Herman Mndeme" from Tanzania

[vabrou]

Recently browsing some Facebook pages and came across "Herman Mndeme" from Tanzania and the fact that 15 or more persons who are among my friends are also on this fellows list of friends. Seems this character says to learn more about his business go to his homepage www.herpitologictz.4mg.com. which when you access this site the web pages are written in a manner just like most of the Scam E-mails I receive daily from African cheaters. But the real proof that this fellow is a scammer is his gallery of Tanzanian insects which illustrate according to him several species that occur in Tanzania. The problem is these species don't occur in that country, not only that, but they don't even occur on the African continent. And one of his victims has posted "Where is my money, where is my animals" on his wall. We should all block these fraudulent scammers when we find them.

[admin]

Does he have any ads here on InsectNet?

[vabrou]

Clark,
I have been flooded with E-mails from scammers especially from Tanzania and other African countries in recent months in response to my ad #129 Wanted Moths of the genus Eudocima. I have noticed that many of these individuals who E-mail me in response to this posting also use Facebook to convince us they are legitimate. Often when I ask these individuals e.g. send me some pictures of their "African species" they send back to me pictures of species found only in Australia that are taken off of a webpage. An obvious giveaway that they are not legitimate.
I have posted occasional ads on Insect net for well over a decade and every time, and I do mean every time, I am targeted by scammers, a hazard we have to endure for posting, These cheaters are legion and they change their names and e-mail addresses all the time.
Many of the names of scammers responding to my Insectnet postings I have identified over the years now have Facebook pages, and these cheaters send friend request to others on FB and these unsuspecting persons simply confirm their friend request never knowing who these persons are thus become unwitting pawns in their scams.
I have searched the trading reports for the two names I recently reported on from Tanzania who contacted me concerning my ad #129, but nothing was found, not that unusual, surely just fake names.
So to answer your question, I don't think these two Tanzanian individuals I have mentioned are posting ads on Insect net under these names, but they are using Insectnet to identify and target persons. This is something Insectnet has no method nor obligation to control as we users willingly choose to post our contact information.
If this doesn't comply with the rules of posting here, I sincerely apologize and you may delete these post as you deem appropriate to do so. I posted this more detailed information concerning these expanding fraudulent schemes to help the younger users of the site and those of us who are gullible and often wind up victims of these cheaters.

[vabrou]

Seems that my search for something on this person before posting in this forum yielded no responses. But now I see on page 3 that someone else addressed this individual with a name slightly altered, a good while back without any documented useful resolution or useful information.

Has anyone dealt with a legitimate lepidoptera supplier from Tanzania ?

[tis]

Stopping them is easy. Everybody should go by the policy - Insects received first prior to payment. NO EXCEPTIONS. Eventually there will be only a couple of good honest suppliers who will do quite well as they will have it all sown up.
It really sorts them out as a legitimate supplier will always send first as he should know that if he satisfies his clients there will always be continuous business. There is no free lunch. Patronize the established world known dealers. You won't get ripped off. The key to go by is - If they contact you, they have to send first. Its the worlds way in this business, otherwise you would have contacted them if they were known. SIMPLE - stop the encouragement and you won't lose your money. If the insects are not satisfactory you just send them back. Its a no brainer.

[vabrou]

Well Ken, I totally agree with your stated opinion. You and I have been around long enough to recognize most attempts to cheat us. But, there are schools set up in some countries where people work their day job, then attend night school, not to learn something useful, but instead how to cheat Americans, Europeans, etc., out of our bank accounts or something as little as a few hundreds or thousands of $. For me, I am not interested in assorted single meaningless shiny or large specimens to put in a frame on the wall, instead I am gathering particular specimens of a genus of moths on a global basis for a scientific taxonomical revision. The most useful specimens one could receive (besides the existing type material) would be that provided by local collectors. You say it is "SIMPLE" Well it is not simple as you indicate. You are looking at and responding to this problem from a very narrow viewpoint. Well established dealers for me are of no help in most cases, and a few of these I know about are the last persons I would ever consider to obtain material for legitimate taxonomical investigations. I know you remember "There are a million stories in the naked city, and this was just one". Just because we (US citizens) want to impose our values and business practices on the other 180 countries of the world, that is not going to make it so. Like you, I wish we could, I'm with you all the way.

[tis]

Yes you are right, we can't supply all the things taxonomists want, particularly the unidentified things. Its not good business sense to stock those things and pray that somebody wants them.
Although the stuff would probably be very interesting. I guess everything is a risk when buying from unknown sources and I guess it just depends on what kind of risk one wishes to tolerate. I have a few what I would call legitimate suppliers from Tanzania but the quality lacks in many things and I have to have good quality or it just does not work for me.