Possible scam!

Of course when something seems to good to be true it is!

I had a customer contact me via e-mail about some of our albino leopard geckos. He evidently found us on kingsnake or fauna because I had just updated our site and posted ads that we had 36 new pics up and that is what he put in his subject.

Anyway he goes on to say that he is from Africa and has a business here to receive shipments and make payment arrangements through. I instructed him to visit our site and let me know which geckos he wanted.

His next reply was that he was interested in a pair of our milksnakes. I sent him the balance and I got this reply.

----- Original Message -----
From: harry James
To: K&N Reptiles
Sent: Saturday, March 22, 2003 3:23 PM
Subject: Re: Message about: Albino Leopard Geckos 36 new pics!


HELLO.

Thanks for the mail. In respect of payment. I have a client in the u.s who is oweing me $3,500 all i will do is to instruct him to issue a company check on your name and when it clears in your bank you can deduct your money and help send my balance via western uniou money transfer to my secetary, he will use it to pay a prepay shipping cost to the shipping company so that they can instruct thier office in the u.s to come to your location and pick it for shippment. I will like to
know if i can trust you to help send my balance. Am doing this to make the payment easier and faster.
Furnish me with your name, address and phone number so that i can
forward it to my client who will be sending the check for payment. Thanks.

H. JAMES.



This just sounds to much like a scam to me. Of course we decided to not do the deal but I just wanted to let everyone know that this guy is out there and it seems he is trying to take advantage of the reptile industry!

Hope this helps someone!
Nicole Elliser
K&N Reptiles

Nicole,

There was a thread posted somewhere here about this very same scam happening to someone not too long ago. I believe the check or money order, whatever it was, was a forgery and the person lost not only the money on the sale, but also in the balance they forwarded on to the person pulling the scam.

This may or may not be the same thing, but it sure does sound familiar.

Sounds worse than the Nigerian email scam....

this guy thats offering you a deal like that is deffinitly a scam artist . He offered me close to a same offer he was intereted in purchasing my het for albino ball pair .. he told me that he was based in WEST AFRICA in Nigeria ...well needless to say he offer me the same deal that someone owed him money from the states and he was going to have a cashiers check of $7300.00 sent to me and i was to take my money out and western union him his balance ... well i had a bad feeling about this guy from his emails so i played along ... a week later i recieved a check made out to me for $7300 ...BUT this where it gets interesting the check i recieved was sent via FED EX from GREAT BRITIAN ... and the check was from PROGRESSIVE AUTO INSURANCE turns out when i recieved this i spoke with a REP from Progressive i gave him all the check numbers and he says that the check i was holding was a fraud ( knew this ) the original check with same numbers as mine was given out for an old insurance claim to a drive last year (i think thats when the rep said it was issued will have to check to make sure ) but the amountfor the original check was for $90.73 NOT $7300.00... well i was told by the rep that thanks to me going further with this guy and actually getting him to send me the money and all that they had enough proof to start an investigation now ... so i faxed all the info i had on this guy etc ( name ,address,phone numbers ) and a copy of the fraud check so they could launch an investigation ... and all this took place roughly 2 weeks ago .. so STAY AWAY from him its deffinitly a scam and soon he will be behind bars and wont be bothering anyone .... i have all the emails to back everything said here and i stilll have the check that was sent im just kicked back waiting for the authorities to drop by one day and ask for all the paperwork and info i have so they have the evidence on hand ....

hope this shed a little more light for others ..

shawn skillings

From: Fred Frankford
To: viperpit69@earthlink.net
Date: 3/1/03 1:09:04 PM
Subject: payment and shipping


Shawn,

Thanks a lot for your mail.
I am based in Lagos,Nigeria,West Africa.

I will be willing to buy Het for albino ball python pair FS


Aspa shipping i have made arrangements with a shipping company that is jet apet,they will be on
ground to do the pick up at any location of your choice but i will have to inform you before the pick up will be done.

As regards payment,this is what i am going to do;I have a
client in the US who is owing me $7,300 i would instruct him to
make out a cashiers check to you in that amount and as soon as
it clears your bank you can now deduct your money from it and send my balance by western
union money transfer.Although the value of the cashiers check is more
than the price of the Het for albino ball python pair FS , but i think i should be able to trust you with my balance.

The reason why i am doing this is that it would take a cashiers check
sent from over here in africa 30days to clear over
there,whereas a cashiers check sent from within the US would clear tops
within 48hrs.I will also be using part of the balance to pay for the shipping company that will be on ground to do the pick up.
So i would like you to deduct the western union charges from my
balance.So if my terms are acceptable to you,i would like you
to give me your full name address and phone numbers so that i
can instruct my client to make out the check to you.
Pls get back to me as soon as you get this mail so that i can
know my stand.

Regards

I would encourage Nicole to pursue the deal, if she has any interest, until he sends her a bogus check too. Every offense documented adds to the severity of the sentence when he is convicted of fraud.

I wish now that I had let him send me a check when he contacted me. I got irritated with his persistance and assumption that everything I had was for sale and told him to get lost.
He wanted baby hog islands, I explained that it would be a year or two before I produced any. Then he wanted me to locate him some hogs, I told him I was not a dealer or broker or anything else, I was a breeder.
Then he thought he could just buy my future breeders. I had lost patience by that time and he never emailed me again.

He sent me a check as well, I know it is a scam. I figure it cost $ to make and send the check? So let him send it!

I had the same person email me for a baby albino corn snake. he offered $300 shipped for it and said he would send the payment just like you said in your post. I refused the offer because he wanted me to ship to africa and i dont know how to ship over seas. good luck with the deal. Paul Moldovan

Is there a case pending on these people? I've got a check on the way from them, but I don't know who to contact when it gets here. Should I call the local FBI? or police?
I knew it was a scam, just sounded a little too odd that they would trust sending me $5000 for $1000 worth of product. I surely wouldn't do that for someone I didn't know in some far away country.
And let me tell you I'm on red alert after the last fraud I dealt with.
So what should I do when the check arrives?

Thanks
Allison Brunner

OK LISTEN UP FIRST OFF FOR ALL WHO HAVE RECIEVED CHECKS FROM THIS GUY WHAT KIND OF CHECKS DID U RECIEVE WHERE THEY THE SAME AS MINE A PROGRESSIVE AUTO INSURANCE CHECK ????? IF SO HERES A NUMBER AND AN EXTENTION FOR YOU TO CALL AT PROGRESSIVE THIS IS THE PERSON I SPOKE WITH ABOUT ALL THIS AND HE HAS THE INITIAL REPORT GOING the REPS NAME IS ( Atiba ext 71154) and the number is 1-800-274-4499 or if no luck at 1st number 1-800-888-7764 i cant remember exactly which number is easiest to call Atiba at ...
make sure u keep all info and emails from this guy , that sent you checks , cause Atiba will ask for it ( if YOU WERE SENT AN INSURANCE CHECK ONLY ) any one elses that has gotten some kind of check similar i would say call the fbi and inform them and also inform them of this posting so they can get an accurate up to date of the events and info here if you would like to speak to me over phone about this for any extra help feel free to email me for my number ....

shawn