[Warning] TarantulaOutlet.com

Comatose

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 25, 2004
Messages
506
TarantulaOutlet.com = Eresusspidershop

Tarantula Outlet is owned and operated by the guy behind Eresus Spiders. The two LLCs have the same California address, and the same California registered agent, but it gets shadier from there. The about us section of their site claims they are owned by someone named "Mike" (identified as Mike Delgy via Facebook) and that he moved here from Canada with thousands of spiders after the pandemic started after working for the largest T dealer in Canada. Not only is this highly unlikely given how difficult international movement was in those days, but none of the large T dealers in Canada have ever heard of him.

I became aware of this issue after a former business partner of Eresus told us based on first hand knowledge. I then investigated, and found the following. The entity is organized specifically to obscure who actually owns or manages it. Tarantula Outlet LLC is registered in California to a New Mexico LLC called Exo Outlet LLC. The address on their website is for a registered agent, which is a third party. Morgan Noble is the name of the agent, not a person who works with or for Eresus/Tarantula Outlet. Both California entities, as well as a third recently formed California LLC as well as the New Mexico, all have the same registered agent, and used Morgan Noble. Please see pictures below.

When we brought this to light, a blank "public person" page under the name Mike Helgy contacted my business via Facebook with spurious legal threats, first claiming he would call the police and then saying he would take legal action for defamation. My attorney called both threats ludicrous. He then posted his own response the following day, which I am including as an image below. Interestingly, the LLC for Eresus was terminated that same day, 12/29/2022. Note also that in "Mike's" post, there are small errors like "60.000" instead of "60,000", which is how it would be written in North America. Europeans regularly use a decimal instead of a comma, and Tomas(z) Lelewski, the man behind the scam at Eresus, is a Polish National.

There is other evidence I cannot share publicly at this time, but two separate individuals have personally met with Tomasz to discuss Tarantula Outlet before becoming aware of the scam. The NDA Tomasz employed for both entities is identical and unique. Even the story behind both entities - "I moved here from another country with my collection to offer insanely low prices because I breed everything myself" is very similar.

There is more investigation, and likely, legal action ongoing, but I strongly recommend avoiding this website, company and anyone directly associated with them.
 

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Beths Tiny Critters

Arachnopeon
Joined
Nov 17, 2022
Messages
26
Hey, so I noticed his post and also gathered some more information.

The about us section of their site claims they are owned by someone named "Mike" (identified as Mike Delgy via Facebook) and that he moved here from Canada with thousands of spiders after the pandemic started after working for the largest T dealer in Canada. Not only is this highly unlikely given how difficult international movement was in those days, but none of the large T dealers in Canada have ever heard of him.
Noticed a few things. One, Mike has gone by multiple names. Mike, Matt, Mark, and more. Probably to do with the fact no one knew for sure who was running what over there. There is a YouTube video made about 4 months ago by The Tarantula Collective. Rich discusses with the guy who bought both the website and the stock from Eresus. The guy claims it wasn't a scam and that they were just over selling products and basically blames the buyers and not the people behind Eresus. Though in the video Rich does tell the guy that he delt with a lot of people over there at Eresus and there were multiple faces behind it. That said, again though the person claims it wasn't a scam in his opinion but loves to throw blame on the people buying the Ts and saying they were constantly lying. Idk. I don't have a clue about that. What I can say is this now is fishy.

I became aware of this issue after a former business partner of Eresus told us based on first hand knowledge. I then investigated, and found the following. The entity is organized specifically to obscure who actually owns or manages it. Tarantula Outlet LLC is registered in California to a New Mexico LLC called Exo Outlet LLC. The address on their website is for a registered agent, which is a third party. Morgan Noble is the name of the agent, not a person who works with or for Eresus/Tarantula Outlet. Both California entities, as well as a third recently formed California LLC as well as the New Mexico, all have the same registered agent, and used Morgan Noble. Please see pictures below.
In his Facebook post he claims that a lot of companies use the same agent. What he fails to say is that his company uses the same agent and happens to have a lot of other things that they also use. Screenshots show it all. But one thing is the New Mexico part. In that video I mentioned, Rich does make a claim that Eresus was working on opening a physical store in New Mexico. So, we have an extra bit of information there.

