gvoigt
07-02-2011, 07:31 PM
There may already be a post about this, but I thought I'd add it anyway. There's an internet scam originating in Cameroon (the new internet scam capital of the universe) involving adopting pets (in this case Parrotlets) whose owners can no longer take care of them (work, illness, blah blah blah). You get the (non-existant) Parrotlet or Parrotlets for free! Only you have to pay the Courier $300 - $500 upon delivery at your door step. Someone tried this on me (they were advertising a Purple/Periwinkle Parrotlet. As far as I know that color mutation doesn't exist). Something seemed fishy, so I kinda blew the person (named 'Jerry') off. Next thing I know I get an official and terse sounding e-mail saying my Parrotlets had arrived and I needed to send $300 (and other admin expenses) by sending it Western Union to someone in Cameroon. Riiiiiight. The sending money via Western Union (or MoneyGram) to another country is one of the oldest, most tired scams around. I googled the name of the fictional pet courier service and found a whole lot of posts with the words 'scam' 'fraud' 'rip off' 'con' and other words I can't use in polite company. So beware folks!