Quote:
Originally Posted by Einstein1  He's adorable ! What kind of scam do you think you might need to look out for. |
The scams are usually from Cameroon, Africa. They're usually a "moving family" who needs to relocate their dog, or a pastor who needs to relocate, or someone from the army also wanting to relocate. They have the rehoming fee as free, but say that they need $300 to ship the puppy. You send the money, and you never hear from them again or see the puppy again. Usually they all sound the same.
Here is an example. A couple years back, when I didn't know much about yorkies, I contacted one of these "scammers/people" on Craigslist, and I got this email:
This was from "Louiza Hung":
Hi ,
Sorry for my late reply , I am so impressed with your inquiry about adopting my puppies. i have been looking for a home for them for a while now but not only a home but a forever home for them.. firstly let me tell you about them.They are both 12weeks old .They are called (Lucy the female) &( Carl the male). they are all registered with the following animal registration club that is Akc and are veterinary checked and vaccinated and have all health records till date and housing documents . I am not out to sell them,all i want is to give them out to a home or family that is able to spoil them with the love and care that they deserve,so all i need of you is to assure me you will take good care of them because i don't want to give you my puppies out and discover they are not handled with care. am giving them out because i husband is very sick and in the hospital, so i have no one to take care of them back at home, so i decided to give them out for adoption only to good and loving homes . So you just need to assure me you will take good care of my puppies. below are some of their descriptions .
About Them:
-They are house Trained and Potty.
-They do not bark a lot.
-Eat 2 times daily and at afternoons she drinks Milk .
-They are socialized with kids and other house hold pets .
-They gets angry when you shout at them, so don't do that.
Hope you wont mind telling a little about your self , so I will love to know this from you.
what are your names..
phone # ........
Are you married..?
Do you have kids..?
Have you adopted a puppy before..?
what makes you wiling to adopt my puppies..?
Will you take them both ..?
Are you a breeder..?
Do you think on breeding them..?
We were located here in the US in Boston .so if you can stand the chance of taking these puppies , you are going to pay is just the transportation fee of the puppies and that will cost you $200 for one and $380 for both . So please get back to me asap so that we can immediately proceed with the delivery arrangement of the puppies to you .
Thanks and waiting for your prompt reply
Louisa Hung
Here's another one, from "Maria Ramirez":
Hi ,
Sorry for my late reply , I am so impressed with your inquiry about adopting my puppies. i have been looking for a home for them for a while now but not only a home but a forever home for them.. firstly let me tell you about them.They are both 12weeks old .They are called (Lee the female) &( Leo the male). they are all registered with the following animal registration club that is Akc and are veterinary checked and vaccinated and have all health records till date and housing documents . I am not out to sell them,all i want is to give them out to a home or family that is able to spoil them with the love and care that they deserve,so all i need of you is to assure me you will take good care of them because i don't want to give you my puppies out and discover they are not handled with care. am giving them out because i husband is very sick and in the hospital, so i have no one to take care of them back at home, so i decided to give them out for adoption only to good and loving homes . So you just need to assure me you will take good care of my puppies. below are some of their descriptions .
About Them:
-They are house Trained and Potty.
-They do not bark a lot.
-Eat 2 times daily and at afternoons she drinks Milk .
-They are socialized with kids and other house hold pets .
-They gets angry when you shout at them, so don't do that.
Hope you wont mind telling a little about your self , so I will love to know this from you.
what are your names..
phone # ........ ?
where do you live ..?
Are you married..?
Do you have kids..?
Have you adopted a puppy before..?
what makes you wiling to adopt my puppies..?
Will you take them both ?
Are you a breeder..?
Do you think on breeding them..?
We were located here in the US in Indiana .so if you can stand the chance of taking these puppies , you are going to pay is just the transportation fee of the puppies and that will cost you $200 for one and $380 for both . So please get back to me asap so that we can immediately proceed with the delivery arrangement of the puppies to you .
Thanks and waiting for your prompt reply
Maria Ramirez
Here was one from "David Thomson":
Hello,
Thanks for contacting me. Micky ,Brandy and Nina are the three available puppies. Micky is the male, Brandy and Nina are the Females . They are all registered with the following animals registration club know as AKC and are veterinary checked, vaccinated, has all health records till date including housing documents and are 13 weeks. I just found a new Job in Honolulu Hawaii and relocated along with the puppies the problem is that my new apartment do not permit pet . So i have been searching for pets loving homes to adopt and take care of these puppies until now that i have found you. All i'm asking is only for you to pay for transportation fee to your home if needed to be transported.
They are portable Teacup
They are house Trained and Potty Trained.
They are well socialized with kids and other house pets like,cats , birds dogs etc.
But before approving your home for my puppies, i will like to ask you some questions.
(1) Where exactly are you located ?
(2) Are you a breeder?
(3) Do you have kids?
(4) Give me description of your living environment?
(5) Have you been keeping pets or this is your
first experience ?
Sorry for to many question,but i just want to be sure that my puppies would be going to the right home. So i will be waiting to read back from your soonest mail.
Regards
****************
Notice how "Louiza Hung" and "Maria Ramirez" sent me the exact same email, but just changed the state name and the names of the pups!
They will also have extreme punctuation/grammatical errors.
If you want to see if one of these people come from Cameroon, email them from Gmail. Then when you receive an email back, use this to find the IP Address:
How to find the IP address of the email sender in Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook Express, etc.
Then once you have the IP, plug it into here:
How to find the IP address of the email sender in Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook Express, etc. or this:
How to find the IP address of the email sender in Gmail, Yahoo mail, Hotmail, AOL, Outlook Express, etc.. For "Louiza Hung", "Maria Ramirez" and "David Thomson", I tried this and.....wait for it......all were from Cameroon, Africa! and ALL WERE THE SAME PERSON!!!!! :O
Lots of people get scammed like this. That is why it is necessary to look for the warning signs and red flags, and AVOID AVOID AVOID!!