When we brought this to light, a blank "public person" page under the name Mike Helgy contacted my business via Facebook with spurious legal threats, first claiming he would call the police and then saying he would take legal action for defamation. My attorney called both threats ludicrous. He then posted his own response the following day, which I am including as an image below. Interestingly, the LLC for Eresus was terminated that same day, 12/29/2022. Note also that in "Mike's" post, there are small errors like "60.000" instead of "60,000", which is how it would be written in North America. Europeans regularly use a decimal instead of a comma, and Tomas(z) Lelewski, the man behind the scam at Eresus, is a Polish National.
Looking at Eresus' site, using archived links, it shows the use of the decimal instead of the comma.

There is other evidence I cannot share publicly at this time, but two separate individuals have personally met with Tomasz to discuss Tarantula Outlet before becoming aware of the scam. The NDA Tomasz employed for both entities is identical and unique. Even the story behind both entities - "I moved here from another country with my collection to offer insanely low prices because I breed everything myself" is very similar.
I would wonder if he truly did "move from Canada" to here with his collection, is that legal? I mean, some of the animals he had listed on his site before it went to "under construction" were for sure not able to be sold.

There is more investigation, and likely, legal action ongoing, but I strongly recommend avoiding this website, company and anyone directly associated with them.
Few more things. His Arachnoboards profile says he's from SC. His registration is out of CA. His own websites physical address is in NM which if you go to Google street view it's a law office. In a video done by The Tarantula Collective, Rich spoke of the guy from Eresus and how he was going to be opening a location in NM. Also on his site he claims he is from Canada.

His entire post on Facebook was throwing shade at "other vendors" as if it's all just competition coming out to call his bull. I have no connection with other sellers, I'm just bored and this is entertaining to do research on.

His website literally, until he took it down, had fake reviews on it.

Everything about this guy, his brand new Facebook account he used to just appear and start posting like nothing happened. It screams scam. He acts like he has nothing to do with it. See the evidence for yourself and like the person says in the Facebook post "be your own person and have your own opinion" well be your own person and look into every website before you buy.

Happy keeping everyone.
 

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Arachnopets

Arachnoboards Team
Staff member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
628
ADMIN NOTE:

Just a friendly reminder, anything posted in here MUST be from first hand experience with regards to Tarantula Outlet and the connection to Eresus. No conjecture, no speculation, no hearsay, no opinions. Any posts that do not adhere to this WILL be removed (you may or may not be informed, and you may or may not be issued a warning). Thanks!


**The account for Tarantula Outlet has been locked and all ads have been temporarily removed until resolved to our satisfaction**



His Arachnoboards profile says he's from SC.
To clarify, his profile location actually says Detroit.

tarantula outlet profile location.png

His Review Item says SC (as pictured in the above post).

When I reached out to them to clarify their location discrepancy, we were first informed they were traveling and that they just launched a new business in Santa Fe, NM. I asked why put SC in the ads if the business is in NM, and why put Detroit as their profile location? It was only at this time they mentioned using a VPN. This was their reply:

All my devices are protected by a VPN - exactly for this reason so companies can't collect data and track people without their permission. This account was created before we decided to move to NM so it was set to SC where I've lived. The business Tarantula Oultet is registed in NM like our website states. Thx
Just to be crystal clear, their profile location was NEVER set to SC. It was only their Review Item and any ads they posted in our Classifieds section that said SC. Their profile has ALWAYS said Detroit (which matched the IP when they registered).

