TheJollyJester
New Member
So if you are like me and are looking to adopt a tortoise, you've likely gone to Facebook and seen a plethora of pages that say things like "Adorable Tortoises For Adoption" or "Free Adoption Rehoming Tortoises". While they don't seem suspect at first, once you begin to do some digging, you may start to see red flags pop-up like pictures and offers that seem too good to be true. First things first, not all groups like this are full of scammers, and there are good people out there. But I'd like to share this as a cautionary tale so that if you see a group like this, you won't make the same mistake I almost did.
I've been in the market for a Hermann's tortoise for about a year now. Being someone who would rather adopt than shop, I started my search on Facebook. One of the "breeders" in a group I found went by the name of Nora Bella. I joined out of curiosity and noticed most of the people in her group seemed to own a tortoise from her. So I decided to reach out to Nora to see what she had available, and to my surprise, she had an Eastern Hermann's Tortoise for $200. I didn't suspect anything right away until I started digging around on their Facebook profile and realized there was little to no information about her; just a bio that read "Message me directly for business." and a profile picture I could swear I've seen somewhere else. So I stalled her for the time being by saying my partner and I needed to discuss if the tortoise was a right fit. In actuality, I was beginning to get a gut feeling that something wasn't right and promptly left the group.
A couple of days go by, and unfortunately, our cautiousness doesn't pay off because we end up being scammed out of $300 for a red-footed tortoise by one of my partner's so-called friend's "friend". Already devastated, I didn't expect Nora to message me. I informed her that I wasn't in a good headspace to talk as I was still reeling from the experience we'd had and left it at that. After doing some digging, I came to realize that this is actually one of many groups that have scammed people. I listened to the stories of others who were not as fortunate as I that made down payments on tortoises only to never to see or hear from the scammer again. I'm very glad that I trusted my gut and got out while I had a chance.
I've attached some screenshots of the pages in question that I managed to save, however, my old phone decided that it was done and I lost the vast majority of the others I had before deleting the chats. I highly apologize for not having those =( Please be safe when attempting to adopt tortoises or any animals from Facebook; if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
And rest in peace to my Motorola G Play.
I've been in the market for a Hermann's tortoise for about a year now. Being someone who would rather adopt than shop, I started my search on Facebook. One of the "breeders" in a group I found went by the name of Nora Bella. I joined out of curiosity and noticed most of the people in her group seemed to own a tortoise from her. So I decided to reach out to Nora to see what she had available, and to my surprise, she had an Eastern Hermann's Tortoise for $200. I didn't suspect anything right away until I started digging around on their Facebook profile and realized there was little to no information about her; just a bio that read "Message me directly for business." and a profile picture I could swear I've seen somewhere else. So I stalled her for the time being by saying my partner and I needed to discuss if the tortoise was a right fit. In actuality, I was beginning to get a gut feeling that something wasn't right and promptly left the group.
A couple of days go by, and unfortunately, our cautiousness doesn't pay off because we end up being scammed out of $300 for a red-footed tortoise by one of my partner's so-called friend's "friend". Already devastated, I didn't expect Nora to message me. I informed her that I wasn't in a good headspace to talk as I was still reeling from the experience we'd had and left it at that. After doing some digging, I came to realize that this is actually one of many groups that have scammed people. I listened to the stories of others who were not as fortunate as I that made down payments on tortoises only to never to see or hear from the scammer again. I'm very glad that I trusted my gut and got out while I had a chance.
I've attached some screenshots of the pages in question that I managed to save, however, my old phone decided that it was done and I lost the vast majority of the others I had before deleting the chats. I highly apologize for not having those =( Please be safe when attempting to adopt tortoises or any animals from Facebook; if it seems too good to be true, it probably is.
And rest in peace to my Motorola G Play.
