Beware of a Christopher Stewart of Manchester UK----he is a scammer!

[DDReptiles]

Hi,

I know this isn't the bio, but I thought this would be the best place for this since there is such a high concentration of gecko people here

Anyways I had a guy-Christopher Stewart email me this morning with this email:

His email address is: chris.cstewart1@gmail.com

Hi,

I'm located in the UK-Manchester and it's quite unfortunate, but i'm offering my breeding pair of Saltuarius Wyberba for sale since i'm having a very busy schedule at work and cannot look after them any longer! I think you are an experience breeder in keeping them and please should in case anyone is interested in this pair,you can direct them to me! What a regretful sale! I'm thinking of 2500 for this pair! What do you think? Cheers

Stewart

I responded to him asking for pictures as well as some other information. He responded by sending me a picture of an animal taken by my good friend Clark Tucker (the same animals Clark has in the trade section currently).

Anyways just wanted to give everyone a heads up.

Thanks Derek

 

[Justin]

Thanks for the heads up Derek. Sounds like the same guy who put up some N. asper for sale not long ago.

 

[Geitje]

Thanks for sharing Derek. Hopefully, the moderators do not get upset about this post, because they have for me making these posts before. Perhaps a forum header "scammers" could be added at some point, but the moderators fear of not starting another "BOI" might prevent that. In my opinion, there is certainly nothing wrong with warning the community of potential thieves since many people in our community have been robbed of thousands of dollars from these very crooks who can simply change their names at the drop of a hat.

Jon

 

[MXWreptile]

Thanks for the heads up Derek. Sounds like the same guy who put up some N. asper for sale not long ago.

His "Name" was Tino Hoftman.



Max

 

[Justin]

Ahh yes, that guy also went by the name Christopher as well...

http://www.geckosunlimited.com/community/aussie-geckos-knobtails-nephrurus-underwoodisaurus/46180-attention-scammer-alert-3.html

 

[Happygecko]

Thanks to all of you!
Got the email myself, offering N. asper adult breeding pair for 1800 euro. But no delivery to Hamm but shipping .... yea..... Got it yesterday. When I searched google I could not find anything. So I sent an email to some people I knew that they would know him if he had such animals and would be breeding them!
Name I got the email from:
Christopher Stewart [chris.cstewart1@gmail.com]

Thanks to everyone in the gecko community who makes it possible to talk about such stuff and beware people from getting tricked!

 

[TM Geckos]

An other of his nicknames is tino85 (Tino H.) on this forum.
He tried to contact me for geckos I am looking for.
I have never answered him.

Best regards

 

[MaX06]

Thanks for the infos

 

[Tom Martensson]

Thank you Derek.
We need more of this kind of post.

 

[Marty]

Hi, I know this isn't the bio, but I thought this would be the best place for this since there is such a high concentration of gecko people here

No, please use the BOI for this. Scammer posts and ripped off deal posts and this guy's a schmuck posts tend to stir a lot of shit, create drama and mess with good forum dynamics. Wars and discussions erupt over this kind of information that we just don't need on GU. The fact is that if you're willing to get suckered into an email scam like this promising pie in the sky deal, you have no one to blame but yourself. You can then make all the noise you want, but in all honestly I'd blame the buyer just as much as the scammer. It's buyer beware! Get references, check the seller out first, if they can't show references, no deal - simple, no matter how good it sounds!

Thanks for sharing Derek. Hopefully, the moderators do not get upset about this post, because they have for me making these posts before.
Jon

Yes, I agree it can be useful information, but having one central place like BOI is much better then having to check 10 different forums to see if the guy is a crook...we should all insist to use the BOI - that's what it was made for.

Thank you Derek.
We need more of this kind of post.

Yes we do, just not on GU, but on BOI. If you guys are really strong about this, I could make a permanent link to BOI from the forum links..this way it would be a bit clearer to everyone that we should make these kinds of posts on BOI. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=13

 

[Chris3004]

Yes we do, just not on GU, but on BOI.

Marty,

correct me if I'm wrong as I haven't used faunaclassifieds ever, but it rather seems to be an US marketplace, while GU is pretty international. Therefore I really appreciate Derek's post here on GU.

