The scam: Traders in London offer “rare” parrots for sale to tourists and locals, charging up to 170 British pounds ($350 USD) a time and often claiming the “parrots” can talk.
The birds are also advertised for sale in newspapers. They are actually parakeets that live wild in the English capital’s city parks.
Apart from the sheer cruelty of capturing them, they’re worth next to nothing — there’s an estimated 65,000 of them! They can’t talk either and, sadly, most of them die a short while after being caged.
The solution: Never accept people’s claims about items they’re selling without proof. And always beware of scammers in tourist locations — they know all the tricks in the book.
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