SCAM ATTEMPT - don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>

I'm positive someone just attempted to scam me.
I have no doubt that had this gone through, I would have been out money and snakes, and the snakes would have wound up dead.

My suspicion is that the individual uses different names and different e-mail addresses, and this is probably a ring of people.

I will post all e-mails that took place both directions in the hopes that other people will see the kind tactics used and can smell out the scam when it is tried on them. I'm also posting in the off chance the scammer is using the same e-mail address and/or name in other current attempts.

The snakes I have for sale are typical banded phenotype Cal Kings. I know what they are worth on the market and it is isn't much - but the value of the animals doesn't matter that much for the scammer, that's not where the scam takes place.

His e-mails will be in bold, my replies in italics, comments in normal text.

-=-

From: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
To: mpeters@mac.com
Subject: order request
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 15:58:31 -0700 (PDT)

att:Michael Peters
i am interested in purchasing some of your californa kingsnakes
how many do you have available?
i will be shipping to canada, bc.
and i shall pay via cheque.
kindly copy me with copies of the health papers if available.
your quick respond is very important.
regrads
don fentie

From: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
To: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 16:34:16 -0700

The clutch is viewable here:

http://www.temptingevereptiles.com/g...p?g2_itemId=71

11 total in clutch, 3 are not available - so 8 are available. The ones
labeled "Not Yet Available" are listed as such only because they are not
consistently feeding on frozen pinks yet, but they are feeding. They
will be feeding on f/t soon, however.

I do not have any health papers for them. I will ask my vet how much an
exam and health certificate would cost. I think the certificate is $10
per animal plus examination fee, they could probably be examined
together for reduced exam fee.

I have not shipped to Canada before, I need to look into what is
required for me to do it.

Take care,

Michael Peters

From: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
To: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:52:05 -0700 (PDT)

att:petter
how are you doing today thank you so much
for your quick respond.
what is the total cost of the 8 that are available
do not bother about shipment i have a shipping angent that
will do that for me.
pls check te cost for the health papers and the examination
for the available 8 so i can start making arrangment for
the payment your quick respond is very important.
regards
don fenties

I replied twice. I already had started to smell something fishy. I googled his name and the word "reptiles" then "snakes" and found nothing - no indication that anyone by the name was involved in the reptile hobby in Canada or anywhere else. I googled his e-mail address and got nothing. I searched his e-mail here and got nothing. I did however give him the benefit of the doubt at this point and contacted him twice more in reply to that message:

From: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
To: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Thu, 23 Aug 2007 23:39:57 -0700

The cost of the 8 snakes would be $150 ($20 each - less $10 for big
order) plus whatever the vet wanted for health certificates. I will find
that out in the morning and let you know as soon as I find out.

Will I need to ship them to your shipping agent? If so I'll need to know
his zip code so I find out how much that costs.

Thanks,

Michael

second reply -

From: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
To: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 12:38:20 -0700

Hi Don -

The vet exam (for all 8 snakes) will cost $40 and the certificates are
$10 per snake, so the total for vet exam is $40 + 8*$10 = $120
The cost for the 8 snakes is $150

The total cost will be $270 plus whatever shipping is necessary to get
them to your agent.

Thanks,

Michael A. Peters

His reply - and the revelation of the scam:

From: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
To: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 14:19:14 -0700 (PDT)

Thank you so much for your quick respond,
you do not need to ship to my
agent the agent will come and pick them up at your
from you.
I shall arrange payment through my client in usa
pls copy me with your full name and address
as you want it to appear on the cheque
the payment will include the shipment cost.
All you need do is to deduct your payment and handover
the shipping cost to the shipping agent at the time of
pick up.
Hope to hear from you soon.
regards
don fentie

At this point I called my local police department and asked if they wanted to do a sting. I knew what the deal was - I end up with fraudulent check but have given good funds to his "agent" and the snakes probably end up dead.

