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Bad Guy Derek Beando Dbeando scams

Sorry if I was overly blunt in my last post...I meant no harm and didn't mean to flame anyone for trying to purchase an animal and work out a deal. :eek: I just urge everyone to use their heads and really think things out before going through with a big purchase like that. Don't buy the lines that someone is desperately in need of money to fix their car or pay for vet bills or whatever. There is no need to use personal lives and circumstances for leverage in a transaction. That's their own problem and not yours, and you shouldn't feel obligated to help someone halfway across the country because of their misfortunes. For every 100 people there are out there, there is 1 jerk that is going to make the other 99 look bad. That's just the way it works. :(
 
Salzy said:
I don't mean to deliberately rub salt in the wounds here, but for the people that actually sent payment when things were getting fishy...what stopped you from backing out? I guess it's not as clear when it's happening as compared to when you have the whole thing laid out in front of you like in this thread, but there were definitely a lot of red flags that would have prevented me from doing business at all. When I saw the ads posted, I saw that some random guy was selling a Crown Jewel animal using Erica's photos. Isn't that a huge red flag right off the bat? One of the biggest things I'm against is plagiarized photography :NoNo:, and I know many of you others pick up on that as well. I would have demanded new photos and correspondence before sending that much money for a gecko. Yes, it's an amazingly beautiful animal, but was her beauty and reputation clouding people's judgement? I hate to say it, but it seems as though it was more than just Beando being greedy. People jumped at a well-known animal coming from a not-so-well-known seller and we should all know better and be careful not to do that. To me, the signs were there that things were going to go sour. :(
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Maybe that's a little unfair to the folks who purchased these animals. Derek has been a member of both these forums since 2010. I think he has sold animals successfully in this time (or at least hasn't presented himself as unethical), otherwise I would assume we would have heard about it before now.

I ask permission first, but I do use breeder/seller pics of my animals if they are nice pics and Erica does have some great photos. If I didn't have a perfect pic of a high end animal and I wanted to sell that animal at a high end price....AND I had permission to use the photo, I totally would. It didn't surprise me in the least that he was using an awesome well known photo of an awesome, well known gecko...especially considering that it was common knowledge that Erica had sold the gecko in question. I would also think that if he didn't actually own VC (at least at some point), the legitimate owner would have come forward once Derek placed an add for her.

All I'm saying is it wasn't screaming "SCAM" to me so I could see how others didn't see it coming either. I hope Derek gets whats coming to him and all these folks gain some kind of compensation for all their stress. I don't think placing the blame on the buyers in situation is beneficial.

We do all have to be cautious about who we are dealing with and it is our own fault if we ignore warning signs...but again, this was a member with a two year (seemingly clean) history.
 
Pasodama said:
Kelly, I am so glad that you were able to get your gecko from Derek. Seems you are very lucky to have gotten it.
Am also hoping for the best for everyone involved in Derek's apparent scam.
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I do feel very lucky, but I think I only got him because I threatened a BOI post. He probably knew if I started one it could raise eyebrows, and he wanted to keep up with his shenanigans. It the gecko hadn't been healthy when he gave it to me, in a good size cup with moist sphagnum moss...I would have posted one anyway, and really wish I had. But at the time I just wanted the whole situation behind me.

And Kyle, I know personally I had no problem sending him the money because I thought paypal protected you if you did not get the items you paid for. I know that if you receive an animal and it is sick or dead they will not help you, but I didn't realize that extended to not receiving an "item" at all. I know that other people have won claims through paypal for unreceived animals, but I'm now assuming they must not have mentioned it was a live animal. I now know to be a lot more careful, and am still disappointed in paypal for not helping anyone out.
 
Pasodama said:
From some things I found, it seems that Derek may have had some interest in nursing. However, I have found nothing to show that he, indeed, is a nurse.
There isn't a Derek Beando listed as a licensed nurse in MA.
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Man, if he was lying about "being on call" when I was dealing with him.....I KNEW he planned it all! It just seemed too convenient that the day before we're supposed to meet up he makes up an excuse, and then acts so defensive. From that I don't doubt that this was all planned from the start. This whole situation is really bugging me! I really hope you all get your money back and the geckos can be confiscated somehow. I don't see how he thought he could get away with all this.
 
I've been following this thread for a couple of days now. I'm beyond baffled and disturbed by this dude. He's inside of a never ending hole and is STILL digging himself under with every new find that comes up. Everyone who has stood up and made an appearance on this thread, I commend you. It isn't easy to walk into a huge mess like this but letting others know that you too have been affected by this guy's ugly intentions really helps strengthen the case against him.

