new internet scam?
 

So, I am looking for a new puppy and have contacted a few breeders in the midwest area. I am looking for a particular dog. One breeder got back to me and told me a story about one of her customer's who is from denver but is going to be shipped out to west africa as a missionary soon for his church. So, he will be giving his new puppies away because he can't keep them over in africa the conditions are too rough, the email did state that. So, I went ahead and contacted the the missionary thinking maybe his dogs were still in denver with family or what not, and he contacted me back via email.

He is in Nigeria, so immediately flags are raised in my mind about being scammed. However, I was curious so I contiuned to be in contact with this man via email, which was yahoo email. So, he tells me the minute I can wire him $400 he can send the puppy to me. 1) I don't like the idea of sending a dog across the ocean on an airplane, or shipping a dog in general 2) The money was being wired to a man in Nigeria who was going to "take care" of it for him since he did not know how the country worked, and etc.

So, then i thought to myself well this is a scam, but if this is real I would want to give the dog a new home (yeah im a sucker for dogs whatever). So in our emails back and forth i told him I was not wanting to get scammed, so what would happen if I scheduled the shipping on my end to pick up said dog and so on and so forth and he never got any money. he was okay with that.

I haven't done anything yet, but to me this sounds really sketchy. I mean if I really wanted to pursue this further I could contact an air freight company in the US, have them schedule a pick up in africa, make it so they pick up said dog and deliver it back to me.

So, then i really thought to myself that this could be a common scam. Someone posts an internet add about dogs, you contact them, they respond with a similiar story i got, you wire them money to get your dog, and you are left in the dust.

The only reason I pursued this as far as I did was to get to the bottom of this, and see if it was actually a scam. Now, after all that I have tried to do, it seems weird to me. If it really was a scam why would he be okay if I paid all shipping? I mean he wouldn't make any money off of it, and he was only charging me shipping to begin with.

btw i don't agree with shipping animals around like freight, i just wanted to know every exact detail about this situation out of curiousity.

Anyone else hear of a scam like this? Thoughts? Its more of a social engineering scam than anything else since it does involve actual human contact and human interaction.

Let me preface my reply by saying that I am not a trusting person at all.

Second, when something sounds incredulous, it usually is.

Third, go with your gut instincts. If it walks like a scam, talks like a scam... Okay, enough with the cliché's. ;)

A scam is basically a con job, confidence game — gain your confidence, and once it's gained, then run the scam.

So my thoughts are that the other person is grooming you for a scam. He is first working to get your confidence by appearing to not be in it for the money, but there will be a "gotcha" somewhere along the line.

Personally, I would by running away from this as fast as my fingers could fly.

I do hope the email you were using was one you don't normally use. Otherwise, as a very non-trusting person, I foresee lots of Nigerian spam in your future.

That's my paranoid 2¢. ;)

possibly

I used my web based email to contact him not anything from work or anything that can't just be deleted.

It does sound fishy, and I am not going to pursue it which is a bummer because I really want a dog, and i was kind of looking forward to heading up to denver for a day or so to see my cousin, aunt and uncle, and maybe even some old co-workers when i used to live there, but oh well.

I just thought I would post this, because it was from one thing to another. The story sounded very convincing at first, but towards the end I just lost all interest in it. I logged all the IPs from the emails I got from the breeder and the missionary in west africa.

Like I said in the begining, I thought he was in west africa and the dogs were still in denver, which is why I persued it in the begining. After that I was just curious to see if it was a scam.

Guess I'll never know for sure, but I know that I am not going to go ahead with this transaction.

When I was looking to buy a G5 on eBay a couple of years ago, some guy from Italy sent me a message offering to sell me one for about half of what they were going for. I'd tell this dog owner the same thing I told that guy: Send it to me, and when it gets here, I'll send you the money. He never did send it to me. :eek:

Get the feds involved, and catch yourself a scammer! Nvm.

Anyway, stick the IP address here: http://www.hostip.info/

EDIT: Oh, wait. Yahoo. Meh. Probably won't work.

Yeah I logged the IPs and traced them via

www.arin.net and since they were yahoo accounts it led back to CA where Yahoo is based.

Yeah, well it sucks because I have been looking very hard for a particular dog for about a month now and nothing in my price range or available.

This just seems like a scam I have not run across yet and thought I would share it on this forum. It all seemed legit to begin with and ended up very shady in the end.

found this:

source: http://www.petsonthenet.co.nz/scam

This is a scam I have not even heard of, probably because I just recently started looking for a pet. There have been some breeders though who contacted me and they have websites. One breeder is due for a litter soon and is a 100 miles south of where I live. I could go down and see them in person before I buy.

