Be on alert...aliases of a man caught scamming and preying on bonsai folk

Cadillactaste

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That is what I think when I see blue/pink maple seeds advertised on ebay. not much you can do to these scammers though
He bartered...trading trees. Some never got their trees. He shared photos of trees he got from other people he never had. Yes, a crook is a crook...scammers are among us. He contacted a nursery down in Florida...and had them believing my friend was going to come in and buy him a tree. He's confused for sure. But, that he's back...asking me about Sonny Boggs...and about my pot from him. I never corresponded to him in PM to begin with. Only his badgering me to friend him on FB. I didn't know the guy. But one of his few friends were friends of mine. She gave him her cell number. She planned on getting a tree I believe from him. He called her day and night...harassing her. Didn't matter her husband spoke to him addressing his not to call her again. Thing with those blue/pink seed sellers. I don't think they go to the point of harassing.
 

Wires_Guy_wires

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Block his email, report it for spam. Block his number and report to the authorities.
I'm guessing that if this guy gets an address of someone, their trees could be stolen.

Things are easy to look up nowadays on the internet, and with everyone advertising their trees all over the web.. It's a matter of time.
Tip: Never put the GPS data on a picture, we know that from yamadori hunting.. But it works for home photography as well. I know some forums automatically remove that data, the function is freely available. I know that in most iphones, that GPS function is 'on' by default. That function is necessary if you have late stage dementia and you'd like to track where you've been, but otherwise it has no use in regular photography.
 

Cadillactaste

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Good points @Wires_Guy_wires @wires!

Speaking with my friend she reminded me ... he's unappreciative when he got free material too! He's why I am on guard by any woe is me story.
Remember I sent him bougie cuttings that I collected...4 different colors!....and shipped at my expense, and he said he wanted larger ones. ?
 

substratum

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I had a director-level employee 10+ years ago that made everything in life about serving him. He was a smooth talker, a con man, a pathological liar, an accomplished orator and communicator, a thief, an actor, technologically savvy, maybe a drug addict, and an ordained minister that occupied a pulpit on Sunday mornings. I caught him red-handed stealing $30K+ (credit card fraud, EFTs to pay personal bills, obfuscation, etc.), and somehow, after much wrangling with lawyers (mine and his) he managed to produce a teller check for the full amount of the theft, plus the cost of our CPA, our attorney, and a computer forensics expert that helped us put the case together - in exchange for us not pressing charges. First contact with his attorney after exposure included a threat to sue me for "Inadequate Supervision," to which my response was, "We'll see you in court." One of the clinical people on my Board, who is qualified to make such a diagnosis, said the guy is a textbook case Narcissistic Sociopath. He had at least five other cons in play that were exposed when I outed him on the theft. This guy was incredibly convincing and seemingly sincere... what exposed him was his constant need to be aggrandized for and in everything, and the fact that liars, even really convincing ones, eventually trip over the truth. If he could have gotten a handle on the self-aggrandizing thing, he might have done some real damage and moved along before we discovered him. He has been the subject of a presentation on fraud that I co-presented with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement... my part was how to handle it if you are not going to press charges, and are only looking to recover losses, and FDLE's part was how to handle it if you are going to pursue criminal charges (because much of what we did would have been inadmissible as evidence in a criminal trial).

All that to say, there are people all around us at various degrees and stages of these sorts of social/mental disorders, and most of them will show their hand at some point if you are cautious. The guy being discussed in this thread sounds like he's in that camp. Most sociopaths are not capable of feeling remorse or guilt, so appeals to their better nature is not an effective behavior modification technique, while being exposed and facing the consequences of their actions is often terrifying to them.
 
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