A Beginner’s Guide to Keeping Turtles and Avoiding Scams: How to Spot 5 Major Turtle Buying Frauds

The weather is warming up, and pet turtles in hibernation are about to wake up. The peak season for trading pet turtles is approaching. Appearing alongside the army of turtle sellers are more than a few unscrupulous vendors eyeing your wallet. After a quiet winter, are you, eager to buy a turtle, prepared to avoid pitfalls and scams?

Offline Purchase Channels

In the era before the internet was developed, this was the primary way to acquire turtles. Today, with developed networks and convenient logistics, although it is no longer the main channel, a certain market still exists. The only advantage of buying from roadside stalls and physical stands is that you can select them in person—what you see is what you get. However, the flaws are also obvious. One point is as mentioned above: fewer varieties. Moreover, physical vendors generally keep turtles in high density when selling, so there are often some defects, such as missing claws, broken tail tips, etc. This requires careful selection when purchasing.

Precautions for Offline Purchases

Buy turtles at the right time. Absolutely do not buy those displayed on the roadside or at the entrance of physical stores in the dead of winter, naked, some with a little water, some simply kept dry. The reason is that winter is the hibernation season for Reeves’turtles and other pet turtles; I won’t say much about the rest, but buying this kind of turtle is very likely just a “stupidity tax.” The suitable season for us to buy turtles is generally in spring, summer, and autumn. Taking the Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and Shanghai regions as an example, this is roughly from April to September each year.

Ask for the price. Before choosing a turtle, first ask about the approximate price. Owners whose quotes are significantly higher than the average market price are clearly not doing business in good faith, and you can just turn around and leave. Therefore, before we buy a turtle, we should understand the market price of the target turtle species in advance. For example, Reeves’ turtle hatchlings are roughly a few yuan each. Of course, as a physical store, considering costs and convenience, a slightly higher price is acceptable.

Selecting the turtle. When buying turtles in a physical store, selection is the key. In physical stores, pet turtles are mostly kept in high-density mixed tanks, so there will definitely be individuals with strong constitutions and those with weak constitutions. When we choose, we can ask the owner to feed them on the spot. Our targets are those individuals that snatch food fiercely. Then, among these fierce eaters, try to choose individuals with larger body sizes. In the same batch of goods, the turtle ages are basically similar; a larger body size means it eats more and grows faster, which implies health. Finally, among the selected few, just choose the one or ones you like, which is often called “feeling a connection.” However, give priority to those in perfect condition, meaning individuals with intact claws and tails. Especially the tail: if the tail is broken, it will not grow back, whereas if a claw is broken, as long as the root is still there, it is still able to grow back.

Online Purchase Channels

This is currently the most commonly used channel for acquiring turtles, and the channel most people come into contact with. It includes not only shopping platforms like Taobao but also various auction platforms, trading forums, various WeChat merchants, trading groups, auction groups, live stream shopping, etc. During the turtle buying process, most pitfalls and scams occur through online channels. The most common are direct payment scams and items not matching the description, etc. The points to note regarding this part will be explained in detail below.

Exhibition Site Purchases

There is another uncommon channel, or rather one with only a few opportunities a year, which is purchasing at exhibition sites, such as Pet Fair Asia, CIPS (China International Pet Show), and the like. However, these exhibitions are comprehensive; pet turtles and soft-shelled turtles are relatively scarce. Professional turtle and soft-shelled turtle exhibitions are generally held in the Guangdong region. There are many high-end ornamental turtles displayed at these exhibitions, and often sky-high priced turtles worth hundreds of thousands or even more appear. However, as average hobbyists, it’s enough just to look at these turtles. Moreover, I personally think the prices are too inflated. So at the exhibition site, just aim for the more common ones, such as Reeves’ turtles, Yellow Pond turtles, and Mud/Musk turtles. There are many turtles at the exhibition site, so there is plenty of room for choice. If possible, it is recommended to go with friends who understand the trade and turtles, because the exhibitors are experts. As the saying goes, one should not have the heart to harm others, but one must have the heart to guard against others.

Common Scam Methods

Direct Payment Scams

This is the most common way to get scammed. Therefore, the constantly emphasized rule—do not pay directly, do not pay directly, do not pay directly—is absolutely correct. Furthermore, whether facing big shots in the circle, minor figures, or acquaintances, do not pay directly unless you can find them in real life. It might be fine for tens or hundreds of yuan, but can you guarantee that for transaction amounts of thousands or even tens of thousands, the other party won’t be tempted? In reality, there are cases where trust was gained through several small transactions, only to defraud a large transaction sum in the end.

Below are several common schemes for direct payment scams. However, this is not absolute, and might accidentally hurt some honest merchants; I apologize in advance and ask for forgiveness. Many of the schemes mentioned below exploit the hobbyist’s psychology of “picking up a bargain” (finding a hidden gem). Therefore, do not buy turtles with the mindset of picking up a bargain; bargains are not that easy to find. You think you are smart, but in fact, they have long had their eyes on your wallet.

The “Found Turtle” Scam

You will often see people posting on various forums and other places saying they found a turtle but don’t know what kind it is and want to find someone to estimate the price and sell it. If you ask for the price at this time, you have fallen into the first step of the trap. First of all, the turtles they post are generally rare or have very good appearance (quality). Then he will say he doesn’t know the price and just wants to trade for some cigarette money, etc. Then, when you are tempted and ready to trade, he will generally say he is a farmer or mountain villager, doesn’t have Alipay, his WeChat isn’t bound to a bank card, etc., and will act very honest and simple, making you secretly delighted that you are really going to pick up a bargain this time. Anyway, there is only one goal: to get you to transfer money directly to his bank card. And after you finish transferring the money, you will usually be surprised to find that you have been blocked.

