Claudia Flores
 

Does anybody know what happened to Claudia Flores out of Las Vegas? She always had really nice Pituophis. I sent her money a few years ago for a Texas Indigo snake... and she disappeared. I don't believe that she ghosted me on purpose, or ripped me off. I fear that something bad may have happened to her. Does anybody know or remember her?

The last time she logged in here was on 06-13-2021. But now sure how much you can read into that, as lots of people have just suddenly dropped out of here over the years, never to be heard from again on this site. :shrug01:

Claudia Flores is a scammer
 

I too have been taken by her/him? No one has ever seen "Claudia Flores" in person. I have emails from victims totaling over $12,000. He/She/It promises to pay but no one has received a dime.

Wow! I had no idea. I bought a really nice red bull snake from her. One of my favorite snakes. I guess once she has your confidence she can then take advantage.

There was a mention of a Joe Hughes being the possible real identity of this person in an old ad thread which has much input. Given a registration email of alternajoe@gmail.com for the Claudia Flores account, I can see that fitting.

I hate to be a victim blamer, but @Claudia Flores has no negative reviews on their trader rating. Harder to avoid thieves when folks don't take a minute to point them out.

In regards to no negative reviews, that is a good point. I think everyone that dealt with her/him/it gave them the benefit of the doubt because up to the point of disappearing with everyone's money and snakes there had never been any problems.

Here is my story. I bought a baby Red Bull snake from her. Great transaction. She communicated great. I gave her a great (positive) review, because everything went great. We stayed in touch via email as people usually do after a transaction. I asked questions, she offered answers. We start talking about snakes. I mention something about being interested in drymarchon. She tells me she is going to have some babies form a rescued Texas Indigo snake available soon and offers me a good price for one. By this time, we are NOT communicating via Fauna Classified anymore, so this transaction is no longer associated with Fauna. I send money. She disappears. She cannot be found anywhere. Not on Fauna.Not on Morph Market. Her Morph Market store is gone. She is a ghost. I actually contacted fauna and Morph Market to see if anybody knew anything about where she went. Nobody knew anything. I had no opportunity to write a negative review about being ripped off. But my FIRST transaction was great and that's how she earned my trust. I don't remember ever seeing any negative reviews about her as a seller. So... say I'm gullible. Maybe I am too trusting. But since then, I have been as careful as I can be. I guess there is always some risk shopping and buying online. It's convenient and there is NO WAY I would have been able to put together the collection of awesome snakes I now have in my collection without the resources of Fauna Classified and Morph Market. I got burned once. Blame the victim!
As an aside, I was reimbursed my money because I used PayPal and in my case, the buyer protection worked. I would NOT have worked if I used the Friends and family option. Lots of sellers ask buyers to use the Friends and Family option so the seller won't have to pay the extra cost for the Buyer Protection. There have been times when the seller insisted that I use Friends and Family and I refused and did not buy from that seller. I will sometimes use friends and Family if I know and trust the seller. But I'm telling you, buyer beware of Friends and Family. It COULD leave you hanging.