An accounting of the robberies of Joshua Myers

There are other threads concerning this topic. This I know. There are multiple reasons for starting yet another thread on this guy. First, because the other topics were titled as "inquiries" almost no one read them. To help this cause we need as many people to read this as possible. Secondly, we need to get the stories of everyone involved on one thread so the authorities will have an easier time contacting the people involved. Finally, we hope to find as many victims as possible in this case by getting as many people as possible to post their dealings with him and find anyone who might know him or where he is. I have contacted as many people who I know have been robbed by this guy and asked them to post their story on this thread even if they have already posted it somewhere else. To date I know the totals already exceed $10,000 stolen in money orders and there are animals that have been stolen as well to which I do not know the total yet.
I will start with my story and others will follow. If you have something to add to this thread please do so. So far the FBI has been contacted, the postmaster general, local authorities,
and Kingsnake.

I answered an ad for an albino boa from Joshua Myers. I have sent him a total of $1800. Anytime he was expecting a payment I got an email from him. Anytime I had a question I got no response at all. I finally threatened to put my story on the BOI and he called me telling me he was out of town. Yet Ray was able to communicate with him at his home when he said he was gone. His cell phone is diconnected and I found a number for his partner Kris Sullivan, Guess what? Diconnected!
I emailed him several times over the last two days about the shipment I never got. Today I get an email that simply says "contact me". Wonder what I have been trying to do? As usual part of the problem was placed on his partner Kris. I got in touch with Ray Austin and found out that he was sold a six foot albino boa using the same picture I got the day after he sold it to me. Joshua assured us he had four albino boas and was just using the same picture. I would be willing to bet that Joe was sold a six foot female albino for $1800 using the same picture. I have saved all the emails that I recieved from Joshua and plan on putting them on here for all to see. I was at one time told the boa I was getting was a 99 Sharp strain. When I told him that no Sharp strains were produced in 99 or even 98 for that matter and only two people produced them in 2000 he said that it came from Brian Sharp and he didn't know there was a difference between the two strains. He had a list of references (none of which I had heard of) and all reports here on the BOI were positive. He vehemently defended himself when someone else suggested he might be a con artist of some kind. He even offered to help find the person who ripped the guy off. He must be using my money to do it. At the very best he has awful business practices and communication problems with his customers. I am hoping with all the positive things that have been said about him that this will get taken care of, but my expectations are low. I am sure he will have an excuse for all his actions. If there is anyone who knows how to get in touch with him please let me know.  
Mike Jones
913-677-1608

Here is a copy of an email I sent to Joshua, his reply to me, and my reply back to him prior to finally getting a phone call from him.

My email to him:
I talked to Ray. We have decided to give you until tomorrow night to straighten this up. I just want my deposit back. I don't want to have anything to do with you or your business. If you don't take care of this I will contact Kingsnake, Postmaster General, FBI internet fraud division and post copies of all emails from you to me and Ray on the BOI along with our stories of what has transpired. I used a postal money order and sent the money order through the mail which makes this mail fraud. I also know that whoever sent me emails as "Kris" this weekend was lying about you being out of town. I have emails that were sent from you to Ray over the weekend confirming that you were lying about being gone. Plus he saw you logged in on your AOL account. Just take care of this immediately so I can be done with you.
Mike

His reply to me:
----- Original Message -----
From: PhilaExoticPets@aol.com
To: rujonesin@kc.rr.com
Sent: Monday, April 29, 2002 11:25 PM
Subject: Re: albino female


Mike,
dude calm down, no one is getting ripped off or ripping anyone off. first off i have a total of 4 albino red tails that i have received as trades from 2 people who got other animals from me, and i have 2 myself. by kingsnakes rules i cant post the same ad twice within 24 hours so i just saved myself the time and posted one ad. i have a 100% awesome track record in this business, everything from Internet to being a vendor at shows, i have never and will never rip anyone off. people give me deposits and payments all the time for animals and i always come thru as promised. and about this weekend, i was out doing a show and picking up new stock, (they have Internet hook ups at hotels dude). believe me, you and ray and anyone else who sends me deposits or payments have NOTHING to worry about. i am a business man not a con man.
you have already put a deposit on this animal. follow thru with the deal and you will be very happy. i understand that there is a lot of scum out there on the net, (i got ripped off last year for $4800). but my record speaks for itself, i sell very hard to find and high end animals for a reasonable price.
And if I recall you were supposed to have this snake paid off by next week, is it that you just don't have the rest of the money to complete this deal?

