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OH NO not puppies!

Buddy as a pup Dog lovers beware!

ActiveRain dog lovers include .... Toby and Sadie

Ginger and Bella.... Ginger and Bella... I can't use Ginger and Roger's ActiveRain profile page because I don't want anyone to confuse Roger and Bella. Both Roger and Bella are adorable of course.

The list goes on....Jay and Daisy (Daisy's really Teresa and Boomer Jack's dog but they share Daisy with their neighbors.)

About 6:30 yesterday we were playing in our office backyard with the neighbor dogs. YOUR real estate office doesn't have a huge green backyard where the neighbors bring their dogs to play ball and frisbee? Neighbor dogs, Popcorn (a bichon) and Linus (a long tailed boxer mix... really a pretty wonderful, comical dog) were running around chasing a ball while their owners talked to three of us... Eric, Elaine and me.

That's my dog Buddy when he was younger pictured above....

Yesterday in our office backyard we talked about dogs, finished basements, dog DNA, picture framing, dog shelters, remodeling homes, dogs, our office meeting, dogs, the neighborhood, dogs, dogs, dogs and puppies... as Linus and Popcorn rolled in the grass and chased the ball around the office's back yard...

Maybe the story on the radio as I was leaving the office, going home to my dog Buddy, long since grown up ..... a story about Nigerian scams using puppies hit me harder because I was just talking about dogs. Oh how could they? NOT puppies!

Dog lovers beware, the latest Nigerian 419 scam uses puppies! Real estate and greed was one thing but those Nigerian scammers are going too far when they start using puppies on the internet to lure Americans to send them money. Child predators learned the value of a puppy... you don't even need a puppy, just the story of a lost puppy works to get attention and lure an unsuspecting victim away from reality.

"Bulldogs too good to be true"! says: "So goes a new scam, one that preys on pet lovers, especially those with Christian sympathies and a penchant for stranded puppies."

"Offering puppies is the newest twist in Nigeria scam" from the Seattle Times English Bulldog puppies because of their high price tag seem to be the best bait but Googling for Nigerian puppies I found other breeds too.

Wikipedia's entry about the 419 scams(advance pay schemes) acknowledges the scammers have discovered the power of a puppy. The Seattle Times story says the council of Better Business Bureaus and the American Kennel Club were addressing this issue yesterday.

AcitveRain Dog Lovers Groups include:

It's Raining DOGS! Dog Lovers Group

Pet friendly real estate

Cats and dogs

The real estate scams have been on ActiveRain since the beginning, but here are just the latest I could find:

Nigerian Bank Scam and SPAM on Active Rainfrom David and Tonya Kucic

Nigerian transferee... from Kristal

Be Aware Of All Of The Scams Targeting Realtors!!! from John Cain

Maureen Staccato was right about Nigerian scams, they are getting more sophisticated but puppies?

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Posted by Maureen McCabe Central OH Homes on 05/30/2007 08:08 AM

Comments (28)

Worthington in the Regional (Localism) Channel

dogs, real living her, worthington

Originally posted at: Worthington real estate : OH NO not puppies!

This post has been included in Ohio Information Franklin County, OH Information Worthington, OH Information
Post is included in group: Real Living

28 Comments on OH NO not puppies!

MAY

2007

MM ~ I hadn't heard of the Nigerians doing puppies. I've been way to busy relocating them and their money...

So what is next?

I heard it on GMA this morning. http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=3225568 Some people will do anything for a free buck!!! As I write this I just got an email about my "bill Payer" account at the State Department Federal Credit Union is about to expire... jee wonder if they want me to verify my social security number and date of birth... too bad I don't have an account there.

But Puppies...come on that's a new low!

It must have been going on for awhile and it makes perfect sense. How much is that Doggie in the Window? The pricing is low. Sometimes the dog is free they are just trying to get the dog out of a hot country back to the US. Whatever it takes to get the 'mark.' to send the money. Sad.

Good Grief! ! !

What will they think of next. They capalized on Banks and real estate. Now puppies???

Next week I expect to get e-mail from someone who "is the respected caretaker of the child of wealthy parentage who has been stranded in their country and is in protective care" and to get the child back to his parents, we need to send $25,000 finance the return of the child for the $1,000,000 reward.

Yep, I can see it now.

Maureen- I purchased my bulldog puppy online www.thebulldogexchange.com, and their site now has a fraud warning. Evidently, American companies are jumping on the bandwagon, as well. I can't imagine the disappointment, after paying a fair amount of money, that these people must have when their "baby" never shows up. I would have been unaware of it had I not visited the site from whom I got Oliver, just to see the cute faces.

I hadn't heard about this new scam. Animal lovers are probably "bigger suckers" than the bank scams, because who can resist those precious, sad eyes! I just emailed the Seattle Times link to my client who works with one of the local rescue groups so she can spread the word to her contacts.

When I got home last night, The Murph gave me the evil eye because he could tell I had been petting other dogs! I'm a traitor.

Bobthanks for the link. I am sure today is the day the story hits the media full force and hopefully it will cut down on the people swindled in the scams. It is really a much better story than scammers preying on real estate people. Puppies are a lot cuter than most of us.

Lenn there are 419 scams based on people, but they are aimed at men.

