Sweet Violet....I do not think that was the intent on this thread..i think it was only brought up about the scams due to many of us on YT have received emails in reguards to purchasing a yorkie from Cameroon ... but in general there are many suspicious offers going on... i found several this afternoon in Montreal and in Toronto too...all scams for sure..there are many indicators and most of us know that... so did the YT member that posted the thread...she herself stated it was close to her sisters place of residence in the USA ..that is why they were even looking at the ad ...There are many GREAT breeders in the World..but there are some dishonest people that are trying to take advantage of honest buyers...
And That is SAD for the honest ones :animal-pa

That is exactly how the scam ad from America was set up...the ad implied the puppy was local, but when I contacted the advertiser I learned I could have two puppies for less than double the price of one, that her husband supposedly worked for SwissAir and could get a deal on the shipping costs, and she simply ignored any of my questions that did not promote her scam. This scam was not being run out of Cameroon or Eritrea or Nigeria...it was being run out of America.

One of our local celebrities recently married a Lebanese business man and, due to his business activities, they settled in Nigeria. What is to say this woman will not take some Yorkies with her from South Africa and breed them there? You simply cannot assume, by the location alone ("AFRICA" as one YT member posted) that the ad is a scam.

I see these ads in our local newspaper that you can advertise in for free. I think after you contact them they get you to send the money for shipping and you never see your baby or money again. I mean really who is going to buy a yorkie puppy you no nothing about from a person you no nothing about that is going to take days to ship to you. That doesn't even make any sense especially when there are so many great breeder right here where you can go see the parents and quality of what you are putting you and you families heart into. SCAM all the way the nerve of some people do they have a heart in that chest anywhere.

i e-mailed someone about a yorkie...in another part of the world...
same story, can't care for it, just pay for the flight to ship her baby....
i e-mailed back, and said i travelled the world, and i would pick up her
baby...guess what...no more e-mails....don't get caught up in any scams...
like someone said if it sounds to good to be true, odds r.....:aimeeyork:animal-p

I agree. My cousin (a poodle person) was scammed on an advance-free credit scam several years ago in California. I warned her against it when the scammer demanded cash sent via Fed Ex to New Jersey and gave her 48 hours to get it to him or the deal was off. All the signs of fraud were there: not using the Postal Service (to avoid getting prosecuted for mail fraud), cash only (no paper trail), and limited time offer (to create urgency and no time to reflect or investigate). She did it anyway and, sure enough, it was a scam.

But that doesn't mean all offers of loans to people who are cash strapped are frauds or that everyone who lives in New Jersey is a con artist. It just means that we have to think and investigate offers that come our way, use common sense, and not fall prey to either wishful thinking or knee-jerk reactions.

The OP of this thread is fortunate that the ad was placed from a location near her sister's home. This allows her the opportunity to investigate easily (I suspected a scam when the advertiser just ignored my repeated requests for an appointment to view the litter). Hopefully the OP will find it is a legitimate ad and she will be able to get some sweet Yorkie puppy love!

It just seems no matter where in the world u are now a days there seem to be alot of scams going on ...i have had many e mails myself with tales of this and that ..just to get ur info and money...
In My Opinion ...and this just my opinion of course ..if i was looking for a yorkie to Love ..i would want to see and interact with the Little One...
before we got Oliver i went to see alot of them ..But when i was ready to buy i knew where to go and i met the one i LOVE :D

Yup...same here.

I knew we were going to get a female and the breeder had two available. It was important to handle the pups and see how they behaved, what their personalities were like. Puddin's sister was fussy and when we tried to hold her on her back, she got stressed. Puddin' stayed on her back and fell asleep! Very mellow little dog! These are things you just can't tell about puppies unless you interact with them before you buy them. For me, this is important.

But other people, of course, have different opinions.

YES, but alot of those people, (of course not all) in alot of cases end up unhappy or with problems with their little ones ...and the pups end up the victims..i saw on another thread they thought they were getting one pup...then when they received the pup it was another and they were not in LOVE with that one ..so they did not know what to do..I thought that poor pup ..was not with the loving family it needed so badly after all it went through ..Now that to me is SAD !

