http://www.care2.com/greenliving/nigerian-puppy-scam.html
Nigerian Puppy Scam
By Melissa Breyer, Senior Editor, Healthy & Green Living
By now most of us are familiar with Nigerian letter scams that sneak into our in-boxes with statements like, “We respectfully invite your kind attention to the transfer of U.S. $25 million into your personal/company offshore account.” It’s pretty easy to recognize the too-good-to-be-true element there. But how about a Nigerian puppy scam?
The puppy scam is subtle; a cute (really cute, adorably cute) puppy needs a home–it is much more believable than $25 million dollars waiting in your account. In the puppy scam, classified ads are placed in newspapers and online. They promise a free puppy, as long as the victim agrees to pay for shipping–the story usually involves someone who has moved or is moving or resides in another country. In the latest crop of puppy scams, the dog owner is said to reside in Africa. In some cases he says he is an American, serving in the Peace Corps. He promises to send the dog once the victim sends anywhere from $200 to $500 to pay for shipping. Usually there is another request for more money, explaining there were some complications clearing customs. Lots of cute pictures of the said puppy are sent, and once the money wire has been picked up, the puppy-giver disappears.
In order to avoid these types of scams, Phonebusters offers this advice:
• Know whom you are dealing with–independently confirm your seller’s name, street, address, and telephone number.
• Resist pressure to “act now.” If an offer sounds to good to be true it usually is.
• If the buyer wants to use a service you have not heard of, be sure to check it out to be sure it is reliable–check its Web site, call its customer service hotline, and read its terms of agreement and privacy policy. If you do not feel comfortable with the service, do not use it.
According to ConsumerAffairs.com, even better advice is to never buy a puppy from anyone other than a local breeder. Shipping a puppy is cruel and inhumane in itself. Buying an animal via the Internet virtually ensures that you are supporting puppy mills. The best place to get a pet is the local pound or shelter!
To read stories by people who have been victims of a puppy scam, visit the pet scam stories page at the ASPCA.
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16 comments
add your comment »thank you for this helpful information!
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Kabin
Konteyner
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Great info in these comments! Jonathan, your info is especially helpful. Adria, your story is wonderful. What lucky pets you have! I am the advisor for an animal welfare club at the high school where I teach - Ani-Pals. We are constantly making the students aware of scams like this and constantly encountering ever more horrifying acts of cruelty to animals. Our kids have had their eyes, sometimes painfully, opened and have taken action to help animals in need and I am quite proud of them. They also realize that cruelty to animals can and often does escalate into cruelty to humans. This puppy scam may be "gentle" cruelty in a way but cruelty nonetheless and despicably criminal! To scam people out of money by tugging at heartstrings in this way is unconscionable. Also, a good lesson to all is the fact that "shipping" a living creature is an act of cruelty unto itself! Adopt a shelter critter: enrich two (at least) lives, be part of the solution to a horrific problem, feel good everyday when that pet makes you smile!
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Thanks, Jonathan, for sharing your experiences of Africa with us. It's the other side of this coin that many of us, not having lived in Africa, don't know about.
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Dear Melissa,
As a retired Foreign Service officer I knew immediately "African puppies" were a fraud when I first saw this several years ago and reported to the SPCA. I have served at US Embassies in West Africa and South Africa and, although there is a great deal of poverty and animals are often neglected, many well-employed local people and foreign aid workers take good care of their pets and have access to veterinarians. It is UNBELIEVABLE that either a missionary or Peace Corps worker could not find a safe place for their dog in one of the big cities like Lagos or Mombasa or Johannesburg. And it's ABSURD (and cruel) to suggest shipping a puppy all the way to the US when there are plenty of people in Africa who care about animals, have good incomes, and air-conditioned homes. Besides, if there was an urgent need a missionary or relief worker could contact a foreign aid Mission, Consulate or Embassy to request care and housing for a pet even in a remote area - Foreign Service staffers are very fond of pets because they keep up morale. But in the major metropolitan centers, there is access to animal welfare/placement, veterinary services, etc. so this whole "puppy out of Africa" idea is RUBBISH. It does tug on your emotions when they attach pictures - probably from somewhere in the States. Most Nigerian scammers work out of a large immigrant community in Texas.
Jonathan Young
USAID/SUR/COM/CPS (retired)
formerly of AmEmbassy Ouagadougou
and AmEmbassy Maseru
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i got a scamer talking to me right now.she has a puppy she cant keep anymore and wants to adopt it out,she wants $95.00 for shipping and etc.,what shedont know is that i know what shes doing.she wont get no money from me unless its c.o.d. and i got the puppy in my hands.going to wait and ee wat she saids and then im going to sock it to her.ive been scamed before so i know a little about them,will let you know what happens lol
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I have gotten these emails for months. I read the first one and was actually touched for a few seconds, then reconsidered. If you really needed to get an animal home, appealing to strangers is hardly the way to clear customs. I marked it as spam. There used to be at least one appeal in my inbox every other day, but they have dropped dramatically; I believe the scammers have moved on.
What really angers me are the ones that try to take advantage of lost pets and children; despicable doesn't even begin to describe them.
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Learn how to avoid scams and frauds. Share your story at;
http://www.care2.com/c2c/groups/disc.html?gpp=8544&pst=1283632&saved=1
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Thank you for mentioning this, Katherine L.
We have 2 dogs and 3 cats. Both dogs were from our Humane Society (a Saluki/Lab cross and a full bred Australian Cattle Dog -- apparently we didn't take into account the need for sleep).
1 cat was found as a feral kitten and happy to be given a loving home. 1 cat was an accidental adoptee from a cat rescue mission visiting a pet store (went in for a pooper scooper, came out with a pooper). 1 cat was thrown out the car window of a vehicle going 45 MPH when he was a kitten.
I don't "get" this whole thing of "buying from breeders". It's like slavery to me. Buying a living being so that you own "it". I'm a grandchild of Concentration Camp and Liebensborn survivors -- they make you have sex to make a pretty baby then they decide who it goes to for raising as a pretty German.
I'll just offer my home to those who have need.
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Apparently they have realized there are many animal advocates here. It is funny but, unfortunately, people fall for it. That is the truly sad part - that people exert so much energy and time on trying to make a buck without working for it.
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