As far as what Kyle says, I hate to say it but, I have to agree.
When I see "I need funds to pay rent" or "I'm lying on my death bed, buy my geckos." I feel like, I might as well be pulling my pants down, bending over, preparing to get royally :censored:. Call me paranoid, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

There is no way that I would send ANY amount of money, big or small, to someone that names off excuses like that. It's like an invitation to a pity party. There is no need to make people feel sorry for you when you are looking to sell. And knowing that there are people out there that do use the same lines to help encourage sales, it really says a lot about that person's character. I'm not saying that there aren't those who do have real problems like this and who really do need the money, but then there are situations like this that don't make your ads look any better.

I really hope that we can bring justice down on this guy's head. It doesn't look so promising right now. But some accomplishment will be gained from it somehow, some way. We just need to work together to make it happen, and thats the best thing about this community is that everyone has each other's back, no matter how ugly things get.

I encourage you all to not give up!
 
Rhacology said:
I've been following this thread for a couple of days now. I'm beyond baffled and disturbed by this dude. He's inside of a never ending hole and is STILL digging himself under with every new find that comes up. Everyone who has stood up and made an appearance on this thread, I commend you. It isn't easy to walk into a huge mess like this but letting others know that you too have been affected by this guy's ugly intentions really helps strengthen the case against him.

As far as what Kyle says, I hate to say it but, I have to agree.
When I see "I need funds to pay rent" or "I'm lying on my death bed, buy my geckos." I feel like, I might as well be pulling my pants down, bending over, preparing to get royally :censored:. Call me paranoid, but it's better to be safe than sorry.

There is no way that I would send ANY amount of money, big or small, to someone that names off excuses like that. It's like an invitation to a pity party. There is no need to make people feel sorry for you when you are looking to sell. And knowing that there are people out there that do use the same lines to help encourage sales, it really says a lot about that person's character. I'm not saying that there aren't those who do have real problems like this and who really do need the money, but then there are situations like this that don't make your ads look any better.

I really hope that we can bring justice down on this guy's head. It doesn't look so promising right now. But some accomplishment will be gained from it somehow, some way. We just need to work together to make it happen, and thats the best thing about this community is that everyone has each other's back, no matter how ugly things get.

I encourage you all to not give up!
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I believe the only person he used the "my car" or "my dying grandma" line's on was Kelly and she got her gecko. It isn't all that uncommon to see a "My car is broke down sale"...or a "The tornado took my roof" sale...the only difference is MOST of the time the people are legit. Good people who really ship the animals they get paid for. MOST involved here saw a well known gecko for sale and tried to purchase it.
Sometimes it isn't making people feel bad for you when selling, I know that I am often curious when I see a large group or collection for sale. I would rather know why.

This is NOT the case for this POS thought. He clearly used all the excuses in the book and that is all they were...excuses. I just wanted to touch on your thoughts...

I also definitely do not think there were obvious red flags through all this.

I always urge buyers to ask sellers to mark their ad's as SOLD or remove the ad once the animal is paid for. This might not have saved everyone, but if the first person who purchased VC would have pushed for the ad to be changed, it MIGHT have helped a bit.

Good luck to ALL involved.
 
Rhacology said:
As far as what Kyle says, I hate to say it but, I have to agree.
When I see "I need funds to pay rent" or "I'm lying on my death bed, buy my geckos." I feel like, I might as well be pulling my pants down, bending over, preparing to get royally :censored:. Call me paranoid, but it's better to be safe than sorry.
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Sorry, but I'm going to have to step in on this. We (the people who bought geckos from Derek) are not stupid, so please don't infer that we are with unnecessary analogies like that. Derek had been into crested geckos for a number of years before all of this happened. He had a legit website, and a large collection of valuable animals. He had a good reputation up until recently, and I've done thousands of dollars worth of business with him in the past that all went just fine. There is no way I could have known that a well known member of the gecko breeding community would just turn on everyone like he did. And I bought my gecko like 3-4 months ago, pretty much before the rest of this scamming started. And I think I'm the only person who bought a gecko who DIDN'T get sold more than once (as far as I know). So please think twice before implying that "we should have known better". I know you have our best interests at heart and don't want to see us scammed out of money, so please extend your compassion to your opinion of everyone else's intelligence level. That is all.
 
Also, can someone please tell me how to check my reputation level and what affects it. It seems like since I'm not a paying member I might not be able to access that info, but I really have no idea. If someone left me negative feedback on a post I'd like to know who it was and why. My reputation in the herp community should NOT be determined by what random people on this forum think of me, and I think it's a bummer that this appears to be the case.
 
Honestly, he brought up SO many excuses, that I wasn't keeping track of which excuses were labeled for which transaction. They begin to sound the same after the 5th or 6th one.

As I had said, I know that there are indeed people out there who do use legitimate reasons for selling and wish to express these reasons in their ads. I'm not saying that this is wrong, I am just saying that, personally, when I see situations such as this one play out. It makes me wonder about all of the other ads I have seen. How do we know which reasons are legit, and which ones are not? Who can we turn to, to judge which reasons are excuses, and which ones are not? I am sure many of these buyers felt that they could trust Derek. And that he had obviously had some very tough issues to be sorted out. He had seemed to be going through a lot. But, when do you cross the line?

