Whereabouts of Russell Wease (a.k.a. Kraken)

[Beardo]

He is still here in Louisville, but I know that he moved and I no longer have contact info for him, just an e-mail address.

 

[Galapoheros]

Well, its pretty apparent now what has happened. "Kraken" was just an alias for Charlie Wease (aka Finman31). Charlie was having funds sent to my PayPal account. I do not appreciate being deceived by anyone.

My many apologies to anyone who had negative dealings with "Kraken"....rest assured that I played no part whatsoever in any dishonest activities.

I received a couple a nice scorps from him. I know someone on the AB that had been suspicious of Krack and Fin being the same person. He had thought that for a long time. He was pretty sure of it. It amazes me that he figured it out. It was mentioned to me many many months ago. But it was hard to say anything with no proof. After it was brought to my attention, we started digging and picking at it and saw many clues. But still, hard to say anything because we weren't sure, at least I wasn't. And, well I still don't really know what's going on here so, I'm not sure about posting what I just typed but, oh well.

 

[Alakdan]

I said the exact same thing to my other friends. I had a suspicion that Finman31 is still lurking in AB. Kraken suddenly appeared in the scene when a lot of other people were looking for Charlie(Finman31). I immediately got suspicious because both were from Louisville. I still have Charlie's old mailing address.

I think this is how he operates.

-He looks for collectors who would be willing to trade inverts.
-He tries to befriend you so that you will trust him and decide to send first.
-As soon as he has them, he will stall and postpone sending his end of the bargain. He is proficient with his excuses and apologizes for the delay.
-Unknown to the other members, he would start selling the inverts that he has collected to other unsuspecting members.
-On their initial order, usually this are just small quantities, he will send them as promised. This will also help him get established and get good seller reviews.
-Once you're hooked. He will give you a for sale list that will be to hard to resist. So you end up placing a big order.
-As soon as he gets the money, he will give you the runaround and sob stories similar to the one's he has given to the other collectors who sent him inverts for trade.
-Then everyone starts to as questions and look for him.
-When it reaches boiling point. Poofff! He disappears!!


And I'm pretty sure he will be back again as soon as things cool down. As I said before, this is a learning experience. Let's just be vigilant so that he doesn't get the chance to strike again.

 

[becca81]

Has anyone filed a complaint with PayPal?

 

[SimplengGarapal]

I guess not. It's David Beard's paypal account so nobody would really think of it that way.

 

[Galapoheros]

I said the exact same thing to my other friends. I had a suspicion that Finman31 is still lurking in AB. Kraken suddenly appeared in the scene when a lot of other people were looking for Charlie(Finman31). I immediately got suspicious because both were from Louisville. I still have Charlie's old mailing address.

I think this is how he operates.

-He looks for collectors who would be willing to trade inverts.
-He tries to befriend you so that you will trust him and decide to send first.
-As soon as he has them, he will stall and postpone sending his end of the bargain. He is proficient with his excuses and apologizes for the delay.
-Unknown to the other members, he would start selling the inverts that he has collected to other unsuspecting members.
-On their initial order, usually this are just small quantities, he will send them as promised. This will also help him get established and get good seller reviews.
-Once you're hooked. He will give you a for sale list that will be to hard to resist. So you end up placing a big order.
-As soon as he gets the money, he will give you the runaround and sob stories similar to the one's he has given to the other collectors who sent him inverts for trade.
-Then everyone starts to as questions and look for him.
-When it reaches boiling point. Poofff! He disappears!!


And I'm pretty sure he will be back again as soon as things cool down. As I said before, this is a learning experience. Let's just be vigilant so that he doesn't get the chance to strike again.

WOW! The AB member (you all know him) that told me about it basically said the same thing. He cracked kracken a really long time ago. I think it'd be ok to tell who that was but maybe for some reason, he wouldn't want me too. I thought it sounded a little paranoid at first but I started digging around because I had a couple of dealings with him/them too. I could see it then. It's pretty sorry but interesting at the same time.

 

[Kriegan]

And I'm pretty sure he will be back again as soon as things cool down. As I said before, this is a learning experience. Let's just be vigilant so that he doesn't get the chance to strike again.

Hallo,

I agree, I think everyone should be very alert and cautious for any dealers or new members that have a nearby address in that area wanting to trade and sell all of a sudden, and veteran dealers should also be VERY doubtful when allowing other dealers to use their paypal account trying to be nice and get their reputation on the line when bad stuff like this happens! Besides the curious fact that in deutsch kraken literally means octopuses and anyone can interpret from there the two same individuals he was representing, to even think this guy must be following this thread enjoying a nice beer in front of his computer while he laughs at everyone that fell for his scheme, makes me cringe.

