Scam cheat sites selling Asian arowana

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stratos

Dovii
MFK Member
Jul 6, 2005
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Scammers are starting to use Facebook and online classified ads in tandem, providing legitimate phone numbers to use for texting, to try and sucker people. Posted from another site:

He provided a phone number and suggested texting him. I Googled the area code and it is for Newfoundland. Okay, kind of weird as I don't think there are many arowana keepers there, but anyway I contacted him at the number he provided.

We texted back and forth and he sent me to his Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/arowanafishsales/

He claims he is Asian/American.

Notice the FB page is pretty new. If you Google "Mark Lawson Arowana sales" all sorts of sketchy classified ads from all over the world show up. Obviously a fake seller, probably from Cameroon. I've included a couple screenshots of the kijiji ads this scammer is using. I just noticed how the city location provided in the ad seems to change a lot - Sudbury, Kenora, Kelowna - which of course does not match the Newfoundland area code
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Before I stopped texting with him, he wanted me to pay by:

Western Union
Bitcoin
Moneygram

Any legitimate seller will arrange payment by direct bank wire transfer.

Another fake site that has appeared is:

http://srisenaarowanafishfarm.com/price.html it is a reformat of other fake sites.

You can read a lot more about the kind of scam site there are out there here:
http://www.arowanaclub.ca/forums/showthread.php?t=4924&page=2
 
Alarm bells should already be ringing just by looking at the types of Aros being listed. White Aros??? Blue Aros??? What next Rainbow Asian Arowanas???

The pricing isn't even close to what's realistic for some of the listings. Scammers feed on greed. If it's cheap, it's ALWAYS too good to be true. Think about it, by the time you factor in the cost of the Aro, freight, profit and other overheads it's just not realistic.
 
This 'Mark Lawson' is trying this in the UK too.

I messaged him, knowing it was a fake but wondering what he'd say, to which he offered me 2 BD pairs and 2 blue base Asian arrows for a total of $900 USD! Its not even near to a realistic price. When I asked to be sent images of specific rays with my name / contact number and the date in the photo he was funnily enough 'unable' to do so lol. He also told me he had a farm in Europe, however when I said fine ill pick up from there, he told me that they'd now run out of stock! lol

Yeah right

Also, on the facebook page, the photos are taken from youtube!
 
they are becoming rampid all over the place, there is too many to name them all. if you go to Arowanaclub.ca they have a entire thread devoted to scammers and warning people about the different ones. Pretty much if the price is wayy to good to be true it is a scam. All you need to do is ask them for their CITE info and they wont have any to give you, right there you know its a scam.
 
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