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Bad Guy Do not buy from herphobbyist91

kit.c.knight

kit.c.knight

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Location
Las Vegas, NV
On profile the name: David Ramos.
Email provided: [email protected].
PayPal name: Daniel Gonzalez.
Story: Seller with 4 Elgaria multicarnata photos. He wanted $65 each plus $60 flat rate shipping. I paid via PayPal within hours of the post, with extra just in case shipping was more ($370 total). Seller asked if I could "confirm receipt" before lizards were shipped to release the funds. I refused, within hours seller refunded PayPal money.
Conclusion: likely a scammer.
-Kit
 
Interesting...by "confirm receipt" did he want you to certify that you had received the animals, before you actually did? Definitely questionable at best and I'm glad you got a refund.
 
kit.c.knight said:
On profile the name: David Ramos.
Email provided: [email protected].
PayPal name: Daniel Gonzalez.
Story: Seller with 4 Elgaria multicarnata photos. He wanted $65 each plus $60 flat rate shipping. I paid via PayPal within hours of the post, with extra just in case shipping was more ($370 total). Seller asked if I could "confirm receipt" before lizards were shipped to release the funds. I refused, within hours seller refunded PayPal money.
Conclusion: likely a scammer.
-Kit
Click to expand...


Kit,
Thank You for posting your experience with this scam artist, now others can be warned!


Lynn Peterson
Big Time Reptiles
 
How PayPal works is you pay the seller for the item. PayPal holds the funds until the buyer "confirms receipt." That function indicates to PayPal the described item was received. The funds are then released to the seller. Because this seller asked me to confirm receipt before I had the live lizards, he was asking me to give the money to him before I had the lizards. That's not how trade works. I'm telling you this in hopes that you don't go giving money to people on this site without having the described items, including animals, in your hand. Only use PayPal, or the like, to buy from sellers here. The seller likely ended the transaction because he never had the lizards in the first place.
 
kit.c.knight said:
How PayPal works is you pay the seller for the item. PayPal holds the funds until the buyer "confirms receipt." That function indicates to PayPal the described item was received. The funds are then released to the seller. Because this seller asked me to confirm receipt before I had the live lizards, he was asking me to give the money to him before I had the lizards. That's not how trade works. I'm telling you this in hopes that you don't go giving money to people on this site without having the described items, including animals, in your hand. Only use PayPal, or the like, to buy from sellers here. The seller likely ended the transaction because he never had the lizards in the first place.
Click to expand...

It usually does not work like that, but new sellers operating over some trigger-inducing dollar amount sometimes have to deal with that process. I have had to guide a few new sellers through this with a gentle hand here and there over the years.

For most experienced sellers, there is no such hurdle. Nor should there be.

What was concerning here is the person wanted you to confirm delivery/receipt/arrival when it had not actually happened. It set off alarm bells for you and it would have likewise done so for me. I am not sure this was a scam, but I would not take the risk as an experienced buyer without knowing what I was getting into (like if I had to bring a person to PayPal to get a deal done when the person had no prior experience dealing with any of this - as in selling at all at distance). From another perspective, a party could have refunded because he did not want to have a buyer claim lack of receipt/delivery or make a challenge during transit. Not sure what is the case here, but treading carefully at least prevents a loss and I would likely not have completed the deal as a buyer either.
 
Kit I sold to you last year so I'm not sure why you made the drastic assumption.

I am not used to paypal holding the money like that. So to be better safe than sorry I used the refund option. Usually when paid through paypal the funds are immediately available. I thought maybe paypal is holding it because you didnt have sufficient funds.

You could have asked lol
 
David, did you ask him to mark the animals as received prematurely? Why is the name associated with the PayPal account listed as Daniel Gonzalez?

Kit, did you successfully buy from the same person previously? If so, why did you not offer that information to round out the presentation of information since it looked as though it was more of an "unknown" by context?
 
David (Daniel?)
I did buy 3 Elgaria kingii from a Daniel Gonzalez (listed on PayPal) on Nov. 20, 2017. But, when you contacted me, I did not know of 2 aliases for you. I am very happy with that purchase. But, why the two names? Why did you refund the money without saying why? Part of doing business is being safely transparent and this deal was marked by red flags. Please elaborate. Best,
-Kit Knight
 
David,
I did some digging. PayPal will hold a seller's money for several reasons:
https://www.paypal.com/us/brc/article/funds-availability
The hold has nothing to do with my funds not being sufficient.
I buy a lot of lizards and I do not remember all the seller's names.
This whole thing seems to be a misunderstanding. With that said, the last time you contacted me was directly via email and I never saw two aliases. I hope you understand when a buyer sees two (or more) names, that usually raises red flags. Best,
-Kit
 
herphobbyist91 said:
Kit I sold to you last year so I'm not sure why you made the drastic assumption.

I am not used to paypal holding the money like that. So to be better safe than sorry I used the refund option. Usually when paid through paypal the funds are immediately available. I thought maybe paypal is holding it because you didnt have sufficient funds.

You could have asked lol
Click to expand...
So what is your name?
David or Daniel?
 
Recently I've received payment through paypal and they've put the funds on hold for 21days. Luckily those were on payment plans so I received the funds before the animal was shipped and had the rest of the funds paid outside of paypal. They say if you ship sooner you will get your money released sooner. Honestly i believe the seller was just trying to protect himself from a buyer. Why would he refund you if he was a scammer
 
So is it Daniel Gonzalez or David Ramos?

Not sure how much Paypal experience the seller has if he's never encountered Paypal holding funds before... when I sell stuff on eBay, Paypal definitely explains in their email how long the funds are being held for, and why. There's nothing to indicate that the buyer had insufficient funds.

kit.c.knight said:
Seller asked if I could "confirm receipt" before lizards were shipped to release the funds.
Click to expand...

Can you post exactly what was said?
 
Fat Frog said:
Seller is not a scammer,basically he told you with the refund that he does not want to do business with you.
Click to expand...
A blessing in disguise. If someone asked me to confirm my receipt of critters prior to them even being shipped, I'd cancel the transaction and run the other way.
 
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