Scam Help

So it starts off like this. There was an ad on craigslist of some one selling pieds for $250 each. I replied curious if there were any females. The person replied under the name Anabell Dockery saying she had 4 available, 2 males and two females. She gave me a list of their names and weights along with many pictures included. Nothing seemed out of order until I went to pay. All the sudden she is in Utah and is using an animal shipping company to fly her to me. I didnt think too much of it until she had me send the agreed upon amount to Cameroon through Western Union. Then I started to look into things. of course i had already sent the money like an idiot. I can find absolutely no info on any Altamark animal transport services. Now they want a $500 insurance fee to deliver her claiming they will give me $470 back when they drop her off at my house. I refused saying I needed to see evidence of the snake, testimonials, ect and they never gave me a direct reply on pushing me to pay the extra $500. BUT they did say if i did not receive my snake or money they would allow me to take legal action and pay back double. Now im at a stand still. the person has offered to pay 300$ of the insurance fee today and if i pay the extra 200 she will be delivered with in the next four hours. Im at a complete loss at what to do

Write it off as a lesson learned, total scam.

One word CAMEROON


Cameroon scam on various sites such as CL, and even dedicated herp sites are not new always trust your instincts.

Prices to good to be true.

Special carrier (other Fedex or Delta)

Money orders to be sent to another country

Stolen pics, not being able to provide updated pics or large pics.

Transaction that does not make sense.

Etc

The price is the first clue.
Nothing you can do about that one now except learn from it.

Yup, live and learn. I was looking for a certian type of very rare bird, and ran into almlst the exact same thing. Found an ad that was too good to be true, and it was only a few miles from an area I was going to be in anyway. Things went screwy when I told them I would be bringing cash and picking up in person. Suddenly their location went from Chicago to, yup, Utah, and they wanted to ship. So I told them in the interest of the birds health and my own piece of mind I would fly out and rent a car for the trip back. It ended with me reporting them to the website that had the ad and me not losing anything but the time for a few emails.

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Originally Posted by owl307

So it starts off like this. There was an ad on craigslist of some one selling pieds for $250 each. I replied curious if there were any females. The person replied under the name Anabell Dockery saying she had 4 available, 2 males and two females. She gave me a list of their names and weights along with many pictures included. Nothing seemed out of order until I went to pay. All the sudden she is in Utah and is using an animal shipping company to fly her to me. I didnt think too much of it...

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because I was blinded and greedy at the thought of getting a pied ball python at a price insanely under market

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...until she had me send the agreed upon amount to Cameroon through Western Union. Then I started to look into things. of course i had already sent the money like an idiot.

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Your words not mine.

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I can find absolutely no info on any Altamark animal transport services.

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Because it doesn't exist.

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Now they want a $500 insurance fee to deliver her claiming they will give me $470 back when they drop her off at my house.

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Because scammers know there are people dumb enough to throw good money after bad.

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I refused saying I needed to see evidence of the snake, testimonials, ect and they never gave me a direct reply on pushing me to pay the extra $500. BUT they did say if i did not receive my snake or money they would allow me to take legal action and pay back double.

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Well isn't that just peachy keen swell of them! Never mind that there is no way they can stop you from taking legal action... though if you were truly dumb enough to send the money via Western Union to Cameroon then legally they're untouchable, and they know it.

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Now im at a stand still. the person has offered to pay 300$ of the insurance fee today and if i pay the extra 200 she will be delivered with in the next four hours. Im at a complete loss at what to do

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Because this scammer is hoping... no, PRAYING... that you will be dumb enough to send another $200. Or even $100. Or $50. Anything you send to them is gravy. There are no pied ball pythons for sale. There never were.

Stop. Just stop. Do not send another dime. When you fall prey to these scams you are funding criminal enterprises in Africa. You know, the super nice folks that engage in piracy, child slavery and prostitution, weapons dealing, etc. They look at the US as cash cow to be exploited, nothing more.

I once fell for this many years ago. My best advice is to just stop responding. Your money is gone. there is no way of getting it back. You will not get your snakes...because they never actually existed in the first place.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

because I was blinded and greedy at the thought of getting a pied ball python at a price insanely under market

Your words not mine.


Because it doesn't exist.


Because scammers know there are people dumb enough to throw good money after bad.


Well isn't that just peachy keen swell of them! Never mind that there is no way they can stop you from taking legal action... though if you were truly dumb enough to send the money via Western Union to Cameroon then legally they're untouchable, and they know it.


Because this scammer is hoping... no, PRAYING... that you will be dumb enough to send another $200. Or even $100. Or $50. Anything you send to them is gravy. There are no pied ball pythons for sale. There never were.