I can't really comment intelligently on such a situation, since it is not something I would ever do. I like to see how the pup interacts with its litter mates, how it behaves when I handle it, how the mother cares for the babies, what conditions they live in, what the breeder is like...just a whole lot of things that would put me off from buying a pup sight unseen. I also would not have a young puppy shipped...in Puddin's case, the breeder was going to be in my town and he volunteered to bring her with him...but I told my husband that the final payment would be in cash (we had paid 30% to hold her) and not until I had examined the puppy and was satisfied. Which worked out fine for all parties.

The only time I would get an animal sight unseen was if someone I knew and trusted was being my eyes for me. And even then, I wouldn't be comfortable.

But, like I said, other people have other opinions---just like many of us differ on the proper age to separate the pup from its mother. What is right for one person can easily be wrong for someone else.

I agree all ads should not be discredited. I beleive you that there are very reputable breeders there. My beef was with the missionaries from Cameroon ads

Am I the only one who think her response sounds like another scam? Sorry to SweetViolet if this is not the case. It just seems suspicious that she immediately jumps in to defend overseas adoptions (which have "bad idea" written all over to me) and then says that she could get a puppy for one of us. How convenient. It sounds to me like she is trying to get someone to respond to her and ask her to get a puppy for them. Maybe she would be able to, but I get the feeling that that person wouldn't receive that promised puppy. Plus, by the time you pay for the additional health charge, airline charge, and crate you wouldn't have to spend that much more to have the security of buying from a place that you can check out and where you can meet the pups before buying one. Scams can happen anywhere, but anything to do with overseas I wouldn't trust.

I can not understand why someone would even consider buying a puppy or anything living they can not see first. How do you no the type of boning, hair, what the parents look like, the attitude, the bite, gate.....what good would a registation even be if there is one. Come on you don't even no anything about the person handling the deal if they really even have a puppy is all about. I am sure their are good breeders all over the world. But, I am sure a reputable breeder would not stick a baby furball on a plane for lord no's how long to another country.

:aimeeyork:aimeeyorkI wrote to them one time before I got my girls they will ask for you to send the money Then they will send the puppy . But I asked to do a 3 party pay .Like pay pal and they said no that is when I new it was a bad deal .Bekka and Gracies mommy:animal-pa:animal-pa:animal-pa:animal-pa

wonder if they went to check out those pups..they were advertised in her sisters hometown newspaper ?
Will be interesting to hear the story !

The type of add's that are "scams" are clearly for "free dogs, you pay shipping". No location is brought up until you inquire about them and then it is almost ALWAYS Cameroon.. that is all over the internet and they ARE scams. There is no reason that anyone should put any trust in these add's just because there are reputable breeders in South Africa, which also makes me wonder how reputable would it be to ship a puppy over seas anyway.

I'm sure that there probably are scam add's running from people located in america too, there are bad people and scam artists everywhere.. its very sad. I don't think anyone is trying to put down Any geographic location, it just happens that the majority of the people on yorkie talk, have either dealt with these scammers personally or heard about them over and over again.

Lets just put it this way: Reputable breeders are picky about who their furbabies go home with, they would not place a random ad to attract unworthy buyers to place their puppies in a home. Also, think of this, if the ad is only asking for the shipping price for the puppy, what is the seller getting out of this purchase, you dont get something for nothing.

Thank you for impugning my integrity based on nothing more than a stereotype and your failure to understand what I have written. At no time did I offer to get anyone a pup...I'm not offering. In fact, if you want one, I will graciously decline. First of all, I don't want to do all the work to source one and secondly, I don't like the idea of shipping a puppy, especially all that distance.

If you've bothered to actually READ what I wrote, you will note that I turned down that championship bloodline puppy because I won't buy a pup sight unseen and I didn't want to drive 2800 kilometres to see it. Instead, I bought a pup that was a lot closer...after I drove a four hour round trip to see the litter.