When asked again why Detroit was used for their profile location, their reply was that they are protected by a VPN. This is NOT acceptable for any seller or dealer. So I explained to them:

You are an online vendor that wants to sell to our users. You do not get the privilege of hiding your location. If you insist on hiding your location, then this is not the right website for you.
This was their reply:

I guess this is not the right place for us. Pls delete my account asap and all the information stored about us. thx
Take that for what you will. Is it possible that someone can have a good transaction with them? Sure. However, any business that insists on shielding their location sends up a red flag to us. There are definitely some "questionable" things going on that makes us take pause.


Make sure you always research a seller before making a purchase!


I decided to do a bit more digging myself. Here is what I was able to find out. Their business is NOT registered in the state of NM. In fact, it is NOT registered in any state, other than California. I think they might be confused with how that works. Their "agent" will represent them in any state, should the need arise. However, that does not equate to being officially registered as a business in each state.

Here is a link to the New Mexico Secretary of State business search: https://portal.sos.state.nm.us/BFS/online/corporationbusinesssearch

Here is a link to the California Secretary of State business search: https://bizfileonline.sos.ca.gov/search/business

On the California one, type in "tarantula outlet" and click the search icon. You will see their name pop up in blue on the bottom.

tarantula outlet california business search.png

When you click on the name in blue, another window will pop up on the right hand side.

tarantula outlet california business search 1.png

If you click on "view history" at the bottom left hand side, it will open a new window.

tarantula outlet california business search 2.png

You will notice there are 2 "download" buttons that you can click on. The first will bring you to the "Statement of Information" pdf that was filed with the State of California. The second will bring you to the "Articles of Organization" pdf that was filed with the State of California.

Now, what does all this mean? Tarantula Outlet has a legitimate LLC business that was filed on 11-30-2022 in the State of California. They are being managed by a Registered Agent (which may not be unusual). We find it curious that the manager of Tarantula Outlet, LLC is another LLC called Exo Outlet that is registered in the State of NM on 11-28-2022. What's confusing is that Tarantula Outlet was created 2 days after Exo Outlet. Why create a business you are supposedly moving to another state, when one already exists in said state?


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From the NM Secretary of State website:

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About the registering agent name:


Did Eresus have the same registered agent as Tarantula Outlet? Yes. Is that unusual? Honestly, we do not know. What individual owner name is on the business or associated with it? Again, we do not know, as it is not listed anywhere on the Statement of Information or the Articles of Organization that we can see.

We are sharing this information so people can make informed decisions. This is NOT to defame or degrade any business. Simply to provide information and facts.

Thanks for reading!

Debby
 

Smotzer

ArachnoGod
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
5,275
So at the request of Debby @Arachnopets , I am sharing my experience with tarantula outlet.

I contacted this seller off of AB for some Eresus and I was directed to contact them via email at tarantulaoutlet@gmail.com, and when they got in contact with me it was strange instantly because the subject of the line was not about Eresus like we had only just talked about but was instead tittled "Panama Slings". I corrected them and they gave me their PayPal vidaporvida2011@gmail.com then after some communication back and forth over the course of about a week they instructed me to now purchase through their website which seemed very odd to me as I couldn't proceed an order as a guest and was instructed to make an account which I refused to do. Because of this I was very hesitant to do business with them and I asked some of my arachnid friends in out WhatsApp group and they has sent me the Facebook post, mentioned above, supposedly linking Tarantula Outlet to Eresus so I took pause. Also the person I was emailing was named Casey.

I decided to do some digging and I tried to look up Casey's/Tarantula Outlets PayPal email vidaporvida2011@gmail.com as there was no other name associated on the PayPal site and the email did not come up registered at all on PayPal, another big red flag for me. A google search of the email brought up this https://www.tiktok.com/@caseynkw83, looks like a fake account for Casey Wright.

So I searched Casey Wright/ Tarantula Outlet/ Eresus Spider Shop and I got a mention of "Casey Wright" in the Eresus scam in a comment on a Facebook post here: https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=590195646449730&set=a.349702980498999. So we at least have a connection for this "Casey" person associated with Tarantula Outlet and Eresus.

