Phony isis ad

Not only that, their IP address came from Thailand!

I deleted it.

Seems like isis is the most used species for scam ads. Must be a desirable bug.

Not Guilty M'Lud

I think that the chance is quite high that the ad actually originated in somewhere in Africa, and they used a VPN to appear to be elsewhere. Maybe they mistakenly routed it through Thailand rather than the US? That is probably how the dodgy ads from Mary Flicker and other names seem to come from somewhere near Elkhart, Indiana.

Adam.

Here is the text of the ad:

Overwintering cocoons for worldwide shipping:

Graelsia isabellae roncalensis
Graelsia isabellae ceballosi
Graelsia isabellae paradisea
Gynanisa maja
Argema mittrei

Send email and I will email prices.

Email contact: jerry.benka@gmail.com
Contact Information
Contact: Jerry B.
Location: Budapest fovaros, Budapest H-1051
Hungary
Telephone:
E-Mail: jerry.benka@gmail.com


The IP displays as 'Moldova', which is a small country near Hungary.

Now, for the sake of discussion, why is this ad a scam ad?

Good point!

The IP from Moldova is indeed a proxy server. You can simply go to 178.175.139.54 and you will see the website of a company that provides access to proxy servers to hide your real IP.
You can also go one step further and search the appropriate internet registry data base to find details of who an IP is registered to.
In Europe it's R.I.P.E ("Reseaux IP Europeens"). There is also APNIC for Asia/Pacific IPs, ARIN for American IPs etc.
The search page for RIPE is here apps.db.ripe.net/search/query.html
The IP 178.175.139.54 is registered to a company in the UK, VPSCORNER Ltd.
Then of course you can Google VPSCORNER and find out more about them.
The point is that whoever posted the ad for Graelsia isabellae cocoons etc could be anywhere.
I can't rule out the possibility that this is a genuine ad as I know that Graelsia isabellae and Argema mittrei have been bred from imported livestock in countries such as the UK.

David Hall

If the add should be real and the advertiser located in the UK, then the address should be in the UK, Not Budapest fovaros, Budapest H-1051 (Hungary).
A small search on the address above gave up this: An youtube video of what seems to be an Hotel or some sort of short rent flats in Budapest. It is possible and highly unlikely that the advertiser is in a short rent flat in Hungary using a Moldovan IP, but then, I never heard of this person and those ssp of G. isabellae do not exist (Graellsia isabella has no Valid ssp.). Also he can't separate paradisea from roncalensis even if looking at location.

As you said Clark, "it seems too good to be true" even though those are "common" species.
But last, Spanish livestock of Graellsia isabella is ilegal to collect from wild, so are the adults, larvae etc. This is a protected species in Spain, people keep collecting them without any problems but still, it is a crime according to the Spanish laws, so he advertising illegally harvested cocoons unless those come from a research Lab.

Graellsia isabella and A. mittrei can be bought from different people in the UK of course, from reliable people with a well known name. No need to risk, if all you want is a bargain, buy them from someone in Spain.

You can tell whatever, Gynanisa maja and Argema mittrei do not really "overwinter", and he can't offer cocoons of Gynanisa maja cuz they pupate underground, thus have no cocoons...
Oh well