Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I'm not sure exactly what i'm allowed to report here, but here goes:

Someone is apparently offering for sale snakes I own and am NOT selling. At least one picture has been forwarded to me from a herper who was offered some rare hondurans. The photo he was sent is MY photo and it is of a snake i STILL own and have in my possession. There is no way someone else could be selling that snake.

I've been told the same thing has happened with a few other of my snakes, though I've not yet seen confirming data on that.

Please exercise extreme care if you're offered rare hondurans -- the snakes offered apparently included tangerine albinos, a vanishing pattern hypo (the one picture i've seen so far and have been able to confirm is actually mine), a ghost, and others.

This happened about a year ago and was reported to the FBI in the offender's area. Once I've gotten sufficient documentation I'll report him again. In the meantime,

a) if an offer sounds too good to be true, it probably is;

b) if someone you've never heard of suddenly is selling a variety of extremely hard-to-get and rarely-produced hondo morphs, take time to wonder how that could be;

c) if you're offered rare morphs, compare the pictures of them with pix on my website or on the websites of others who have produced that rare type before, and if you come across seeming matches, let me or them know.

As the officer on Hill Street Blues used to say, "be careful out there, it's a jungle."

peace
terry dunham
albino tricolors

If you find yourself being offered snakes in these circumstances, do all you can to document the seller's offer. Get precise offer details in writing, in an email, for example, rather than in a phone conversation...particularly the assertion that the snake in the picture is the snake he's offering for sale.

A scam like this can cost you or your friends on the forum thousands of dollars, so the little extra effort to get the documentation law enforcement officers need is well worth the trouble.

thanks
terry dunham
albino tricolors

...you know what they say about the sincerest form flattery!

It says something about the quality of your animals that someone would chose them to run a scam.

I hope they are caught quickly and recieve the fullest extent of the law!