Because of all of this I decided to contact Scott and Debby so that others can be warned for this "Casey Wright" person and also Tarantula Outlet. To all make sure you always do a little bit of digging into whoever new it is that you are potentially doing business with. I feel like a dodged a bullet here! Hopefully more of you do too.

If you have any more questions feel free to reach out!

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campj

Captive bread
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2009
Messages
479
Casey Wright, aka Casey Killough, aka Casey Killough Johnson out of Spartanburg, SC. You can find her here in the warning section. The thread was locked with no closure. Not someone I'd ever do business with.


Would add that I think this is pertinent to the discussion if tarantula outlet and Casey K are indeed partners.
 
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Arachnopets

Arachnoboards Team
Staff member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
628
UPDATE:

What we know so far -

As @Beths Tiny Critters mentioned above, the CEO from Prehistoric, Inc. (Jay Brewer) is now the registered agent for Tarantula Outlet, as of Jan 26, 2023.

From the California Secretary of State website:

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I have not unlocked the "tarantulaoutlet" account, as the discrepancies still stand unresolved. Oddly, "someone" using the account did reach out to me back on Feb 12, 2023 (before I was made aware of the change of registered agent):

1677448793480.png

One would think that a professional would introduce themselves and want nothing more than to clarify any prior doubts, if they were, in fact, a completely different person/owner. However, this did not happen. They double downed on the secrecy and continued their aggression with me. This only made me more suspicious.

I have learned from many different businesses, over the years, that a change in management is NOT the same as a change in ownership. In fact, one business went as far as to inform me that it is nothing more than a marketing ploy (in some cases) to help regain older customers who were not satisfied prior. Bottom line, is that it could mean that the same people are still involved. We also state that "user accounts may not be used by multiple people, sold or traded and are non-transferable in all ways".

With that said, this was our exchange (judge for yourself):

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As you can all clearly see, just more resistance, combativeness and runarounds. At no point has this person ever identified themself to me, nor identified anyone involved at any given time. I still have NO idea who I am speaking with. What is to gain by shielding their identity? All it does is make me even more suspicious than I already was before. It is really silly just how easily this all can be cleared up, but they refuse for whatever reason.

I did not hear anything back again until Feb 23, 2023.

I did want to note that I did notice that they were speaking in singular terms (using "I"), until they came back to reply this last time. All of a sudden they are now using "we".

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The video they linked is from Jay's Prehistoric Pets YouTube channel. Jay does admit that he is new and still learning. Why he rushed to put a video out before obtaining the basic knowledge is beyond me. Jay did briefly mention in the video that he has someone helping him. Who that person is, is anyone's guess.

I have noticed that there is now a separate channel for Tarantula Outlet, featuring the same video from Jay. However, nothing has been addressed (regarding supposed lies against them) at all, as they claimed. Not on either channel. They also STILL have not disclosed or clarified anything to us.

Now what does all of this new information mean?

- Jay from Prehistoric, Inc. is now the new registered agent of the business, Tarantula Outlet. That's it really.

They are still refusing to cooperate with us. Therefore, some questions come to mind.

- Am I actually speaking with Jay or is it the person helping him?
- What is the purpose of hiding their location and identities?
- Why hide their connections or who is working with them?
- Are Tomas and Casey still involved?
- What professional business would not want their account access restored? Especially if it was tainted by someone completely different?
- What new business owner would not want to be fully transparent, especially to the public? Wouldn't they want to try to clear up any confusion with any prior negative situations, associated with previous owners?

I would like to give someone new the benefit of the doubt, but there are just so many red flags, to me.

Our advice? Proceed with caution.


Thanks for reading!

Debby
 

Arachnopets

Arachnoboards Team
Staff member
Joined
Jan 11, 2004
Messages
628
UPDATE:

Several weeks later, we received a reply. They are still speaking in plural terms. Still not revealing the identity of the person that is corresponding with me. Included yet another video, thinking that is the holy grail of answers, and that no other information is needed. Not sure why this is their method or why they think this is acceptable.