Stop. Just stop. Do not send another dime. When you fall prey to these scams you are funding criminal enterprises in Africa. You know, the super nice folks that engage in piracy, child slavery and prostitution, weapons dealing, etc. They look at the US as cash cow to be exploited, nothing more.

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I don't think this was necessary and quite mean. i was only sharing my experience and I stated I knew I made a mistake. You have no place to make me feel worse than I already do.

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Originally Posted by owl307

I don't think this was necessary and quite mean. i was only sharing my experience and I stated I knew I made a mistake. You have no place to make me feel worse than I already do.

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The only "mean" part is where I pointed out that you were blinded by the low price. You're not the first person to be taken in by this scam, and you certainly won't be the last. Heck, there are people who don't bother to ask questions even after making the first payment, and it takes two or three payments with empty promises of delivery... or insurance... or import/customs delays... or <insert another excuse here> before they wise up.

Word of advice: if you're going to buy anything off Craigslist or Facebook, keep it limited to local, straight cash and carry transactions.

Okay, I think he's gotten the point already. Any further 'advice' would just be pouring salt on the wound.

I see where you can see BCR229s comments as being mean. I can tell you as someone that has worked as a Fraud Recovery Specialist for a bank it is not being mean, It is the hard truth. Sometimes that is what it takes to get the pointe across. This is a common type of scam and it can be done with anything. They are all correct the people that do these scams all they want is every penny that they can suck out of you. You will get B.S. story after B.S. story as to why you have not received your product or why you should send more money. Bottom Line you should not send another penny.

From the way that you posted it looks like you were thinking about sending the 200.00 extra. That is why BCR is being very blunt about it and even if it ticks you off it will still make you think before doing anything like this again. Being blunt and being mean are compleatly different things.

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Originally Posted by Drake Moonslayer

I see where you can see BCR229s comments as being mean. I can tell you as someone that has worked as a Fraud Recovery Specialist for a bank it is not being mean, It is the hard truth. Sometimes that is what it takes to get the pointe across. This is a common type of scam and it can be done with anything. They are all correct the people that do these scams all they want is every penny that they can suck out of you. You will get B.S. story after B.S. story as to why you have not received your product or why you should send more money. Bottom Line you should not send another penny.

From the way that you posted it looks like you were thinking about sending the 200.00 extra. That is why BCR is being very blunt about it and even if it ticks you off it will still make you think before doing anything like this again. Being blunt and being mean are compleatly different things.

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This. And in the grand scheme of things, while you probably feel like you lost a lot, there are people, especially senior citizens and depressed women on some of the dating sites, who lose tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars, because they keep buying into the scammer's lies.

Caveat Emptor...


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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Originally Posted by bcr229

because I was blinded and greedy at the thought of getting a pied ball python at a price insanely under market

Your words not mine.


Because it doesn't exist.


Because scammers know there are people dumb enough to throw good money after bad.


Well isn't that just peachy keen swell of them! Never mind that there is no way they can stop you from taking legal action... though if you were truly dumb enough to send the money via Western Union to Cameroon then legally they're untouchable, and they know it.


Because this scammer is hoping... no, PRAYING... that you will be dumb enough to send another $200. Or even $100. Or $50. Anything you send to them is gravy. There are no pied ball pythons for sale. There never were.

Stop. Just stop. Do not send another dime. When you fall prey to these scams you are funding criminal enterprises in Africa. You know, the super nice folks that engage in piracy, child slavery and prostitution, weapons dealing, etc. They look at the US as cash cow to be exploited, nothing more.

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Very important thing to keep in mind when they do these kinds of scams. However, piracy isn't that bad really if we're talking about downloading movies on your laptop. The oil rig stealing piracy though is definitely no bueno.

I was checking into a puppy last year....similar situation. I asked what shipping company they use, I called them and they said they dont ship animals. Thankfully I didnt fall for it. Sorry you lost your money but be glad they didnt get you for more. I have seen ads too for a pied and albino together. I did some looking and pictures of the same snakes were located in different states.

I got my high white pied girl for $200......but that was back in November during a black Friday 1 day deal at Petsmart. I had to battle about 4 other people but I was there at 6:30am waiting in line when they opened at 7am and first thing I did was find the manager I talked to the day before thanksgiving and said "Snake now plz!!". But yeah I would never wire cash to anyone, I always pay with either Paypal or a credit card so you have some kind of recourse. Also its kind of funny, I was in the same Petsmart yesterday and the manager told me they are selling those pieds like hotcakes. They went up in price from $400 to $450 and she said since I bought mine on black Friday, they have sold 6 more. She said she cant even keep them in the store lol.