Animal Lovers Are Targeted in Puppy Scams

Based on reports to its Scam Tracker, the Better Business Bureau says the number of pet scam reports was down in 2022, but the average amount of money reported lost went up, from $755 in 2021 to $850 in 2022. 

How puppy scams work

Pet scam victims are often looking for a specific breed that may not be available in their own communities, requiring them to search farther afield — though RJ’s case is unusual for its international scope. Most criminals at least pretend to be U.S.-based breeders, often advertising on sites like Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist or creating a fake website, such as Cute[PopularBreedHere].com. They’ll claim to be located just far enough away from the victim that it would be difficult to see the animal in person before making that initial payment.

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Alert: A new kind of pet scam 

Pet owners should be aware of a recent uptick in another kind of scam, where criminals contact people who have lost pets, pretend to have found the animal and request payment for its return. The Idaho Humane Society issued a warning about this scam, explaining that scammers have been posing as representatives from the humane society or animal control officers and ask the owner to pay a processing fee to get their pet back. The society noted that it “never requests payment over the phone for lost pets. Our primary concern is the welfare of animals and ensuring that lost pets are reunited with their rightful guardians as quickly as possible.”      

Then, says Fetterhoff, the scammers “find new excuses to request more money”: They may claim that there’s an extra charge for shipping or for medications because the animal got sick in transit. “If you take a step back and think about it,” Fetterhoff notes, “it’s very similar to a romance scam, where the person is seeking companionship, and there’s always another excuse as to why [the criminal] needs more money, until you pretty much say, ‘There's something up with this.’”

That’s what happened to Tana Mundinger, a woman in Mustang, Oklahoma, who lost nearly $6,000 last year trying to surprise her husband with a puppy for Christmas after their adored dog Max died (listen to her full story on this episode of AARP’s The Perfect Scam podcast). She found an online ad for a cute puppy named Sally and reached out to the supposed owner, who requested a $300 deposit in the form of gift cards. Fair enough, but once she paid him, he told her she also needed to send $750 for pet insurance. Then $500 for doggy day care because the delivery had been delayed. Then $1,000 as a deposit toward a supposed quarantine requirement. And so on. When she refused to make another payment, he threatened to file a lawsuit against her for puppy abandonment. But she’d had enough. “My heart just absolutely sunk,” she says.

Pet scams may not be the most financially devastating brand of scam, but they are often among the more emotionally wrenching, says David Brown, 60, a staff attorney with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in Los Angeles and an AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline volunteer. Brown recently spoke with a family member whose loved one was too upset to talk after becoming the victim of a puppy scam, he says, “and I thought, How could scammers prey upon and victimize people when all they want to do is love a furry four-legged creature? ... Hearts are broken.”

RJ is still trying to recoup her investment and says she’d never again agree to use the “Sending to a friend” option when paying through PayPal; this option, as the name suggests, is for sending money to someone you trust, and therefore doesn’t offer the same level of purchase protection the company offers when transactions are for goods and services (find out more here). She filed a fraud report with her bank that was linked to her PayPal account, and says that PayPal has been helpful in reversing most of the payments she sent to the breeder and shipper.

How to avoid this scam

• Only buy or adopt a pet that you can meet in person.
  
• Don’t judge the trustworthiness of sellers by how authentic-looking their websites are. Scammers can easily mimic legitimate breeders’ sites.
• Beware of sellers who only want to communicate by email or text, never by phone, or want payment in the form of gift cards or other methods that make money retrieval difficult (credit cards offer more consumer protections in such cases).
• As with all scams: Slow down. Scammers will try to create a sense of urgency — “send money now or the puppy will go to someone else.” Take time to ask questions, investigate the seller and consider your options.

Find more advice on avoiding pet scams from AARP’s Fraud Resource Center.

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Reporting pet scams

File a report with your local police. The documentation may be of value if there is some means of recouping your loss.

File a report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which uses fraud reports to target its investigations; the more information officials have, the better they can identify patterns, link cases and ultimately catch the criminals. Contact the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.