thank you
joshua myers
www.philadelphiaexoticpets.com

my reply back to him:
Joshua

Let's start off about why I am bent out of shape. I emailed you on April 19 with questions concerning this boa. No response. I called you twice and left messages. No response. I emailed you this past weekend a little aggravated and someone finally responds to me saying you will contact me Monday. You didn't. I called Monday and all I got was voice mail. As usual. I am told you won't be back in town until Monday yet Ray sent me an email asking you to contact him on Sunday. He said you replied immediately to his posting an inquiry on the BOI. If you had email capabilities or a cell phone why didn't you reply to me? Then I contact Ray to find out what kind of albino boa he got from you. Imagine our surprise when it was identical in it's description and you used the exact same photo to both of us saying it was the boa we were getting. So here 12 days have gone by since I first contacted you with questions concerning the boa, I find out someone else is getting the same snake (according to the picture) and you won't call or email me. What am I supposed to think is going on? I gave you the benefit of the doubt by giving you 24 hours to remedy the situation before I went to the BOI among other places. Not until then do I get any kind of response from you at all and you tell me to calm down. You sold both of us 99 Sharp strain albinos yet none were produced that year or the year before. There were only two people who produced them in 2000 and one of them has accounted for all his females from that year. I asked you for background info on this snake. Who produced it? who did you get it from? No response. You have absolutely no way of providing what you sold, but you want me to follow through on this deal and send you more money. And then, after all this, you want to put this back in my lap and make it my fault because you think I can't get the money to you. No apologies for taking two weeks to get back to me, or for this whole situation. Instead I am the scum who can't hold up his end of the deal. AMAZING. This is your "100% awesome track record?" How exactly are you going to "come through as promised" like "always?" There is nothing I want more than to complete this deal like we agreed upon. I need a lot more of an explanation than what I got. I need my questions answered. I need you to be accountable for your actions (or lack of) and not put this on me. If you want to fix this you need to answer my questions and then we finish with a phone conversation. I will still give you until tonight to make this right.

Mike

Mike Jones

As mike has explained I to was sold a 6 Foot Female Albino Boa that was supposedly a 2000 Sharp strain for $1800.00. spam_While Joshua Myers/Philadelphia Exotics Pets was waiting for payment I recieved very cordial emails and phone calls until he got final payment then all contact stopped. spam_He doesn't even answer emails anymore which leads me to believe he has probably abondoned it and more than likely will pop up later under a different name. spam_I have filed complaints to the Postmaster General for mail fraud, the FBI Internet Fraud Division as well as Kingsnake.com. spam_Please beware of Joshua Myers and Philadelphia Exotic Pets.

Ray Austin
jlb5025@aol.com
rayandjoniaustin@aol.com
(253) 964-1798[b]

The never ending story of rip-offs of Joshua Myers from Philadelphia Exotic Pets : like so many others I responded to a ad and sent postal money orders for $4400.00 for a male albino ball python & female pastel ball python ...that was six weeks ago and have heard nothing but excuses from Joshua,anything from his store was broken into and animals promised were stolen,was going to get me a albino male from his friend in Rhode Island and promised shipment last week,needless to say never came and have been unable to get in touch with him since.Will be filing criminal charges with FBI and Postmaster General and want this low-life Prosecuted and not just black-balled !!! He says he's a bail agent,well he'll be out of luck when no bail is posted when he's arrested.Maybe we all learned a costly lesson from this but hopefully we continue to do business with honest,caring individuals.Any info on the whereabouts of this Joshua Myers please come forward and let's all bring this Criminal to justice..
 Bill Shanahan
 3726 University Drive
 Coral Springs,Fl 33065
 954-2550509

Joshua Myers got me too for $1700.00 in US Postal Money orders for 2.2 pituophis l.gibsoni, an obscure latin Am. gopher snake. Well He really played me with lots of good acting and excuses. I am not amused. I sent the money orders in March of 2002. I had a fairly good phone number that just got disconnected last weekend. He may originally be from TX. I have filed with the FBI, US Postal Inspector, and Kingsnake as well as several other on line scam busters.
A friend of mine is a Federal Prosecutor in San Diego. She feels that we would get the best results by banding together to show a pattern....and we should take this to the Philadelphia State Attorney Generals office.

Any one with information regarding Joshua Myers' past, (home town, Parents' names, current or past addresses, etc.) please contact myself, others on this list or one of the above agencies. Remember you are not ratting out a nice guy you are bringing a Federal Felon to justice.

