What I didn't say is that I sometimes film for a TV show on the Outdoor Channel. Juan had ask us (the host of the show) to come over and film a show the previous year and we weren't able to work it into the schedule. He had written back to us to ask again about a show and that is when the offer to produce a video came up. Was I doing it cheap, yes, but I could get the film edited and there was little expense to me other than the airline ticket, editing costs, and my time. I wanted to see an elephant being hunted and a Hippo, as well as the chance to hunt Buffalo, and knew I would never be able to afford to do all these things on my own. Knowing that he wanted a show filmed in the future I thought he would put his best foot forward to make a connection with us. As I said, I did a lot of background work checking references of both Juan and Lloyd and could find nothing that came across as a negative. In fact Lloyd checked out excellent with several great references about his elephant hunts (one of his clients had taken a 90 pound bull the year before that was the largest taken in Zim that year). He is even still acting as a PH from what I understand by an outfitter advertising on this site. I have booked many, many, hunts for myself and for the TV show and had never run into something like this using the same process I used for this hunt. I felt him "paying" my day rates on a dangerous game hunt wasn't bad as most videographers charge in the neighborhood of $250 a day plus expenses. Looking back on the entire process now I honestly didn't see any red flags. I am not new at booking hunts and if I could be fooled I think many others could be as well. I now know that Juan changes the name of his company every year or so making it very difficult to track down the negatives about the company he owned in the past. He even puts the companies in other people's names (two women the year after I was there). When someone works this hard at fooling you it makes it very difficult. Very easy to say "you were destined to be scammed" when you have no idea all the background and work that went into the entire booking process and the amount of time I spent checking and talking to both Juan, his booking agent here in the states, and references. Do I feel stupid, yes. But I wasn't some guy that made one phone call and jumped at the chance to go to Africa. I have hunted and filmed in Argentina, New Zealand, British Columbia, Alaska, and almost all of the western states, as well as filming a TV show in Africa with White Lion Safaris previously, so I'm not a rookie at booking a hunt. I knew when I posted this thread that I was opening myself up to critics and I'm okay with that if it keeps someone from booking with this guy. I'm not looking for sympathy here, I was fooled and I understand that. What I'm saying is he is very good at this and please be careful booking with him.