Is it weird to not know what kind of bird you're selling?

[Kentuckienne]

I was looking on the local craigslist to see what kind of birds show up, and saw a post from someone selling their "outstandingly beautiful marvelous affectionate female parrot". They put the price in weird text, but even though there is a nice picture of a blue macaw, they don't say what kind of macaw, or even that it's a macaw. The same bird shows up in a later post, selling cage and bird, again without being named. Wouldn't someone know what kind of expensive macaw they own? Is this likely to be a stolen/ captured bird, or do people really do this all the time?

Wait, I just found the exact same wording with a picture of a blue and gold. What kind of scam might this be?


https://owensboro.craigslist.org/pet/5821279364.html

https://louisville.craigslist.org/pet/5850773449.html

 

[GaleriaGila]

SCARYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!
Could be anything!!!!!
Yipes!

 

[SailBoat]

Hmmmm, can you spell SCAM!

 

[wrench13]

Those have scam written all over them , in invisible ink.
But not all Craigslist ads are scams, This one family has been running their lost parrot ad for almost 2yrs. Cute little orange wing, with pictures and all.

 

[Aquila]

Definitely scams, the second image is from a rescue site.
http://www.snperrs.org/adoptable-birds-zeus.html

 

[Scott]

Definitely scams, the second image is from a rescue site.
http://www.snperrs.org/adoptable-birds-zeus.html

Good eye! And the first OP ad is definitely a scam. That's a Hyacinth!

 

[Violet_Diva]

I did recently see an advert with photos of a male eclectus, and the text said they were selling their Amazon :smile012: so not really sure what that one means. Could either be a scam or just a bit of a pillock
I messaged them asking about it and never got a reply...

 

[Loko]

Whenever you see ads in broken english with obvious inconsistencies and especially the price written out like you did there its a scam. Phone numbers and prices are either not allowed or bring attention to the ad, depending on section of CL, automatically, so they write it like that so that the bots or whatever reviewing software does not pick it up. By inconsistencies I mean, how would someone know their bird has a 45 word vocabulary but not its species or name? Nobody says they have a beautiful affectionate "parrot", and has such a general uninformed description, then they throw the "make sure you have time for the bird" to make you think they care about their nonexistant bird. Often times these people are far away in Nigeria or something and running these scams hoping for gullible people to wire them a "deposit".
Also, you can easily look up any image on craigslist with a reverse image lookup. This will show you how many times and where the image was ever used on the internet if so. https://www.tineye.com/ is a good site or you can post the URL into images.google.com
This however doesnt always work because there are ways to get around that. In this case it did not work either because the poster made sure the URL was not the same as the original photo from the rescue site.

 

[Aquila]

Whenever you see ads in broken english with obvious inconsistencies and especially the price written out like you did there its a scam. Phone numbers and prices are either not allowed or bring attention to the ad, depending on section of CL, automatically, so they write it like that so that the bots or whatever reviewing software does not pick it up. By inconsistencies I mean, how would someone know their bird has a 45 word vocabulary but not its species or name? Nobody says they have a beautiful affectionate "parrot", and has such a general uninformed description, then they throw the "make sure you have time for the bird" to make you think they care about their nonexistant bird. Often times these people are far away in Nigeria or something and running these scams hoping for gullible people to wire them a "deposit".
Also, you can easily look up any image on craigslist with a reverse image lookup. This will show you how many times and where the image was ever used on the internet if so. https://www.tineye.com/ is a good site or you can post the URL into images.google.com
This however doesnt always work because there are ways to get around that. In this case it did not work either because the poster made sure the URL was not the same as the original photo from the rescue site.

There's also an add-on that I regularly use for Firefox that searches Google images. Generally seems to be more accurate, and all I have to do is right click on the image in question.

 

[Reni]

I'm sure that there is no parrot, just a scam to get your money!

 

[edwardcharette]

friend beware of such ads!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
They are out to make undue profit
Please keep away from them

 

[SilleIN]

In general there are a LOT of scammers out there. I have recently been on a lookout for a female Scarlet. As there are not any many reputable breeders of Scarlets in Denmark I desided to look internationally for her. OMG I found soo many scammers amongst the lot. Some were obvious others were a bit more clever.

One I came into contact to was a couple in "England". The add said a pair of young scarlets in Manchester, UK. When I asked they said they were unrelated and were both 13 months and they got them as a gift. They later said they had had them for 13 months. This made my alarm bells ring as no one, who have just gotten 2 macaws as a gift with no bird experience will be able to successfully handfeed 2 macaws. At this point I played along just out of curiosity.

I then got photos of 2 GW macaws, not scarlets. I initially planned on travelling to Manchester to pick them up, so I "stuck to that plan". Suddenly they lived in Belfast, which is in the UK part of Ireland and almost the most imposible place to get to. I then said ok, can you send me video of the birds, preferably both of them with human interaction, to see that they are tame. I was sent a video of a scarlet macaw and "their daughter" speaking in an American accent. I don't know if you know, but people from Belfast have a REALLY heavy accent. By this time I stopped waisting my time. Just to show, that if you are an inexperienced person, they will find photos and videos to wheel you in.

 

[JBassset]

I had the same experience. A guy had a B&G he needed to rehome here in Idaho. When I tried to find out where (it's a big place really) so I could make time to meet the birds they were in Delaware.

Another guy had a pair of 3month old babies he was selling. He was a traveling pastor so they were in Arizona, or Texas, or Idaho... oh you're in Idaho? I'm in Arizona.

For the pair, with cage it was $500. Shipping was $200. So $700 all told for a healthy pair of B&Gs with a cage and shipping. For a bird that REGULARLY costs more than $1,500 here.

RIIIIIGGGHHHHHTTTTT.

Rules to follow on the internet:

1. If the price is super low it's probably a scam.
2. If they can't be precise with what they're selling it's a scam.
3. If it's never a good time for you to come by and they just want you to send them the money it's a scam.
4. If they can't tell you where they are, or where they are seems to change... scam.
5. If they send you a picture do a reserve image search on Google. If it comes up under anything but them... scam.