While waiting to hear back from a police detective I sent this message:

From: Michael A Peters &lt;mpeters@mac.com&gt;
To: don fentie &lt;donofen@yahoo.com&gt;
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Fri, 24 Aug 2007 17:35:47 -0700

Hi Don,

I made an appointment at the vet, but I'm a little confused.
You are going to mail me the cheque, or is your agent is going to bring
it?

Is there a way I can contact your agent to arrange a date and time?

The police detective called me and told me this kind of thing is common but they did not have the manpower to do the sting, so even though he would love to take a perp off the street, he suggested I tell the guy I wanted nothing to do with him.

Here is the next e-mail from "Don" and my response -

From: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
To: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 00:45:59 -0700 (PDT)

att:micheal
what i said in my previous mail was that i am going to make my payment through
my client in usa, he will mail out the cheque to you as soon as i have your full
name and contact address.

the cheque carries the total amount for the snakes i am buying from you and the
shipping cost, you deduct the cost of the snakes and hold the remaining for the shipping
agent.

you tell me when it will be ok for you for the agent to come and do the pick up..

you only pay the shipping agent when they come for the pick up unless i tell you
otherwise.
i hope you can understand me now.
i need you contact address so the payment can be mailed out to you assp
your quick respond is important.

regards
don fentie

From: Michael A Peters <mpeters@mac.com>
To: don fentie <donofen@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: order request
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:22:02 -0700

This really smells like scam.
I get fraudulent check and give good funds to this "agent" person. I
wasn't born yesterday and I have to trust my instinct.

In the highly unlikely event this is not a scam, there are plenty of
other kingsnake breeders with plenty of babies, use one of them. I won't
sell to you.

Goodbye.

-=-

Some things to note -

1) No business name I could verify with anyone
2) No website
3) No phone number offered
4) Name doesn't seem to associated with reptiles anywhere on the web
5) e-mail address does not seem to be associated with anything anywhere on the web
6) He asked me to pay his "agent" which is his job, not mine
7) No "agent" is going to drive to redding to pick up low value snakes that could be shipped anywhere in the US very cheaply.
8) Virtually every message emphasized quick response from me
9) Very poorly written messages - I assumed maybe he was French Canadian, but often scammers do not have good English skills.

-=-
If anyone wants to send this guy an e-mail letting him know of this thread, feel free to do so. I haven't - I don't know where he found me, but I advertised in four places. If he doesn't know of this site, I would rather he not use this place as hunting ground. But if someone feels he should know about this thread, fair enough. I just won't be the one to do it.

Note that no transaction took place.

Typical Nigerian scammer emails.

Post ANYTHING for sale online, and yo're bound to get them. The name and location (and how broken their English is) are the only real variations.

Actually the typical ones want you to send product after receiving fraudulent check or unverified paypal. Usually they are after product and have you ship it to some abandoned address somewhere, or to someone they've conned into then shipping it overseas.
Those I get all the time from my eBay stuff.

This guy wanted to send someone to my home and then pick up money - which I haven't ever seen.

Not sure what scams you are seeing from Ebay but the "typical" nigerian scam is exactly what you received. They have no interest in the product which would just be shipped to "no where", if shipped, and would eventually be found dead. The "shipping agent" coming to your home also does not exist. All they want is for you to cash the fraudulent check which will be in excess of the requested amount, "keep" your fee and wire the remaining balance back to him/her. The plan is to execute this quickly and have the money wired before the bank realizes the check was bad. Trust me, no one is or was coming to your home and they could care less about the product.

Bart

I've sold on ebay since 1999 . I have recieved these same scam requests on everything from bikes to laptops . Sometimes they dont even mention the item there trying to buy ! I had a laptop for sale buy it now for 700 , and got an email to purchase it for 5800.00 !!! I find it hard to believe theres still people out there falling for these scams LOL ! Jerry

Originally Posted by bsharrah

All they want is for you to cash the fraudulent check which will be in excess of the requested amount, "keep" your fee and wire the remaining balance back to him/her.

