FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

Introduction
Sometimes you buy some seeds on the internet and they list the item as, say, "Sundew Long Leaves Red Bonsai Clip Seeds", you order them and plant them, wait for months and find out they sent you Baby's Tear (BT) (Or baby's breath) seeds. This is a common CP scam, because CP seeds are usually similar to BT seeds. The scam list below is for scams on AliExpress.

Main Scam Seller Sites (Slammers)
-AliExpress (Mainly for CP and exotic flowers)
-eBay (Be careful on this foreign land of shops and hallucinations, you may not be able to tell reality from photoshop)

Common Scams
-"Catch Cordyceps" This seems like an innocent messy translation but what sellers don't show you is the back, it says Gypsophila Elegans, which is, well, BT
-"Blue Sundews" The peat is purple. THE PEAT IS PURPLE!! Even I can do a better job at PhotoShop than that (Not making the peat purple)
-This thing

Other Scams
-Light Purple Nepenthes Albomarginata
-Read the name lol
-Blue Flytraps

Common Scam Item Names
If you see any of these in a CP Seed's item name don't buy it.
"Bonsai" - No, CP are not Bonsai
"Catch Cordyceps" - Probably for "The Last Of Us" fans
"Clip" - Errrr
"Giant" - Just a name
"Rare" - CPs are not exactly "Rare"
"Balcony" - Ok...
"Enchantress" - Don't eat CPs, kids
"Slurperon" - Wut
"Mix" - Every CP is different and needs different care so no hobbyist would mix seeds (Except from the same genus)

Avoiding Scams
How to avoid getting pwn'd by Scamm3rs
-Don't buy from AliExpress
-Don't buy Chinese stuff
-Don't buy colorful stuff
-Don't buy stuff with unmatching pictures (Exaggerated)
-If you can find the picture of the item on Wikipedia or the CP Photo finder don't buy it
-Only buy live plants, they're easier anyway

How To Deal With Them
How to deal with scammers:
-Post negative feedback on the scammer
-Attempt to contact them and say that the item you received wasn't as described and ask why
-Plant the scam seeds anyway to see what you get

I bought them. What do I do with the seeds?
Just plant them. Even though these are fake CPs, they are not fake plants. Here's a list of common CP substitute seeds:
-Baby's Tears (Nice "Vining bush")
-Baby's Breath (Nice flowers!)
-Dragon Fruit (Yummy!)
-Other Plants (Imagine it as a "suprise packet")

Sources
Just type in "Carnivorous Plant" on AliExpress or search "Catch Cordyceps" on Google

Hope you don't get scammed,
Saka

© Saka 2016-2017
PM me first if you want to use this.

In general I just tell everyone to avoid Chinese sellers, and anyone else listing the same items as Chinese sellers. They also sell on Amazon since they opened up to third-party sellers and there's plenty of non-CP seed scams too such as black strawberries and rainbow roses.

You certainly found some interesting scam seeds I hadn't seen before!

I saw blue VFTs just listed on Ebay. Clearly fake photos and it has bids.

how on Earth do people believe that there are BLUE flytraps?! lol...

and the sad thing is, being there are obviously so many out there who believe that all these photoshopped pics are real CPs, they will continue to buy the fake seeds and these losers will continue to sell them. and I can't believe the positive feedback...but then you go look at it all and it's from like 1 or 2 people lol...

hey guys i want a blue pregnant flytrap seeds enchantress

Can anybody tell me what a "Slurperon" is?

I try and avoid eBay all together. I've seen the same thing happen with Chillys, you order Scotch Bonnet and its just a normal chilly pepper after months of waiting.

I think they is enough private nursery's and hobbyists around to find seed or plants from, I just go to them.

Nice post, scammers love using these alluring honey pot words.

There are plenty of legit sellers on eBay, you just have to find them. I wouldn't want to scare people away from one of the most reliable sources for Drosera regia seeds.

Just got "100 red mouth" seeds from Amazon. They do not look like any VFT seeds I have ever seen. I am afraid to germinate them and I am returning them.

Sometimes I get ahead of myself and forget to read the reviews!

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digilexic wrote:Just got "100 red mouth" seeds from Amazon. They do not look like any VFT seeds I have ever seen. I am afraid to germinate them and I am returning them.

Sometimes I get ahead of myself and forget to read the reviews!

read the reviews first

digilexic wrote:Just got "100 red mouth" seeds from Amazon. They do not look like any VFT seeds I have ever seen. I am afraid to germinate them and I am returning them.

Sometimes I get ahead of myself and forget to read the reviews!

Sent from my Lenovo TB3-850F using Tapatalk

Any opinions on whether or not these are VFTs?






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No, they are not VFT seeds, probably baby's tear seeds. Plant 'em anyway

Pregnant nepenthes, really lol....


Thanks for writing this up, too many people fall victim to these two-bit scammers

Sakaaaaa wrote:No, they are not VFT seeds, probably baby's tear seeds. Plant 'em anyway

Going to send them back to Amazon. Was "fulfilled by Amazon"

Sent from my Lenovo TB3-850F using Tapatalk

On ebay before you start your search, you can put in "North America only" over on the left. Cuts out all the chinese crap.