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Bad Guy Ripped off from Nick Lang & Company

Q

quinnbozek

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Hopefully someone might be able to help out there but if not I would hope to prevent a similar type of situation, that happened to me a couple of weeks ago, from happening to someone else. My son purchased a couple of captive bred Eastern Box Turtles from someone identifying himself as Nick Lang ([email protected]). My son was requested to send payment via paypal to his email address and when the weather got warmer he would send the turtles up to us-but payment was needed to secure the turtles in the meantime. Long story short, payment was accepted on behalf of two other individuals -Frank Salvador ([email protected]) and Martez Powell ([email protected]) but the turtles NEVER came and the money transaction was not able to be cancelled because it was too late to do so. It was just a little more complicated than that but, in essence, that is what happened. And after repeated attempts at emailing all three of these individuals,for some type of response, we have had no luck. Yes, in hindsight, something did seem a little suspicious but hindsight is 20/20. All that being said I am just looking for any possible information someone might have on these three guys or is there any hard luck advice to be given in regards?
Thanks.
 
Lucille said:
The devil is in the details. It only takes a few minutes more to present the entire transaction, complications and all, and perhaps with more info, you may get more helpful suggestions.
Click to expand...

leftycrane said:
If you used a credit card via paypal just contact your cc company and file a chareback
Click to expand...

Correct on both accounts. Do a charge back and lets see some other details. Where did you find the ad? Did you get a phone number? Etc, etc.
 
I have been waiting for someone to start a thread on this guy! I have not done any business with him, but I saw several people complaining about him, so I decided to send an email to [email protected]. I acted as if I were interested in a tegu that I heard he was trying to sell. I checked his email source IP addresses and it puts him on the west coast. He told the person I got his email from that he was from Colorado, he told me he was from Pine Key, Florida (which is a pretty ridiculous place if you look at it on a map). I told him I had a friend close enough to drive and pick the animal up for me, and he said he was going to be at a Repticon in Utah (which was not happening that weekend to my knowledge). He gave me multiple paypal addresses to send money as well (constantly requesting to send as a friend). In the end when I confronted him about the non-existent reptile show and why his locations didn't add up, I stopped getting replies. I will share my emails and the IP addresses I collected when I get home to my computer.
 
A few more details. . .

Thank you so much for that information. You got a lot further than I have, so far, in trying to get somewhere with this. In our situation he communicated, via email, with our son that he was from Florida also.
Here is a quick synopsis of what happened:
FEB. 14 -ad was found in FaunaClassifieds (for cb eastern box turtle w/ pictures) posted by Nick Lang([email protected]). Purchase was made through paypal and Nick stated he would accept the $ and hold the turtle until warmer weather. Assured us in 'good faith' this was legit.
FEB. 15 -Nick emailed us saying he would return the $ because it should be transferred to Frank Salvador ([email protected]) instead. Money was returned and we transferred it to this account.
FEB. 16 -Nick emailed again and said the $ would be returned and instead transferred to Martez Powell ([email protected]). We did this also.
FEB. 18 -We emailed Nick to inform him that the weather would be satisfactory enough to send the turtle to us.
And now, up to this point, and a number of emails to all three addresses -we have not heard back from anyone. Very frustrating but a lesson learned the hard way. I'm even more pissed off though because my 10 year old son had saved up for a couple months just so he could get his first box turtle (I have three already) and it unfortunately had to end up this way.

Again, thank you and the others who commented with your thoughts, suggestions, and information. And I hope others will read this too and learn to be just a bit more careful in regards. I sure will.

Tom
 
Hi Quinn....I hate to read about a child getting ripped off for something that they had saved for. I don't have any help for finding anything about this guy, but I did want to mention that there is a reptile expo held regularly in Wheaton Il. that you might check out to possibly locate a turtle for your son. In case you've never heard of it it's Scott Smith's all animal expo. You might check the vendor list + see what they have.
 
What I gathered...

His emails came from IP addresses:
67.195.87.84
67.195.87.86
67.195.87.211
67.195.87.250
73.30.239.12
98.138.229.66
98.139.212.180
98.139.213.165

I don't know as much as others do about the IP addresses, so I'm not sure how closely we can triangulate his position with that info, but perhaps he can be tracked easier at least.

