tokaygecko45@gmail.com = AKA: Thomas James, hermann karaja, Tom, Tom Makinson

All accounts use stolen pictures from the web.

Account: tokaygecko
Name: hermann karaja
Email: tokaygecko45@gmail.com
Email: simonepierami@gmail.com
Email: silvia.cavalleri1978@gmail.com
Email: snakebreeder@live.com

Account: tome1978
Name: Tom
Email: tokaygecko45@gmail.com

Account: Thomas45
Name: Thomas James
Email: tokaygecko45@gmail.com

Account: tokaymorphs45
Name: Tom Makinson
Email: tokaygecko45@gmail.com

As wise stewards of your hard earned money, you deserve it to yourself to do your homework on potential buyers & sellers. One tool is to do an email check on them here, see image below.

Prime example of how deep a rabbit hole can go from a seasoned scammer. Again all accounts used stolen pictures. Do your homework on sellers/buyers first.

silvia.cavalleri1978@gmail.com goes to:

Account: silviacavalleri1978
Name: silvia cavalleri
Email: silvia.cavalleri1978@gmail.com
Other Bad Guy - Board of Inquiry Report: LINK

snakebreeder@live.com goes to:

Account: snakebreeder45
Name: Manuel

Additional Email: g.ppliappan@gmail.com
Additional Email: sternchenmanul@gmail.com
Additional Email: voodoodoctor45@gmail.com
Additional Email: singh.amit101@hotmail.com

I've known Tom online for many years. Never purchased from him because he's overseas.
But he's always been a well respected and knowledgeable member of the gecko community

I have mixed feelings about this post.

My name is Tom Makinson and I used to run Tokay Gecko UK. I was breeding and working with a lot of Tokay morphs and had a very good reputation. Unfortunately, because of this, some have decided to use that reputation to scam people in various ways.

I understand that this post is informative but I also don't want people thinking that I am going around scamming people. I only keep 4 Tokays now so I am dealing with people very infrequently but I still don't like the idea of my name being tarnished after all these years.

So to anybody reading this. If a Tom Makinson has offered you a Tokay morph then it almost certainly isn't me. My pictures and my identity have been used by several people. At present, I am not breeding anything.

To the OP. I understand you are trying to help and agree with your efforts however in future I think it would be wise to check if the scammer is impersonating somebody else before incriminating anybodies name.

All the best,

(The real) Tom Makinson.

Hi, Tom.

Unfortunately, since your name is being used as an alias by the scammer, it would get mentioned regardless. It would be less than useful to say he is impersonating the name of reputable individuals in order to dupe buyers into falling for scams and not name which names he is using like a lacewing larva uses prey husks. I know it stinks, but the scammer made it so.

What is good (better than good, really) is that you came here to clear that impersonation matter up. Unless you decide to change your plans for production and sales, people can use the information in your post to realize that anyone attempting to list salable animals under your name is likely to be the impersonator.

I'd have to disagree with you on that one. A simple search for my name would have revealed that I am (or was) an actual Tokay Breeder. I think if someone is posting up someone else's name in a negative way they have a moral obligation to at least consider it a possibility that they are a real person with a real reputation on the line.

I'm not saying this post isn't helpful. But I would have expected it to include the fact that the scammer is impersonating a real Tokay breeder and for people to be extra careful when dealing with them (or me).

At present I get the odd message on facebook or email from angry people having been scammed out of a lot of money. Every one to my knowledge was extremely careless in how they transferred money and they could have avoided being scammed by using a little common sense. I don't think it's worth destroying someones reputation in an effort to wrap people up in cotton wool to protect them from the real world. Theoretically I could have lost thousands in an effort to save a few (for want of a better word) stupid people getting scammed.

You disagree with what part?

I think Tom's issue is that there was no indication or even a hint of the scammer using someone else's name in his ruse, it simply states "Tom Makinson" with no context. TO that degree, I think Tom is correct in being a little perturbed.

I can totally sympathize with that, although there is implication with the multiple names being employed that any particular name may be falsely used since n-1 (at the least) would all have to be fakes for a single scammer. It would have been nice to be able to know what parts were fake and what part had ties to a real (and uninvolved) person at the time the thread was composed, but I understand how it manifested as it did. If Robert had gone around asking each persona if they were the real deal, all personas would have said they were legitimate and honest. Also, the hobby has seen many a good guy turn, so the concept is not outlandish in a broader sense even if that is not the case here.

That said, with it being how it is, we can only move forward. I am glad the real Tom came here to explain that he is not a part of the scammer's actions and that we can more easily see that the scammer has misappropriated his name for nefarious ends. Without his input, that would have been difficult and delayed.

Originally Posted by Tombo46

in an effort to wrap people up in cotton wool to protect them from the real world. Theoretically I could have lost thousands in an effort to save a few (for want of a better word) stupid people getting scammed.

I get it, you are upset. You are upset that I unknowing didn't wrap you up in cotton and protect "you" from the real world. In the real world, your name has been and is still being used in scams, a fact you have already known about previously. Had I known anything about you, I would have happily included the "impersonation" clause you are so concerned with. The fact is, you were unknown to me on the other side of the world while this avalanche of names, emails & accounts was unfolding.

You have done your part by posting here, great. Now I will continue to do my part, and try to help all the, as you so nicely put it, "stupid people getting scammed" try to avoid it in the first place. Thanks for your posts, they were insightful.

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