The “School Kid” Scam

In short, they pretend to be children or elementary school students. For reasons like studies, their parents won’t let them keep it anymore, so they are selling the turtle cheaply. And because they are elementary school students, they don’t have Alipay or bank cards, so they can only do direct payment transactions. Because of these black-hearted people, elementary school students have become a group feared by everyone in the turtle friend circle and even various reptile circles, causing many innocent young players who truly like turtles and reptiles to become collateral damage.

The “Direct Payment Discount” Scam

This might accidentally kill off quite a few honest merchants because indeed some merchants will take the route of offering a discount for direct payment due to fear of trouble and other reasons. But this also gives some criminals a loophole to exploit. They will often pretend to be particularly generous, claiming that as long as you pay directly, they will give you a discount. To lure you onto the hook, the price reduction will be relatively large. At the same time, these criminals’ WeChat Moments (social feed) will show various direct payment transaction records, the sole purpose being to win your trust. After you fall for it and pay directly, some will keep delaying, saying something went wrong with the courier, or something came up and they will ship in a few days, or give a fake tracking number, or directly send an empty package. The final result is being blocked. If you encounter some high-level scammers and you neglected to film an unboxing video to prove it was an empty package, you will often be counter-accused.

There is also the one mentioned above: gaining trust through several small transactions to pave the way for defrauding a large transaction sum later. For this situation, the only thing we can do is not to pay directly. So, in response to all the above situations, what we have to do is: do not pay directly, do not pay directly, do not pay directly.

“Item Not As Described” Scam

This situation often happens in live stream selection, photo selection, and auction channels. There are often two situations. One is a genuine bait-and-switch; excessively, you buy a Chinese Box Turtle, and they send you a Reeves’turtle. The second situation is that, although it is the same turtle, due to lighting effects or photo processing during the live stream, it looks relatively good. But after receiving it, although it is the same turtle, it is not that brilliant. Simply put, it is a so-called “photo scam.”For this situation, try to choose via video call selection, rather than just watching a video clip. Moreover, a video call can also determine whether the other party is a serious turtle dealer or just a “dao ye” (middleman/reseller), meaning someone who just sells pictures and videos.

Malicious Bidding

This generally occurs on auction platforms and in various auction groups. In these platforms and groups, there are often so-called “shills” (tuo). When the price does not meet their expectations, they will step in to bid up the price. In some groups, there is also mutual hype; a common commodity turtle is often hyped up as something unique in heaven and on earth, making you doubt if you played with turtles in vain before. So, here is a tip especially for novice players: try not to enter so-called auction groups, otherwise, you will be scammed sooner or later. Of course, not all auction groups are like this; to those accidentally hurt by this statement, I say sorry here.

Fake Novelty Turtle Pre-sales

This refers to using turtles that rarely appear on the market, or various novel hybrid turtles and mutated turtles as selling points, claiming to have a source of goods but stating it is a pre-sale, the quantity is small, or it is a group buy, requiring a deposit to be paid in advance. This requires a little experience. Because there are true ones and fake ones in this.

False Gimmick Sales

What I want to talk about here is selling high-priced turtles using information asymmetry and misleading information. For example, so-called “Ink Turtle” (Melanistic Reeves’) hatchlings, or so-called pairs of hatchlings, etc. The so-called Ink Turtle is a sexually mature Reeves’ turtle, and the so-called pair of hatchlings or “couple turtles” is basically nonsense; it is difficult or impossible to distinguish male from female at the hatchling stage. There are also so-called colorful turtles, gourd turtles, etc. These are even more deceptive; they are man-made deformed turtles. As for ornamental turtles, what is an Ink Turtle? Do so-called Ink Turtle hatchlings really exist?

Fake Turtle Egg Sales

Another one is selling turtle eggs. This also requires certain experience to distinguish. Usually, the scam is that what hatches is not the target turtle species. Simply put, you bought Chinese Stripe-necked turtle eggs, but Reeves’turtles hatched out, etc. The reason I said it requires certain experience is regarding whether the egg can hatch. If the egg does not hatch, it is often a week or barely two weeks after receiving the egg—meaning the time is relatively long. If it cannot hatch, it might not be the seller’s fault. Of course, this can be proven by dissecting the egg. For a normally developing egg received in hand, if you open it, you can see the developed embryo.

Anti-Scam Suggestions

First of all, for novice players, try to avoid buying turtles on auction platforms, in live stream rooms, and in auction groups. Secondly, when we buy turtles, it is best to confirm various information about the turtle via text chat records, such as the turtle’s breed, size, whether it is in perfect condition, whether it is healthy, whether it eats normally, and even the place of shipment, etc. Asking for the place of shipment is not mandatory, but in some cases, you can ask. For example, in March, if a merchant sells you a Reeves’ turtle saying it is an individual that woke up from natural hibernation, yet the place of shipment is Jiangsu, this is deceptive. Then there is the filming of an unboxing video after receiving the goods; this is mandatory and is the most important evidence for defending your rights after a problem occurs. Regarding online scam prevention, that’s all I can think of for now. I hope it can be of some help.