Don't get scammed!

Originally Posted by Southern Wolf

If you approach me for a trade deal... be prepaired to ship out first and once the animal arrives as described then and only then will I ship out to complete the trade. Dont approach me to trade then expect me to ship first or at the same time... wont happen.

I agree with this but what if you post an ad and say "trades considered" or what if you post a "want to trade" ad and someone contacts you with a proposal. In that case I would consider you the one initiating the trade and I would expect you to ship first.

Originally Posted by MagickalMorphs

If you wanna send people pictures of where you live, go for it. Me, I'm not going there. I think that's my choice, or at least last I checked I had a choice. This isn't about big brother, it's about what little privacy I have left.

Im gonna have to side with her on this one. Eventually I do plan on getting some shots of my breeding operation... but my house is off limits. Unless your a friend... I wont even let customers come to the house. We meet in town somewhere. If I loose a sale... so be it. I still work for a living and I'll just work an hour or two more to make up for the lost snake sale.

Originally Posted by StrictlyExotics

Its a scary world we live in. Everytime we submit a PayPal payment for something we purchase, they can easily see our home because of the address thats associated with our PayPal acct. Everytime we ship something, we have to use a return address as well. They have access to our addresses really easily so that info isnt the problem.

I think her point was... they are working for those type pics she is not helping them invade her privacy (home life).

The person who wanted a pic of my home, he actually asked for a specific photo, a tree in my front yard, the one with the bricks around it

Dean....you know I have some respect for ya... but dude... thats kinda freaky... like stalker freaky. If someone out of the blue contacts me about an animal I have for sale then goes and tells me to take a shot outside of a tree with bricks around it... (and I have THAT tree outside).... the sale... Im contacting the cops.

Maybe its because of what I do for a living that pays the bills... but Im not playing those games. If I buyer doesnt trust me enough to where I have to prove a pic of the house to prove its my house... they can go fly a kite.... I dont need their business that bad.

Like I said... thats stalker freaky... and I aint playing those games. I work for the DOJ and I dont have no problems putting them to work.

Originally Posted by sschind

I agree with this but what if you post an ad and say "trades considered" or what if you post a "want to trade" ad and someone contacts you with a proposal. In that case I would consider you the one initiating the trade and I would expect you to ship first.

I can see where your coming from... but me personally... I dont post trades.... period end of story. If I see something I like then I will buy it... if I have something for sale... I sale it.

HOWEVER

If I happen to know ya as a friend.. then I have been known to work out trades between friends... but I will never post "I want to trade"... because I will never ship first. Maybe its what I do to pay the bills... but Im not a trusting person when it comes to people.

Originally Posted by Southern Wolf

Dean....you know I have some respect for ya... but dude... thats kinda freaky... like stalker freaky. If someone out of the blue contacts me about an animal I have for sale then goes and tells me to take a shot outside of a tree with bricks around it... (and I have THAT tree outside).... the sale... Im contacting the cops.

Kevin, while I totally agree with you and the request sort of shocked me, I went ahead and did it because it was the ease of mind of that particular customer which (they) he needed. If someone wants for me to take a picture of a tree outside that I have seen on satellite maps, I have no problem doing it.

Im not worried about whether or not my job would be a risk. I have family members who it would be a problem for being what their jobs entail. I knew what the customer was getting at so I didnt have an issue. It was a large trade, over 1000.00 worth and they would have no recourse in getting their money back had the deal been a sour one.

In normal circumstances, a lesser denomination deal, I am not going outside the snake room to take more pics.

Originally Posted by StrictlyExotics

Kevin, while I totally agree with you and the request sort of shocked me, I went ahead and did it because it was the ease of mind of that particular customer which (they) he needed. If someone wants for me to take a picture of a tree outside that I have seen on satellite maps, I have no problem doing it.

Im not worried about whether or not my job would be a risk. I have family members who it would be a problem for being what their jobs entail. I knew what the customer was getting at so I didnt have an issue. It was a large trade, over 1000.00 worth and they would have no recourse in getting their money back had the deal been a sour one.

In normal circumstances, a lesser denomination deal, I am not going outside the snake room to take more pics.

Seems as if the customer just wanted to make sure that you actually had access to that tree (meaning you actually lived there and it wasn't going to take you an hour or 24 hours to take that pic). I would have no problem taking pics of the outside of the house. While I don't sell from the house, I think maybe we all can be pretty good judges of whether or not some request is "off the wall" or a customer being extra cautious.

Just my opinion...

I'm kinda lucky I live in the middle of nowhere and my house is set so far off the road it's hard for them to get a good view of the residence!! I don't like giving my location to people but kinda have to when I ship although it wouldn't do much good for someone to look us up on Mapquest or Google cause they give the wrong directions on both of those sites... Yeah... brings you into the neighborhood but way past our house! If I do a local sale.. I usually agree to meet on neutral ground! Just a precaution as I don't have a Retail Store.. I'm a Hobbiest for now and really don't want to be invaded When I make a sale.. I give my address, phone number and name!! That way if there are any problems I am available!!

I also agree with Shadera and Kevin. While the information is already out there and readily available, most crooks are lazy and dumb. I bet the vast majority of people on the Internet don't realize they can find/see people's houses/addresses/etc. with very little effort. I mean, geez, just look at the sheer number of people who either don't know about or can't find the search function on this site!

The semi-smart crooks will be able to find the information themselves, but I'm not gonna help the dumb ones and volunteer the information.

Volunteer what? Google?

What people here DONT realize, I never "asked" someone to take a pic. So this what I get from this thread so far, let me know I am wrong please. I will admit, I am in agreement with most of this but read what think about what everyone is saying...

No phone, no address, no pics of a tree in my front yard that they are ALREADY looking at on Google, nothing to secure a customers assurance that we are real on a high dollar deal that if it was a scam, they had no recourse getting the value of their trade back? Its no wonder why there are so many scammers in this industry as we give them so many outs.

When do we decide that our being paranoid is just that. I mean, I "try" not to do business on the phone for my own personal reasons. I wont let people come to my home to see my collection or buy something. All the while, I have no problems giving someone my address, especially in a trade as I have to at some point anyhow. I also have no problems taking a pic of a tree that is already shown on any satellite mapping search engine out there. I will even be kind enough to take the photo with a gun or dog or something that shows them I also mean business.

So it seems, if we are in business, we are truly not in the business of building customer confidence in ourselves. If it were me as a customer, I would personally feel that if I couldnt have some of this info, you wont be in the business of having something to sell or be able to service what you sell.

This is a great hobby and Ive been in it for years. I also see why its future nonexistence is predominantly our own doing.