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This video was ... interesting. Claiming to still be new, but then they claim to be in the spider hobby for 35 years. Saying that "apparently the business name was used before, but what does it have to do with this?". Claiming to have "stuff that the US never gets to see". Let's just say that a lot of "claims" were made in this video, but none that clarified much of anything, as far as we are concerned.

The only claim that was made clear is that Tarantula Outlet is now Jay's business.

I am honestly getting a bit tired of the back and forth word games, and the lack of transparency. Why they are making something so simple to be something so complicated is beyond frustrating. I am very curious if Jay is aware of the account on here, and that this mystery person is representing him and his business in such a vague manor.

I will continue to try to get the answers for all of you. With that in mind, I decided to take a more "direct" approach.

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I always say that one can not make a truly informed decision if one does not have all of the information. That is my goal here.

At this time, we still recommend to proceed with caution.


Thanks for reading!

Debby
 

Matt Man

Arachnoprince
Joined
Jul 4, 2017
Messages
1,685
great work everyone, also Sacramento to Fountain Valley is a 500 plus mile move. For an operation with thousand's of Ts this would be considerable. One of the FV addresses is "The Reptile Zoo" "Prehistoric Pets" ......
 

DustyD

Arachnoknight
Joined
Apr 4, 2021
Messages
208
I am very curious if Jay is aware of the account on here, and that this mystery person is representing him and his business in such a vague manor.
He may be aware or not. It has been reported that others that worked with Eresus signed non disclosure agreements. So even if he did not know at first, if he signed an agreement he seemingly could not say even if he wanted.

To me, the workings of the tarantula trade industry is still very unknown by the general public, including myself. I envision that there are multiple large scale breeders and or brokers in Europe and elsewhere that offer access to their invertebrates to sellers here in the US.

This could mean someone buying Ts from the West Coast US and from the East Coast looking for a more diverse gene pool could be getting their inverts from the same place.


Debby and everyone involved, Thanks for keeping us apprised.
 

Smotzer

ArachnoGod
Arachnosupporter +
Joined
Jan 17, 2020
Messages
5,275
UPDATE:

Several weeks later, we received a reply. They are still speaking in plural terms. Still not revealing the identity of the person that is corresponding with me. Included yet another video, thinking that is the holy grail of answers, and that no other information is needed. Not sure why this is their method or why they think this is acceptable.

View attachment 442099

This video was ... interesting. Claiming to still be new, but then they claim to be in the spider hobby for 35 years. Saying that "apparently the business name was used before, but what does it have to do with this?". Claiming to have "stuff that the US never gets to see". Let's just say that a lot of "claims" were made in this video, but none that clarified much of anything, as far as we are concerned.

The only claim that was made clear is that Tarantula Outlet is now Jay's business.

I am honestly getting a bit tired of the back and forth word games, and the lack of transparency. Why they are making something so simple to be something so complicated is beyond frustrating. I am very curious if Jay is aware of the account on here, and that this mystery person is representing him and his business in such a vague manor.

I will continue to try to get the answers for all of you. With that in mind, I decided to take a more "direct" approach.

View attachment 442100

I always say that one can not make a truly informed decision if one does not have all of the information. That is my goal here.

At this time, we still recommend to proceed with caution.


Thanks for reading!

Debby
Thanks for still trying to dig a bit deeper! That being said I am not sure the information will ever be fully disclosed 🤷‍♂️
 

Liquifin

Arachnoking
Active Member
Joined
May 30, 2017
Messages
2,110
Bad practices have been around for a while, it's just in recent times that it's coming into the light. Very informative experiences and information for sure.

To me, the workings of the tarantula trade industry is still very unknown by the general public, including myself. I envision that there are multiple large scale breeders and or brokers in Europe and elsewhere that offer access to their invertebrates to sellers here in the US.

