How online Puppy Pet Scam works and Signs of a Puppy Scam
Online puppy scams have been increasing over the last few years, even more so since COVID.
With more pet and animal lovers now resorting to online and social media to find their perfect companionship pet, especially if they are set on buying a puppy of a specific breed or age.
How do you identify which are legitimate breeders and which are pet scammers.
Ways you may encounter an online puppy/pet scammer: The scammer will offer pets for sale or adoption via.
- Website – Realistic looking fake breeders website and fake pet transport website (some of these website may look almost identical to the real authentic breeder’s website and Pet transports companies)
- Social Media profile/account/pages – such as Facebook and Instagram acting as fake real people and fake business Pages
- Classified Advertisements – listing including (free and paid) such as Gumtree, Pet Classified website, Google Ads, Media Directories (Newspaper)
How Does a Pet Scammer work?
These scammers will create a website and advertise on Facebook, CraigsList, TradingPost, Google Ads, Gumtree, and any other classified ads websites. They will steal content and image from a real genuine Pet Breeders websites or find pet image and video from the internet, social media and sometime even contacting a real breeder pretending to be an interested buyer, requesting for image and video of their puppy/pet.
Once you have your eye set on a puppy from their (scammer) website, they will request for deposit/payment. Once you’ve place a payment they will cancel all contact with you or request for more money before they cancel all communication. Some scamming website can seem so legitimate they’ll even issue you with fake invoices, fake pet shipping company invoice and refer you to fake pet shipping website with a fake tracking consignment. They may also use real shipping company logo on their invoices.
Eg: This is want JetPets has encountered “Scammers will often use the names of legitimate pet shippers such as Jetpets, use pirate websites and the logos of these companies to appear genuine. The difference is, correspondence will often come from a third-party domain (such as gmail.com), rather than the company URL (for example info@jetpets.com.au).”
Pet Scammers on social media such as Facebook and Instagram will create fake profile pretending to be a real person. The profile image are image stolen from the internet. If they have a business page they also will have multiple fake profile accounts pretending to be existing buyers, leaving a review and comments. These scammer can also create fake profiles pretending to be a well-known breeder in the community and adding the breeder’s friends to their social media friend list, making their profile appear legitimate.
Common Signs to spot a Scam
- They reduce Price or heavily discounted – Their fake puppies are advertised for extremely low price than the market price breeders would normally charge for that breed. However that does not mean high priced or market valued advertised puppies are sold from genuine seller/breeders.
- They copy/steal puppy pictures and contents – What you are buying from a Pet scammer is a digital image, possibly stolen from genuine breeders, or an image off the internet or social media. There was never a real puppy.
- They ask for payment immediately via bank transfers (especially an oversea account) or western union or gift cards – A scammer will normally ask for payment deposit immediately and will ask for payments via bank transfer, western union, and gift cards. Genuine breeders cares about finding a good suitable family home for their puppies/pets, they have limited puppies and would communicate with you and ask you many questions. This conversation between you and the breeder can take up to a couple of communication/conversation before they feel confident you are the right candidate for their puppies.
- They avoid face to face meeting and/or avoid speaking with you over the phone and live chat – Majority of puppy scammers are from oversea with a strong accent, they will make any excuse to avoid speaking with you over the phone and over live video chat, and make any excuses for you to not see them and the puppy in person. Their choice of communication is via Email, SMS, or Messenger. Although legitimate breeders may communicate with you via those form of methods at the beginning, once you’ve had a few conversation they will always offer a phone, face to face and/or live video chat and allow you to see the puppy, parents in person.
As pet buyers are becoming more a custom to finding pets online, so are the trends for online scammers. Australians are starting to see more Pet scammers that are located within Australian soil, so speaking to someone over the phone within Australia, or with Australian accent, an Australian Bank accounts, Australian address does not mean they are an honest legitimate pet seller/breeder.
We do live in a multicultural sociality so don’t be alarm if some genuine breeders, may not speak English well. Follow our guide “How to buy a puppy/pet online safely”.
“Pet Scammers are always evolving, finding any new means to scam buyers.”
If you have been a victim of an online Pet scam, report the incident immediately.
Reports and Articles: https://www.cyber.gov.au/acsc/report
https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/dont-get-scammed-looking-for-a-lockdown-puppy
https://www.police.nsw.gov.au/crime/frauds_and_scams
What to do if you have been scammed
Don’t be embarrassed if you have been scammed. Hundreds of thousands of very intelligent Australians are scammed every year. It shows that we are still a trusting society.
Report scams to your local consumer affairs agency, Scamwatch or Australian Cyber Security Centre to help warn others and help have the scammers tracked down.
If you have responded to a scam, then you should stop all communication with the scammer and ignore any new messages or attempts to contact you. You can also block their number or email address on your device.
If you have given them your banking details call your bank immediately (on a number you know to be real) or go into a branch. If you have given the scammers your personal information, change the passwords for all your accounts.
If a scammer threatens you, take evidence of the threat to your local police. If you feel that you are in immediate danger from the scammer, call Triple Zero (000) now.
If the scam involves theft of your identity, contact IDCARE as they can help you deal with the consequences of identity theft.
Souce:
Esafety.gov.au, idcare.org, cyber.gov.au, police.nsw.gov.au, petscams.com
Learn more: Guide to finding a reputable American Bully Breeder