I'm wondering if Mr. Beard would be kind enough to provide this guy "Charlie's" email address that he has and who was his associate for a while and people sent him paypal payments there, and even his old residential information and old phone number where he used to contact him, so the polizei can investigate and track him down, and everyone can press internet fraud and rip off charges on his ass. I know for a fact everytime you move to a new address and have to fill out a form in the post office asking for any mail to be forwarded to your new place for some months, the polizei can easily find where the hell he's currently living, or with his phone number they can easily find his new address through the phone company records, and investigate his whereabouts.

For people that live in the USA, have anyone also tried the phone book and the yellow pages on the area?:? You'd be surprised how easily you can get someone's information in there with his first and last name. Trial and error until you find him. I'm not sure how much money are we talking about here between trades and sells, but I say you all shouldn't give up and make the polizei track him down and investigate him, so he learns to have some dealer decency and gets charged for scamming customers. I'd really wish he would step up and assume responsability and do what's right, but when someone wants to play hide and seek at your expense, I say get the polizei involved with Mr. Beard's help leading the way and putting an end to it.

Regards,
Ulrich

 

[ParabuthusKing]

Well I guess I was one of the lucky ones in dealing with this guy.. He was always very helpful on the phone, and seemed to know what he was talking about much more than some that advertise on these boards so I went with it.. I received pretty much what I ordered, but there was always a few discrepancies which he said he would make up in my next order.. a good way to keep me coming back.. but nonetheless I received some good inverts from him, primarily odonturus dentatus of which one even had 14 babies for me!! but I did receive a few wild caught hottentottas that I believe had internal parasites and soon died, but not his fault.. I then had a question as to the availability of a spider on his for sale list and was unable to get in touch with him as this was around the same time everyone was wondering where he was.. anyways I feel for the guy somewhat as he seems to have gotten himself into a predicament, but probably did not want things to end this way.. money may have been tight so I feel he may have had his reasons, but that still does not make such actions ok.. I know he recently moved, and I was able to get his phone number for the new house, so if necessary I can provide this to someone given that they provide adequate reasons that I should.. pm me if I can help.. sorry about the drama, but life is full of it. hahaha.. NAte

 

[Beardo]

The only e-mail address I have for Charlie is finman31@bellsouth.net....and honestly, I'd rather that you guys took up your issues with Charlie himself rather than put myself in the middle. I realize that I sort of did that on my own by allowing him to use my PayPal account to receive funds, but the thought did not occur to me that any dishonest activities were going on, otherwise access to my account would not have been granted as such. I'll help as much as I can, but I feel as though my usefulness in this situation is somewhat limited.

 

[Kriegan]

Sorry Mr. Beard I didn't mean to inconvene you in any way. Since some members already have his direct phone number and have the physical address where he wanted the stuff to be sent to, I think there is already enough information then for anybody here that wants to confront him about what the hell is going on, and can file a complaint with the polizei if they wish to press charges for being ripped off.

 

[bliss]

hmmm... i would've never guessed such a thing!!! after reading most of the posts in this thread, im sure that most can agree that this is a weird and frustrating situation to be confronted with -- and to think, i almost did a trade with him -- he was gonna give me scorps, an E. pachypus and maybe a centipede for a couple of my snakes (or somethin' like that, it was a while back). And you know what?? -- we were talkin' about the trade, and i noticed that he was getting on less and less, and the last PM i ever got from him said "sorry, ive been very busy lately". so naturally i thought "no biggie". but then, he never talked to me again, i never saw him on here again. oh well. to be honest, ive been looking for him on here too, almost every time i get on, but now i suppose i know why. sorry about your bad situations everyone!

 

[CaptainChaos]

I think there is already enough information then for anybody here that wants to confront him about what the hell is going on, and can file a complaint with the polizei if they wish to press charges for being ripped off.

I´ve thought about doing so and as it obviously seems to be a ripoff i think it would be good so that he could be stopped. Are there many others without animals or refund? Thank god i saved the pm´s and all other stuff, he´ll propably get more trouble because he obviously sent those illegally (got animals not native to U.S. that he sent here) but thenagain shouldn´t be ripping off others.

He seemed like a nice guy, that´s why i waited and didn´t want it to come to this.

 

[SouthernStyle]

Im going to pass on a bit of info for those of you who want to contact your local police department about this kat, BASICALLY since the animals were imported Illegaly, the only thing you can do is Contact the USDA, Most of the smaller departments aren't going to bother with a small time importer as the USDA will definatly find something to do about it. I'm BY NO WAY giving you any sort of legal advice (especially since I'm in the Law Enforcement Field) But THAT is how I would go about it....IF in fact he was importing illegaly, the USDA will have his @ss in a sling WITHOUT a doubt

HOPEFULLY that will help~ AT LEAST they could be notified of the situation.
Nate