Hello,
I recently thought that I sold my 2002 albino ball python to a guy in Houston Texas. He said he would send my a cashier's check for the snake. 3 days later I received a check for $9,500 (yea you heard me right). Anyways, he calls and told me that he had his lawyer send me the money order and asked that I send the remaining money to a shipping company in Colorado. He asked that I send it immeadiately via Western union. Anyways, I told him that although it was a money order, I would have to wait for the check to clear. As the story goes, I put the money order in the bank. 2 days later I checked my account and the $9,500 was listed as part of my account, but was not available for me to withdraw. My bank told me it would take another 2-3 days for the funds to be available. This guy called me 2 times a day begging me to send the money immeadiately and I constantly told him I needed to wait for it to clear. Anyways, the bank told me it should clear by last friday, so I waited. Wednesday night the bank manager himself called me and told me that the money order did not go through and the Federal reserve believed the money order to be counterfeit. At this point I realized that this guy was trying to rob me of a significant amount of cash. I have filed reports with the FBI, the local authorities, and the FBI computer Fraud department. I have meetings with all three agencies this week to give them all the needed evidence. Anyways, for everyone out there listen very carefully.
1) Money Orders and Cashiers check can be counterfeit but still end up in your acccount (but you cannot withdraw the funds)
2) My bank told me that you can put a "stop payment" on money orders or cashiers checks.
3) Please watch your money closely
Don't send ANY snakes or money to anyone ever unless the money order or cashiers check has cleared the bank and is available to withdraw. This situation has caused me alot of stress, time, and money. I was trying to sell my collection to get out of the hobby and the albino was the last animal to sell. Since I thought I had it sold, I let my account with Kingsnake expire (now I have to buy another month). I also could have sold that snake 1 month ago and had more money for christmas, now I have to start the whole sales thing over. Anyways, I was just posting this so everyone in the community watches out for this guy.
His email address is [bleep]
Regards,
Jerad Huepenbecker
HOOPY
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Edited to remove personal identifying information.
Edited on December 5, 2003 at 23:09:27 by phwyvern.