This could mean someone buying Ts from the West Coast US and from the East Coast looking for a more diverse gene pool could be getting their inverts from the same place.
A lot imports are usually from the same places in the EU. While there are more breeders in the EU compared to anywhere else, not all breeders in the EU can afford to export/import legally. EU smuggles in so many species and everyone else around the world gets them later. Not all imports/exports are legal and some people in the US brown-box which is more common than most would think.
 

KillBoxSpider

Arachnopeon
Joined
Oct 16, 2012
Messages
29
i was talking to this guy last week about stuff he had on morph hes nothin but a fraud kept asking me to drive up to orange county to buy in person spider sense went off dude was super evasive and shifty wouldnt prove who he was kept showing me a u tube with 64 subs on it i knew instantly it wasnt jay jay has like 6 million subs on ig probly had a bunch of spray painted rose hairs for me hard pass on tarantula outlet
 

SpookySpooder

"embiggened"
Arachnosupporter
Joined
Jun 21, 2023
Messages
1,088
I know the Prehistoric Pets store/zoo quite intimately. I've been there enough times to recognize every single one of his employees over the last 5 years. I know some of them personally by name and what kind of animals they keep. I buy all my feeder crickets and roaches there because I can't stand the smell of colonies.

Because of their husbandry practices, I have never bought a herp from their store. Strictly supplies. I did make a couple of sling purchases from them in early 2023, but that was before I discovered this scandal.

I have been in that exact T room shown in the videos. It is a backroom that is connected to the zoo side of the store.

They very much do have some stuff that is hard to find. A lot of stuff from South America, Africa and Asia from what I was shown. There is much more back there that is not listed on their webpage or MorphMarket.

I can confirm there are indeed multiple people working back there, at least one female and two males, none of which work at the pet shop/zoo. I've seen them as they come to and fro, and as I've asked to see their specimens and they retrieve them for me. One of the males has directly said to me, "hang on, let me go in the back and see if I have those slings still." Which suggests to me he has at least equal standing and ownership over the T's as Jay does. (speculation)

If someone could show me a photo or the Facebook to said Eresus scammers, I could possibly identify them if they are indeed lurking around here.

The T business might be his in name, but Jay has never helped me with any T information or sales. Even when I messaged them through their email and MorphMarket, it was someone else who was handling that side of things. I messaged both TarantulaOutlet via their website email AND the MorphMarket account. In both cases, it was someone who said they were Jay, but were not.

It has always been some other male who's name apparently isn't important enough to share with me.

I can confirm this because I have spoken to Jay directly about the T's and questions I messaged him about, and he has had absolutely no recollection of our conversation despite it being literally yesterday. But one of the helpers will know exactly what I was talking about. They're clearly the one I talked to. I've also called the number they told me to text while in store, and lo and behold, it was not Jay's cell phone. It was his store manager's phone.

Whoever is running their MorphMarket is someone else as well. I can tell simply by the manner in which they type. I have spoken to at least 3 different individuals while messaging this store. Maybe one of them was Jay? I can confirm one of them is the store manager, who is named Kyle, but he helps with everything and is not an owner in any side of the business.

I have yet to confirm the identity of the 3rd individual, but I have seen him in store, as I've said, he seems like he's the only one who has permission to rummage through and pull specimens out besides Kyle, the manager.

Shady behavior? Totally. But they are a legitimate business with real Tarantulas.

How did they get all these T's? Anybody's guess. Mine is they scammed them back when they were Eresus, and when they couldn't avoid the fallout, they tried to proxy through Jay. Jay may or may not have been aware of the crimes that were perpetrated by his partners--but his behavior after the fact suggests he doesn't care that much about rectifying or clarifying the situation.
 

Matt Man

Arachnoprince
Joined
Jul 4, 2017
Messages
1,685
I have seen some of the hero videos of late. Classic 'bad practices to generate hits' which means I have little respect for them. One video of them holding feeder rats by the tail as they feed them. Then another video with multiple bite reports. Duh
 
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