Have you fallen in love with a cute, free or cheap pet for adoption or sale?
Wonderful! But hang on a second, is this a type of pet that is normally hundreds, if not thousands of dollars to buy? Does it seem almost “too good to be true”? Then it probably isn’t true!
The most common pet scam of all is the pet adoption (or pet shipping) scam. In short this means you pay money for a nonexistent pet and/or shipping. You pay the money and get nothing. No pet, no refund. Sad ☹
Here’s how they do it, so you’ll recognise their tricks! The scammer places a fake pet for sale or adoption ad in a newspaper, website, classifieds or social media using stolen pictures. They typically target valuable breeds that are currently popular like French Bulldogs, Bulldogs or back in the Paris Hilton doggie-in-a-handbag days – Chihuahuas and Teacup Yorkies. Although it’s mainly puppies, scammers will also use fake digital bait such as expensive purebreed kittens, parrots, parrot eggs or even monkeys. So it could be any animal.
The pet is either free or crazily cheap considering it’s breed and normal price. Sometimes it’s “free” but you have to pay a “shipping fee” of $100 - $300. Now that’s substantially less than it would to fly a pet overnight – especially internationally - alarm bells!)
Sometimes there’s an accompanying “sob story” to gain sympathy and emotional connection to try to disconnect your brain via your heart. They use elaborate and highly unlikely stories like being an aid worker (missionary/priest/nun/orphanage manager) going overseas who cannot take their 12 week old puppy, or some graphic fake family tragedy.
The victim pays money for the nonexistent pet and/or shipping by irreversible and untraceable payment such as Moneygram or Western Union. Once the victim has paid the initial fee demanded, subsequent payments are demanded for “customs”, “an air-conditioned crate” or “insurance”. They keep demanding money until the victim realises they have been scammed. Unfortunately, the money is gone, and of course the pet never existed in the first place except for in stolen pictures…
Scammers go to great lengths to fool people, including setting up fake or clever copies of genuine pet shipping or breeders websites, fake emails from airports, customs and even police. If you ask them for a phone number to call them, they may deflect you by pretending to be deaf so you can’t speak on the phone. This hides their true location and their accent, as they are often overseas.
To avoid a pet adoption scam, stick to these rules
- ALWAYS meet the person and the pet face to face.
- NEVER pay by irreversible payment
If it sounds the slightest bit fishy – it is! Go with your gut.