It is only now, seeing everything sprawled out for us to see, that we can reflect on how many differing stories he had for each of his transactions. And that he must have been lying, and scamming people out of their wallets. There could be something else beneath it all that drove him to the extreme. What, we don't know. Do some of us even care? Probably. But the MAIN priority is to get these geckos out, if they still remain with Derek, and getting these people their money. And seeing Derek some how penalized, so that others can see what happens to people like this. And maybe future scammers will think twice.

I don't mean any harm. That analogy was meant to be taken lightly. So I apologize to any one that may have an issue with it. I think you took what I said a little bit too literally schnell, and translated it negatively. I never said that these buyers were stupid. I simply agree with Kyle in that we should all really be careful. And be more critical of who we are buying from, and how ads are presented to us.

That is all.
 
aschnell said:
And I think I'm the only person who bought a gecko who DIDN'T get sold more than once (as far as I know).
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I just want to clear this up, as this thread gets longer and more complicated.

At present, Vegan Cupcake is the only gecko who has been sold multiple times. All the others, and I think there is close to 10, have only been sold once (as far as we know).
 
Rhacology said:
Honestly, he brought up SO many excuses, that I wasn't keeping track of which excuses were labeled for which transaction. They begin to sound the same after the 5th or 6th one.

It is only now, seeing everything sprawled out for us to see, that we can reflect on how many differing stories he had for each of his transactions.
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Actually, the majority of these transactions appear to have gone normally, besides the fact that now that there is good shipping weather Derek has fallen off the face of the earth.

Excuses were made to me, and I believe only one other transaction dealing with VC.
 
Just a word about those of us caught up in this thing...As Amanda said, we saw a favorite gecko of ours up for sale. As Andrew said, this seller was a known member of the community who did not have any publicized issues with his sales. We did look at the BOI and ask around. We also had a thread going on about the sale of vc on fb and no one said anything regarding the seller. His excuses about funerals etc started cropping up AFTER he had the money in our situation and it did make us suspicious. We hoped we had put our finger on the problem with the health issues. I don't believe there was enough evidence at the time to indicate that a scheme of this scope was going on though. A lot of people have come forward to present pieces of the puzzle in this thread now. No one person had the whole story, with the obvious exception of the seller. Please keep in mind that hindsight is always 20/20.
 
I purchased on February 2nd, long before any of this started. I checked around and he seemed like the gecko community thought decently of him, what little I could find. I think I'm the one getting screwed out of the two cheapest geckos involved in this whole thing, but still. Those of us that purchased in February, the ads look legitimate. He simply says he's moving across country and can't take his collection. That's sensible enough.

VC just seems like a gigantic cluster f***. :( Not dumb people, just people who had everything hidden from them.
 
I don't believe this is the place for armchair quarterbacking or for telling people what they should of done differently. We are all angry about this and don't appreciate the "advice" at this time, maybe later in a different forum, but not here, not now. I purchased Apollo for myself and made a partial payment on Rosalie for a friend, $215 total. We paid after the first ad and there were no signs of any bad intentions, only later on, after we paid and the weather cleared did we truly know we had a problem. Yes, we all can and will learn from this but there is no need to point out what other people would of/could of done differently rite now while we are all still heated. Just my thoughts, not calling anyone out, thanks.
 
Sorry to deliever the bad news to ya, but this is BOI and we are all trying to make everyone feel better about the situation at hand. We can all offer our advice on this. You are not the only one that has been scammed here. If the Mods tell us to stop giving advice on the subject then we will but until then... sorry.
 
back on topic. how many people actually called corporal Ury?
i need to send him my messages with Derek, but it was all done on fauna messaging and wl only allow me to forward the convo to another member. he said screen shots dont hold up and rather have it forwarded.
will it help to clear up how much he got and what geckos were sold to who if everyone who paid did a simple post of
name-geckos name-price
just so we can actually see it all laid out and if it was just VC sold multiple times? or is it just a waste of time and space
 
I think it's a good idea, then The officer won't have to wade through all the posts.
 
I paid $150 for both Nova and Zues. I've sent him a ton of information about them, though. As you said, he can't take copy pasted images, but he CAN take your email forwarded paypal receipt.
 
Nathan- vegan cupcake-550

i sent him those, unfortunately i have no clue where the original payments weren't but I still have the dispute and claims in the email that still has the info
 
nsime said:
just so we can actually see it all laid out and if it was just VC sold multiple times? or is it just a waste of time and space
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I don't think it would be a waste of time.
Only wish we knew of everyone who may have paid for geckos from Derek.
Am sure that not everyone knows of this thread at this point in time.
 
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