This is sad since there are some legit people out there who breed dogs and this makes it very hard to do over the internet.

tlarkin, it sounds like a scam to me. Don't worry though, there is probably no little puppy to save on the other end anyway. Just a greedy man in the basement of an apartment hoping to get $400 wired to him and never talk to you again.

oh yeah i know it was a scam there is no doubt about it, the messed up part is they are advertising puppies in my local paper's online classifieds.

I know there is no dog, but for a bit the guy had me going, up until he mentioned that he really wasn't in denver but in nigeria lol....

The doctor prescribes repeated readings of "The Art of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick until you're completely cured from remaining shreds of pity with virtual nigerian puppies...

What's really sad is that some people will fall for the scam. Not only will they lose their money, but the idea of saving a little puppy involves an emotional element as well. It's the emotional aspect that affects me most.

I hate to think of the parents who have to face their little son or daughter and tell them that they won't get the little puppy they had promised, that they lost the money they had saved to get a new puppy to some scammer, and in the same breath, introduce to their young child that there are some really wicked people who would scam people over something like a puppy.

It's one thing to scam someone who's trying to get some unbelievable "deal" on a computer or whatever which taps into a person's greed instincts, but to do it with a person's emotions regarding a puppy? That's really sick.

lol i own it, and its in my bathroom along with the zombie survival guide

Yeah I had a real bad feeling the second they said they weren't in Denver, and I wasn't going to wire money anywhere outside the US let alone Nigeria of all places.

I used to work with a guy from Ghana for about two years. He started out as a parts coordinator at my old job and moved up to being a technician. I used to teach him how to use the mac platform since back in ghana it was mostly PC enviroments there. He was smart caught on qucikly and even became apple certified after a short while.

We were talking one day about all the Nigerian email scams, and he flat out told me to never trust a nigerian. He said they were known for this type of stuff and that there are no laws in their country against this type of stuff. If you are dumb enough to lose your money it is your fault in their view. At least this is how he explained it to me.

In the UK the latest crime is to steal dogs from cars, outside shops or even gardens and homes. The thief then either ransoms the dog back to its owner, threatening to kill in if the owner contacts the police. Or they sell it on to order to another buyer who is none the wiser.

Unfortunately, this isn't all that new. The variation I remember when my (late) golden retriever "Shannon" was a puppy is people would steal the dogs from people's back yards, wait for the lost dog signs and ads with reward money, and then return the "lost" (stolen) dog to collect the reward. Or they'd just steal the dogs and sell them outright.

It was so bad with popular breeds like golden retrievers that they recommended tattooing the dogs with identification (such as your driver's license) so you could prove the dog is indeed yours if its stolen and sold. Even worse, the tattoo had to be on a substantial part of the body (we tattooed Shannon on her inner thigh) because thieves were cutting off the dogs' ears when people put the tattoos in the inside of the ear flaps.

Quite aside from the scam/no scam probabilities (tipping heavily toward scam), what makes this a sure thing is this: Canadians will soon be charged a special fee at border crossings to pay for increased vigilance at all ports of entry to the US to avoid biohazardous material such as an orange from the wrong part of the world. Given that mentality, what do you suppose the attitude of US Customs might be to a dog from Nigeria? Even if it was shipped, it would be a long quarantine later before you'd even lay eyes on him (I'm assuming tLarkin is in the USA). I know that shipping a dog into Canada is equally onerous unless it is coming from the USA.

Something wrong with the local SPCA? They've got scam-free dogs for a very reasonable price. Even have all their shots.

I have actually bought a dog over the Internet, a Portoguese water dog that was shipped from a breeder in Tuscany. It was cheaper than buying it in the USA, and there they don't require that you neuter the dog to give you the papers which is something I have never done and never will (neutering a dog).

Also, I had heard of people having trouble with their PWD's and had read that in the US they are bred more for appearance than temperament, and having two very active kids I wasn't interested in looking for trouble, since trouble had no problems in finding me anyway.

Actually after looking at the web site, I proposed to my wife to go myself and volunteered to go pick up the puppy myself, but strangely she did not agree. The puppy was shipped from Rome and landed at JFK, were we picked him up. It was 3 months, and the breeder told me it's the only age in which she feels confident shipping them, because they sleep all the time. It was mildly stressed, nothing dramatic, came with all the papers and a microchip between his shoulders with which apparently vet can identify the dog.

