It’s a job that puts the fish in the fish tank.
The fish is in the aquarium and the fish is out there looking for food.
But sometimes, that fish is a scammer, a fraudster.
“It’s a whole other level of deception,” says Gary Minkoff, the chief executive of the American Association of Fish and Wildlife Service.
“If you’re the one that gets a call that says, ‘Hey, I need to take a fish out of a tank,’ and you’re trying to prove you’re a good fish handler, it’s not going to work.”
The scammer is the one who brings the fish to the aquarium, often with a fake ID and phony certification.
“They will take a fake fish, and they will put it into a fish tank and give it a name and say, ‘Here’s your name, here’s your title, here are your qualifications,'” says Minkoffs.
If the aquarium isn’t full of fish, it is likely a fraud.
“There are fraudsters that are taking these fish out and bringing them in to aquariums, and you will see that on the screen,” says Minksoff.
“You will see a fish, say, a blue marlin, and a person is saying, ‘I’m a blue Marlin,’ and it looks like the fish’s name is Marlin.”
Fish are not the only thing that can go wrong with a scam.
“Fraudsters will also take out a bait fish, or a shrimp, and the bait fish will be in a small aquarium with no shrimp,” says Cate Jones, the president of the New York State Fish and Game Commission.
“And then, they’ll take a baitfish and put it in the tank, and then they’ll give you the baitfish, and that baitfish will not have any shrimp.”
It’s not just fish that can be a scam, too.
“A lot of these scams are based on the idea that the fish that they’re trying and giving you a name for, they have that same species of fish that’s been in a fish aquarium,” says Jones.
“But the fish you’re seeing on the monitor is a different species, and so you’ve got a problem.”
If you’ve ever worked in a lab, you know that sometimes the wrong kind of fish can be found in the lab.
In fact, the American Veterinary Medical Association has issued a warning on the topic, warning against “pushing, pouncing, and jumping” on fish.
But a good job is still a good work, says Jones, because that fish needs to be working, which is where the fraud occurs.
“That is where they’re taking their bait fish from, and putting it in a tank that is full of bait fish and bait fish,” says Smith.
“So the fish can’t be able to go out, or get a food.
And so the fraudster is in charge of feeding the fish.”
Minkoens says it’s very common for a fish to be placed in a pool with a bait that’s not in the right place.
“This is what happens all the time, the bait is in a large tank with no bait,” he says.
“The fish is taken out of the tank.
And then, the fish goes out to feed.
And the fish gets a little bit of bait and gets caught.
And it goes out again.
And again.
It goes out.
And another bait fish gets caught, and another one, and again.
So the fish never gets to go to its full size.”
Mankins also says that it’s important to look at the entire situation, rather than just the bait.
“These people are using bait fish that are not in a proper aquarium, or that have been in the wrong aquarium,” he explains.
“Most of the fish are in a tiny, tiny fish tank, or they’re not.
If there’s no bait, the animal will die.
And they don’t care about the fish, they just want to make money off of it.”
The worst-case scenario can also happen.
If a fish is put in a bad environment, such as in a cold, dark, stagnant environment, it could die.
“Any time you put bait in a dark, dark environment, and your fish dies, that’s the most serious thing that you can do,” says McElroy.
“Because you have that false assumption that your fish is dead.”
The only way to prevent a scam like this from happening, says Smith, is to keep track of what’s in the tanks of the people that are scamming.
“How many fish are out there?
How many fish is there?
What kind of aquariums are in use?” he says, “And you have to take care of the animals that are in the water, and keep track.”
“And don’t let people fool you into thinking that fish that aren’t in proper conditions are not a real threat
