T The Parrot Adoption Scam   As you can see from my previous blog posting, we are parrot people, and have been considering adopting another bird. We would prefer to adopt one from somebody who is planning on leaving the country, or have “inherited” a bird from a family member. That way a bird does not end up with an unwilling owner or an owner who does not understand large parrots. We would also like to adopt a different species for now, such as a Macaw or a Cocatoo. In line with this idea, I started scanning the adverts in the Junkmail at www.junkmail.co.za. To my delight, I saw an ad placed with a picture of a Blue and Gold Macaw.      I responded, and got the following mail back from This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it :   “Hello,  Thanks for the interest and sorry for the delay. we are presently located in Cameroon with our lovely  Babies called Sally and Zoey. i want to  give out  the babies for adoption because i am military and was deployed to Cameroon for a mission that will last for two years, and the nature of  my  job does not permit  me to take good care of them,since i am always very mobile with my family,so we have decided to give out the parrots to a loving home where they will be spoiled  with all their needs and treated with love .so we  want to send them back to their home land in USA where we  were with them before being deployed to Cameroon.  Well i will be willing to give out the babies to your home provided you are going to give them all the necessary care and attention they deserves in the world.   To talk a bit about them,they are so funny, talk and dance with great personalities and will be perfect companions to your entire family. they love being outside,Also they are very playful and have a very extended vocabulary,say's hello, what, cracker, Caesar, thank you, shut up and many more they are very eager to learn and play.they are very cute,vet checked and DNA tested to be females,their feathers are exquisite looking feathers and colors.they are not screamers,of course they  do have some loud moments too, but that is normal and to be expected with large birds,they love their showers, I put them on a ladder in the shower with me and let the warm water run over their feathers.their  eyes just say it all, they love it! Sally and Zoey also loves table scraps.Once you earn their trust you can hold them like  babies upside down and  play with their feets,they  will also love neck rubs or for you to help scratch the casing off their new feathers.they are 16months  old with good temperament   with kids and other pets.   Get back for more details and  their most recent pictures and also tell me a little bit about yourself and your family if you are ready to have this little girls so that i can start compiling all their legal documents because they will be coming  alongside their papers,a comfortable travel cage including some toys they  enjoy playing with soo much.  Thanks for your time and looking forward reading from you again. In God We Trust.”   That seems lovely and all, so I responded with an enthusiastic description of what we do and our setup at home, and then the following e-mail arrived:   “Wow, thanks very much for the mail and for your faithfulness.I really do appreciate the interest you have in adopting my little girls, i do believe your home will be the right home for them  because i love them so much and it is really hard on me giving  them out but i have no choice for now. i don't have anyintentions to take back the birds from you when i return okay But before we proceed with this, it will be an agreement between the two of us that you will never give out my babies for sale.i have never intended to give them up for sale. it will seem to me as if i am giving out my own biological daughters for sale.what i need from you as the reward for my babies is to make sure you treat them with great love and affection like your biological children and note should also be taken that i will not be giving out the birds on a first come first serve basics as i need total guarantee and commitement before deciding on a new home for my babies. Parrots have the reputation as being the best talkers in the parrot kingdom... They have an uncanny ability to mimic speech in a voice that sounds quite human.they also imitate sounds with incredible accuracy,from dripping faucets to construction equipment but be careful about uttering any words you don't want  them to learn, since they seems to have a knack for learning just what you don't want themto learn!. if you are prepared to respect the above conditions then get back with your full home and street address,name of nearest local airport,zipcode and your phone numbers so that i can inquire the cost to deliver them to you and update you okay, you will only have to cover their transportation cost to your home. they will be coming along side to you with all their legal and health documents and a comfortable travel cage which i am going to deliver them inside.i will equally include some toys they enjoy playing with and also a hand book which is going to guide you on their likes and dislikes okay,below are some recent pictures of the birds.i have named them Sally and Zoey,Zoey has a blue tag on the neck while Sally has a red tag.  hope you will love them soo much. you can also reach me on 00237-9647-4095 or +237-9647-4095. GEORGE,KAREN AND FAMILY”   This is all very nice, but there are a few things that struck me. The lady responded to the name Elma, and yet the e-mail states that it is from George, Karen and Family. The next thing – 15 photo’s of the 2 birds were included. Firstly  - they are not of Macaws as the advert states. So maybe I misunderstood them or something got lost in translation. Maybe they are not from an natively English speaking background which I of course cannot hold against the. It did kind of cool my enthusiasm down quite a bit, since we do not want another pair of Greys. This morning Susan did a quick google search, because my suspision has now been aroused. It turns out that this couple (if that si what they are), have been active throughout the world. Adverts have been reported from the US, Canada and Spain, and several people have been taken for a ride already. One Spanish guy who is quite desparate reports that he has paid over 500 Euro to this scammer, and has called him, and even keeps on getting calls from this guy stating that he needs more mone as the 500 Euro is not covering all the expenses.   Have a look at http://www.fraudwatchers.org/forums/showthread.php?p=80812 to see more people who have been duped by these criminals!!   Needless to say, I have reported these operators to Junkmail.co.za and will hopefully see some action on this. Does anybody maybe know how we can report these people and take them to task for the worldwide fraud they are perpetrating?   -Gideon-