Hey,
My name is Mason.
I'm 18 and live in Chicago. About 3 weeks ago and old friend called me up and asked me if I would like to do some business with him.
His name is Tony. I will not release his last name due to privacy issues but he can also go by the name of Anthony.
He claims he owns businesses in Florida and a house in Michigan.
This man imported me Pike Cichlids a long time ago and had done a few random jobs here and there for me so I trusted him.
His deal was that he was coming up to Chicago from Florida where he supposedly owns a "Wholesale Fish Business" to sell some plants and possibly open up a new wholesale business.
BUT!!! this is where it gets good....He wanted to know if I wanted to send him money so that he could import more plants than what he had originally purchased up to Chicago promising me that the plants where pre-sold to LFS's in my area and I would gain my money back and make 3 times what I send.
I trusted him and sent him 400.00 in USD to ship more plants up to Chicago.
I thought well if I made 1200.....thats great!!!
In days to come he was supposed to come up to Chicago but never did. I called him and He was still in Florida....I asked why and he said his plane had been can canceled several times due to flight delays. (Which now I think he just didn't have the cash to afford to fly to Florida.)
A few days later he calls me and asks me to send him MORE cash because the airlines charged him more to ship the plants up than he originally intended and now he could afford the flight. I had the money to but was like WTF?! I said no I couldn't afford to spare anymore cash. He eventually found the cash to do it and he arrived in Chicago.
The night i went and picked him up he asked if he could sleep on the couch at my house because the airline had lost his bag which had all his credit cards in it...Now he couldn't afford a hotel. I told him No. There was no chance I would ever let this man sleep in my own house. I asked him how much cash he actually had and he said none. HE DIDN'T BRING A CENT TO CHICAGO!!!!
So then I say lets pick up the plants so we can make our deliveries tomorrow.
He says "Um we can't. I shipped them with my corporate card and to pick them up I verify its me by showing the airlines the card I used to ship them. The card was lost in my bags...So we can pick them up tomorrow when my bag arrives"
I was like Ok, that works. That night I ended up tanking him to a Red roof Inn.
I paid for his hotel and paid for his meal that night. I kept a tab of all this money he was starting to owe me.
The next morning get this! I pick him up and he says to me:
"OK lets go to Home Depot and Wal-mart and we can buy plants there and re-package them and sell them to local pet stores as aquatic plants (which they were actually aquatic) while we wait for my bags to show up and we can claim our plants."
I took him to wal-mart and home depot he picked out plants and I ended up paying for them. Surprise surprise.
We went to LFS's and sold the plants and he kept telling them he was opening a facility in Chicago as a wholesaler and the name of the business was "Midwestern Exotic Aquatics"
We went on like this for a week and he was slowly paying back his debt to me.
We would sell, go back to home depot, pick up more plants, sell them to LFS. While each night I paid for the mans Hotel and Food.
During this time I was also telling him to call the airport to get his bags but he rarely did. I only witnessed him call once. Each day he had a new excuse why he couldn't pick up our plants.
One day while I was delivering he was reading our local newspaper and saw a classified add for a fish wholesaler for business.
We went there and worked out a deal with the owner that we would buy it off him. The way we'd do this is through a leverage buy. We took control of all the owners stock and sold most of it and half went to him and the other half to us (me and tony).
But I soon found out a lot about tony's background and how much trouble he is in. I dropped from the deal immediately without telling Tony and drove away.
Tony still owes me money and owes a lot of other people in chicago a lot of money. I would use strong caution all LFS of chicago who read this.
But as it is my fingers are tired and i have to go I will finish of the story later.
My name is Mason.
I'm 18 and live in Chicago. About 3 weeks ago and old friend called me up and asked me if I would like to do some business with him.
His name is Tony. I will not release his last name due to privacy issues but he can also go by the name of Anthony.
He claims he owns businesses in Florida and a house in Michigan.
This man imported me Pike Cichlids a long time ago and had done a few random jobs here and there for me so I trusted him.
His deal was that he was coming up to Chicago from Florida where he supposedly owns a "Wholesale Fish Business" to sell some plants and possibly open up a new wholesale business.
BUT!!! this is where it gets good....He wanted to know if I wanted to send him money so that he could import more plants than what he had originally purchased up to Chicago promising me that the plants where pre-sold to LFS's in my area and I would gain my money back and make 3 times what I send.
I trusted him and sent him 400.00 in USD to ship more plants up to Chicago.
I thought well if I made 1200.....thats great!!!
In days to come he was supposed to come up to Chicago but never did. I called him and He was still in Florida....I asked why and he said his plane had been can canceled several times due to flight delays. (Which now I think he just didn't have the cash to afford to fly to Florida.)
A few days later he calls me and asks me to send him MORE cash because the airlines charged him more to ship the plants up than he originally intended and now he could afford the flight. I had the money to but was like WTF?! I said no I couldn't afford to spare anymore cash. He eventually found the cash to do it and he arrived in Chicago.
The night i went and picked him up he asked if he could sleep on the couch at my house because the airline had lost his bag which had all his credit cards in it...Now he couldn't afford a hotel. I told him No. There was no chance I would ever let this man sleep in my own house. I asked him how much cash he actually had and he said none. HE DIDN'T BRING A CENT TO CHICAGO!!!!
So then I say lets pick up the plants so we can make our deliveries tomorrow.
He says "Um we can't. I shipped them with my corporate card and to pick them up I verify its me by showing the airlines the card I used to ship them. The card was lost in my bags...So we can pick them up tomorrow when my bag arrives"
I was like Ok, that works. That night I ended up tanking him to a Red roof Inn.
I paid for his hotel and paid for his meal that night. I kept a tab of all this money he was starting to owe me.
The next morning get this! I pick him up and he says to me:
"OK lets go to Home Depot and Wal-mart and we can buy plants there and re-package them and sell them to local pet stores as aquatic plants (which they were actually aquatic) while we wait for my bags to show up and we can claim our plants."
I took him to wal-mart and home depot he picked out plants and I ended up paying for them. Surprise surprise.
We went to LFS's and sold the plants and he kept telling them he was opening a facility in Chicago as a wholesaler and the name of the business was "Midwestern Exotic Aquatics"
We went on like this for a week and he was slowly paying back his debt to me.
We would sell, go back to home depot, pick up more plants, sell them to LFS. While each night I paid for the mans Hotel and Food.
During this time I was also telling him to call the airport to get his bags but he rarely did. I only witnessed him call once. Each day he had a new excuse why he couldn't pick up our plants.
One day while I was delivering he was reading our local newspaper and saw a classified add for a fish wholesaler for business.
We went there and worked out a deal with the owner that we would buy it off him. The way we'd do this is through a leverage buy. We took control of all the owners stock and sold most of it and half went to him and the other half to us (me and tony).
But I soon found out a lot about tony's background and how much trouble he is in. I dropped from the deal immediately without telling Tony and drove away.
Tony still owes me money and owes a lot of other people in chicago a lot of money. I would use strong caution all LFS of chicago who read this.
But as it is my fingers are tired and i have to go I will finish of the story later.
