[News] Yorkie Adoption Scam

[littlewhip]

we have some local scamming going on big time. posted thru postaroo, which i guess is a free site for posting, i have personally email a few people that responed to there ad to let them know ( SCAM ALERT PLEASE EMAIL),some people really do not know the diff like we do and its so sad one person was advertising free yorkies & english bull dogs and there pulling pics off diff web sites, this is a great start to keep us all up to date

[xxmxaxrxyxx]

thanks for sharing...a lot of consumers need to be educated about this scam...you can find it in almost every online newspaper around the states...argh!

[PANAMA69]

Before I got Phoebe, I almost was scam by this people she had the yorkies and toldme that this man was going to Nigueria for several months and he couldn't take the pups , she was very smart but I had a feeling that somenthing was wrong so I told them no thankyou and then she lower the price and they were very persistant but I stop answer the e-mail and thank God that was it.

[Our baby yorkie]

Originally Posted by Desiree

I've e-mailed several "breeders" the past few days trying to find a Yorkie in my price range. Since most good Yorkie breeders are charging more than my sweetheart will let me spend on a new puppy right now I decided to look on sites/ads I normally would never look at when searching for a pet. What I've found on many of these sites like Yahoo is that out of all the breeders I contacted (which were quite a few) only one was not a scammer. I reported a few that I found on Yahoo, but I don't think Yahoo's even doing anything about it since I never received an e-mail back from them saying they would investigate it or remove the ads from those poster.

Sometimes these "breeders" don't ever mention Africa even though they are from there. I ran into a few of these but after they'd give me their phone numbers I'd do a search on their area code only to find that the phone number links them back to Africa. It really is sad and I feel so bad for those people that fall for it.

However, I've heard that you can use an escrow service such as www.escrow.com to protect yourself a little better if you absolutely must purchase a puppy online. This will allow your money to go to a secured trust account where they will make sure the money is actually valid (protecting the seller) and then give the seller the ok to ship the puppy. Once the buyer receives the puppy and has it vet checked or when the agreed amount of time to have the puppy vet checked expires the escrow company will pay the seller. The escrow service will charge a percentage, such as 4% of the cost of the puppy, but I think that would be worth it compared to hundreds or thousands that you'd lose to a scammer. It sounds like a win/win situation to me. Has anyone tried this by any chance?

If you dont mind me asking you which one is not a scam??
I have been looking for a yorkie also and yes even received many emails from the people in so called Africa

[melmel84]

I hate scammers! Get the word out there! Do not send money to anyone that promises a free yorkie from over seas! These horrible people are just trying to take your money!

For example
henriettayorkies@yahoo.com

This person tryed to scam me! I was looking for adoption of an older yorkie until she said that the dog was free and red flags went up in my mind! She wanted me to send money western union to Nigeria and so on and I have heard of this scam before. So she had said that the dog was AKC registered so I asked her for the number and thats when things got nasty. She is stalking my email and writting horrible messages to me becuase I called her scam! Be warned they are out there and they will do anything to take our hard earned money! If something sounds to good to be true it most likely is! Remember that!

[YorkieAunt]

Originally Posted by Yorkiesforever

I had the same story but mine was from canada....it was a scam also.

This is the first time I have heard of one from Canada. Did they say where in Canada? I know that this scam has been going on for years and it usually is from Africa. They do advertise in all the papers and all the internet sites all over the world. I personally wouldn't buy a puppy that I couldn't hold and look at first. That's just me though. I have to agree though that the price of Yorkies seems to be rising at an alarming rate. A puppy that would have cost $400 - $500 a couple of years ago is now being sold for over $2000. That gives the scammers more reason to try and scam people. I guess everyone must do their homework first and if it looks too good to be true then it probably is.

[wookie]

It seems like this is some big business in Africa. I'm imagining rows and rows of people in a 8-5 job (Like a call center from hell), on desk with computers lurking to scam desperate people like us looking for a puppy or cars seems to be a hot topic too.

Back in February, I was helping my sister look for a car and thank god I came to check out what my mom was doing. She almost sent $4000 to someone trying to scam her!! I checked out all her emails (they were emailing each other for weeks!) and educated her on what were the red flags. They claimed that she can pay through ebay (even though the car was not listed in ebay), they had different address of where to send the money, their phone number did not match the state/county where the money should be sent. There was even a 3rd party or escrow party in a different country!

What has the world gone too??

