I contacted Jeff Whitaker at the Kimble County jail. Anyone who has sent Needham money for a hunt or lease should contact Mr. Whitaker at this email address ONLY-
jeff.whitaker@co.kimble.tx.us
I sent Needham $2400 for a hunt in December.

I also find that strange

I agree. What did y'all base these hunts on? Internet ad? Mag ad? What references were used and marketing materials did he provide?

If these are all true then this guy is up for wire/mail fraud. The Fed Trade Commission should be contacted as well. https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov/

We found Needhams listing on www.leasehunter.com, which you have to pay for membership to see the listings. We have spoke to the owner and he is planning on filing charges as well. And I think majority of people will tell you that they had spoken to Needham and besides his listing, sounded like a legitimate person.

Originally Posted By: JeremyKSI know nothing of the outfitter but I find it strange that so many 1st time posters posting on this thread??I also find that strange
_________________________
MICHAEL SCLAFANI
WFGS SENIOR GUIDE / EAST TEXAS
NRA MEMBER
OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM VETERAN

I kinda understood this post being canned because it was hearsay when this started. Leasehunter, it might have been nice if you had said that the scam occurred on your website.

But now to question the validity because there are 1st time posters talking about being scammed???? Having a hard time understanding that logic. Why is there a resistance to informing folks that are just trying to find a place to hunt?? These folks lost money and maybe lost a chance to hunt. But let's not tell everyone else. For me, at least I got a link to a website that has reviews on different places.

i also was scamed i booked i hunt for november for 2 whitetails and two axis bucks i now can no longer get a hold of this man i did talk to him early on and had several emails with him he said his wife had been in the hospital and he had been tied up with her. now nothing guess i am out my 1500.00

I agree about the 1st time posters and understand why this is their first post. It is what it is, they have been robbed. I have 20+ friends that hunt and not single one of them ever posts a single thing on here but they sure know when I post a pic of them or something about them. I can guarantee you they will post if they feel they have been scammed as these people have. We have 15,000+ registered users and maybe 2% or 3% actually post on here on a regular basis.

Anyone up for a www.wildhoghunt.com I just won for free??

But it does disturb me people book hunts from a lease listing outfitter with no website and no references. But it can happen to anyone who books a day or package hunt that doesn't have references b/c they are just starting out and have good land. But with the amount of land he had....

He did have a website, it is now gone. None of us just went on writing and talking to him, there was an actual website with pictures of what we thought was the place and animals that had been hunted on there.
He was pretty slick

Any of you guys that got ripped off run a background check on this guy? It sounds exactly like how this guy named Steve Sturrock operated back in the mid 90's. I just wonder if he changed his name and was back doing what he does. His wife was in on it as well. He ripped of a lot of people back then including my group.

I also lost out with M Needham, ($2200) one thing I always do is take out sportsmen’s insurance, which I did, so I will only lose the amount I paid for the insurance. I talked to the sheriff office and they told me that there will be no hunts with Michael Needham, that he started out legitimate but he is no longer, guess greed did him in, again he has not broken the law with the hunts till the hunts are due so it’s not too late to take out insurance for those who paid with check or cash. When you spend a lot of money for a hunt its best to protect your investment with sportsmen insurance. I always use Gracy Travel for my Sportsmen insurance needs.
http://www.gracytravel.com/index.htm

I too have booked a hunt for 2 in Nov. 2009 and can not get in touch with this man. I will call the sheriff's department listed below to report and get on the list. I have had a gut feeling all along that this was to good to be true. I only sent in half of the money and was paying the other half on arrival. I will monitor postings for updates.


I found the orginal posting on ebay. them googled and found on http://www.junctiontexas.net/hunting.htm
So,I assumed if it was advertised thru the city web site, it was on the up and up.

