Pedigree animals and certain other breeds can attract price tags of a thousand dollars or more, or are heavily in demand for other reasons. Not what the label saysĪt some time, most of us have probably bought an item only to discover it's not quite what we thought it was. More Scam Reports: The 10 Most Common Cell Phone Scams and How to Avoid Them 4. And you can also ask to talk to their vet to find out more info about the pet. They probably won't be able to think fast enough. And if you're a buyer and the seller claims to have owned the animal for some years, ask them for some tales of their experiences with it. Of course, what they're doing may not be illegal but they'll often dress up their stories to potential buyers by claiming they've owned the animal for years and that it's healthy and has had all its shots - when they may not know this at all.Ī few searching questions will establish if your adopter is a genuine animal lover and the real owner of the pet. They collect the animal, either for free or for a small fee, then immediately offer it for resale at a fat profit. The scammers scour adoption ads and animal shelter registers looking for pets they know are in demand. Well, on the other side of the fence, a sneaky pet scam will relieve you of your beloved animal - if it's a pure breed or particularly attractive. Plus, there are genuine cases where individual pet owners need to find a new owner, perhaps because they're moving to a place that doesn't allow pets or because they just can't afford to keep their pets anymore. Of course, most refuge centers also want to find adopters for their animals. Read more about fakes, including phony donation boxes, on our site. You could question the collector to test his/her knowledge but the best solution is to send money directly to the pet organization. This is sad because not only are the crooks after your money but also it makes people distrustful of genuine, desperately needed collections. It's easy to forge an identity card and simply go door-to-door with a collection box, or to get the local convenience store to place a donation jar by the register. This makes them fertile ground for public sympathy and therefore pet scams. They rely on pet food and financial donations and volunteer workers to keep them going.Įvery day our newspapers have stories about them and the uphill battle they have to provide a temporary home for strays or neglected pets. Most organizations that offer shelter and support for abandoned animals are usually pretty near broke. The giveaways with this particular pet scam are usually that the animal is some distance away, probably overseas, and the trickster wants you to pay with a money order or wired cash. More Scam Reports: "Pink Tax" Adds Up to a Rip-Off for Women Shoppers Read more about this type of pet scam in our article Avoiding Pet Scams. Problem is, he's a truck driver and claims he was on urgent business so he had to take your animal with him. The scammer spots these and calls to say he's found the animal. Your beloved pet goes astray and you post notices around the neighborhood. And, of course, the "seller" asks you to pay.Ī particularly nasty variation of this type of pet scam is the lost animal con trick. But as soon as you agree and pay, you may get a follow-up message saying the animal has been impounded by customs or is in need of veterinary treatment. The scammers may claim to be missionaries or just to have fallen on hard times.Īll they want you to do supposedly is to pay the shipping costs. Some are fairly sophisticated, with websites bursting with photos of beautiful animals that have simply been filched from other Internet sites.īut, typically, you might see an ad offering a loved pet free of charge because the owners can no longer keep it. The tricks take many forms and, yes you guessed it, many of them originate in certain African nations and in the Far East, especially Thailand. The con artists are after your money or personal financial information and they use your sympathy for animals in distress to hook you. If you're an animal fan, you may save yourself a lot of heartache, not to mention hard-earned dollars, by getting wise to these con tricks. This week we've compiled a list of the 7 most common pet scams currently doing the rounds. Our love, especially for four-legged pals, can be so intense that we fail to spot the scam when it's pulled. We love our furry or feathered friends, but human affection for animals is increasingly an open-arms invitation for pet scams. We think you'll first like visiting this week's issue of Scamlines - What's New in Scams? Other times they want our pets to sell for profit or experimentation. Sometimes the tricksters are after our money - and the animals may not even exist. Con artists play on our love of animals with pet scams to cheat us and put our pets at risk: Internet ScamBusters #302
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