I just wanted to help other people who are bird enthusiats like me from these kind of fraudsters.

I had placed my ad for Red whiskered bulbul and Red crested Cardinal on www.birdmart.com because I love those birds since they sing so good. It's still on there.

Suddenly one day I got the email saying that person has those birds and email them back if I want them. They sent me pictures of Red crested cardinals copied and pasted from the google website. That was my first doubt since one cardinal's pic had a gravel background and the other cardinal had a grass background and they looked totally different. How can 1 pair of cardinals have 2 backgrounds. I know how to differentiate between hand raised birds and wild birds. I grew up with birds around me. I am from the country side. They asked for my phone number to discuss this matter, which I gave. But they didn't call back. They sent me the reply saying "my mom was sick and was busy." So I asked how much is the adoption fee for the birds in the email. Then they sent me the reply with the price and to pay an amount upfront as a deposit. That was another red flag. I live in bronx, New york and queens is the next borough just 1/2 hour from where I live. They could have easily said to come and check it out instead of the deposit. It sounded fishy to me when that guy asked for deposit in the email. It is ok to ask for a deposit when lot of people want certain kind of species. But it was only me.

I very well know that not many breeders breed these birds and they are rare. And not many people keep them since they are very hard to breed and they need a big aviary. They priced it at $480 a bird. So I said I can only pay $100 a bird since that's usually the price if you ever find them. They agreed and told me only after I send in the deposit we can make an arrangement to meet at some common place. That was another red flag. If they had the bird they would have invited me to come to their apartment to check it out and not meet somewhere on the street.

Then I thought it was a waste of time to try to find out who that person is. To make the long story short, I know that guy is a fraudster and I didn't want to waste further time on it. And last but not the least this is not the first time I have found these fraudsters. I get them everytime I want to sell something on ebay. They want you to send them your address, they are willing to pay you the highest price and they say they will send you a money order only if you send them the posted item confirmation number and it goes on.

As long as internet exists fraudsters will exist. I hope my experience helps someone out there if they come across such people.

he has never given me a phone number to speak with him (everything has been done via e-mail). he has avoided small talk (what other birds do you have, etc...) he told me he would send a money order and a 'shipping agent' would contact me with details with picking up the bird. the bird is $400 and he sent me a M/O for $1500 and asked that I forward the balance to an agent in London via Western Union.

At this point I sent an email asking him to give a phone number to discuss the transaction or the deal was off.