• Posted 12/19/2024.
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    I am still waiting on my developer to finish up on the Classifieds Control Panel so I can use it to encourage members into becoming paying members. Google Adsense has become a real burden on the viewing of this site, but honestly it is the ONLY source of income now that keeps it afloat. I tried offering disabling the ads being viewed by paying members, but apparently that is not enough incentive. Quite frankly, Google Adsense has dropped down to where it barely brings in enough daily to match even a single paid member per day. But it still gets the bills paid. But at what cost?

    So even without the classifieds control panel being complete, I believe I am going to have to disable those Google ads completely and likely disable some options here that have been free since going to the new platform. Like classified ad bumping, member name changes, and anything else I can use to encourage this site to be supported by the members instead of the Google Adsense ads.

    But there is risk involved. I will not pay out of pocket for very long during this last ditch experimental effort. If I find that the membership does not want to support this site with memberships, then I cannot support your being able to post your classified ads here for free. No, I am not intending to start charging for your posting ads here. I will just shut the site down and that will be it. I will be done with FaunaClassifieds. I certainly don't need this, and can live the rest of my life just fine without it. If I see that no one else really wants it to survive neither, then so be it. It goes away and you all can just go elsewhere to advertise your animals and merchandise.

    Not sure when this will take place, and I don't intend to give any further warning concerning the disabling of the Google Adsense. Just as there probably won't be any warning if I decide to close down this site. You will just come here and there will be some sort of message that the site is gone, and you have a nice day.

    I have been trying to make a go of this site for a very long time. And quite frankly, I am just tired of trying. I had hoped that enough people would be willing to help me help you all have a free outlet to offer your stuff for sale. But every year I see less and less people coming to this site, much less supporting it financially. That is fine. I tried. I retired the SerpenCo business about 14 years ago, so retiring out of this business completely is not that big if a step for me, nor will it be especially painful to do. When I was in Thailand, I did not check in here for three weeks. I didn't miss it even a little bit. So if you all want it to remain, it will be in your hands. I really don't care either way.

    =====================
    Some people have indicated that finding the method to contribute is rather difficult. And I have to admit, that it is not all that obvious. So to help, here is a thread to help as a quide. How to become a contributing member of FaunaClassifieds.

    And for the record, I will be shutting down the Google Adsense ads on January 1, 2025.
  • Responding to email notices you receive.
    **************************************************
    In short, DON'T! Email notices are to ONLY alert you of a reply to your private message or your ad on this site. Replying to the email just wastes your time as it goes NOWHERE, and probably pisses off the person you thought you replied to when they think you just ignored them. So instead of complaining to me about your messages not being replied to from this site via email, please READ that email notice that plainly states what you need to do in order to reply to who you are trying to converse with.

Bad Guy Vincent Manatoga - VManatoga

R

Robert Walker

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Has anyone had any deals with or ever heard of Vincent Manatoga - VManatoga? Stolen pictures from other members and red flags everywhere on this person.
Email: [email protected]

When asked, "Why don't you accept PayPal?"- their response:
VManatoga said:
Simply because I believe that Paypal has ethical failings as a company and I don't wish to support them. The same reason I don't take Venmo (they're owned by Paypal).
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Once called out on the Axanthic BTS pic, the seller has repeatedly tried to turn off the classified ad and hide it.
 

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I wish there was a way to send Vincent an email expressing interest from one of those cashier check scammers. He takes checks.
 
The photo of this blue tongue skink was taken and used without permission from my web site. The watermark was cropped off and photo was flipped.
 
I guess I fell off of the turnip truck. I sent him a $100.00 deposit for the black pastel pied male and het female through a method that does not allow me to get my money back. I will let everyone know how this turns out. I will learn not to do this someday. I hope.
 
Stealing Pictures

I filed a fraud claim with Square. Hopefully they resolve this fairly quickly. Why is he still allowed to advertise on Fauna?
 
tcp2 said:
I sent him a $100.00 deposit
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tcp2 said:
Why is he still allowed to advertise on Fauna?
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1. Is there some kind of Square contact info for this person you can share with us. This is a system I'm unfamiliar with, so anything you can share would be beneficial.
2. Site staff can only enforce site rules. We have been looking at this person from the moment they first posted, hence the BOI report, and will continue to do what we can within the site rules. Ultimately it is up to individual buyers to do their due diligence before sending money though. ;)
 
Vince

The only information I have so far is his payment name at Square. No email, phone #, address. Who even knows if the name used is real. I have not heard back from him. This seems like a lot of deception for not much $. It would be easier to get a job than steal pictures and try to sell the animals as your own.
 
