Scam Help

[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 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

[Dave Green]

Write it off as a lesson learned, total scam.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

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

[PitOnTheProwl]

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

[Darkbird]

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.

[bcr229]

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...

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

...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.

Your words not mine.

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

Because it doesn't exist.

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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.

[Rickys_Reptiles]

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.

[owl307]

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.

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.

[bcr229]

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.

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.

[MarkS]

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