Birds from Africa? Hmmm. . .

[MaraJade]

As some of you know, I am searching for a male lovie to pair up with a female I am getting from Lori in trade for one of my babies.

I posted on a few forums about it. This morning I got this email:
i'm located in cameroon,africa.note i'm going to ship
at my own expense.thus i'll like to know exactly the
type of male bird u'll love to have.
thanks Asumba.

This seems a bit odd to me. Forgive me for being paranoid, but since Africa IS where lovies come from do you suppose he is planning on sending me a tame lovie that is a pet or is he going to go outside and catch one from a tree? Also, the fact that he is going to pay for shipping seems weird too. Why would you do that?

I'm not going to do this. The chances of something going wrong are too great. But I was just curious as to what you all thought of this. Seems a bit odd to me.

[linda040899]

Jessie,
This is a scam. In order to ship to the US, you have to go through an importer and all birds coming into the US must be quarantined for 30 days in an approved quarantine facility. Delete this e-mail, as it's nothing but a way to get money while you would get nothing in return. I'm wondering how many others got this same e-mail.........

[Janie]

Yep, the word "scam" came to mind immediately when I read that.

Jessie, I had to laugh when you asked if maybe he was going to go outside and get one out of a tree! :D I guess you really could do that in Africa!

[MaraJade]

Yea, the first thing I thought when I read this was "sure, I send you $50 for a bird via paypal or something and I get nothing in return."

And yes, I did think that maybe he'd just go out and trap some poor unsuspecting wild lovie. Stranger things have happened. :)

I emailed him back asking if they were tame and stuff just to see what he'd say, but I obviously would not give anything to this guy.

People are really sad sometimes.

[jknezek]

this is a big problem with african greys. people respond to these ads and send hundreds of dollars without doing the research to find out that this is a) illegal and b) completely impractical. I'm glad you asked before sending these scammers money. the internet is wonderful and dangerous...

[Paulette]

Yes.....most likely a scam.....I started asking around after I'd viewed some of the ads for birds for sale linked at the birdsnways site before I adopted......lots of the ads specifiy....NO Scams.....No Certified Checks.....No Money Orders......people in foreign countries have been sending fake C. Checks/MO's to the US....ask the person they are purchasing from to cash it and send back the change....and of course they always send far above what they are purchasing......good that you are on your toes....Jessie. :)
paulette

[Rubygem]

And when they don't want any money, they want information ;) If you been watching the news...a lot of id theft going on now days from the internet...just like the ebay update your account... :roll: I don't have an account with them to update, but I can't tell you how many e-mails I got that want me to update my information. If you get an e-mail that wants you to update information, a good thing to do is to call the bank, or ebay, or what ever they are saying you need to update, to find out if it is legit or not.

Rubygem

[MaraJade]

I've been getting that ebay thing too. I hate stuff like that because you always worry that it might be real. Ergh!

I haven't heard back from this guy about his magic ever-filling basket of male lovebirds. lol

[linda040899]

One of the easiest ways to spot a fraudulent e-mail that asks you to update your account information is to check the headers on the e-mails. Many of the ones that ask for bank account information verification come from outside the US. When I see ebay using an address that ends in .uk, I know right away that this is not something to which I want/should respond to.

Think about what's being asked before doing anything.

[Jezz]

Yup, this is a scam. I have had many people email me regarding the bird i have for sale. Most say they are from either Cameroon or the UK. Fortunately here in Australia we can report these people :D
The way i can tell if it is a scam is if the person emailing me refers to the particular birds i have for sale as 'birds'. They don't actually state which species or anything like that.