Vince

He has gone cold. No response to my emails. Since his posts are obviously fraudulent, why is he still allowed to advertise on this site? How can the the rules for running ads not ban the posting of fake ads?
 
tcp2 said:
He has gone cold. No response to my emails. Since his posts are obviously fraudulent, why is he still allowed to advertise on this site? How can the the rules for running ads not ban the posting of fake ads?
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So sorry that this happened to you. I made a post on Facebook about this guy, and in the comments had a brief conversation with a mod on here. She basically said that it's up to buyers to research sellers. For whatever reason that's just the rules here. I do understand it, though. It's a tough lesson learned and I hope that you're able to resolve it and get your money back.
 
tcp2 said:
He has gone cold. No response to my emails. Since his posts are obviously fraudulent, why is he still allowed to advertise on this site? How can the the rules for running ads not ban the posting of fake ads?
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Tom, I'm sorry this happened to you and I hope that somehow you get your funds returned.

His posts are to me obviously fraudulent, but it is a great risk to the staff here who help us for free, to ask them to make that choice. Why? There are two reasons I can see. The first is that many ads are not so cut and dried and it places us, the readers, at risk because many readers will just assume that ALL ads are safe because some have been vetted, found fraudulent, and booted. Instead, there is the BOI, and a burner list.

The second has to do with the moderators time. Already there is extensive behind the scened observations of Fauna including the ads, and it involves time consuming detective work. But it is not fair to expect that they use their personal time to research each ad.
We've all seem scammers that were smooth as silk and took money before they were discovered. It is almost impossible to catch them all.
 
We can only operate according to site rules, but you will find that those people causing serious issues for members and those breaking site rules often have some overlap in the metaphorical Venn diagram when it comes to behavioral elements. Patience usually pays off. It is not an absolute thing, but often.
 
Lucille said:
Tom, I'm sorry this happened to you and I hope that somehow you get your funds returned.

His posts are to me obviously fraudulent, but it is a great risk to the staff here who help us for free, to ask them to make that choice. Why? There are two reasons I can see. The first is that many ads are not so cut and dried and it places us, the readers, at risk because many readers will just assume that ALL ads are safe because some have been vetted, found fraudulent, and booted. Instead, there is the BOI, and a burner list.

The second has to do with the moderators time. Already there is extensive behind the scened observations of Fauna including the ads, and it involves time consuming detective work. But it is not fair to expect that they use their personal time to research each ad.
We've all seem scammers that were smooth as silk and took money before they were discovered. It is almost impossible to catch them all.
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Lucille has pretty much hit it on the head, thanks Lucille.
We in no way claim/certify/classify ads posted here as have been vetted.
It is the responsibility of individual members to do their own research, period. Fauna offers tools to help you do your own research, but due diligence is up to you alone, the member, to do.

Sending money to a brand new account that registered that same day, why would you do that? :face_palm_02:
Sending money to a brand new account without using the Board of Inquiry first, why would you do that?:face_palm_02:
Sending money to a brand new account without running a image search of the pictures they claim are theirs, why would you not do that first? :face_palm_02:

I get why a brand new member might get bamboozled, but not a member of many years. If members feel it is frustrating to them, trust me it is 10x more frustrating to us (site staff) to watch all of the endless warnings offered up go blindly ignored.
 
My Friend Vince

I buy and sell a lot of animals. For some boneheaded reason I assume people are honest. BOI has helped me get back $4,700.00 from 3 different transactions, 2 of them several years old. It really does work, even though people sometimes get carried away with their approach to addressing the problem and it turns into personal attacks that are completely off base and unfounded. I did not notice the signup date for his account. The pictures did not come up under Google search. Paypal can be really difficult to use at times and quite a few people are looking for different payment methods so that did not raise any red flags. Sending the money by money order to someone I did not know was not an option. Hopefully using Square provides a method for getting fraudulent transactions reversed.
 
Square’s website and support are very oriented toward the person taking payments. Here’s their support page, which does include a phone number:
https://squareup.com/square-support

Note, Square is not like PayPal, they’re more like the various companies that do traditional credit card processing for businesses - to dispute a transaction, you need to go through your credit card issuer, not Square:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5103-square-purchases-and-cardholder-help

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/3882-payment-disputes-walkthrough


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Prognathodon said:
Square’s website and support are very oriented toward the person taking payments. Here’s their support page, which does include a phone number:
https://squareup.com/square-support

Note, Square is not like PayPal, they’re more like the various companies that do traditional credit card processing for businesses - to dispute a transaction, you need to go through your credit card issuer, not Square:

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/5103-square-purchases-and-cardholder-help

https://squareup.com/help/us/en/article/3882-payment-disputes-walkthrough


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
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Correct, Square is basically a credit card processing company. You will nerd to contact your credit card company or bank to dispute the charges.
 
is Square "Cash" like using square to swipe a credit card? Disputing the transaction through your credit card should hopefully get you the funds back. If it's more like friends and family through PP, then it would be more complicated.

I looked at Square's cash app website and could not quickly find how to dispute a transaction.
 
My Friend Vince

I have not heard back from Square. I guess that is not much of a surprise. I filed a fraud complaint with my Bank. Hopefully Vince will get a job soon and quite stealing pictures and trying to steal money by selling animals he does not have.
 
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