He is a wonderful dog, extremely intelligent and playful, and I would recommend this breed to anybody except if you need a guard dog in which case stay away because this is the mailman favorite's dog EVER he told me.

We had a wonderful experience overall, and I would recommend it if the breeder is reputable, has shipped before abroad and the price is convenient.

how weird is this?!? i just talked to the same guy in nigeria about adopting his bulldog. he used a yahoo email and said he was a reverend. linda roth is the person who gave me his email. did you ever find out if it was a scam?

Of course it's a scam! If you have any doubts about that, do not deal with those people, they will get money out of you.

The email I got had two fake names. They were Janet Raymond (the fake breeder) and Christian Joeseph (the fake missionary) both had email accounts. The missionary claimed to be from the Denver Seminary, but his english was slightly off (bad grammar) and they promise things like next day shipping. Any type of animal shipped from another country has to sit in quarantine for a while so they can make sure it doesn't carry any diseases over into the country.

The thing that makes me the most mad about this, is these jerks are putting ads in my local newspaper in Kansas City. I can only assume they are putting an add in with the parent company that owns the KC star and several other publishings around the nation.

Pick a product, any product, and there is a scam for it.

I've actually heard about this one from a couple of breeders, I had the impression it was quite common.

yeah. same thing. bad grammar and everything. kept saying 'my babies' except mine was linda roth (breeder) and rev. george (missionary)
glad i didnt fall for this one. and i found an adorable cocker spaniel right here in town! :]]

yeah this has to be the same guy, he kept referring to his dog as my babies as well

Notify the KC Star adveretising dept. about your hunch... chances are they'll want the ad revenue and let the old adage "buyer beware" take effect.

I sent them a pretty lengthy email describing the whole process, they said they were not responsible blah blah blah and put a warning to all the classified ad users.

I never saw the warning, but luckily for me I knew it was a scam

I just got the same email regarding a bulldog puppy in Nigeria from a "Pastor." I have been doing my research online and have pulled up dozens of very similar stories. They might differ in the dog (usually english bulldog or teacups), might differ in the owner's occupation (red cross, pastor, vet, etc.), and might differ in the names, but the rest of the scam is identical. The owner had to go to Nigeria, took the puppy along, needs to find a good "Christian" home, wants money through Western Union before the animal is sent, blah, blah, blah. From what I've read these cold hearted bastards are really getting away with this. Many people have recognized the red flags and have avoided the scam, but sadly, may people have been so trusting and excited to get this incredible puppy they send their hard earned money of to Nigeria and never hear back- or get roped along further for additional fees for ridiculous reasons. They are posting ads everywhere from Canada to Idaho, to here in Hawaii. They have fake websites that when you inquire about buying a puppy, they will respond with something like: "just sold our last puppy, but your in luck cause there is this guy....etc. Then, this person who has the puppy it turns out is in Nigeria and promises you'll have the puppy in a matter of days if you send money via Western Union. He will go on and on about how he loves the dog, will explain in great detail about this dogs personality, will sound highly religious to gain trust, and them will rip you off. Don't do it!!!! There are fake puppy posts online and are in local newspapers all across the U.S. and beyond. This is a big business and they have been getting away with it for a while now. I just began speaking to the scumbag yesterday and would like to catch the jerk. From what I've read, because of the laws (or lack there of) in Nigeria, there isn't much you can do but warn others such as in this case. If anyone knows otherwise please let me know, I'd like to see this guy (or gal, or people) get what they deserve. Thanks for all the warning posts that saved me not just my $500, but further dissapointment. Much Mahalo!
Aloha, A

Hey, look at this: http://www.jimmyr.com/blog/EFCC_bust...s_244_2006.php
EFCC busts 419 Nigerian scammers!

ok, so I contacted yet another breeder who was advertising in my local paper who is in west africa. This time cameroon, instead of nigeria.

This is getting ridiculous, I mean there is just no way of telling who is who in the classified ads until you contact them.

Even if you contact them, they are probably using a fake name.

well you can't see anyone's contact info or their name or their location in the kansas city's star online classified ads. You simply make an account with the paper, and then send a message through their website. Nothing is published for privacy reasons.

Then if the breeder (or seller if not for pets, or whatever category) contacts you back via email. It just gets ridiculous that I have ran into several of these in my local paper. I figured only people near my city would advertise for pets considering the dangers and costs of shipping them.