We may or may not get our money back but I would love to be a big part of putting this thief behind bars.

Sincerely, John Ginter
520-971-0444

I too have been had. I responded to his ad for the 6' female Albino the same day he posted it. Everything seemed professional and he gave me lots of info so when he said 'you need to let me know now I have lots other people interested' I said i'll take it. Come on, $1800.00 for a 6' female Sharp strain OR Original strain...who wouldn't?
Lots of cordial communication in the beginning as well. Then he was going to go out of his way and drive it to me in NY from Philly instead of taking a risk by shipping. Cool! As soon as he received my last Money Orders completing the $1,800.00 ....he was GHOST. No more calls, no emails, no response to emails...nothing. Before it stopped he actually told me he was coming every weekend for a month straight, since that I haven't heard a word. Inquired info on Kingsnake to which noone responded?! Then one other gentleman, Ray Austin, who I had a deal with told me he was also ripped off. I said please tell me your kidding! NOPE! A couple of hours later I come to find out there's atleast 4 of us we know of and this guy is up 8 grand!
Well there's more we don't know of too. I buy excellent rodents from a friend Dave Prada of Komodo Reptiles....turns out he was taken some time ago for close to $1000 from a couple out in Philly using the same business name!!! They bounced credit on PAYPAL!!! He had no luck finding anyone. This has left a bad taste in my mouth regarding e-commerce, moreso in this industry as i'm sure it has to others as well.
I too have filed with the FBI and Philadelphia Police Department and am waiting with my fingers crossed (not holding my breath).
He told someone he was waiting for papers to import her, others  he told he had 4 of the same snake (lol), he told me he had it at the shop...i'd be surprised if he even know what it looks like. I have been biting my lip, trying to go about this the right way. To be frank, I live 2 hours from him and don't even need to mention the possibilities of what can be done. Lets see what happens...

Joe Rollo
rollojoe@hotmail.com
JoeRollo@Bloomberg.net
718-331-0468
718-259-5477

The money is lost...water under the bridge... I just hope he doesn't get to do this to more people. This just goes to show, take a few extra minutes/hours/days WHATEVER and do some research...call some local guys, the bigwigs, friends, go on BOI, white pages, shows...any of those things to me is worth doing to not lose $1,800.00...

I had talked with Joshua through AOL instant messanger a couple months ago. He asked if I was looking for any boas, and I asked him what he had available. He then sent me a few pictures. One was of a pair of Argentines, the other was of a trio of Columbians. They were all very nice animals, so I inquired about thier prices. He told me he was moving to a new store and needed to get rid of the animals, and would let both the pair of Argentines and the Columbian trio go for $400 shipped. This seemed really odd. Why would he let them all go for so cheap? The Agentine pair was worth $400 alone! I knew it was too good to be true, and luckily, I said "No thanks."

well luckily i can say i wasnt taken by him , however i did make a sale to him last year (13 ft silver retic)and he was offering me a 2.3 trio of BP that were supposed gravid( im not a BP guy so i passed and it was M.O only on my deal with him which was good might i add) im not in anyway taken his side on this as i think that it stinks really bad that he has done this i will look back through my saved emails to see if i have any additional info on him or contacts other then what you guys may have had .whatever i find i will post it here soon as its gathered .. to all involved ..GOODLUCK getting what is yours out of this ... Regards Alan

Joshua has flown the coupe for now but I suspect he may surface in the future. An earlier post said that "The money is gone never to be returned" which may not be true. Keep all your reciepts, etc. as Joshua may be punching out license plates @50 cents an hour until we get paid back.

I am going to hire a private investigator and also have $3000 of my own money to put up towards a reward leading to his arrest. Anyone else want to donate $$$ to this cause let me know. I do not think it will take much to get his "buddies" to roll over on him if they are anything like him.

I also hope very much that he is reading this post!

John Ginter
520-882-0918

Has anyone heard anything back from Josh?<img src="http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif" border="0" valign="absmiddle" alt='???'>

The last time I spoke to him, he told me he was going in for surgery (he was walking poorly with a cain when I met him). He was supposed to send me some morthern pines cod, but I waited around for 2 days and they never showed!

I e-mailed him 4 x after that...he read all the emails because aol showed it. However, he never responded!

Call me an optimist, but I hope you come here and clear your name, Josh. I hope there is some logical excuse for all of this.

if anyone has any new info, I would love to hear.