Puppy Love
The following is an excerpt from the Better Business Bureau report sent from Denver’s District Attorney’s Offices
In June, Catelyn, a woman from Texas, went online to find her family a Dalmatian puppy. The website she visited looked normal, the puppy perfect, so she sent off $850, a fair price for the spotted canine.
Soon after, she received an email claiming the dog needed insurance for its cross-country journey. Wanting to keep the puppy safe, Catelyn handed over another $725. Only a few hours later, the seller reached out to her again about another issue. A $615 “thermal electronic” crate was required for the flight. The seller told her that the puppy would not be allowed to board if she did not pay, so Catelyn sent the third payment. The days ticked by without any dog. When she tried to reach the sellers by email and phone, they blocked her number.
Catelyn eventually realized she had been defrauded. She was devastated to have lost nearly $2,200 and “her” puppy, which never really existed.
Better Business Bureau® (BBB®) urges consumers to exercise caution when purchasing a pet online. BBB Scam TrackerSM reports indicate that consumers who purchase pets without seeing them in person, use hard-to-track payment methods like Zelle, and accept extra charges like shipping insurance or special cages are at substantial risk of being scammed. Because purchasing a pet can be such an emotionally charged experience, BBB urges consumers to be on high alert for scams.
So far this year, pet scams in North America appear to be on the decline, even as losses exceed $1 million and are expected to approach $2 million. That total is down by a third since the peak of more than $3 million during the pandemic in 2020-2021, according to BBB Scam Tracker. Pet scams historically make up a quarter of all online shopping frauds reported to BBB and are on track to be about 18% this year. As reports decline, however, average monetary losses are climbing, with an average loss of $850 in 2022, up 60% since 2017. BBB has tracked this swindle since 2017 when it issued an in-depth study, Puppy Scams: How Fake Online Pet Sellers Steal from Unsuspecting Pet Buyers.