Insect specimen scam.....

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Hello I'm New here! Joined: 08 Jun 2014 Posts: 3

So, I am leafing through some of the insect/invertebrate hobbyist forums and I get hit up by this guy that goes by the name of Nelson Mhango. He claims he is from Zambia. I tried to track the IP address with no luck. I bet he might be from Cameroon or Nigeria. Anyhow, this individual sent me an email that he can provide me with top notch specimens from all over the world. I lost accidentally deleted the initial email, but he was offering stuff from the US, and claimed he reared them. So, I started baiting him, and he is in a hurry to get some fast cash. Well, he has a bad rap for scamming insect collectors and this is one of the messages I ran into regarding this lad:

Dear colleague,

He is a devil.
Please, don't send money in advance.
He stole lots of money from collectors .

MR Nelson Mhango
Kafue, ZAMBIA
Deleted-Capone
Feel free to shoot him a mail and play with him. I would advice you to do research on some of the insect species he is offering and like I say, mess around with him a little. lol

Here is an email where I ask him if he has some beetle specimens that are found here in the states:

Paco Arana <[email protected]>
12:37 PM (2 hours ago)

to nelson
I fell asleep. Do you have specimens of Buprestis aurulenta and Buprestis viridisuturalis?(This beetles are from here in the US, and not found anywhere else. lol)

Here is his reply:

nelson mhango
12:49 PM (2 hours ago)

to me
yes i have both 50pcs,*$4

let me hear from you?

This is a steal!!! lol Sadly, this bugs aren't from Zambia, but the western US.

I asked him if he had more North American bugs that he might "have" in stock:

Paco Arana <[email protected]>
12:53 PM (2 hours ago)

to nelson
What about butterflies? I am looking in particular for Papilio indra indra, Papilio indra fordi, Papilio indra nevadensis, Papilio indra martini, and Papilio elephanor. If you have these, I will definitely be interested in aquiring them for top dollar. (Gotta sweeten the deal, right? lol)

This lad might be either getting a tad bit suspicious or is expecting a fast payoff.:

nelson mhango
1:06 PM (2 hours ago)

to me
i have some papilonidea only 100pcs mixed but i dont know names? i
only know saturnidea names.give me your full order and i can add
papilonidea in parcel you get them and identify them?

do it quickly sir.

I asked him for references, but haven't gotten a response yet. I will keep you posted if anything else comes to pass. Thank you for reading.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 Aug 2016 Posts: 2

[email protected] , [email protected], Name Nelson Mhango. I read this post and thought It was old and Irelivent, It was not. He is a scammer and Will take your money along with promising anything to get it. In my course of dealing with him he caught malaria, Fell in the mountains and had a child born and died all in a weeks time, along with sending requests for more and more money with each story. It was beyond fishy, but I had made a deal with him and I fallowed through with sending him money and low and behold he took it and now will not reply. I'm leaving a warning to anyone that looks Nelson Mhango up that he is a cheat and a liar. He is from Zambia, and near the city of Lusaka. He may even try to get you to send money or do business through a man named Muleya Nyanga. If anyone has any questions on this just message me at [email addy redacted-MM] and I will answer any questions you have. Thank you

I would suggest that anyone who wants any further details about this lad PM's the OP

Posted: Sat Aug 13, 2016 2:21 pm

@jonnyh66

from the sites rules

Quote:

Do not post email addresses, profile links, or phone numbers without sourcing them to a scam mail, fake site, or other verifiable evidence of scamming. The potential for abuse of non-scammers is too great. We're not saying that you would point other baiters towards an ex-significant whatever, cheating spouse, or that neighbor who never returned your power tools. We are saying that in the past, others have. Moderators reserve the right to remove un-sourced phone numbers, links, or email addresses, or just delete that particular post entirely (they're like your credit card company, lots of reserved rights).

It would be helpful if you could post any of the emails you have recieved from this guy so that we can be certain that he is, indeed, a scammer.

Plus your post might be better off at our sister site scamwarners.com. That site is focussed on documenting scams, who does the scamming and the email addresses, websites and phone numbers that the scammers use.

Hello I'm New here! Joined: 13 Aug 2016 Posts: 2

[email protected] , [email protected], Name Nelson Mhango. I read this post and thought It was old and Irelivent, It was not. He is a scammer and Will take your money along with promising anything to get it. In my course of dealing with him he caught malaria, Fell in the mountains and had a child born and died all in a weeks time, along with sending requests for more and more money with each story. It was beyond fishy, but I had made a deal with him and I fallowed through with sending him money and low and behold he took it and now will not reply. I'm leaving a warning to anyone that looks Nelson Mhango up that he is a cheat and a liar. He is from Zambia, and near the city of Lusaka. He may even try to get you to send money or do business through a man named Muleya Nyanga. Here are some of the Emails Iv received.

Jul 18

to me
Hi my friend.yes i ship 1hour ago..ee011432133zm ..my condiion is not
fine and my wife is pregnant 9month now so she has small path of
deiverly and signed her for surgical oparetion for deliverly..help me
30$ i buy drugs and pay for my wife ward fee.i will give you free
cocoons or you can deduct from our deal when parcel arrives you please
my friend i trust you.

Jul 20

to me
Hi jona.me am fine now.bbut my wife shes still in hospital after
surgical oparetion of our new baby girl...i just need to pay hospital
30$ charge and i dont have..i dont know what to do now.

Jul 22

to me
Hi am here..but its my wife s health no good.. so am just moving
around..the tracking number is correct .. i contact ems why no show in
tracking even the parcels sent by ems they just show locally.but they
will update. things are not good..

Jul 29

to me
Hi my friend.i hope you are okey!! me i was not fine for past 2days
i had leg knee problem i fail down in moutain and i was admitted at
local clinic. i got a call from ems yesterday wen at hospital that all
my 3parcels sent never left customs office.one for you of
beetles.2other for birds eggs going south africa. .the customs
authority at airport demands that i put my export paper of wildlife
to parcels.but i have the license yes.so today my nephew pick them
up.i need to resend again sorry

Aug 5 (9 days ago)

to me
my friend.see you invested 200$ in beetles..and sorry to argue you
that all 200$ i paid goliath beetles .but you sent 50$ for shipping .
whih i shipped and it come back due to reason.
i ask you to help to resend but you are angry with this why? i dont
have money.only one client today who want cocoons sent -hipping fee
only 50$ i shipped them today.only remaining with your goliath..and i
dont know what to do now?

Aug 11 (3 days ago)

to me
jona ..you send it today and i will ship it in morning here.. we
are 8hrs ahead of you time zone..so send it today .i wil receive it in
morning and ship it

That is the last email I received and have not been contacted since. In total I have sent over 300$ and now he is silent when before he would message me 2 or 3 times a day. He will lie to you, deal with him and you will lose your money.

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