[msjagg]

I know it's hard to think straight when you see the puppy. It's what you've dreamed about for soo long. I hate these scammers so much. They've hurt soo many people and nothing can legally be done to stop them. The only way is to get the word out about these scammers, using the web, word of mouth and thank God there is now that video out there. I hope people see it and don't respond to them. My heartfelt blessings to the couple that was featured. I hope you find your dream Yorkie soon. Remember if it sounds too good to be true, it is!!!! Baron's Mom

[sarahcarp]

I'm trying to find homes for my yorkie's litter and I specifically said that i do not ship my puppies and last night i recieved an email about the puppies from someone who seemed almost illiterate (made me think they were from another country) saying that he had tried to call me. I knew that wasn't true because I have returned all calls about the puppies so I apologized anyways and asked him to email me his number if he was still interested in a puppy. I got a classic scam email today from him which I have enclosed, its just so sad how people are finding new and even more sick ways of taking advantage of others. I will enclose his email address as well in case he tries to contact anyone else from the same email. He also said that he would be sending me a check from Western Union, which for all of you who aren't aware is the bank that all the frauds use.

riggs Desmond <terrygee84@yahoo.com>
Hello

Thanks for your mail i will like you to know, that i want one male pup for my son who want me to present him for a birthday gift ,The reason I am sending you this email is to make final reconfirmation of Item for sale .which is ok by me,and also to let you know that payment will be by certified cashier's check or money order. In view of this I need you to email me any information that may be required to send the payment as I do not want to send the check or money order to a wrong location lest they get into the wrong hands.

Regarding the shipping, I have a company that takes care of the pickup of my consignments for me and ship to my destination anywhere in the U.S.A, you do not worry about shipping, the company will send down a representative to arrange the sales documentation and the pick up from your end.

I also want to alert you on the fact that you will be receiving an overdraft check, which will cover the money for the pickup (pickup and shipping to the final destination) . So please, as soon as you receive the payment, go and cash it immediately, deduct the money that accrues to you, and send the balance to the Head Office of the company that handles the shipment via Western union,Once the money is received by the agent , the shipping agent will contact you immediately to arrange the documentation as well as the pick up immediately, here are some of the details I will need for final issuance of the check or money order to you.

(1) Full Name
(2) Mailing address, no p.o.box please
(3) your direct telephone number both home and cell.?
{4} Acceptance of my offer
(5} Final asking price


Once you get back to me with all the above, the check or money order will be issued out immediately. extra $100 for keeping the puppy for me.
Thanks Hope to hear from you immediatey

[bellasmomok]

A co-worker of mine saw an ad just like that on Craigslist.com for our area and emailed about it. She was told the exact same sob story by email....South Africa and all!! She recognized it as a scam right away, and so did someone else. They posted about it and had it removed from Craigslist. I can't believe people are that horrible!! My co-worker won't believe it when I show her the link to that broadcast tomorrow...that could have been her!

[WeWantAYorkie2]

This is the same type of scam I almost go taken by last weekend. Luckily I didn't let the thought of finally getting a yorkie cloud my judgement and noticed the red flags. I really didn't want to think of what could have happened. I had a very upset daughter though, it was an awful lesson she had to learn about people out there taking advantage of others. I e-mailed our local paper immediately to make sure the ad was no longer running and she'd replied by letting me know there would be an article coming out. I was glad to hear the woman hadn't been scammed and realized it in time like I did. I also sent copies of his e-mails to 419scam.org to help warn others. The scammer also claimed to be a reverand on a christian missionary and couldn't care for his 2 "babies" so he needed someone to save them. He wanted me to send $325 to Diplomatic Courier Service via western union and he'd pay the other half (said he'd already paid even though I hadn't said I'd take them for sure). He said he was Reverand Henry Ken in Lagos, Nigeria. I found the Kijiji site as well and started looking through the ads. One of them offering an 11 wk old yorkie puppy for $250 also turned out to be a scam using the same information but his "name" was Johnny Morales....Uggg I was getting so angry and frustrated. After all that I came to this site to search for a real puppy to love. Unfortunately I can't spend as much money as most breeders are asking and just want a yorkie as a companion and not for showing/breeding etc. Papers aren't important to me either, our lab isn't papered/registered. My husband just wanted a lab to love.....and man does he love her. Now it's my turn to have my baby. I'm trying to be patient....as are my girls.

[dcapper]

I've seen tons of these ads on kijiji. I've been reporting them and they delete them fast. I also email yahoo and hotmail depending on the sender and reprt them. I hope they would delete their account.