Possible scam alert

[jtrux]

I have had an ad on CL for a couple months now for a few baby leopard tortoises and I regularly get low ballers and so forth but today I got something interesting and i'm passing it along just in case it turns out it was in fact a scam.

My ad is placed in the San Antonio CL and I received an email that went directly to my Gmail acct without going through CL. If you are not a frequent CL poster it may be hard to understand but basically CL will protect the poster and not use your email directly but rather they will use a CL email for you to correspond with potential sellers.

Anyways, email was from some lady asking for advice on a baby tortoise she had. At first I didn't think anything of it but she included a link to her website. It's something like www.schaunzerland.net or really close to that. And she also included a number. She or he or whomever it is, is from the TN area or at least that's where the number is from. I thought it was odd that someone from TN would be searching the San Antonio CL ads looking for tortoise sellers so that they could ask them for advice.

If you get something like this yourself I would question the authenticity of it and it's probably a good idea to just delete it.

 

[kanalomele]

Its good to be careful of course, but I myself search through all sorts of cl pages for tortoises. If I find one in trouble I post it here or send the link to a few rescue groups I am a part of. She may not have local resources (or may not know where they are) so she is reaching out to anyone that might have the information she needs. Was she asking for anything other than information? If not then direct her to TFO. At least you can get her to a resource and let her take it from there.

 

[Yvonne G]

Are you sure it came from Craig's list? Might it have come from a member here?

 

[mchong9606]

With scammers, if you click on a link it allows the possibility of them getting into your Gmail account and then they will try to access passwords, etc to get personal info from you and then the fraud begins. Just delete it.

 

[Jd3]

I found your email address on numerous postings with little effort. I wouldn't read too much into it. Don't click on unknown links and there is no danger in replying to an email.

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https://www.google.com/search?q=423-202-1610&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en&client=safari

I don't see anything terrifying here.

 

[jtrux]

That's why the title says possible scam, just letting people know what's going on.

 

[Jd3]

But what I'm saying is there is no scam going on. Instead, you both deleted an email asking for help and publicly called a business a scammer with no proof.....

 

[Vickie]

My guess would be she was just wanting what she asked for which was advise. I know before I found this forum I was having a rough time finding anything out about them except searching the i-net and then I would get conflicting ideas on how things were done. She might be finding herself in the same situation? I know I believe I stated before on here you never hardly hear of anyone owning a tortoise in our area....just not something heard of often. Then you throw that in with the fact the only place then you hear anything from is a pet store which we all know how wrong they can be on care of animals. Well, you know what I am saying.

 

[Greg T]

Using CL is tricky and getting abnormal emails more scary these days than before. I'd delete it too. Nothing wrong with sharing what may or may not be a scam. I get daily alerts here at work but not everybody understands how these potential scams work so thanks for the info.