I hunted with Needham in August after being postponed from an earlier hunt because the rancher's wife died the night before we were to arrive (in Rocksprings) When we arrived at the ranch 2 weeks later, guess who we met? The "dead" rancher's wife... We were supposed to be staying in a fully-furnished ranch house and ended up in a storage shed without AC or bedding or supplies. Now the rest of our party, who were supposed to hunt last weekend, can't reach Needham. His phone is disconnected and his website is down. My hunt was dissapointing, but I did kill a nice Axis buck and doe. The others got scammed with no way to recover their deposit. Buyer Beware!

This thread is one of the many great things about the Internet! It makes it harder and harder for thieves like this guy to hide!

I understand the moderators' concerns about libel, but blogs and internet boards are sometimes people's only means to communicate with each other, especially when they don't really know each other.

Good job on getting to the bottom of this, guys!

But he did have a website and he did send me some listed references that I never got around to calling. But then again I never sent him my money. I bet we talked back and forth on about 12-15 emails and on the phone and he sounded legit, he is one good scam artist! He had me believing him and I was excited about the hunt. But now I am glad that I googled his name and found out what a punk he really is!

It's not that hard to figure out boys and girls! They got this new invention out now. It's called "GOOGLE"

He got my money too. We are a group of nine, we were supposed to come out in December.

i am betting a lot of folks are posting here because THF threads come up when you google search Jeff Needham outfitter.

this is kind of like when Monica Lewinsky was googled by Clinton and all his former mistresses came to light

That "GOOGLE" will do it every time!
Seriously guys, this thread came up like number one when I googled that low life. we have looked forward to coming out there for this hunt for several months. And now we are probably out that money. A couple of us thought it might be nice if we could come over and talk the jailers into letting us have a talk with mr. needham out behind the jail, and let's see if we couldn't get that ol boy saved!

maybe you guys need to start sending that money my way to book your hunts... my place actually exists

i hope you guys that got scammed have a better outcome in this and that it does not sour you from hunting in our part of the state or from hunting in general.

one bad apple should not spoil the crop.

we aren't thinking that everyone is like that. my friend that got us hooked up with needham is an experienced out of state hunter. it would have the first time for some of our group, including myself. we're not discouraged at this point, just kind of ticked off! We may regroup and try to book a hunt with an outfit that exists. at least we hadn't paid all of the money. he got the nine of us for $500 each.
there's no telling how many people he did this too.

Alot of new folks posting lately. Sorry to hear the reason is you were scammed.

We hope you stick around and check out our outfitters and guides, they may be able to help you out

We have alot of great folks here

Can a felon.......oh never mind.


Tbar

Anybody heard anything lately about this low life? We have started our process of filing charges againt him, but I'm sure we'll probably never see our money again. I just hope they burn his @&&!

Just an FYI- If you bought a hunt with Needham on Ebay and paid with Paypal, you may have no protection or chance to get your funds back from Paypal. I filed a fraud claim with Paypal and they originally refused my claim, as their policy dictates that you have 45 days to file a claim after a purchase. Of course, I explained that although I bought this hunt in May, this was a hunt to be utilized in Dec. I also explained that it was just recently discovered that Needham is a fraud and crook who stole alot of peoples money. Paypal agreed to re-open my claim. I will post more comments as my claim goes through this lenghty process.

Update with me, eBay has done nothing, PayPal would not do anything because of the 45 day limit and told me to go to my credit card company, AGI Sportsman’s Insurance would not pay because the policy does not cover someone sitting in jail, but I said he is defaulting and they said no its not default, so it was up to my credit card company to get my money back, and they call a few days ago and told me that they are refunding all my money, I had to call him (Needham) to cancel the hunt but his voice mail said he was not taking calls (I wonder why), so I emailed him and told him I was canceling the hunt and wanted a full refund, and of course he did not answer my email, but the credit card company used that to give me my refund, so all I will lose out is the plane ticket to Texas. Do a search on the internet and you will find out why he is sitting in jail you will be surprise and I’m glad I’m not hunting with him.

another problem that you will find with ebay and paypal, is that they are anti-gun. anything that involves guns will be sure to move at a snails pace. paypal has been know to freeze transaction that involve anything at all that to do with them.
Needham is in the Kimball county jail. As of last wednesday, (the 30th), over 50 people had filed charges at that time.