A Free Public Service

SCAMS BULLETIN Host Jay White is an inactive attorney in San Mateo County, California.

July 29, 2021

PET SCAMS  

Courtesy Scambusters

Pet scams have scaled new heights during the past year as work-from-homers and people under lockdown fall for the companionship appeal of a furry friend.

The Better Business Bureau says its Scam Tracker service received more than 4,000 reports of fake pet sales during 2020, with the trend accelerating as the year progressed. These numbers relate to just reported incidents. Many scams are never declared because victims are embarrassed to admit they’ve been conned.

The International Pet and Animal Transportation Association (IPATA) says many pet sale scams begin with prospective owners searching online for free or cheap pets. This is where the crooks hang out. They tell their victims the pet is free or the price is extremely discounted, but they must pay shipping costs upfront.

IPATA says “They almost always say they are only giving the pet away because their child passed away, that they moved for a new job and cannot provide enough attention for the animal due to work hours, or their new house won’t allow pets.”

Sometimes, the pets do exist — they’re stolen or illegally imported animals from Asia and Eastern Europe. Again, the scammers use fake paperwork and even false microchipping to try to pass them off.

How To Avoid Being Scammed:

If you’re considering buying a pet online, here are things you can do to avoid being scammed:

* Don’t buy sight unseen or on the basis of just a photo. Tell the seller you want to see them with the pet using online video services such as Skype, FaceTime, or Zoom. If the “seller” provides a photograph, do a reverse image search to check if it’s been used elsewhere. We described how to do this in our issue: https://tinyurl.com/Scambusters-210718-1

*Be skeptical about hard-luck and grief stories relating to why the pet is being “given away.”

*Ask for the animal’s history, pedigree registration, previous ownership, and other facts you can check out to establish it exists and is a genuine sale.

*Don’t pay with untraceable gift cards or cyber currency. They’re nearly always used in scams.

*Beware of email addresses using official sounding names, for airlines and government departments for example, but tagged onto a popular service provider like Gmail or Yahoo.

*Don’t believe cheap transportation offers. Scammers often say they can ship the animal internationally for $250. IPATA says it costs more to transport an animal than it does a human. Check IPATA’s list of other pet scam warning signs here: https://tinyurl.com/Scambusters-210718-2

*Search this database of known pet scam websites: https://tinyurl.com/Scambusters-210718-3

*Beware of pet sales that originate in so-called puppy mills – large-scale breeding operations where animals are often kept in appalling conditions and frequently arrive with serious medical and psychological problems.

Finally, although most pet scams relate to dogs (especially French bulldogs and Yorkshire terriers), more than 10 percent of them are for cats and kittens and a few for parrots and even exotic animals.

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