[meteorite-list] SCAMS from Morocco

From: Nick Gessler <gessler_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 09:41:12 2004
Message-ID: <5.0.2.1.0.20010227131021.020735c0_at_pop.bol.ucla.edu>

CAVEAT EMPTOR (Let the buyer beware.)

The US Department of State Travel Warning for Morocco reads, in part:

"Morocco has a high crime rate in urban areas. Criminals have targeted
tourists for robberies, assaults, muggings, thefts, purse snatching,
pick-pocketing, and scams of all types. Most of the petty crime occurs in
the medina/market areas, parks and beaches. Commonly reported crimes
include falsifying credit card vouchers and shipping inferior rugs as a
substitute for the rugs purchased by the traveler."

Beware of Casablancans offering meteorites over the Internet.

At least two of us on the Meteorite-List have been approached with offers
to sell meteorites from Morocco. We have been sent a photograph of 29
meteorites on a white sheet. One of us asked for samples and received no
reply. The other of us, me, sent partial payment for a FedEx shipment and
has watched the offer escalate: death in the family, automobile injury,
money for shipping spent, will send extras like trilobites and jewels, will
send not 60kg but 100kg, the "stakes" keep getting higher, the "carrot"
grows in size, but I have received nothing besides promises. "Buy quickly,
I have received a better offer," and "I really have 1000kg of meteorites"
were the neweest enticements. I set up a FedEx account so that I could
offer to pay shipping without sending the seller any more money. He
responded by sending me a scan of a FedEx shipping document, the kind
anyone can pick up at FedEx and fill out on his own, telling me this was
the "receipt" they gave him. According to FedEx the shipment was never
made, the tracking number, while valid, has never been scanned in
Morocco. I thought I might go to Western Union and pick up one of their
blank money-wire forms, fill it out, and send a scan to him, but I'm sure
he wouldn't appreciate the humor. I've cancelled that FedEx account number
and will wait for more developments...

I have spent what a four-day meteorite hunting expedition would have cost
me. A calculated risk since I've often come back empty-handed. So I'm
more pissed off than hurting financially. Does anyone have a similar story?

The photograph is on my website at:
http://www.sscnet.ucla.edu/geog/gessler/167-2001/morocco.jpg

Is it time to send the Meteorite Sheriff and his Posse to Morocco?

Take care,
Nick
Received on Tue 27 Feb 2001 04:33:38 PM PST