I've gottent those too, never related to pets though and never with an offer for an agent to come to my home.

What I've gotten from eBay is related to camera and computer which they want you to send to some location on fraudulent funds.

This is the first time for me they stated they would want to pick it up with a payment though.

Originally Posted by FunkyRes

I've gottent those too, never related to pets though and never with an offer for an agent to come to my home.

What I've gotten from eBay is related to camera and computer which they want you to send to some location on fraudulent funds.

This is the first time for me they stated they would want to pick it up with a payment though.

They are never planning on sending an "agent", nor will they wait for you to give the remaining money to said agent.

you only pay the shipping agent when they come for the pick up unless i tell you
otherwise.

They will suddenly "tell you otherwise".....that you need to wire that overpayment back to them to enable the agent to pick up the item, and of course never show up, as the check is fraudulent.....but they hope by the time you have figured out that the check has bounced, it will be too late, and you will just be out the amount they overpaid you. As Bart said, they have absolutely no interest in what it is you are selling, they just want you to wire them their "change".

I, like the other posters here, get these "offers" all the time. I had an interesting one last month though. It was the typical scam, but it was written in a way that I did not catch it at first. I was asked about a boa I had for sale. Emails were exchanged. Next I get an email that a total of $4,000 has been mailed to me in the form of a money order for the purchase of a boa. I sent back a reply that I have no idea what boa he's talking about, since I have none for that amount of money. I got no response back. A few days later I got an envelope with 4 Safeway money orders from Columbia SC. The total was $4,000. By now I figure it's just a scam, but what if it's not? It just did not look the same as the normal scams. I decided to deposit the money orders into one of my bank accounts that I rarely use. 10 days later my bank mailed them back with a big counterfeit stamp on each one of them. I chuckled a bit and tacked them to my office wall. About a week later I got an email from the guy asking if I had received the money orders. I told him that I had indeed received the fake money orders, and asked him how he was able to counterfeit Safeway money orders so nicely. I also told him I had turned him into the police ( I really didn't, because frankly, they won't do anything at all about it). He sent back an email demanding his money back and then started in about how my ad for my boas was fraudulent and how he was going to turn me into the authorities. I told him to go ahead, knowing that there was nothing to turn me in for, and that he would never follow through on his threat anyway.

Anyway, the postmake for the money orders he sent were from SC, and so was the address for the money orders. They are getting better at this, but not that much better. I think they have learned to turn off the CAP LOCK. lol

Hope this helps in the future
Ken

I live near Ft Benning Ga and this scam is even hitting the soldiers. There are a few up on charges if they haven't been taken care of already for selling stuff on Ebay before deployment and cashing the checks / money orders at the check cashing type locations. One of which turned over more than 30 locals to the cops for cashing these checks/ money orders at their business in 1 month.

I had a motorcycle for sale on ebay and had a guy email me from iceland !!! He wanted to buy it when he was over here on vacation to daytona bikeweek . Well, of course it sent red flags up, so I told him I would only do it in person and for cash because of all the scams and he said thats fine and can he call me. Well , after a lengthy disscusion on the phone he sounded pretty legit so we made arangements for him to meet me at my house in a week to pick it up. You can bet I was pretty nervous about the whole thing but he kept in touch by phone the whole time. I had my brother and a friend over "just in case" Suprise suprise , the guy showed up with a rented truck and had 5300.00 in cash !!!! there was 1200 in hundreds and the rest in 20's !! He said he had to pull the cash from the atm's for the last week . So to my suprise it all went perfect ! I had even bought one of those counterfiet pens to check the bills. You know how many twentys are in 4100 bucks !! ALOT !!! We all had stacks of cash to count lol !! Believe me, I was scared as hell as to what was going to happen, but luckely it all worked out fine. Jerry