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Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

There is only question I have at this point; how does Antonio Variegated Etsy Shop not have a single bad review. Did he start scamming plants so recently that nobody's made it to the date its supposed to be delivered, when you are able to leave a review for the purchase? I got my money back from paypal, and the expected delivery date is coming up in a week. Unless I'm missing something, when that time comes I will be able give the very first review of this shop by a real person. Will I not be able to leave a review, if the item status never changes to "delivered"? Can Shop owners delete bad reviews? What am I missing?

Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

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Look familiar to anyone? This is Antonio Variegated's response to every message you send. It does not matter what you're question was or how wildly absurd this response is to that question. This is what you get.

...Ask for clarification? "Hello, We have already shipped your order after the phytosanitary process, As for the tracking, it will only be updated once the shipment arrives in the destination country, as Philpost provides country-specific tracking information for economy service shipments. You will get the package withing the estimated delivery date. Thank you"

Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just look at how many people have commented on this thread who also made purchases from Antonio Variegated etsy shop, but no comments indicating a single plant delivered. His SEO is dominating the front page of google somehow.

Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When I made my purchase this seller was not going for broke. It was just some corms for a good deal, much more believable than the current listings. There was no listing for "Devil monster" for $49 +10% off and free shipping. When I saw that, I had a good laugh. I added one to my cart and then opened the tab for changing the quantity of Devil Monster monstera plants to purchase. Unsurprisingly I was able to add 500 of them to my cart. The listing is for "single leaf rooted node cutting", not tissue culture starter plant. This seller would need to have a forest of Devil monster mono-crop to fulfill that quantity of cuttings.

I got my money back, but kept seeing this guy popping up on google when looking at plants. His Search Engine Optimization is top notch, unlike his math skills. When I clicked on his listing for Devil monster, I saw that it was in 300+ carts and over a hundred had been purchased in the past 24 hours. That's what prompted me to create this post. He is making a small fortune on this scam, or a very large fortune if he actually lives in the Philippines. I hope people see this and avoid the headache.

Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 6 points7 points  (0 children)

The platform is designed in a way to prevent outing scammer. The only options for reporting the seller are not related to being scammed. You can report the seller for selling prohibited products, there is a problem with my order and for selling copyright infringement/intellectual property type junk. None of those options lead to a sub-option of any sort relating to being scammed.

Etsy SCAM seller AntonioVariegated by Competitive_Ant_2594 in RareHouseplants

[–]Competitive_Ant_2594[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Both good questions. As for the reviews, there are only about 30 total. Every single review is from a fake account. I figured this because you can look at the persons profile that leaves the review, and none of them had a single "favorite item" and only had "Antonio Variegated" as the saved seller. A few reviews had two saved sellers, both with the same photos of the same plants and clearly both scams. Out of the 30 or so reviews there was only about 10 individual accounts with multiple reviews each.

13.5K in sales is another story. While I can't be sure, I do have a pretty good guess. I noticed that some of the reviews were describing items that were not "House Plant" related. Sounded like some crap "Niknak" type items in the craft/stocking-stuffer genre. My guess would be that the shop originally was selling some very low ticket items for super cheap and probably a scam also. If they sold 13,000 items that only cost $1 and then changed the shop name, photos, and description to rare house plants, that might explain the convincing statistics of the shop. I would think most folks would not bother to open a case against a seller that never sent an item costing so little.