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How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Since hatchling season is upon us and many people will start to sell for the very first time it’s important to remember that not all buyers are real buyers.
Over the years the typical scam (usually from Cameroon) is for someone to contact you and pay for an animal via money order or cashier check, the scam here is purely about money the animal or shipping is the last of their concern.
So if you have doubts regarding a payment make sure that it is valid before depositing it to avoid charges on your account and do not fall for the old "I over paid you, please deposit the money order and send me back the difference"
Recently there has been a surge in such scams those who also follow the BOI are aware of this.
While I usually send people like this on their way this time I decided to document the scam from start to finish to show how the typical scam works (making HIM work for it and forcing HIM to spend some money ($6.95))
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer01.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer02.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer03.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer04.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer05.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer06.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer07.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer08.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer09.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer10.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer11.jpg
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer12.jpg
You will notice the inconsistency the so called assistant sent the payment on 03/30 yet the payment was really only sent on 04/06 (They keep you engage and want to make sure that you are still biting before spending the money to send the MO or Cashier Check).
And of course when told the game is over they still try, accusing you of scamming them :rolleyes::rofl:
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer13.jpg
Sadly there is very little that can be done, those type of people have multiple ID and email addresses, and the physical address from which the MO are supposedly mailed from turns out to be a vacant properties (that one just went off the market). The only possible lead could have been the third party company used to print and ship the label however that too is a fake.
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a...01/Scammer.jpg
This specific scammer was registered on MorphMarket however John is proactive and caught him rapidly; unfortunately those types of people lurk everywhere including forums, craigslist etc
So if you are contacted by such individual on our forum make sure to report them immediately to the staff so we can ban them and keep our community safe.
Happy selling everyone and remain cautious
Scammer ID Joffred23 Email romnniazs@gmail.com Ruben Jake / James Kennedy Phone# 650-410-3537 – 708-467-9137
Additional info
There are a few other names, email addresses and phone numbers currently using the same scam.
Chris Wilmer
Scrapemetal - Fred Wilson / Johnson Joseph / John Jones – repozinlasterp@gmail.com – 727-308-1398 – 708-467-9137
Wilson4 – Wilson John– Fredwilson762@gmail.com barristerfredwilson@gmail.com
Crespo Joe – toolzosuccesful@gmail.com
Clara Wilson - claraw905@gmail.com
Richard Pacheco - Edith Marie - 708-492-8946
Desmond Lee - fulestsanec@gmail.com
David Philips adamsbraown67@gmail.com
FUAD TRADINGS LLC - Greg Johnson wert8hvhhlll@gmail.com 765-722-2819
Wilson Gran wg3138015@gmail.com
GE - Princewill Echebiri vzwertyyyyyuuuy@gmail.com
225-380-3623
319-820-1030
812-465-2363
812-573-2043
njdbm788s@gmail.com
uencilproper@gmail.com
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Oh man, I love that little touch in the one email: "I pledged the rest of this money to an orphanage!" Yeah, sure bro.
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Wait!! Deborah Stewart is breeding albino anacondas!!?? WTF, I want in on one of those!!!
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by Sauzo
Wait!! Deborah Stewart is breeding albino anacondas!!?? WTF, I want in on one of those!!!
Hognose mutation ;)
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah
Hognose mutation ;)
Oh lol. I was woah there honey!! You need to send me a price list and pics when you get the next litter haha. :D
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
hahaha, way to make them work for it Deb.
the idea behind these scams is to make sure the money gets transfered back to the scammer in a way that cannot be backed up or insured by a bank. e.g. they give you 5k with a fraudulent check, you give back 3k via wire transfer or other non-bank transfer, scammer gets 3k but by the time the check is ACTUALLY processed you're stuck with a fraudulent check that bounced 5k.
how often has this happened to you? is it really that prevalent within the hobby? i just saw this kind of scam happen to a job seeker who thought they were hired and given money for "supplies".
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by tttaylorrr
how often has this happened to you? is it really that prevalent within the hobby?
To me about once a year. Lately there has been several people contacted including some that like me decided to make them work for it and spend some money.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=614545
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=613761
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by Deborah
thanks for the links!
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Wow...seriously.
The language use is always what sets me off on these scams. I get emails from MorphMarket that start "I am a local, I have money, I am ready buy, give me your email and phone number. I am ready to deal."
...yeah, sure you are buddy.
Love that he tried the 'you think you can scam me'. Hahaha.
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I just honestly don't trust anything that's cashiers checks or the like. I only ever see them used in scams. Pay me up front or no dice, kemosabe.
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizardlicks
I just honestly don't trust anything that's cashiers checks or the like. I only ever see them used in scams. Pay me up front or no dice, kemosabe.
Sadly all form of payments can be problematic when dealing with a dishonest person, even online payments. Cash is great option but that means local sales only and that greatly reduces your potential as a breeder.
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Honestly, if he didn't add the orphanage part, I might not have caught it as a scam myself LOL. They sometimes add the weirdest things that make the scam obvious! And thanks for making him work to post screenshots!