Laurieis a mini bulldog an English bulldog? Are they synonymous? The puppies in the video look like guinea pigs

Maureen- they do, don't they? No, not synonymous- they've been bred down to be smaller- smaller heads, same English bulldog look- in an effort to make them a bit less couch potato (those larger heads are heavy) and more active. The male mini reaches the approx. weight of the female EB. I wanted a dog that could swim, go on the boat, etc. but with the personality of the EB. I have Oliver in an article on our website- they look better full grown! BUT I DIGRESS- these scam artists are absolutely DISGUSTING. Thank you for the post!

Elaine: I guess Buddy smelled Popcorn and Linus on me... he was following me sniffing which is how he catches up on where I've been, what I've been doing and with whom. I was too busy telling Mark about the latest scam (and that I got an email from a Nigerian Senator last week!) to pay much attention to what Buddy was doing. Poor Buddy. When I come home from showing, open houses he checks me out but he was very thorough last night.

Laurie: I'll have to go take a look at Oliver. Great name for a bulldog. I remember showing a house with bulldogs (I assume English) in kennels in the utility room... lotsa snorting going on in that room.

Maureen,

This scam is a new one for me too! Growl..... Thanks for the mention in your blog.

Bella says WUUUFFF!

Ginger

Thanks Bella and Ginger!

Maureen - What a horrible few weeks for dog stories, first the Michael Vick dog fighting stories and related comments by other NFL players and then the headlines about the Nigerian scam aside from all the local pet abuse stories across the country. It is very sad.

I must have seen something about the Michael Vick thing on your blog? Or some dog lover's blog. Help me... He's an NFL player? And he had dog fights in his home? Had to sell the home at some ridiculous low price because of the scandal?

Dog fight stories upset me. I'll click on your link to see if the answers are there.

The really nice thing about this Nigerian scam is there are no dogs involved.

I feel sorry for the people who get their heart set on the cute little puppy they see online. It is terrible that they are taken advantage of but I am glad the dogs are all imaginary dogs.

Carlton says hello:

What a wonderful face you have Carlton! Thanks for sharing him Cheryl.

Maureen- They ran it in our local paper .. what will these guys think of next.. Missed the Michael Vick story.. sure is a long way from the football guys of a few years ago.. Merlin Olsen and Johnny Unitas.. Alex Karas, Fran Tarkington..

MAY

2007

Kaye, I don't think our local paper has had the story of the fake puppy sales.

Sadly yesterday the press had the story of Nigeria suing Pfizer.... and pursuing criminal charges against the U.S. drug company for allegedly conducting a drug trial on children there that lead to death and disabilities during a meningitis outbreak in the 90's. A more momentous story than some crooks running a scam with cute puppy photos...where no real puppies were involved.

I still have not caught up on the Michael Vick story.

Hopefully anyone seeing any unsolicited e-mail from Nigeria will know better than to respond. How low can people really sink?!

Theresa: I believe for at least the puppy advance pay scam the scammers have branched out and have websites with photos and and are using classified ads. I was reading something where someone who worked with a newspapers classified ads (but I kind of had the impression they were online ads) said every morning they had to purge the fraudlulent puppy ads left overnight. Overnight enterprising individuals posted puppy ads that don't ring true for one reason or another, I think that was the article where it said an ad was for Yorkies but an English bulldog was pictured or vice versa. Maybe it is done with emails too but it would be harder to target dog lovers in general than it is to target RE agents because of our websites.

Then they'll branch out into another venture when this one stops paying off!

If you or someone you know have been the victim or potential victim of an internet puppy scam, and are willing to share your story, please contact the American Kennel Club at communications@akc.org.

This latest internet fraud scheme involves answering a classified ad (internet or print) for a purebred puppy. These ads are usually accompanied by a stolen picture of a cute puppy, along with a false and manipulative tale of how the dogs need to re-homed, or are available for a reduced price. Victims usually end up wiring money to the scam artists to pay for "expenses" such as customs clearance, shipping or travel vaccines. The reality is that the puppy doesn't exist, and consumers who are expecting to receive a puppy end up losing money they may have already wired to the scam artists under these false pretenses.

WOW a comment from the American Kennel Club!! I hope between the BBB and the American Kennel Club lots of consumers have heard of this scam now.

Thanks!

My Puppy

Have you ever seen a dog so happy????

Is that your dog? I was thinking you were Danny Smith (?) at first who shared infon on a Wiener Dog race with AR a couple of months ago.

Cute dog.

Tonight the local TV channel had the story.

Danny, cute wiener. The Murph approves.

JUN

2007

Maureen- I was so upset about the Michael Vick story that I did write a Blog post about it and since then the news gets worse about Vick. The Humane Society of the United States started a petition to the NFL Commissioner, Roger Goodell, and I can only hope that he takes action against any players that participate in dogfighting as well as the owners, coaches, staff, etc of any sports team that knowingly support these players.

I had read your blog about Michael Vick before, Rhona, I thought it was probably your blog where I had seen the story. It is appalling that they'd be involved in something like dog fighting.

I hadn't heard of this. Thanks for brining it to everyone's attention. There are a lot of people out there that should be sent away to some island with like-kind folks. I hope they are able to stop this type of thing. There are lots of legitmate pet adoption organizations that people can call to adopt a pet.

JUN

2007

I think the more coverage there is of people who fell for the scam the harder it will be for others to believe they can get a pedigreed puppy for so little. The BBB and the Humane Society are doing a good job of getting the story out. Thanks for the comment Joan.

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