The Bubble: Online Puppy Scammers

The Bubble: Online Puppy Scammers

While we have been worrying about decreasing numbers in many breeds with lower dog show entries, a serious issue has emerged that has been percolating under the radar: Scammers offering dogs and puppies for sale or adoption, and which do not exist.

Twenty years ago, before Facebook existed and people were beginning to use the Internet with sites for classified ads and e-mail groups, scammers saw a huge opportunity. The Nigerian scammers were the first and best-known. They focused on the buy and sell classifieds and targeted shoppers who were looking for things to buy or sell. The best-known scam was to contact a seller, agree to buy a car, a piece of equipment, a horse—or a puppy. They would then tell the seller that they would send their representative with a cashier’s check which they should deposit immediately, but it would include an amount that they needed to pay the courier in cash. Several weeks later, the victim would be informed that the cashier’s check was counterfeit.

That was only the beginning. They saw a large and vulnerable market on the proliferating websites that were running ads for the sale of puppies. They ran ads asking $400 for dogs in breeds that would cost $1,000 or more, and greedy price shoppers would eagerly snap up a bargain that they would live to regret. There was no dog or puppy.

When social media became popular it became the next target, and in the past couple of years it has become a really serious problem on Facebook. They had forbidden the advertising of all live animals for sale, and the owners and admins of legitimate groups that had been created for specific breeds or performance activities took great care in making sure the rules were followed. If not, Facebook could delete the group.

The scammers found a way around that by creating groups labelled: “Rehoming and Adoption.” I posted on FB many times. Be careful and verify, verify, verify. Red flags to watch for when visiting a group: check the “About” information, click “See More” and it will show you the history of that group. If it is very new, be wary. If it changes its name frequently, why? Click on “Members” to see who the admin and moderators are. Do they have any connection with that breed? They may well be fake profiles, so go to each one and, if it is new, check for their message history. Check who “their” friends are, and if they are 90% from somewhere like Bangladesh or Sri Lanka, walk away. If all you see are breed photos with no registered names, owners, or pedigree information and words like “perfect shoot,” the photos have been lifted off the Internet without permission.

You may see a number of people who actually are legitimately there for the breed, but sadly, these are often people who have accepted others without checking their profiles. I warned people about one obviously fake profile, and in one group we had 100 friends in common. Within a month she had over 400. We were still not friends, but she had a public profile. People who were friends with me had accepted that profile as a friend without bothering to check. This gives the scammers legitimacy, and when one of them posts that they have a dog or puppies available, it opens up the membership to potentially being scammed. They will follow the Facebook rules that established admins and moderators follow and insist that all further communication is done privately. The scammer then opens a dialogue with the puppy seeker and that’s when the game begins.

I asked a friend to check one out for me. She is not a breeder or an exhibitor, just an Afghan Hound owner. She responded to one of the scammers and they chatted back and forth. They told my friend about the dog that needed to be placed and kept pushing for her to make a decision, finally telling her that she had to send $900 “now” because so many people wanted this particular dog, and she would lose out. Yes, it’s true. The scammers do everything online by messenger or text, do not use e-mail, and if they use a phone, the number is untraceable.

We know there is a serious lack of well-bred, healthy puppies being produced by legitimate breeders, especially those who are prepared to talk to the general public, and that means more and more puppy seekers will be joining these groups. Unless they have knowledgeable people to talk to, they will be at risk of being scammed. People who have been in dogs for years have fallen victim.

We have seen the success that “Meet the Breeds” events have had in promoting purebred dogs to the general public. We need to expand this to include efforts online and in person to nurture interest in the various breeds and warn callers about the risk of being scammed. This means being willing to respond to puppy inquiries, reply to an e-mail, or talk to someone on the telephone, even if you have no puppies to sell and have no litters planned! Why? What for, you ask? If that person buys a puppy from another breeder or of another breed, that benefits the dog world as a whole. The new owner may be a future breeder or exhibitor, attend a Lure Coursing Trial or compete in other events. If not, they could either become the victim of a scam, or end up with a puppy from the friendly doodle breeder down the road.