Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I had a very suspicious person contact me the other day to purchase some boas. The person initially wanted my address to forward a cashier’s check to me. He also told me that I should give him a day and time to have his carrier pick the animals up.

When I replied, I asked for a number to contact him at or for him to call me. In his reply, he told me that he was deaf and could barely speak. Perhaps substantiating this, I could tell from his email that his grammar and English were rather broken. But again, he insisted that I give him my address to mail the check and so he could arrange a pickup with his friend/carrier.

In my reply, I asked him to give me the contact info for his carrier and that he should get the payment to his “carrier” such that I could meet the carrier somewhere and make the swap.

He emailed again and was very insistent that I give him my address. In my last reply, I said that I would not be giving out my address without making voice contact with him or his carrier. At that point, I was really freaked out.

In his last reply, he was a bit irritated “that I didn’t trust him” and said he would buy snakes elsewhere.

Has anyone else had this happen? If there is a place where I can list suspicious email addresses/persons like this, let me know where it is.

Matthew

Scan thru acouple of the previous days post and you'll see a thread on this scam.
If they want an address so bad,send'em the address and phone number of a local massage parlor in your area

rotfl....

M/

that deaf thing is kind of new, but its the same pattern we all get. Sometimes it talks about "merchandise" instead of snakes. I think what they do is collect everyones names from KS, Craigslist, etc. and do mass mailouts in the hopes of hooking 1 in a 1000.
I always wanted to send a reply of "you got to be kidding", or "does it say SCAM ME in my ad", but I never do because I don't want to converse with criminals.
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Dave Lee

np
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

.
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Dave Lee

Does that mean the boogie man will jump out of your monitor ?
Most mail clients(yahoo,hotmail) people use to play in "forums" like these offer a "spam" option,not only does it block it from your email but the offenders IP is logged and blocked.
If you dont use a mail client that offers some kind of "total block" option its your own fault !

My $.¼

M/

tell them you work for local law enforcement and ask if they can come by the station! if it is a scam...it will bring the situation to a close real quick.

i have kids at my home and would never give my address to a stranger...you made a good move not to as well.
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www.theboahouse.com
www.myinfoservice.com

____

signature file edited; contact an admin. phw 7/19/05

I have received that info also. They also were persistent in getting my address. I replied with the following:

I'm sorry but I can't accept money orders or cashiers checks from overseas at this time. There is currently a big FBI investigation where people are sending money orders and askng people to send the remainder of the money back. I know that many people will be arrested and prosecuted for doing this type of crime and I cannot risk being involved. If you are serious about the purchase then I assume you will pay me with paypal. If not then I will assume this is a scam and forward your emails to The Secret Service. I am not trying to be mean but I can't take those types of chances. You can read information at this link " http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml".

I never heard from them again. This is really becoming a problem and in order to stop these guys from doing this is by reporting these guys to the authorities and letting them know that we are on to their game. I just hope that not too many people fall victims to these scammers.

I seldom get involved with these types of discussions, but you raisesd 2 points of concern that seem normal to me.

First, I give out my mailing address quite freely; if you accept Cashiers' Checks, Postal Money Orders, Bank Checks, etc., how else could you expect someone to send money to you?

Secondly, having a brother-in-law who is deaf, I understand that those in the deaf community do have a difficult time communicating via telephone. Everything you stated in your post seems quite normal to me.

This may very well be a scam, but nothing you said in your post would convince me that it is. I do not recall you stating that this inquiry was from overseas.

I would accept the Cashiers' Check, deposit it with my bank, and wait for it to clear (the same as a personal check) before shipping any animals.

Just some positive spin on all the negative comments.

Bill Gaines

www.gainesreptiles.com

bill@gainesreptiles.com

I completely understand what you are saying. Maybe I should of been more specific. First I received email stating that they were interested in a purchase and that they wanted an address to send a cashiers check. The next email I received from the person stated that they would send more then I requested (about 1k more) and asked if I would forward the remainder of the funds to a shipper friend of his. I did not get supicious until the person kept avoiding giving me his contact information and kept pressing the issue of sending me money and forwarding the rest.

So do not get me wrong, I am not saying that anyone that contacts you is a scam artist but we can't pretend they don't exist. Do check out this link - http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml

.
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Dave Lee

.
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Dave Lee

Hi Matthew,

This is a very old scam here is the whole story of when they tried to scam me. I posted this on the BOI.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Hi everyone,

Yes HARRY JAMES / MARTINS / FRED MARK is a scam artist.
He contacted me on 04/18/2003 about my male Suriname I had for sale. He proposed that a client of his in the U.S. owed him $2100, and he would like that client to send the money to me, I was to keep the money for the snake, and send the balance to him. He told me I should wait for the check to clear. It sounded fishy to me, so I checked out the board of inquiry and found out more about his scam. I decided to play along with him to see if there was something I could do to stop him. I asked him to send payment, and he sent a forged check from a bank in the U.S. I contacted the bank and forwarded the check to them, as they are working with the secret service to try and stop him. However, they stated that because it was an international fraud, there is not enough money to send someone over there to investigate this. I also contacted the FBI, who gave me the same response. They are basically just collecting info, in case this person is ever caught, in order to prosecute a case against him. I was hoping that I could do more, but apparently this type of thing is very widespread, and hard to stop.

Here are all the e-mails from him & my e-mail to him.

harry james Friday, April 18, 2003 6:51 PM

HELLO.

Am a dealer in africa who buy snakes and artiques for sale. Am interested in your "Spot" Male Suriname Boa, Born 1/98 3 ft long. I will want to know the price quotation. In respect of shipping, i have a reputable shipper in the u.s who takes care of my shipping. Pls mail me asap to arrange payment. Thanks.

M.MARTINS

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McCarthy Boas wrote:

Hi M Martins,

I will need the shipping address to get you a price on shipping the male Suriname "Spot" for you. I don't have a importer / exporter license so will your shipper be able to take care of all the paper work for shipping the Suriname to you?

The Suriname is tame, healthy and eats 1 medium frozen thawed rat every 14 to 18 days.
Here are some recent pictures of him.

To help you get a idea on his size I am 6' 2" tall and 260 lbs. in this picture.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

harry james Sunday, April 20, 2003 10:00 AM

HELLO.
Thanks for the mail. As for the shipping, my shipper will take care of both the paper work and the shippment so you should not worry about the shipping. All yoou have to do is to furnish me the price quotation. Hope to hear from you. Thanks.
M.MARTINS.
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harry james Monday, April 21, 2003 9:33 AM

HELLO.

Thanks for the mail. In respect of payment. I have a client in the u.s who is oweing me $2,100 all i will do is to instruct him to issue a cashiers check on your name and when it clears in your bank you can deduct your money and help send my balance via u.b.a. money gram transfer to my secetary, he will use it to pay a prepay shipping cost to the shipping company so that they can instruct thier office in the u.s to come to your location and pick it for shippment. I will like to know if i can trust you to help send my balance. Am doing this to make the payment easier and faster.

Furnish me with your name, address and phone number so that i can forward it to my client who will be sending the check for payment. Thanks.

M.MARTINS.

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McCarthy Boas wrote:

Hi M Martins,

I will need the shipping address of your shipper in the USA to get you a price on shipping the male Suriname "Spot" to him.

I have shipped reptiles to NYC for $65.00 and Seattle Washington for over $80.00.
So I need his address to get the right price for shipping.

I am firm on the price of $450.00 US. for the male Suriname.

Thanks
Tom McCarthy
www.McCarthyBoas.com
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McCarthy Boas wrote:
Hi M. Martins

To be honest, I'm a little uncomfortable with this transaction. My main concern is for the well-being of Spot and shipping him all the way to Africa. If, for any reason, the package gets held up at the airport or in customs, etc., I don't think he will make it alive. I appreciate your interest, but I think I'm going to pass on this sale. I apologize for any inconvenience.

Thank you,
Tom
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harry james Tuesday, April 22, 2003 6:26 AM

HELLO.
Thanks for the mail. I can assure you that the shippment will be o.k. This is not the first time am dealing with boas. I have been into this business for the past ten years and also i have been dealing with my shipper for the past seven years. The shipping will be o.k. All i want to know is if i can trust you with my balance. As for the shipping, don't worry. Hope to hear from you. Thanks.
M.MARTINS.
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McCarthy Boas wrote:
Hi M. Martins,

I am an honest person, you can trust me with the balance, that's not the problem. I'm just concerned about the shipping. Will your shipper use an overnight service like UPS or FedEx, or do they ship the animals themselves? If it's overnight, GUARANTEED by early the next day, I'll agree to it.

Thanks,

Tom McCarthy
xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Porter, Indiana 46304

I took out my address so it is not public info.
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harry james
Tuesday, April 22, 2003 5:33 PM

HELLO.
Thanks for the mail. Yea it's overnight. Since you said i can trust you to send my balance via u.b.a money gram, then i have already forwarded your address to my client and he as assure me that the check will soon get to you. So you should be expecting it soonest. If it's get to you, don't hesitate to mail me. Thanks.
M.MARTINS.
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harry james
Monday, May 05, 2003 2:25 PM

HELLO.

Thanks for the mail. I hope the check muct have gotten to you by now, cos my client told me that he as sent it four days ago. I will want you to get my balance sent via moneygram transfer to my secetary for him to forward it to the shipping company, for the shipping company to instruct their office in the u.s to come to your location and pick it for shippment. So therefore i will want you to get it ready for shippment. I will want you to go to any moneygram outlet where you can send my balance.

The information that you need to send my balance via moneygram is as follows.

name- FRED MARK.

address- 50 MAINLAND STREET, LAGOS ISLAND,

LAGOS- NIG.

I will need the following moneygram transfer information from you after the money as been sent.

(1) SENDERS NAME AND ADDRESS.

(2) AMOUNT SENT.

(3) TEXT QUESTION AND ANSWER.

(4) THE CONTROL NUMBER.

I will want to her from you as soon as possible. Thanks.

M.MARTINS.

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harry james
Wednesday, May 07, 2003 10:45 AM

HELLO.
I have not hear from you since the check got to you. I will want you to mail me and also i will want to have your phone number. Hope to hear from you. Thanks.
MARTINS.
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McCarthy Boas wrote:

Hello

I'm sorry I haven't had a chance to get back to you, work has been very busy. I will try to make arrangements for your money transfer tomorrow. I'll email you with all the info as soon as I have it.

Thank you,
Tom
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harry james
Wednesday, May 07, 2003 1:02 PM

HELLO.
Thanks for the mail. I will want you to go to any moneygram outlet where you can wire my balance. Here is the information you need to wire my balance via money gram once again
name- FRED MARK.

address- 50 MAINLAND STREET, LAGOS ISLAND,

LAGOS- NIG.

I will need the following moneygram transfer information from you after the money as been sent.

(1) SENDERS NAME AND ADDRESS.

(2) AMOUNT SENT.

(3) TEXT QUESTION AND ANSWER.

(4) THE REFERENCE NUMBER.

I will want to also have your phone number. I will be expecting your mail tommorow. Thanks.

M.MARTINS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

harry james

Thursday, May 08, 2003 7:20 AM

HELLO.
I will want to let you know that am waiting to have the moneygram informations after my balance has been sent. Hope to hear from you soon. Thanks.
MARTINS.
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harry james
Friday, May 09, 2003 5:57 PM

HELLO.
Thanks for the mail. My secetary said he has not seen the moneygram info yet. am still expecting the info. Mope to hear from you. Thanks.
MARTINS.
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As of 06/18/2003 I have not received any more e-mails from Harry / MARTINS I guess he has given up on me sending him his money. LOL Funny how he never asked how the Suriname was doing.

Take care,
Tom McCarthy

P.S. Matthew I am still waiting for the shipper to show up LOL.
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McCarthyBoas.com

...even the broken grammar is all very similar.

I should have been more specific in my initital post. Based on what I have read now, I am 100% sure this was a nightmare waiting to happen.

The guy DID offer me a $4000 check and said I would have to give him the balance back. He also was very vehement about NOT sending me ANY paypal deposit. He mentioned he was in England but his carrier is here.

