Fake addy scam

[PhilinYuma]

Here's a scam that has been going on for years, usually involving the international mailing of illicit materials. I had not heard of it being used for the shipping of mantids until recently, though.

The sender/scammer says that he/she is going to use a fake address on the the "from" part of the shipping label and sender's declaration on the Customs Declaration so that Customs or the USPS on domestic shipping, will not be able to trace the package if it is seized. In the case of mantids, this is fine, though unnecessary.

The scam occurs when the seller tells the buyer that it is not possible to send a tracking number. This is nonsense, of course. If you pay for Priority with one of the notification options, your tracking number will be posted on the USPS forum regardless of the sender's address. The information is pretty scanty compared with Express, but at least you know that a shipment has been made and the sender knows that it has been recieved. Usually you will hear this excuse after the package has failed to arrive.

This applies to all US priority mail, but not some European countries and some countries, like Australia seem to lose the data altogether. In that case you may wish to pay the extra for Express mail if you have any doubts.

 

[jetsky82]

How/where did you hear of this happening in regard to mantis shipping? I don't see any recent Breeder Feedback where this happened- is it through Ebay or some other venue?

Here's a scam that has been going on for years, usually involving the international mailing of illicit materials. I had not heard of it being used for the shipping of mantids until recently, though.

The sender/scammer says that he/she is going to use a fake address on the the "from" part of the shipping label and sender's declaration on the Customs Declaration so that Customs or the USPS on domestic shipping, will not be able to trace the package if it is seized. In the case of mantids, this is fine, though unnecessary.

The scam occurs when the seller tells the buyer that it is not possible to send a tracking number. This is nonsense, of course. If you pay for Priority with one of the notification options, your tracking number will be posted on the USPS forum regardless of the sender's address. The information is pretty scanty compared with Express, but at least you know that a shipment has been made and the sender knows that it has been recieved. Usually you will hear this excuse after the package has failed to arrive.

This applies to all US priority mail, but not some European countries and some countries, like Australia seem to lose the data altogether. In that case you may wish to pay the extra for Express mail if you have any doubts.

 

[animalexplorer]

Thanks Phil for the heads up. Always nice to know how scammers try to take advantage of others.

 

[myles]

hows that a scam ?

so the actual scam is they never sent a package in the 1st place?

i think if anyone done that theyd be found out fairly quick with internet forums and feedback readily available and the "scam" would come to a swift halt

 

[PhilinYuma]

Yeah, that's right, and unless you know that the excuse just ain't true, it's easy to accept the scammer's word so long as they don't pull the same trick on the same mark too often. You probably read Rob Byatt's newsletter on scams, and this falls under his description of the "ooth swap" scam. As I mentioned, there are countries where it doesn't work, such as France, for example, but it works for the US where you can get tracking on just about anything.