The Worries of Selling Pets on The Internet

I put an advertisement up on a Pet Sale website for my Leopard Gecko and I've gotten several emails like this.

"good day, TONNY is my name and i reside in utah, i actualy saw the advert of your pet for adoption on the net , i am highly keen interested in giving the pet a good home of her life, i will love to view the pics of the pet if available and more so i will like to know the last asking price of the pet. more so i will arrange a shipping company that are capable in shipping pets across the coast ,be it a day old pets or over age pet Their will be a proper vet check will be carried out before shipping the pet by the shipping company vet doctor's inorder to ensure that the pet is in good health when they get to where they will pick the pet. . and then my mode of payment will be in a money order check or a cashier check, feel free to contact the shipping company concerning the shipping at (I removed the email) . hope to here from you soonest. thanks and GOD bless"

I'm almost afraid to ship my gecko to anyone when 90% of the emails are completely ridiculous.

My advice is to just wait around untill you can find somone who isn't going to turn it into a huge fiasco.

You pretty much have to go with your gut feeling. I'm sure I can speak for many others that you have to be careful. I've gotten some pretty wild emails as well.

E-mails like that are typically part of an cashier check fraud/counterfiters scheme in which you are going to be the sucker. They send you a cashier check that by "mistake" is in excess of the amount you asked for the animals and want you to send them the difference when you cash the check. What typically occurs is that they have doctored a real cashier's check for a much smaller amount of money to a larger sum. There are a lot of bigger people who no longer even accept cashier's checks or money orders because of this problem.
see http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Nigerian/counterfeit_cashiers_check_scams.htm for more information.

I had a couple of people try this on some ball pythons I was selling.

Ed

I had something similar when I was trying to sublease my apartment.

If the people can't type out WHAT the animal is, and just say 'the pet', then you can be pretty sure it's a scam.

If someone sends an actual email, and is interested, try to get them on the phone to discuss things. Then you can be a little more sure of their intentions, and it's easy to read caller ID or do a *69 to be sure of the phone number.

Yeah. I know it has to be a scam. It is literally the exact same e-mail with the name replaced.

I got nailed with one of those with my bussiness. I lost almost 1,700.

It's tough selling through the mail sometimes. That reminds me. Have any of You purchased axolotls from Judie Urie or Andrew from North American Reptile and Supply Company? Their check for 50 axolotls got lost in the mail and I'm having trouble re-establishing contact with them.
Best
Michael

That sucks that people will do that to someone....isnt there anymore honest people out there!! Good luck selling your Gecko...I hope you find a good home for him/her!