Furthermore, if you actually understood what I wrote, you would see that I did NOT defend overseas adoptions, what I said was that you cannot automatically assume something is a scam simply because of where it comes from. You need to do more work than that unless being intellectually lazy and dealing in stereotypes is your preferred way of "thinking."

Just for the record, I am an American. I lived in the Bay Area for 30 years until I married a South African and moved here in 2003. It angers and embarrasses me when Americans automatically assume that because something comes from outside America it is automatically inferior or a scam.:mad: America does not have a monopoly on either quality or integrity. It further irritates me when people assume that Africa is monolithic...that every African and every African country are interchangeable. That's not only incorrect, it is ignorant.

Like I said before, the most recent Yorkie puppy scam I have seen was Americans attempting to scam South Africans by offering puppies at prices that were low even with the 10-to-1 exchange rate taken into account. And in case you don't know what that means, it means a puppy costing R4500 here (what I paid for Puddin' and near the top of our price range) translates to $450US. One our YT members, who lives in my city, got her pup for R1500. You do the math...

It depends on the circumstances. I gave Chloe, my AKC registered Peke, away along with an entire car full of crates, beds, toys, clothes, treats, food, etc. Why? because she was a senior dog and the vet said she probably wouldn't survive 30 hours in the belly of the plane (I was flying out of San Francisco) and no airline that flew to South Africa would let me have her in the cabin. I even offered to buy her her own seat, but no go.

I found a woman through Craigslist who wanted her and took a month to transition her to her new home with visits back and forth (and yes, I visited the home and carefully interviewed her new mama). Only when I was convinced that Chloe liked the woman and was happy spending time with her did I finally send her off and make my own reservations to come here.

That woman got a LOT for nothing...it depends on the circumstances.

Now that is a quick and foolproof way to check if it was a scam or not, assuming the country you are dealing with can accept money via PayPal (South Africa cannot due to its anti-money laundering laws). It's a very good idea, though.

AMEN I couldn't of said it any better myself.....if something in the back of your head asked you if this is for real. Or you have to stop and think about it than I would certainly pay close attention to that red flag in your head. HELLO why do people accross this world think American's are the idiots that fall for all these scams. It is crazy we have to be so targeted. I can't even advertise a litter of puppies anymore without scammers contacting me. I think it has really gotten out of hand in the last 5 years. Everyone is trying to make a buck off of someone else's weakness their love for animals. How totally wrong and hurtful is that. I breed yorkies to make someone's heart grow a few sizes larger not to break it.

What makes you think American's are the only ones being targeted? I live in South Africa and recently came across a scammer's ad targeting South Africans. Guess where the scammers were located? America!!

Sorry im just now getting back to this thread we had some really bad storms here and it took out our electric.
Yes this was a Big scam.

And I wasnt the one wanting this pup, it was my sister who was asking about it. and no she would never buy a pup unsean. but like the ad said it was from her town. but it really wasnt.so any ways we both eamiled them just to see what they said. heres what they emailed to her and to me.
I would never buy a pup that I couldnt see first or even see the parents. but some people do. so be very careful everyone.

Thanks for your interest in my lovely baby,she is still very much available for new home.She is 10 weeks old,She weigh 2-3lbs at full grown,she is AKC registered and her shots are given up to date.All her papers will accompany her,she is potty trained,safe with kid and other pet, But right now i am in West Africa with my wife we got posted here by our Work and we have her right here with us.we are going to ship her to you via Private Express Airline on next day delivery after shipment through a shipping agent,total and shipping cost is $200 including handling`s .If you are interested in having her, i want you to get back to me with your full name,address, phone number including the nearest airport to you.Please if you know that you are not going to take very good care of my baby do not reply me because i am only giving her out because we don't have time to take care of her again due to the work before us here.
Await your response

WOW !
We already thought it was too good to be true..but what a story they conjured up to get ur information and money ...
They must be doing this world wide since i saw two similar ads, with the frills and pearls and the puppy in the pix here in Canada, also.

Hope NO ONE will fall for it !
Then, they can pack their bags and take a hike :D

All I did was skim through her reply to you to look for the word "AFRICA" - and there it was. :rolleyes: Total scam :rolleyes: