• Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

  • IMPORTANT! PLEASE READ!! About the Google Adsense ads being displayed

    =====================
    Posted 08/15/2025
    =====================


    Yeah, I know. They are a pain in the butt. But they pay the bills to keep my server running. Just a fact of life, I am afraid.

    Want to get rid of them? Simple. Just become a Contributor level member or above and they will be gone. -> Please click HERE."

    Is that too much for me to ask of you to keep this site running? Well, sorry about that. I too wish I could get everything for free. But alas.....

    =====================
    Addendum: 01/10/2026
    =====================


    Google Adsense ad revenue for December, 2025 was just $30 over the cost of the lease for the server running this site. So, in effect, the money providing the incentive for me to continue running this site is coming SOLELY from the paid memberships and sponsorships here. Which honestly ain't much....

Bad Guy 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.
 
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.
 
rosebud945 said:
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.
Click to expand...

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?
 
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 [email protected]. 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.
 
Calling the police is a good start you now need to ask them when they call back Monday (Holiday weekend) to speak to a crime investigator. Dan thought he had me until I had investigators from the PA Police at his door I was able to out smart him and got my money back he also claims he is in the military which I highly doubt if you look through the BOI you will find many more posts on him.
 
There is one thing I don't understand. If you thought you were buying my gator and every email I sent you included my name (Jesse) then why would you send money to a guy named Dan Costello? Im not at all trying to badger you, I just don't understand how this happened. I just went through my sent folder and the last time I wrote you (prior to the July 7th) was on June 24th when I offered to knock the price down to help defer the expensive shipping costs.
 
hhmoore said:
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.
Click to expand...

I did originally put my email in the ad. I edited the the thread after HHMoore advised me on the legality of owning gators in the state of NY, as my original ad stated that I would meet NY customers halfway. I just chose to go with a simpler message.
 
Sorry it took awhile for me to add to this post but "fat cobra"
Full Name
jesse
Location
pennsylvania
Where did you hear about FaunaClassifieds?
old friend

Date of Birth
May 13, 1974 (35)
Join Date
12-31-2007
Total Posts
17
Click to expand...
is none other than Jesse J. Fricker which I have now confirmed.
He has used several alias on this forum and is currently banned.

tail shaker
Birthday:
May 13, 1974
Where did you hear about FaunaClassifieds?:
previous user
Full Name:
jesse j. fricker
Location:
slatington
Click to expand...

You can read some of the threads located at the below links.
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=94808
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=95518
http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/showthread.php?t=97963

He has used the same scenario where a customer sent a money order and in return he sent nothing.

He is a self admitted thief that has stolen from members of this forum and is currently bypassing his ban which is being rectified now.
 
I'm glad to hear that "fat cobra" ended up being a shady character regardless of whether or not there were any actual ties to Costello. For a while I almost felt bad about crashing the alligator ad and linking up to this thread. I was hoping to ellicit some sort of interesting response, but didn't think much of anything would come of it. Good catch, Dennis.
 
I am actually glad also because I felt bad for putting the user anme Fat Cobra out there if they weren't doing anything wrong. I now feel better. Jesse actually sent me a video of him holding the gator and stuff. I can't believe i about got scammed twice. He said he would accepot Paypal though.
 
After all this trouble I was wondering if anyone knew of someone trust worthy to purchase a baby alligator from. Thanks
 
damn jackie-ive been sitting here stoned as fuck reading all your threads. im so exhausted im about to mail you a damn gator for free! sheeh
 
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