IMPORTING CORALS FROM INDONESIA/AUSTRALIA SCAM?

Gungo · Aug 25, 2018

Did a few hours dig on the internet and found nothing about it so let's start...

I live in the Dominican Republic and buying corals here has been a pain in the butt. With a lot of work, we got all the permissions related to import corals and we mainly were buying corals from the US. We get to the conclusion that many, if not all the corals we buy on the US have been imported from INDONESIA/AUSTRALIA. So why not to import them directly?

I did research and found on Facebook and Instagram a few profiles that claim to be exporters from Bali, Indonesia, and Australia. The communication is great, and quickly we received the list of corals and fish. He insisted to send him an idea of the corals that we would be interested in and I sent him the list... The day after I received the invoice and he started asking when I will be paying that invoice. I was like lol, I thought it was just an idea but yea its okay let's work on that... The only thing that really shocked me was that the only way that they accept payments is via bank account or western union... So, basically, when you send money via bank account there's no way you get a protection like you usually do with your credit card or PayPal, so it's kind of a risk. I tried to look for the names in the bank accounts and the one that claims to be the head seller manager but there are no reviews, there's no information online, there's nothing to help me decide to do the transaction or not, just a seller that has awesome customer service and an Instagram profile, that keep asking when I am going to make the deposit so he can ship... I tried to get the company name but he told me that the company name will be anonymous because of the taxes or something like that... So is this a SCAM? Has anyone got scammed this way before? I want to think that I can trust him but let's be clear guys... there are people anywhere that don't sleep thinking new ways on how they can **** you up. The one that I have talked about the most is with @balireef on Instagram. He told me I can ask anyone about his service so that's what I am doing to see if I get any review. We are new to this and I am sure there's a lot of people out there looking for information like this...

Please give me your opinion on this panorama... Do import corals from Indo/Australia works like this? Do you have any well-trusted sellers? do you have any list of good sellers?

If you have any other valuable information that I must know or can be helpful to other people please post below! much appreciated!

James M · Aug 25, 2018

Have you asked if he could accept other payment methods. And if he says no ask him why .

Gungo · Aug 25, 2018

James M said:
Have you asked if he could accept other payment methods. And if he says no ask him why .

I asked before and he says that the transaction needs to be "legal" to pay taxes and other stuff. I offered to pay him by PayPal and he doesn't want. The issue here isn't the bank transfer, is the thing that if we want a guarantee we will need to sign a contract, and to sign a contract we will need the company information which he doesn't want to provide. If we don't sign a contract then the WTO (world trade organization) can't protect us.

James M · Aug 25, 2018

If he doesn’t want to sign a contract that’s going to protect you . I would take your business to someone more reliable.

Lasse · Aug 25, 2018

Check it up because I think there is a stop in exporting stony corals from Indonesia for the moment. I´m not 100 % sure if it still is stopped or not.

But yes - bank transfer is the normal method

Sincerely Lasse

Gungo · Aug 25, 2018

That was my first question and they told me there isn't any stop to coral export. So, everyone who imports corals from that part of the world is running with this risk? because we don't have anything but their word... because there aren't even any reviews online!

ndrwater · Aug 25, 2018

There is indeed a stoppage if coral exports from Indonesia. Bank transfer notwithstanding, NOTHING leaves the country without a permit from the Fisheries department, and that isn't happening currently. ALL of the Indo coral exporters are hurting right now.
My guess is that this is probably not something you want to get involved with.
Australia IS currently shipping corals and I would suggest going that route if you can.

reefwiser · Aug 25, 2018

There are many scammers doing this type of thing with LFS in the states. Once burned you learn not to do it. [emoji3]

ca1ore · Aug 25, 2018

Never pay somebody you don't know in a form that leaves you with no recourse. NEVER, EVER!

Billdogg · Aug 25, 2018

ca1ore said:
Never pay somebody you don't know in a form that leaves you with no recourse. NEVER, EVER!

^^^This, x 1000^^^

Although, if you'll send me a money order for the amount, I'll be sure to take care of it for you...........;Spam

Wilsonfeliz · Aug 26, 2018

Following

mort · Aug 27, 2018

I haven't seen it mentioned and don't know how it works where you are but if I contacted someone in Indonesia or Australia and I wanted to import corals from them, the cost of the corals is the start of my outgoings. I would need an import permit/license and would need to pay charges for cities on top of that. I can go through a consolidator in which case I use their license and it costs less. So I would double check that the cost you see are actually the costs that you will pay as it could enter the current only for them to tell you you need to pay more to pick it up. In the end for most of us it isn't actually economical to import in this way.
As it stands however it does sound a little dodgy but that can sometimes be explained by a language barrier.

Gungo · Aug 27, 2018

mort said:
I haven't seen it mentioned and don't know how it works where you are but if I contacted someone in Indonesia or Australia and I wanted to import corals from them, the cost of the corals is the start of my outgoings. I would need an import permit/license and would need to pay charges for cities on top of that. I can go through a consolidator in which case I use their license and it costs less. So I would double check that the cost you see are actually the costs that you will pay as it could enter the current only for them to tell you you need to pay more to pick it up. In the end for most of us it isn't actually economical to import in this way.
As it stands however it does sound a little dodgy but that can sometimes be explained by a language barrier.

Thanks for your comment!

I completely understand the process of importing corals to DR and the costs involved. What I am kinda confused is with the CITES. I thought that you only need CITES permission if you were the exporter, but as I see is the same anywhere in the world so, the exporter need CITES the same as the importer. This also makes me doubt a little because the seller I mentioned above told me only the exporter needed CITES permission. Maybe it is expensive, and I know it is, but... If I don't give it a try I will never know if it's profitable or not.

Actually, I am contacting other sellers with NO ANONYMOUS company names and I will keep updating and posting how everything is going.

Reeferstin · Feb 8, 2021

How did this work out in the end? what would a person living in Florida need to have paper wise in order to import sps corals from a seller in europe?

Gungo · Feb 8, 2021

Reeferstin said:
How did this work out in the end? what would a person living in Florida need to have paper wise in order to import sps corals from a seller in europe?

You should get some local advice from people that is actually importing as the US may be more picky with their laws. I asked the seller some personal information as back up and he didn't agree to share so I decided to let it go.