Regards,
Christian

 

[Sebastian]

The fact is that if you're willing to get suckered into an email scam like this promising pie in the sky deal, you have no one to blame but yourself. You can then make all the noise you want, but in all honestly I'd blame the buyer just as much as the scammer. It's buyer beware! Get references, check the seller out first, if they can't show references, no deal - simple, no matter how good it sounds!

I can understand if someone wants to warn others.But I think Marty is absolutely right .
Any extremely good deal from a nobody topped with strange payment methods is IMHO suspicious.
So just keep your eyes open and have brains........

Best,
Sebastian

 

[JoeH]

Good lookin out Derek. People like that guy turn my stomach. I'm building my collection and starting to breed New Caldonian and Australian species. People like that don't stop @ directly steeling from people it also hurts newbies trying to sell their off spring as no one can trust people they don't know anymore. PS I'm the guy from the NARBC in Tinley show 09 that bought the 4 Bavia robusta. Thank you. They are awsome and growing well. Again good looking out Derek and have a great day, Joe H

 

[Emilio8]

big trouble

Hello.

This is Emilio Gozálvez, from Spain.
I represent a spanish insects trade company, and just today we're have paid to chris.cstewart1@gmail.com , Christ Stewart 1.350 EUR for 50.000 Blaptica dubia. This person looks not to be a nice guy, so we are gonna enter legal politics againt this man, so I encourage if anyone had had any trouble please contact us.

Best regards,

Emilio Gozálvez
Insecta Soluciones Biológicas, S.L.

 

[F4n4tic]

Hello.

This is Emilio Gozálvez, from Spain.
I represent a spanish insects trade company, and just today we're have paid to chris.cstewart1@gmail.com , Christ Stewart 1.350 EUR for 50.000 Blaptica dubia. This person looks not to be a nice guy, so we are gonna enter legal politics againt this man, so I encourage if anyone had had any trouble please contact us.

Best regards,

Emilio Gozálvez
Insecta Soluciones Biológicas, S.L.

It seems to be the person which is called Chris Frost, Tino Hoftmann, Chris Harrison etc.

I am looking for people which were scammed by him, just contact me with some details...

 

[F4n4tic]

"So just keep your eyes open and have brains........"


It is really easy to be precocious instead of warning some people. This kind of advices are more than displaced.....

 

[Chris3004]

So just keep your eyes open and have brains........

I agree, many of the scams are rather "plain-vanilla" and of course it's suspicious when someone offers discount rates which need to be paid by Western Union. However, I'm sure the'll improve their tactics. At the end, what's better for the community: A feeling or a feeling plus some evidence?

Cheers
Christian

 

[rpreptiles]

Fishy

hey,

i really don't get it.Christopher Stewart in question which i know is a well renowned Blaptica producer located in Manchester.Am really shocked at this all since i had made a deal with him and everything worked out well,so what is this all about? Please can someone clarify me;;;;;To be more precise,we've even met in person at the essex exhibition.i think someone will be using his address or what do you really think? this sounds strange to me since the Stewart i know in Manchester Lancashire is a dubia producer and nothing more.

 

[Geitje]

Not Fishy, but double fishy. There are two explanations: 1. the scammer stole Christopher's name. 2. You are defending the scammer. Maybe both?

By the way, how did you (with just now your first single post) become alerted to this thread and the related accusations and names?

 

[Riverside Reptiles]

Not Fishy, but double fishy. There are two explanations: 1. the scammer stole Christopher's name. 2. You are defending the scammer. Maybe both?

By the way, how did you (with just now your first single post) become alerted to this thread and the related accusations and names?

Interesting that you're not asking that same question of Emilio8 who also somehow managed to magically pop up out of nowhere on this thread with his first post to GU as well. Isn't that just as fishy? This is exactly the kind of crap we're trying to avoid...people randomly accusing each other, leading to all kinds of suspicious activity. Now look, we have two random F@*kheads that are not part of this community that have popped up here causing even more suspicious activity on the site. These threads draw negativity to the site instead of dissuading it. And the snowball begins...

As you said earlier Jon, these are professional scammers and can change names at the drop of a hat. Posting their names and emails does no good. They're simply going to change their names and emails again and move on to the next scam.

I think that Marty made it pretty clear that he didn't want these threads here and to continue this thread despite his request to take it to BOI is pretty rude IMO considering it's his site.