I attached my interactions with him. Some of my lines are fabricated to get more information. Suspecting that he was pure scammer, I offered to send M.O. which would require him to give me an address, I offered to have a friend meet him, which of course he would not (because he would be in Utah at the "Repticon auction"). I left the quick view of emails and only expanded ones that did not fit otherwise. Honestly I never saw any ads myself, I just took a shot in the dark with the Tegu thing because I heard he was using someone else's image to sell one in a Tegu group (I tried to invite them here to share their stories as well). FYI: I did not actually send any money. There was no response to my final email, not that it warranted one.
 

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Great job digging and hooking them Andrew:thumbsup:
It appears from the correspondence they slipped up and gave you the email:
[email protected]

That email rang a bell. Turns out we banned another account very recently using that email. Not an account to Nick Lang, so I still hope Quinn provides a link to the ad.

Banned User: Petloverz
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/member.php?u=150092
 

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Andrew, what ad did you respond to involving the Tegu? Still trying to find the Nick Lang ads...
 
quinnbozek said:
Thank you so much for that information. You got a lot further than I have, so far, in trying to get somewhere with this. In our situation he communicated, via email, with our son that he was from Florida also.
Here is a quick synopsis of what happened:
FEB. 14 -ad was found in FaunaClassifieds (for cb eastern box turtle w/ pictures) posted by Nick Lang([email protected]). Purchase was made through paypal and Nick stated he would accept the $ and hold the turtle until warmer weather. Assured us in 'good faith' this was legit.
FEB. 15 -Nick emailed us saying he would return the $ because it should be transferred to Frank Salvador ([email protected]) instead. Money was returned and we transferred it to this account.
FEB. 16 -Nick emailed again and said the $ would be returned and instead transferred to Martez Powell ([email protected]). We did this also.
FEB. 18 -We emailed Nick to inform him that the weather would be satisfactory enough to send the turtle to us.
And now, up to this point, and a number of emails to all three addresses -we have not heard back from anyone. Very frustrating but a lesson learned the hard way. I'm even more pissed off though because my 10 year old son had saved up for a couple months just so he could get his first box turtle (I have three already) and it unfortunately had to end up this way.

Again, thank you and the others who commented with your thoughts, suggestions, and information. And I hope others will read this too and learn to be just a bit more careful in regards. I sure will.

Tom
Click to expand...

I found where you replied in a ad that was deleted for EBTs. I can't find a user name here with Nick Lang in the name field or in the user title. There isn't one here.

Did he see the ad with that email written in it? Did he contact him by private message? How was contact first made?

The email [email protected] isn't posted as a contact email in the body of any ad on this site.

The exact title of the ad you responded to would help. The user name if different than "Nick Lang".
 
Knew it was a scam his words were all over the place, paypal should refund your money open a case with them. If someone wont send you more pictures of animals don't get them. I'm surprise someone took the bait after I posted it was a scam that's why people should be able to post scam on the ad if there for sure it is a scam and I knew 100% it was that's why I posted it to prevent someone from getting ripped off. Don't send anyone money that can provide the right facts and pic. look stuff up too when he said repicon I looked that up right away to see where they are at and when. That's what caught my attention. Plus I seen all his ads on here all in the same day and he just became member the day before.
 
Robert Walker said:
Andrew, what ad did you respond to involving the Tegu? Still trying to find the Nick Lang ads...
Click to expand...
Any luck?

Dennis Hultman said:
I found where you replied in a ad that was deleted for EBTs.
Click to expand...
I'm guessing at this point that "Nick Lang" simply saw his email sitting there and swooped in independent of the ad and baited the kid for the turtle. Great lesson for all to do your homework first!

Levi4turtle said:
Knew it was a scam
Click to expand...
Good job doing your homework in advance! Good job posting and letting others know as well!
 
No problem, Robert. I know the feeling :)

Just to add yet another confusing element, the name associated with the now banned Petlovers account (and ad that Levi4Turtle posted to) is Michael Christian, of Lansing, MI. , not that it is likely factual.
 
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