I have been offered an adult female ball python by a guy I don't know. He offered photos and I asked him to send, which he did, but I could not open either one as valid jpg images (and tried renaming to see if they were actually gif, tif, or bmp as the most common formats used).

According to him she is 4' long and 2200 grams, which would give me at least one breedable female for next season (Snyder won't be big enough). He also claims she's healthy and is willing to give a 7 day guarantee.

I don't know him from a hole in the wall, have never heard of him, and nothing comes up on the BOI. It seems this snake was his pet and he is desperate to get rid of her because otherwise his wife gets her in their divorce. He actually seems emphatic enough about it that I am concerned he might do something dumb (like set her free or something) to make sure his wife doesn't get her.

Even though he's not asking a lot for her (just over $100 shipped because he wants the money sent W.U. which would cost me money to send him), it still represents hours of work for me and I am not wealthy.

So, take the risk and pay for the snake, knowing he may just take off with my money, the snake may be ill or other than advertised or a male? Or play it safe and risk losing out on a big breedable normal female?

Thanks for your input! I'm going to have to answer him soon one way or the other.