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I recieved an email yesterday about an 02 male het for hypo tangerine hondurian I had for sale.

The first email asked how much I was asking (which the ad plainly stated). I told him $150 plus shipping.

The following is the email I recieved from him:

chris john wrote:
Hello Thmas,
Thanks for your mail,Since the cost of your snake is $150 i just contacted my client about the cost of your snake and it present condition and he said there is no problem about that.So my client said he will be issuing you a certified cashier check of $1900 while you wire to me my Shipping agent that will come and pick it up at your location $1700 through western union and you deduct the cost of your snake $150 and keep the remaining $50 which my client said you should take for the terms of transaction and agreement between you and my client.So i will like you to send me your full contact information to where my client will be sending you the certified cashier check like this:
name.........
full address.............
city...............
state.............
country..........
zipcode............
cell/office/home phone number.......................
I will look forwar d to the requested information as soon as possible so that the check can be sent out to you immediately.Get back to me immediately.So i will want you to get back to me with the Pics of the snake,so that my client will be able to see what he is paying off.
Looking forward to your respond,
Best Regards,

I responded with:

Chris,

This sounds a little weird to me. I have never done a transactions like this before. Are you shipping the snake overseas? So the buyer will be sending me a check for $1900 and then I am to western union you the $1700 and keep $200 for myself? Who will be coming to pick up the snake? Am I packing it or is someone else? Who pays for the shipping? I only ship within the 48 Contiential US states. Who pays the Western Union fee? I do not ship an animal until all checks have cleared. Let me know and then I will give you my info.

thanks

tom

The email I recieved back from him said:

chris john wrote:
Thanks for your mail, If this is okay by you, provide your contact details and phone number so that payment will be made out to you pls if realy you are intrested pls i am in need of the
following daters.
FULL NAME.............
FULL ADDRESS............
CITY.....
STATE............
ZIPCODE.......
PHONE NO........ --

I responded with:

Chris,

You answered none of my questions and I do not just give out my info to anyone. I can accept a payment via www.paypa.com sent to (xtremeherps@yahoo.com). I do not understand what a "daters" is.

tom

This just all sound a little weird to me. Why would someone pay that much for a $150 snake even out of the country. I can import cheaper than that. Any comments

thanks

tom

xtremeherps@yahoo.com

It's a variation on a basic scam or grift. They send you a "check" that looks real enough that a bank may even accept it.
If you (foolishly) complete the rest of the transaction before the bank finds out that it's not legit...you are out not only the snake (which they don't give a rat's ass about), but any money which you refund them. The bank will hold YOU responsible for the money, even if they accepted the check initially. There was a news story recently about a similar scam involving the purchase of a boat.
If they want the snake, tell them to send the exact amount, and you will send the snake once THE CHECK CLEARS....After you tell them that, they will not want to have anything to do with you.
Good luck. Duffy

Duffy is 100% correct. This is a major scam going on around the world. The people who do this use everything from small items, in your case snakes, to land and houses!!

There was a special on 20/20 about this scam about 2 months ago.

The checks they issue are fake and will bounce, leaving the person responsible for the amount of the check, plus any fees the bank charges for bouncing a check.

The best thing to do is to send this guys emails and his email address to the Better Business Bureau and let them handle it.

Brian Baker

i agree with draybar..if they wanted to buy it, why would they send you nearly 2000$?
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 albino corn snake ; Shmee
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Andy

It is a scam. I had a guy try to do the same thing to me by dsending me around $700 for a $75($40=shipping) snake needless to say, i refused then reported him and have never heard anything since.
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~~~Amy~~~
my zoo LOL
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>>>My Website is finally ready for the public!

The same person offered almost the same deal $2900 for $200 shipped pair of snakes.

I refused and said I did not understand and this was the reply.

Thanks for your mail,I will like to start by telling you that i am an agent working in U.K and working on getting what you want and i have a client who is in need of a (snake) and that i have settled with you,i will like to tell you that i am the middle man doing the transaction for my client so as to get what he wants,and that is way he is not showing up in this until he gets to see the (snake),i will like to tell you that the excess money drawn to the check that will be issued to you is for my comission,and he should have given me cash but he hasnon at hand and he should have issued me my check but here in africa an american check would not be cleared here and i do not have a domisilary account,so all i am asking is a favour for you to clear the whole money and cash it from the bank then you would do a money transfer of the balance to my Shipping agent as soon as the check is cleared,i will be expecting your reply soonest,i will really appreciate your effort towards this .So i will want you to get to with your Full Contact informations for the Payment to be on the way to your locations.
Best Regards.

I told him thanks but no thanks. I was not sure what was going on but only knew that I wanted no part in it. Even if everything is as stated I wanted no part of it.

If that guy sent you that email with all those spelling mistakes, certainly can see why it looks so fony

I suggest for all of you have been approached by this scam, is send copies of it all including the contact info you have (email addy, name etc) to the FBI to investigate. They have a tip email addy to send this sort to stuff. One way to get rid of these scammers before they rip off people. It's what I do with all the email I get from scammers.

first he says hes working in the UK, then says "here in africa".....
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0.0.1 pacific gopher snake ; Mich
0.0.1 amel corn snake ; Andy
0.0.1 motley corn snake ; Shmee

I've successfully tracked people all the way to their doorstep if we can get our hands on that IP. If anything we'll at least know what country he's really from...

it's in the e-mail "header" which typically you have to enable in most e-mail programs to see.

That's right up there with the "I'm a relative of an important politician in {insert African country, usually Nigeria, here} and we'll pay you 10 percent of the 25 million we have if you'll help us get it out of the country, and all you have to do is give us your bank account number" scam.

Yeah, right.

Don't fall for it.

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Pituophis

this is a variation on the scam Duffy reffered to. I used to get several emails from "nigerian political lawyers" (yeah right) who wanted to pay me 100k or more to help them bring some money into the us. I followed through on one one time and was told I had to send them 3 thousand dollars to cover some mysterious fees associated with the transaction. When I talked to the guy, who I could barely understand, i asked why he didn't just pay the "nominal" fees and send me the $$$ but he kept saying how if i was ganna get 100thou then 3 thou isn't that high of a price and i should borrow it from family so i can be rich! I told him I was going to forward his information to the local authorities because I believed he was a scammer and he hung up. That was the last email I got of the sort.
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Dianne
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