Originally Posted by
HarveyCOkay, let the fireworks fly. I've spent too much time already trying to figure out what is going on and consulting with other F4F members who suspect the same scam going on and, for the protection of people who are a little too trustworthy, I have decided to reveal what seems to be going on.
The recent F4F member abcd has made some interesting posts, appearing to be a newbie fig collector, offering to buy cuttings from others. In the original post, abcd indicates they have had trouble rooting cuttings and would like to buy more cuttings to keep experimenting. See http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=7219709 Also, quite interestingly, claiming to have imported Greek fig cuttings released which were released by USDA contrary to very clear regulations that prohibit this. See http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=7228699
I and others have sold significant quantities of cuttings to abcd, or Alex Gulenok, of River Edge, NJ. Specifically, I sold Alex 25 cuttings of Panache and 25 cuttings of UCR 184-15 and he received them last Wednesday (January 7th). I and others are 99% certain that Alex sells under the eBay ID of 2014.gulen (partial name match, same city).
Alex also just recently posted on F4F asking for a source of starter Jolly Tiger plants. See http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post?id=7234410
The eBay 2014.gulen account was created in October 2014 and has a history of selling 9 varieties of figs in the past month and currently has 21 auctions listed with 9 varieties in addition to those showing up in feedback history of being sold previously. An auction for 184-15 was also active yesterday but apparently someone already purchased those cuttings. Current listings include Jolly Tiger which is particularly interesting as Alex was just looking for starter plants four days ago and now has cuttings being offered. See http://www.ebay.com/itm/251789211493 for the current Jolly Tiger listing. I strongly suspect the striped fig cuttings shown are the Panache cuttings I shipped to Alex last week.
I suspect Alex also uses the eBay account svet_vasyl-2008 which also has a listing for Jolly Tiger with many of the same photos being used. There was another auction in the Buy It Now format that apparently got sold already. See http://www.ebay.com/itm/321640705172 for the current listing for suckers.
I and others have suspicions of connections with other eBay accounts but evidence in incomplete. Maybe Alex (abcd) would like to provide the details.
If you've been the buyer of cuttings from suspicious sellers in the northeast, please send me a PM with details.
I have saved PDF copies of the threads linked above in case they are deleted by abcd.
EDIT- See posts where I have made significant updates at:
http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1285794538&postcount=99
http://www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post/show_single_post?pid=1285806763&postcount=109
I suggest avoiding any activity with the following eBay users:
2014.gulen
atskor10 (formerly atskor8) *
korina-2009 *
korina77-2008 *
svet_vasyl-2008 *
* It's been confirmed that these eBay users use the same PayPal account. See post #109 linked above.
Edit 1/17: It appears that eBay user 77peony of Moscow, PA is probably also part of this group.
Also, if anyone has a desire to read a cached copy of abcd's thread before some posts were deleted, it can temporarily be found at http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:b6ep9rzRrXsJ:www.figs4funforum.websitetoolbox.com/post%3Fid%3D7229696%26goto%3Dnextnewest+&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=us
Edit 1/18: It appears with 99% certainty that radyslava is another eBay account being used by abcd (Alex Gulenok).
Edit 4/28: In an effort to edude detection, these scammers continue to change their IDs. Also, another related account was identified. As of now, the list of eBay accounts used by this group consist of the following:
200rarefigtrees
77peony
korina-2009
korina77-2008
vasyl_svet
vasyus4
growgr.55
radyslava