like Kingsnake or even the BOI). Don't rush the purchase. Take your time to learn about the genetics involved, ask about the breeder from various sources, do some Google searches, check out their membership/posts in online forums, etc. That sort of pre-purchase work won't guarantee you'll never get ripped off but it does help somewhat.

As far as hets from reputable breeders, I'll use ours as a good example. They are from Adam Wysocki of 8BallPythons. We bought with confidence because we knew Adam from here. We still did our research though, spoke to people, googled and so forth. When our hets have arrived they both have come with perfect paperwork picturing the snake, listing both it's "parents" by ID#, it's exact genetics, hatchdate, etc. This is the sort of thing you should expect from the breeder so you have some proof that the snake you purchased was claimed to be a 100% het for X.

A smart, informed purchaser who takes their time picking a breeder makes the odds of not getting ripped off tilt in their favor. Nothings ever for sure, but the better informed you are, the better the odds it will go right for you. :)

You also have to remember that if you breed het to het that there is a 75% chance per egg that it will NOT be a visible morph and 25% chance you will see a visible. So just because you dont see one doesnt mean they arent hets. Odds are you wont.

Ralph is great to deal with.
Carolina reptile exchange sold me fake hets as well. Het Pieds back in 03-04. It would be great to kick him in the nutz so hard that his great grandkids feel it.
I feel for anyone who got screwed on hets. Specailly Lady ohh never met or spoke to her but what I hear from others about how great she is. You get the feeling she is a heck of a gal and a top nothchg woman. Karma will bite those bad guys in the butt.

When I started out I tried to be a cheapo and got burned by TSE, I learned my lesson cheaper isn't better most of the time. Be careful I'm happy I never received anything cause it would have hurt worse if I raised them and got nothing. In spanish we have a saying( Lo barrato sale caro) this means cheaps things sometimes become expensive.

There is a breeder local to me who spent a lot of money on female het pieds from Dead Harry Eisenmann (Bruce Eisenmann of Carolina Reptile Exchange was selling snakes for a while as his dead father) These snakes came from what at the time seemed like a reputable company, the snakes were even microchipped. He bought a male pied to breed to his female hets and after many many years and many many clutches, he has never produced a pied from any of those females. The problem is that it takes years to find out if you've been ripped off and It's difficult to charge someone for a crime that was committed years ago.

As a novice back in 2002 I bought a couple "female Het Albinos", and the one I have left has bred to my Albino male last year, 4 eggs only hets produced, and this year 3 eggs... and I'm guessing only hets will be produced again.

You do learn a lot after being scammed, but unfortunately you go through being scammed before learning your lesson. When you buy hets, you ask to see pics of the sire, you ask for referals from other people they've sold to or have bought from and then you follow up with those people, you ask for signed paperwork (for fraud purposes)... basically you'll be able to tell what's real when people are upfront with all their info, especially from small timers.

It got me to really make sure everyone knows what I have and who I got them from, just so they can do the checking for themselves and know that going with a small timer like myself they can still have that sense of security as going with a well known breeder.