Dan Costello

I think what may have happened is that you posted in the alligator ad.. and Dan saw your info, and sent you a email saying "you want to buy my gator?" and you responded thinking it was the seller of the gator.
Thus, you sent Dan money, on a animal that is actually in someone else's ad, owned by them. The original seller would know nothing of the money, or your emails.

Is this what happened? Or did you respond to the person running the ad HERE AT FAUNA?

Is Dan the person who posted the gator ad, or is he sniping people's info and responding as the seller, when he is not?

That's what I'm asking, I hope it's clear. Trying to untangle scammers is difficult.

What is strange about that ad is that there is NO contact info in the ad for the seller! You are forced to either respond IN the ad, or email or pm the seller through Fauna.

well maybe people should have to make however many posts before they can get/send PM's. I think thats fair. Im really tired of people being scammed like this.

Alicia, that makes sense. I belong to a Texas reptile forum that insists that you must make 10 posts in the general forums before you can place an ad in the classified section. That prevents people who are basically strangers to the forum community, and possible scammers, from posting ads.

Honestly I don't know if Dan Costello stole my e-mail address from the reply I put on the thread or if he is the one who owns that thread(Fat Cobra). I did PM the other person that replied to the ad afyter I replied and he said he also was PM'd and asked to send a western union and when he said no he got no further responses. What is weird is that it says he has been a member of fauna since like '07 os something but he only has 11 posts? I don't know but I really appreciate you guys being so helpful. Thanks.

Originally Posted by rosebud945

What is strange about that ad is that there is NO contact info in the ad for the seller! You are forced to either respond IN the ad, or email or pm the seller through Fauna.

There was an email address included until she edited it out on 6/24 (the day Jackie corrected his email in the thread)

Dan hasn't yet used the PM system for his scams, or at least I have not been informed of that...everybody tells me email or (offsite) IM. The simple reason - he can't pretend he is the person selling if he is PMing from another account.

Jackie, do you have emails or was the transaction discussed by phone? Did this person contact you again after you posted that you couldn't go over $150? Obviously the convo between that post and the transaction is missing. Once you were contacted, did this person identify himself as Dan?

emails

Here's a good rule to follow. Never ever ever ever ever under any circumstances send money western union for a purchase. Why? Even if the receiver has to show his ID, you're not getting the money back. Paypal, you can file a complaint. Additionally, chargebacks can be performed on a credit card payment. You can cancel checks.

If a person asks for the money via western union, it's because he's a thief.

I now understand that not to send a Western Union but we raise English Bulldogs and occasionally people have sent us a Western Union or Money Gram beacuse they wanted there puppy shipped the next day. I guess that's the difference between honest poeple and thiefs. We always would rather use our Paypal account beacuse it's more secure but we try to please our customers. After I put on the thread that I wasn't going over $150.00 I didn't get another reply on the thread. I got a couple e-mails on yahoo from a e-mail that was from someone named Tracy Messino-kpherps@yahoo.com. He said his wife gave him the e-mail. Then I was just messaged through Yahoo Chat. He didn't identify himself as Dan until the western union.