Johannesburg, South Africa
Front picture: Screenshot TikTok/ Loros exóticos en adopción
Anyone looking for a feathered Christmas present these days can quickly end up with offers that seem too good to be true. One example has landed on my desk: a TikTok profile called “Loros exóticos en adopción”, Spanish for “Exotic parrots for adoption”. It has just 214 followers and 1,621 likes. It shows magnificent macaws and parakeets, from the blue hyacinth macaw to a fire-red hybrid. The profile description has no phone number and no legal notice, only a Gmail address. Anyone who inquires is drawn into an email exchange that, on closer inspection, looks like fraud line by line.
The Routine: Paperwork First, Money Second
The reply comes quickly, in Spanish. Thank you for your interest, it says, but we must first “change the ownership documents”. For that, the sender needs your full name, country, region, city, postal code, address and phone number. Only once everything is in will the bird be registered in your name and shipped. Then comes the decisive sentence: adoption and shipping cost 500 dollars, and this fee must be paid in advance, before anything else happens.
This is the classic advance-fee scam. The bait is an animal that either does not exist or that the fraudster has never owned. The word “adoption” is meant to radiate trust and a love of animals, and it makes the price look like a modest handling charge. The requested personal data serves to keep the victim on the hook and possibly to make further demands later. Anyone who has paid once is almost always presented with new bills: a transport crate, insurance, customs duty, quarantine, a “deposit” that will supposedly be refunded. The bird never arrives.
Payment is to go to an account at a US bank, held in the name of a private individual in Michigan, with a request to send a screenshot of the transfer receipt afterwards. The screenshot is no coincidence. It is meant to commit the victim emotionally and tells the fraudster the money has been sent. Incidentally, the holders of such accounts are often victims themselves, or so-called money mules who serve unwittingly as a pass-through. That is why I deliberately name neither the person nor the account number here. They should be reported all the same, more on that below.
The “Health Certificate”: Paper Is Patient
It gets especially brazen when the other side slips in documents to build trust. The latest email, subject line “Re: Re: Re: Re:”, brought a health certificate for a macaw named “Ruby”. At first glance it looks professional: the letterhead of a “Jenkins Private Veterinary Clinic” in Los Angeles, ticked findings, a handwritten-looking signature. But the document gives itself away.
The form does not come from California at all. Its footnote refers to the Animal Protection Act of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia and to rules on the sale of cats and dogs. It is a Canadian template for dogs and cats into which someone has written a parrot. The names are inconsistent: the veterinarian is “Chealsea” Jenkins, which looks like a typo that would hardly appear in a genuine clinic document. The owner is “Jackson Zoe” here and “Jackson Sánchez Zoe” in the emails. Parts of the form are filled in in Spanish (“Azul y amarillo”, “guacamayo loro”) even though clinic and form are English-language. The breed field contains a vague word combination instead of a species, and a scientific name is nowhere to be found. There is no microchip number, which is a warning sign for a parrot supposedly brokered internationally. As for vaccinations, it says only that the bird has received “some vaccines”, with no vaccine, date or batch. Body temperature is entered as 35.5 degrees Celsius. Birds normally run considerably warmer, so a reading of 35.5 would be unusual for a healthy parrot and should stand out in a real examination. And the veterinarian’s signature is a scrawl that runs right through the body text of the form.
The “Permit Form”: South Africa as Decoration
Also attached was a document from the South African conservation authority CapeNature, meant to suggest that keeping the parrots is officially approved. Here too, what we see is an application form, not an issued permit. It bears no official stamp and no signature from any authority. The place of residence given is Los Angeles, which simply does not fit an authority in South Africa’s Western Cape province. The application is ticked as “Renewal” yet cites a current permit expiring in 2036. According to the form itself, a renewal is only due sixty days before expiry. The ID number is missing. In the field for the address where the animals will be kept, there is no address, only a sentence about a “specially made bird cage” that breaks off mid-word. The signature date and the date of the “health certificate” also sit suspiciously close to the dates of the inquiries. In short, several countries, authorities and languages have been thrown together in the hope that nobody looks closely. The bank account holder in Michigan, the clinic in California, the authority at the Cape and the form from Canada add up to a geography that no genuine seller would ever produce.
Why Trading Exotic Parrots Is Delicate Anyway
The parrot scene thrives on rarity, and that makes it so attractive to fraudsters. Many species, including, of all things, the hyacinth macaw that adorns the profile’s cover, are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). International trade in such animals is strictly regulated or practically prohibited and requires permits from both countries involved, which cannot be obtained by a form from the internet. Anyone who seriously wants to “adopt” a parrot from abroad and have it shipped is on thin ice from the start. A reputable seller would point out the legal hurdles instead of selling a flat-rate shipping package for 500 dollars. On top of that, live animals are not simply “posted”. A flight across continents is an enormous strain on a bird, one that a responsible keeper does not impose without need.
How to Spot the Fraudsters
It is worth collecting the warning signs, because they recur in almost every pet scam, whether it involves parrots, puppies, kittens or horses. Contact runs through anonymous webmail addresses and social networks, never through a phone number or a physical address that could be checked. A personal meeting, a live video call or pickup in person never materializes. Payment is demanded exclusively in advance, to a foreign account, by gift card or in cryptocurrency. The price is set low, the story touching or “bureaucratic”. The texts are generic and could go to anyone, and often the same email with the same wording is sent to every interested party. Everywhere, official-looking papers turn up that prove to be forgeries when examined. The photos are seldom genuine either: they are copied from other profiles or breeder sites. Anyone who is suspicious can check them with a reverse image search and will often find them somewhere else entirely.
What Victims Should Do
Anyone who has already handed over data should stay alert, because name, address and phone number can be used for follow-up fraud or phishing. Anyone who has transferred money should contact their own bank immediately, because a quick response can sometimes get a transfer recalled. A report should also be filed with the police; in Germany this is easily done via the online police station of the respective federal state. It helps to keep all emails, screenshots and documents and to stop communicating with the fraudsters. The TikTok profile can be reported through the platform’s reporting function, the Gmail address to the provider, and suspicious accounts should also be reported to consumer advice centers. Anyone who suspects fraudsters based in the United States can also file a complaint with the US Federal Trade Commission.
The Advice: Animal Shelter Over TikTok
Anyone who really wants a parrot should remember that it is a living creature that, depending on the species, lives for decades, is loud, needs plenty of attention and space, and requires veterinary care. A Christmas present on impulse is not a good idea, and certainly not from an anonymous source. Reputable points of contact are animal shelters, bird rescue centers and breeders you can visit, who show you their papers and answer your questions. If an animal is to reach you only via pictures, chat and advance payment, break off contact. The rule of thumb applies here too: if an offer seems too good to be true, it usually is.
