Take heed to do thorough research before purchasing a pet online. Scammers use one of their traditional types of scams - the fake seller, on this topic.
How It Works:
The scammer places an ad for a pet - puppies are popular but the scammer doesn't care so it may be for any type of pet. They'll place a good price on it and make their ad as legitimate looking as they can.
The seller then, through whatever story they can devise, persuade the victim to pay for the animal upfront via wire transfer (Western Union or MoneyGram, etc), as well as transportation and initial vet fees. Once the money is picked up by the scammer, the transaction is completely untraceable and they disappear. There is no puppy.
The scammers are not targeting everyone as their victim. They only want to spend their time on those animal lovers who have a trusting enough nature and want the animal so much that they will pay all those fees upfront, without seeing the animal live or the person who is selling it.
One way to avoid this scam is to just never agree to use wire transfers for payment. Use something more reliable like your credit card or paypal (but only to a verified account on paypal).
Thursday, July 26, 2012
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