Buyer beware belah81/ Bela Halmi

Bela contacted me a few months ago to help in selling his collection. Being that I had dealt with him in the past, and all went smoothly, I agreed.

I ended up editing his whole collection, organizing his list, pricing, ID'ing his specimens, and posting for sale adds all over the place for him, all while putting MY name out on the line.

I even sent him a 3" female Aphonopelma moderatum, as well as several other things for trade (mentioned in pictures). I sent off my end of the deal on OCT. 12th. He still has not sent my stuff, and just makes excuses after excuses.

On top of that, I have had numerous people contact me personally for purchasing something off his list, after they had seen me post it. I direct them to Bela, and that's that, he can handle the rest. Come to find out, he received the money, and NEVER sent items, nor a refund! People would then contact me, slaying MY name by saying I was in on it! I cannot believe I was put into this situation, by just wanting to help someone, who really needs help. I will be in NYC soon, and I will get my stuff. However that is last resort.


I am posting this exact review/warning, EVERYWHERE. Bela will NOT come back from this.

It makes me absolutely sick.




Everyone who reads this, DO NOT buy from him.

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How do edit the above review?

I'm wanting to delete the links, and add screen shots.

http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...d.php?t=304671

That is how you attach photos. They must be attached and not hosted elsewhere. One of the rules for the BOI.

He was here 2 days ago and would have seen the message about this BOI report.
https://www.facebook.com/belah81
Other user names from the past:
robbh3
rbhbio81
belah81
maximus81
BKBUGZ

Looks like a real winner.

James has told the truth. He was ripped off pure and simple. You can all go to the amphibian classified section and see the original ad and get a feel for how it began. This is my side of the story. In the original ad, you can see that James beat me out by about an hour and the frogs were sold to him. That same
morning, Bela notified me via PM that they were sold. I told him if the deal fell through, I would respond immediately to take the frogs. He replied by saying he would contact me if the buyer(I later learned that this was James), backed out for any reason. On October 18th, sometime in the late afternoon, I received a phone call from Bela asking me if I was still interested in the frogs. I asked him why the deal went bad and the buyer backed out. Bela responded by telling me the buyer lived in Florida and unfortunately, sustained major flooding during the recent hurricane and could no longer care for the frogs. I agreed to meet Bela after work, later that evening. At about 9:00 pm later that night, I met Bela in Brooklyn, gave him $300 cash in exchange for the reverse trio of Solomon Island Leaf frogs and a large isopod culture. The conversation was brief and mostly about the bad fortune of the "guy in Florida". I told him they would be in good hands and left with my frogs. I only found out someone was ripped off when James re-replied to the original ad with the "buyer beware" response. It sent a notification email to me. When I read James's reply, I reached out to him via PM to ask him what happened. We exchanged numbers and he called me to let me know what happened. That is how it happened from my side. Thanks. Mike Panichi

Originally Posted by Lucille

You are definitely owed your $100, and I am glad you posted to warn our community. My post was mostly a reminder that Paypal is still owed their fee as well. Yes, small as far as the big picture is concerned. But worth mentioning.

I've heard you offer your opinion on paypal fees on several occasions now, and I'm not saying you are wrong in your belief system personally, but Im not so sure you are correct as to how paypal looks at it, I think they offer you the option and by using the business transaction you are not so much paying for them to middleman as you are possibly just paying for the security. They have to know that 85% of f n f are business transaction and if they felt this was wrong they'd have a better way of regulating it. I think it works like craiglist, where 98% of the ads are free, and all of thier income is from real estate ads. You usually know what you are talking about so I'm in no way saying you are wrong, but I don't recall you ever speaking matter of fact lyrics on this so maybe if you aren't 100% certain you could look into and help out here even more than you already do, as a lot if people are too lazy to learn these things, myself included lol.

Don't know how "lyrics" got in there sorry...

Well, I think about Paypal fees this way: it's perfectly fair for them to collect a fee for their service. They must know how to run their business and I'm sure they know that they lose fees by people using friends and family on the honor system so to speak. For me it's an issue of fairness and I don't feel right cheating anyone. If everyone paid as they should, maybe the fees would be lower for all? I agree it's not exactly the crime of century to misuse friends and family, but is it taking advantage and kind of tacky? I think so.

I actually met him out here in New York. He seemed legit to me. Met him twice actually and bout some Damon diadema from him. Don't know him personally but he seemed like a normal NY'ER to me.