Watch out for SCAMMERS!!

[Cactussnowman]

A while back I made a post “Female Operculicarya Wanted,” a month or two later, a person that was anonymous (no name for agaveville) posted and said to send an email to goslingvans@aol.com.

Anonymous
Rhizome
ONLINE
Re: Female Operculicarya Decaryi
Sent: Mon Aug 12, 2024 4:52 am
From: Anonymous
Recipient: Cactussnowman
if anyone can find one, its this guy KLC and he lives in the land of OZ, so you have that going for you. his email goslingvans@aol.com

I sent an email with my phone number to goslingvans and told him I was interested in female Decaryi and Pachypus. He emailed back @ 1am with pictures and prices of Pachypus, and a picture of a 7ft Decaryi. He also had a bible script attached to his email, to make him seem like he was a believable god fearing man. I didn’t check my emails for a few days, so he sent me a text asking if I was interested still. I told him yes, and asked for prices. He stated that he had 5male and 3female Pachypus available for $45 each. I told him I wanted all 8 Pachypus and the Decaryi,for the bargain price of $370, and ONLY $35 to ship all of those. The picture he sent was a female Pachypus that was easily a couple hundred dollars. WOW!! Great deal right? My BS meter was going off already, but I wanted to see if his Zelle payment name matched the name he had given me, which was Gosling Evans. After inputting the number he gave me (which was different than the number he was texting from) the name ADESUBOMI OJUGBELE came up. I inquired as to why the names did not match, he told me that was his step daughter’s name and that she was in possession of the female Pachypus. Obvious RED FLAGS everywhere. I told him I would not send any money unless he was able to provide a picture of him with all the plants and a picture of his Illinois drivers license. He sent a picture of an Illinois ID with the name Gosling Evans obviously photoshopped onto the ID.

I did not send payment and just wanted everyone to be aware of this SCAM.

[Fairview]

Got the same scam also. Contacted the forum member to confirm that this email belonged to him. He confirmed it wasn't. Diamond82 is no longer a member of the forum.

[Cactussnowman]

I have a picture of the guy along with his address. The name is obviously photoshopped on the Illinois ID he sent. He didn’t want to send the ID # because he knew I could check to see the real name.

[Meangreen94z]

I got the same pm. I didn’t even respond to it. I’ve dealt with KLC directly many times . He lives in Arizona not Australia.

[Gafoto]

Seems like quite a bit of work to scam people on an Agave focused forum. How much are you really going to be able to scam someone out of? $50?

[Cactussnowman]

Scammers scam cause it works. If I woulda fell for the scam, 1 Decaryi and 8 Pachypus, it woulda been $405 with shipping. Even @ $50, you get 10 people to fall for it, that’s an easy $500.

I agree though, I wouldn’t have expected a scam on here.

Just wanted to raise awareness.

[Gee.S]

Scammers scam cause it works. If I woulda fell for the scam, 1 Decaryi and 8 Pachypus, it woulda been $405 with shipping. Even @ $50, you get 10 people to fall for it, that’s an easy $500.

I agree though, I wouldn’t have expected a scam on here.

Just wanted to raise awareness.

It shouldn't work. I know of no way for someone to contact you on this forum unless they first register. Without registering, they can find you on Insta. But if they have registered and have little to no history here, ignore the contact. Just common sense, right?

[Meangreen94z]

Seems like quite a bit of work to scam people on an Agave focused forum. How much are you really going to be able to scam someone out of? $50?

A lot of the scams come from Africa, where $50 might be a decent score, but likely they are hunting for vulnerable older individuals that can be manipulated into a much larger sum. They do it as a profession over there, even glamorize and advertise their success on social media etc.

[Spination]

Maybe not the best logic, but the name Gosling as a first name sounds like total BS right out of the gate. And fittingly, it sounds like he led a wild (baby) goose chase...

[Azuleja]

I've noticed on Facebook that a common tactic now is for scammers to "recommend" someone else to contact as if this adds more trustworthiness than offering the item directly. In reality they control both accounts. At least here, problem accounts are removed promptly. On Facebook you can report but absolutely nothing is done.

[BronxFatty]

Enquiries made on Facebook for Operc. pachypus specimen-size plants generate a private message from some guy named Steve, located in North Carolina, who was selling large melon-sized Operc. pachypus for $100.00 + $35.00 for shipping. WOW!

In my excitement, I told him I would send him a "cash" money order for a plant. He then provided group-shot pics of eight, beautiful-looking Opercs, but without any identifying notations, or numbers, which would've made selecting a specific plant, easier. I asked him to either identify or thumb-nail all the plants he had for sale so I could select an individual plant. I wanted to know what I was buying, after all. I started to detect a whiff of bull-s***

He told me no money orders, just use Zelle, or pay by using his credit-card link. I told him absolutely not....I would take my chances and send him a money order, even though I had no ideas about who he was and if the plants were legit. Things went downhill fast, at this point. If the guy selling the plants was honest, I would've bought me a plant that was easily worth at least $1,000.00 + and decades old.

Gone. Never heard from him again.

Caveat emptor.

[Merlyn2220]

I've noticed on Facebook that a common tactic now is for scammers to "recommend" someone else to contact as if this adds more trustworthiness than offering the item directly. In reality they control both accounts. At least here, problem accounts are removed promptly. On Facebook you can report but absolutely nothing is done.

This has happened recently on PalmTalk too. I received a polite PM from some recent join member saying, "Hey I saw you were looking for Carpentaria. You should contact xxxx@gmail.com." I may have been born at night, but it wasn't last night. Apparently this person sent a bunch of other similar messages, because before I could even report them the Admins had banned them and posted a sticky popup warning about those messages.

[meridannight]

For the record, I would never send a picture of my ID, drivers licence, passport, or anything with my real name on it to strangers on the internet. And I think it's inappropriate to ask for such details. Ever heard of identity theft? I know this case is a bit different, since he photoshopped a fake name on an image of someone else's ID. But I would just flat refuse to provide details of my ID to strangers. I'm not that desperate for a sale.

Sellers are just as vulnerable to scamming as buyers are. Some people forget that. I sell plants as well, and this is the reality even with legit sellers. There's always a red flag to be found somewhere. There's always someone who thinks one detail or another is indicative of a scam. I've had sales fail because of this, and unfortunately I have no way of proving 100% I'm not a scammer until the buyer actually receives the plant(s). In such cases I just advise the buyers to come pick up the plant in person. Failing that there's not much else I can do, and it is what it is.

Of course, this case did have some sure red flags (like African names). But I just want to point out it's not only the buyers who are targets for scamming.