Every area where money changes hands between individuals, especially between unsighted individuals, is going to be vulnerable to abuse by shonky operators and con artists. However, I do not agree that the reptile trade is the worst affected. As already mentioned, there are other trade areas such as second-hand cars, puppies and even birds (parrots in particular) that are equally or even more afflicted.
The point was made that one tends to notice things more when it has recently come to one?s attention. This is very valid and highly relevant here. The mind elevates recent events to prominence. For example, while we can remember everything we did today, we can probably remember almost nothing of what we did on this day a week ago and guaranteed nothing from a month ago. The only exception would be if something special happened, which makes it prominent. The mind is bombarded with a massive amount of information which it needs to summarise and sort. To do this it continually looks for patterns by noting associations. The more prominent something is in our mind, the more likely anything associated with it will be noted. We subconsciously ?go looking for? it. At the same time, and for the same reasons, the mind tends not to register what we are not ?looking for?, in this case - fair trades.
If you think about it, there must be an awful lot of fair trades that take place. When people get ripped off in a trade, the natural tendency is to be vocal about it. In contrast, a fair trade is an expected outcome and as such does not warrant specific mention. Every owned reptile mentioned on APS, which is not a rehab case or other wild-caught, has been acquired via a trade. If you compare the number of these animals to the number of trade complaints posted on APS, this will provide a realistic perspective on the situation. The numbers generated by such a comparison are proof-positive of what others are saying ? that there are a few bad eggs but the over-whelming majority of sellers and sales are good.
It is worth noting that not all scammers in the industry are necessarily hobbyists. A few examples have been pointed out in APS threads where adverts for animals such as birds and puppies used the same reply address as a reptiles-for-sale ad that was clearly dodgy.
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