Cirrus
Arowana blogger
It looks like the scammers of the world are trying to up their game (a bit). I've exchanged emails with someone who asked my opinion about the following "Asian arowana farm" in - Cameroon Africa! Apparently these guys have been operating for many years now, which is of course why everyone on this forum knows of them. 
Their home site is: http://aquaticplant.page.tl/Home.htm
Note how all the fish stock for sale are in reality a massive jumble of "key words" designed to score high on Google's search algorithm. These guys are trolling the internet using Google to bring people to them. I have reason to believe the same guys (or look alikes) are also busy making use of kijiji across Canada and similar internet classified sites around the world.
Moving on, if you check out the gallery here http://aquaticplant.page.tl/Gallery.htm
you will see a photo of what looks like Derek Goh of Pang Long arowana harvesting aros! I have taken the liberty to attach a copied photo of that image to this post.
Note also that their website is not even a proper stand alone URL domain, but instead a weird kind of derrivative site which provides pop up ads if you surf around it and move back and forwards with your browser. It would not surprise me if this site harbours viruses (thank God for Norton).
Moving on again, they post the following about themselves on their home page:
Note there is no CITES number provided. Whoever "Tah Mbalinga" is, he does not sound like any Asian arowana farm owner I have ever heard of, especially for one said to have been around since 2001!
I was forwarded an email from this company that ran as follows:
To us "old hands" on this forum there are many give aways to this being a scam. The pricing that is "too good to be true" (or just plain bizarre - RTG's cost within $200 of 24KXB?), the "auction format" (never heard of it), the mention of Bali (in Indonesia) along with Cameroon (in Africa). And then of course there is the pathetic grammar/punctuation that riddles the writing (always a give away for Nigerian email scams). Sadly, for less educated people out there, people who have English as a second language, or those who are totally new to the hobby, there is enough to perhaps lead someone to get taken. I don't think it will take long for these scammers to improve their websites further and for unsuspecting people to lose their hard earned money.
Beware.
Their home site is: http://aquaticplant.page.tl/Home.htm
Note how all the fish stock for sale are in reality a massive jumble of "key words" designed to score high on Google's search algorithm. These guys are trolling the internet using Google to bring people to them. I have reason to believe the same guys (or look alikes) are also busy making use of kijiji across Canada and similar internet classified sites around the world.
Moving on, if you check out the gallery here http://aquaticplant.page.tl/Gallery.htm
you will see a photo of what looks like Derek Goh of Pang Long arowana harvesting aros! I have taken the liberty to attach a copied photo of that image to this post.
Note also that their website is not even a proper stand alone URL domain, but instead a weird kind of derrivative site which provides pop up ads if you surf around it and move back and forwards with your browser. It would not surprise me if this site harbours viruses (thank God for Norton).
Moving on again, they post the following about themselves on their home page:
Note there is no CITES number provided. Whoever "Tah Mbalinga" is, he does not sound like any Asian arowana farm owner I have ever heard of, especially for one said to have been around since 2001!
I was forwarded an email from this company that ran as follows:
To us "old hands" on this forum there are many give aways to this being a scam. The pricing that is "too good to be true" (or just plain bizarre - RTG's cost within $200 of 24KXB?), the "auction format" (never heard of it), the mention of Bali (in Indonesia) along with Cameroon (in Africa). And then of course there is the pathetic grammar/punctuation that riddles the writing (always a give away for Nigerian email scams). Sadly, for less educated people out there, people who have English as a second language, or those who are totally new to the hobby, there is enough to perhaps lead someone to get taken. I don't think it will take long for these scammers to improve their websites further and for unsuspecting people to lose their hard earned money.
Beware.