I posted an ISO for an australian shepherd many years ago, and got an email saying they have a mini aussie puppy for sale. I asked for age and pics, and they posted a clearly 7~8 week old puppy, and told me "5 months old". I replied asking for more info, just in case they were legit, and they then sent me a HUGE complicated email stating that the puppy is currently in South America, because his owner needed to move to Africa for 6 months as a professor, and the puppy is living in a shelter and looking for a home, and they need to find a home as fast as possible... and on and on. Which made me laugh! It's pretty crazy how they can add these random detailed stories that they think makes them more convincing, but actually just exposes them as a scam.
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Thanks for exposing them Deb! I was contacted by several of them but found it strange when they asked for my full name and address to send the check or money order. To top it off your going to have your assistant arrange for the pickup? When I told them I only take PayPal, they said they could only pay by check or money order and they would add 50.00 for any inconvenience. I asked them to call me and that seemed the end of that attempt for them.
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by piedlover79
Love that he tried the 'you think you can scam me'. Hahaha.
Not going to lie, I'd have emailed a picture of DJ Khaled with the caption "You played yourself" for the next week straight, 4 times a day.
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Oh Man, I didn't even thing about scammers, I'm still growing my snakes to breed and don't have any babies yet so I'm sure that's part of the process as a breeder. I'm actually 100% confident using PayPal. I actually fell for the Nigeria scam when I tried to buy a tarantula from Nigeria, they scammed me for a couple hundred bucks. But I paid with PayPal and when I told PayPal about it they immediately refunded me the money, no questions asked! Now that's service!
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
paypal isn't fullproof either. Its more secure than most forms of payment but there are scams involving paypal too.
Never accept a payment via friends/family. Always do transactions under business. Even then people if they really want to can open a dispute with paypal and freeze your money in place for months while they have your animal in their possession. ALWAYS keep detailed notes such as communication between you and the seller so if a dispute is opened you have a better shot at winning.
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Yes, document EVERYTHING.
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EDIT I meant between you and the buyer since you are the breeder selling, sorry
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by Lizardlicks
I just honestly don't trust anything that's cashiers checks or the like. I only ever see them used in scams. Pay me up front or no dice, kemosabe.
I work for a bank in fraud research and our sole job are reviewing cases for fraud rings, scams, exploitation and the like. We've seen fraud checks that are nearly impossible to tell are fraud and other checks look like they were put together in MS Word. If you choose to accept cashier's checks, money orders or personal checks you can call the paying bank where the item was issued from to confirm if the check is valid and if the funds are available. There are only a few banks that won't verify over the phone but your local branch can also help with that as well.
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USPS MO's are ok, you can take them to the post office and they can figure out almost immediately if they are good or not - and you can get cash for them there.
PayPal is good for paying if you use G&S rather than F&F. The biggest problem with accepting PayPal as a seller is when the scammer/buyer uses a stolen credit card to back up the payment or even when the scammer/buyer disputes the charge through the credit card company rather than PayPal; the seller is very likely to lose that dispute.
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I'm simply surprised by how many people *don't* realize these are scams!
Thanks for helping get the word out.
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How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
I have a craft-ish side business, and like AbsoluteApril have been aware of the money order scams for years - I was surprised how many people on BOI seemed unfamiliar with what to me was an old ploy.
I played with a scammer along these lines back in 2011, blog post with e-mail highlights here:
http://otternecessities.blogspot.com...-back.html?m=1
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Quote:
Originally Posted by cchardwick
Oh Man, I didn't even thing about scammers, I'm still growing my snakes to breed and don't have any babies yet so I'm sure that's part of the process as a breeder. I'm actually 100% confident using PayPal. I actually fell for the Nigeria scam when I tried to buy a tarantula from Nigeria, they scammed me for a couple hundred bucks. But I paid with PayPal and when I told PayPal about it they immediately refunded me the money, no questions asked! Now that's service!
Again Paypal is not 100% either over the years people have been scammed as well with very little recourse since Paypal does not protect animal transaction to start with.
The typical scam is to buy the animal, and then contest the charge as fraudulent (person other then them using the account etc), that's why shipping to the person the account belongs too and an address that is verified is very important. Those scams are not as predominant because people can be traced back but they do exist and can create some serious headache for the seller.
Like everything else research the buyer google their name, search on the BOI because usually dishonest people have an history just like bad sellers do.
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New name new email address still the same scam, short memory I guess since they tried with me just a month and a half ago. :rolleyes:
http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/a.../Scammer14.jpg
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That's because it's not usually one guy, but a team of several people working to hit as many targets as possible.
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I would think this also applies to the consumer as well , like the old saying goes if a deal is too good to be true it probably is so many people selling snakes how do you know they didn't steal the picture from some where else and paste it with basic knowledge hope no one here gets treated so poorly, Thank you so much for sharing
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Re: How to avoid falling for scammers – Typical buyer scam
Deborah, great write-up. Thanks for documenting how this goes down.
In the future I plan to put together a "how to sell" resources similar to the "how to buy" page, and will definitely include warnings for this kind of thing and link to your example.
In time I would like to build some more automated solutions in place for detecting and stopping this kind of thing.
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