A very good – and smart – FB friend was scammed recently. She writes: “Mrs. Plansky will be very upset to know that scammers are now using AI to create realistic ads and videos with content borrowed for genuine sites and research for genuine products.” So there’s a Scam Alert for today. BTW in A FAREWELL TO ARFS, the latest Chet and Bernie mystery, Chet, the canine narrator – but not a talking one – comes up against AI and turns out to be … well, no spoilers!
2 Comments on “Scam Alert”
Happy Friday, friends!!! Watch out for all scams. If it’s too good to be true, it’s not!!
And remember….nothing is free!!
Mom tries to keep this in mind.
I am suspicious of everything.
I will alert to a scam that is the old fashioned kind.
Online nurseries.
While there are plenty of legitimate ones (I get my seeds from rareseeds dot com) I have been trying to replace my Snowfire rose that died a few years ago. There were only two nurseries that carried it. Heirloom roses, which is legitimate, but they have been out of stock for several years. Every time I contact them they say it is still growing but under evaluation.
The other is a scam. It goes by several names and can be found on eBay and Bonanza, plus probably a few others. They are out of Texas. Reviews are mixed. They use the tag for the rose with a picture to imply that is what you are going to get. But they cannot supply photos of the plant in bloom or the plant at all. I bought a bare root in February and it took them almost a month to ship. That wasn’t a red flag. It looked correct as Snowfire has killer thorns and this looked just like it. I planted it and watered it and it finally got buds but when they bloomed it was not the Snowfire rose. Too small, wrong colors (Snowfire is a deep velvety red with a sharp white reverse. Large blooms with rounded petals it is almost a globe). This looked like a sucker. So I contact the seller who just send me a photo of the tag (which can be purchased in bulk and attached to anything). Then I contact Bonanza. They refer me to Paypal. The AI robot on Paypal simply says that the 30 days are up. In other places it said I had 120 days. I called them and was actually able to get a human on the phone. I explained that this seller ran out the clock and there is no way to get a bare root rose to bloom in less than 30 days, not even if he had overnighted it to me. He scammed me. He said he would send up my dispute to higher ups, we set up an appointment for them to call me (they never did) and I would be refunded (which I never was.) Too late to stop payment with my credit card either.
So you have to be careful who you buy from online and how you do it. Neither your credit cards nor Paypal is protection. The guarantees from sites are worthless. Even Amazon is spotty.
This is the second time I have been scammed by an online nursery in just the same way. Paypal or your credit card is no protection because they have learned how to run out the clock.
There are ways to check on the legitimacy of a URL and that is the first thing I do. Then I search around for reviews. Lastly, if it is something that is discontinued , but is popular and being offered for a suspiciously good deal, walk away. It is likely a scam.
The only other place I can get my Snowfire rose is cuttings from the U.C. Davis Foundation Plant Services. I did that this year but being a novice at propagating roses I made some mistakes and of the roses that survived the Snowfire was not one of them. I did manage to successfully propagate three Queen Elizabeth climbing roses, a sport of the Queen Elizabeth. I will likely use all three in the yard in various places. I also managed to propagate my own Champagne Cocktail. I have one in the back but wanted one in the front and Heirloom Roses has been out of stock for several years “evaluating” it too. At least I had my own cuttings and could try as much as I wanted. Took over a dozen tries to get this one but I am happy. As soon as it’s big enough I will plant it out front.
I’m going to try Snowfire again next Spring. I love that rose and I want it back. I will also keep trying with my Mary Alice rose which is unavailable everywhere. Mine is thriving but I want to propagate it at least twice to make sure I never lose it.