How to Spot a Gecko Scammer

Over a couple of days I got several messages on Facebook and Instagram telling me that a Facebook page was using my photos and claiming to have my geckos for sale. I looked into it. The page was a scam, and it was using photos taken from several breeders, not just me.

I have seen this scam run many times, and I have lost money to scammers myself. Buying geckos online is safe, effective and trustworthy 99% of the time, but it pays to know what the other 1% looks like.

How the scam works

The page presents itself as an adoption service: geckos to good homes, shipped anywhere in the US, for a low adoption fee. The pitch is that these are beautiful geckos going for far less than breeders charge, for example $80 plus shipping. You pay, and you never hear from them again. They don't own that gecko, and most likely they don't own any geckos at all.

When I messaged the page, the reply was full of emoji, asked whether I wanted a male or female and whether I had owned a pet before, and said their main concern was a loving forever home. The grammar was well off, as it was across the page.

Warning signs

• It looks too good to be true. The old saying holds in the gecko world as much as anywhere: if it looks too good to be true, it is.
• The page is brand new.
• The photos don't match each other. Different backgrounds, different photo styles, clearly not all taken at the same time by the same person or breeder.
• The writing doesn't read naturally. Poor grammar and spelling in the posts and messages.

Before you send money

• Know who you are buying from.
• Check their references, if they have them.
• Look at who they are and at their history.
• Buy from trusted sources.
• Never send money in any way to someone you don't trust 100%.

It happened to me

One man in the gecko world built up a decent collection, announced he needed to sell it off, then sold the same gecko to five or six buyers, took the money and shipped nothing. He made several thousand dollars before people started comparing notes, and he went to prison on a long list of charges. I lost a couple of hundred dollars, and a lot of my friends lost money too. Everyone affected filed one police report together. The saddest part is that the geckos he did own were left in his home when he went to jail, and they all died before anyone could reach them.

If you are caught by something like this, don't beat yourself up. It is not your fault. It has happened to me more than once.