For anybody who might find themselves in this position
one place to start is with the American Kennel Club. http://www.akc.org/index.cfm

For example, if one wanted to learn more about buying a bulldog puppy, a quick search of that site had a wealth of info leading to the Bulldog Club of America and its valuable links. http://www.thebca.org/

If I were looking for a rescue puppy of a certain breed, I'd go to the breed's website and look for information on rescue dogs, such as the list on the bulldog club website.http://www.rescuebulldogs.org/display.pl

If I wanted to find an American Kennel Club-certified breeder for any breed of dog, I'd go to this website: http://www.akc.org/breederinfo/breed...RCH_BUTTON.Y=0

My local area search for puppies would begin with animal shelters, the local AKC breeder clubs, and veterinarians (who may be able to tell you of healthy puppies that might be available from their clients at age 8-9 weeks).

Respectfully, Norm

Thanks Norm, that is very helpful. I will check those out, a rescue group would be nice because I don't want to breed nor do I want a show dog so I don't really want to pay premium for either. I just want a pet, and well a specific breed.

I think I'm dealing with the same people
 

This has happened in the last 2 days.
My seller for the Yorkie puppy "jen02" who is suppose to be Lilian Bach (lilianbach0383@yahoo.com) told me the story about Pastor Julia Roberts (pastorjuliaro@yahoo.com) from Denver Seminary who was transferred to West Africa for her work. The weather was too harsh for the puppies. I contacted her with a question. The reply was from James Scotty (jamescotty02@yahoo.com) thru David Monaghan (david.monaghan@brampton.ca).

THAT'S WHEN I GOT SUSPICIOUS and I checked the address out and it's an e-mail address for the city of Brampton near Toronto Canada. Anyhow now they were talking about quality Maltese puppies. He said that he still had the puppy but was concerned about her care, in the same paragraph he jumped to the money topic. He was on a missionary trip in Nigeria and the puppy was right there with him. The puppy (this time it was a 2-lb Yorkie again) was free but it would cost $400.00 for shipping and all the necessary paperwork included. He told me that once he got the money, he would prepare the puppy for shipment. By now it was a joke between my husband and I about shipping money for a box of air that would never show up at the airport (the previous night we'd seen a show on TV about frauds originating from Nigeria).

So I e-mailed back asking for information where to send the money should the transaction go thru. Phone number: 01 1 234 802 241 3225, I checked the reverse phone directory with the last 10 digits and it showed up as a number in Waterbury VT preceeded with the overseas and country and city codes. Receiver's name: Stan Kelly! Where did that name come from? Address: 286 Airport Road, Victoria Garden City, Lagos, Nigeria 23401. Of course it had to be via Western Union with the text "in God" and my answer should be "we trust" (I don't know, I've never used Western Union before). Then I decided to stretch things out. So I asked him how my puppy was doing and what was his name (remember, they told me it was a female at the beginning and I wanted to see if they remembered telling me so). He e-mailed back saying: your puppy is doing very fine, the babe name is Carmel, the puppy will be shipped on the next day delivery via express pet airline with all her papers and health record followed with - hope to read from you soonest. That's just one example of the grammar and the spelling is atrocious. He should get a spell check of some kind. Now I don't know what to do. Should I keep stringing him along to see how far it will go???

Well, I came across a new angle they are using...the person is in Africa, is a missionary, A REV. at that, and when I said I couldn't afford the 300.00 for the shipping, he said "What can you pay" and totally ignored my mention that the way it would go down "Via payment to Express Pet Airline by Western Union" sounded Hinky...they only responded that I needed to send my address, phone # and nearest airline info. to them.

What made me stop and think is, our company was almost scammed this week by a guy from US (a Bishop that runs an orpaphage) wanting to buy an ice machine and paid for it via 2 diff. credit cards, and then wanted to pay the shipping on 2 other credit cards...And SHIPPING TO AFRICA ...when our VP checked into it with the credit card company, they said it was a scam!!

Be Careful!!! They come in all shapes and sizes!

I am so glad I ran across this post!! I also was almost scammed!
But the names are different. They posted a puppy on puppy find.
All the other stuff is the same, but Different names.
The person that replied to me was Luis Look. The Rev.'s name that is in Nigeria is
Rev. Father Paul.
So look for these names also!!!

I was so interested in this lil pup. My hopes was up til she mentioned they would have to fly the pup here. I knew then it was a scam. When I asked for more pics of the pup she got really mad and said if ur interested send the money and u will get ur puppy. I emailed her back and told her she was gettin free money for nothing and to keep the fake puppy. If u want to know its a scam ask for a pic of the pup with something like a cap or coke can n the pic. If they cant do that and give there number there scammers.