He did talk about his “carrier” and refused my request to let me talk with his carrier. So unless he AND his carrier BOTH had an insurmountable speech barrier, he was probably trying to pull the fast one on me and there would have been no reason to not have the carrier talk to me about it.

In addition, some of the posts above seem to allude that it might have been some type of spam thing. This was no spam. He/she specifically mentioned the various boas I had for sale.

I just felt it my duty to share it here.

It's quite easy to speak with a deaf personon the phone... of course youre talking to a relay operator who is relaying what you say into text for them...and relaying the deaf callers text into verbage for you. It's quite simple.
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recycle your pets

1) If someone is wanting to send you more than your asking price and wanting you to then send the rest back......ALARM BELLS should be going off in your head. What legitimate reason could there really be. And if there really is a legitimate reason then the buyer should be willing to wait for the payment to clear.

2) Never, I repeat...NEVER, send anything out (reptiles, goods, CASH etc.) until the form of payment they have used CLEARS. If dealing with someone you know and have dealt with before, you could make exceptions to this rule.
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Thanks,

Dave "Rainbows-R-Us"

0.1 Wife
0.2 kids
4.12 Brazilian Rainbow Boa
1.1 Ball python
0.1 BCI "Elvira" normal from 1989
1.0 BCI albino / het-anery
0.1 BCI Hypo / het-albino
0.1 BCI Anery / het-albino
0.1 BCI Hypo (possible super)

lots.lots.lots feeder mice and rats

I figured it MUST be a scam, but I corresponded for a while with
the forger, criminal, scam artist.

Here are some of the headings from the replies this idiot sent
me. They get progressively more desperate, and more hilarious.
He started talking about his wife having cancer and being
operated on today, so he needed the cash to fly and see her.

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/13 Wed PM 07:00:39 EDT
Subject: GET BACK ASAP!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu AM 12:55:47 EDT
Subject: YOUR DETAILS IS NEEDED FOR PAYMENT!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu AM 01:17:14 EDT
Subject: DETAILS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu AM 09:39:24 EDT
Subject: URGENT RESPONSE NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu AM 11:20:37 EDT
Subject: PAYMENT AND SHIPPING WITH TRUST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu PM 07:29:12 EDT
Subject: GET BACK ASAP!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/14 Thu PM 08:25:44 EDT
Subject: URGENT NEEDED!!!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/21 Thu PM 10:55:01 EDT
Subject: I WAN'T TO KNOW TODAY!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/29 Fri PM 07:02:33 EDT
Subject: GO AND CASHED IT RIGHTNOW

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/29 Fri PM 10:24:18 EDT
Subject: DO AS INSTRUCTED!!!!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/29 Fri PM 11:36:27 EDT
Subject: BUSINESS IS ALL ABOUT TRUST!!!!!!

From: jan kelvin Add to Address Book
Date: 2005/07/30 Sat AM 12:22:28 EDT
Subject: TRUST ME AS I HAVE TRUST IN YOU!!!!!!!!

This is unbelievable. I got another TWO emails, much like the first one I described, but from different email addresses. All had these things in common: they wanted my mailing address, would not give me a phone number nor call me, and they refused to paypal me to begin the transaction.

I am really spooked at how someone would be so insistent on getting my address. It almost makes me wonder whether someone would really be trying to get into a house, rather than just send a money order there. Creepy.

If I cannot get voice confirmation/a phone number from a customer and I do not know them or of them, from now on, I will require a certain percentage of paypal down payment to avoid this hoopla.

Be on the lookout. I could not imagine the feeling if I were to come home to my place being broken into to find my stuff stolen.

Matthew

what has happened is a text book case of the nigerian check scam...and it has been going on all summer to countless people..these people run check scams of all kinds, and have now found the snake breeding market,,,and they also know that the summer time is when most of the babies are born...they will always have a so called second party thats going to pick up the snake...and they usually want to offer more money than asked, and ask you to send the balance back to them....meanwhile the check bounces a couple days after deposit....this is a scam and ive seen about a dozen other cases very similar to this one all through this summer...there is no doubt in my mind that it happened here...be careful everyone...