Scamming or cheating is a very much common and unpleasant affair that everyone of us has to deal with in our daily lives. And scammers are all around us since the dawn of earlier small to large businesses and these kinds of fraudulent activities are increasing enormously as the online marketplace flourishes over the time. In this age of totally automated internet systems, scamming improvised into more dangerous identities. Moreover, it is very unfortunate that the scammers have started such frauding in online pet supplies too.
Research shows that almost 60% of the population all over the globe are having some kinds of pets and pets have become an integral part of human lives. So, as much as the people have started dealing online marketplaces, the pet scammers get a new platform to cheat people. These scammers are so desperate that they doesn’t spare those innocent little lives with their torture and cruelty upon them in order to make more profit from minimal investment.
According to the Better Business Bureau’s estimation, 80% online advertising pet sellers are not legally registered and not even genuine as most of them use fake identities of the offline pet sellers about which the real legitimate sellers are totally unaware. Additionally, such conmans target some particular areas or might be some certain pet owners and steal their pets. Furthermore, when the owners eagerly start searching for their lost pet or tend to buy another one in order to fill up their lost pets’ place, these con artists approach them in such a tricky way and sell their own pet to them!! And by the time the owners figure the fact out, the scammers are gone out of reach.
There are several distinctive modes of scamming people over pet trading. Though, most of the time dogs or puppies are usually being subjected to fraud, other animals like cats, birds or any other exotic animals can also be involved in the scamming. Online marketplace pet scammers open fake websites for their illegal business advertisement that are unknown to the buyers. They upload adorable copied pictures and features of different pet animals. Buyers search for online pet selling websites and go through those sites and lure by the lovely sights of the cute animals along with their heart-melting stories and finally those animals’ need of caring parents and homes. Moreover, the scammers play mind games with the buyer by announcing pretty fair discounts on popular breed animals for short periods. As a result the seekers of exotic breed animals pay in advance in order to book their desired animals and finally get cheated by those unauthorized fraud sellers.
Such kinds of pet scamming have been spiked up more during this present period of global pandemic situation. As people tend to ease their monotonous quarantines and show interest in buying pets in order to make their dull lives a bit happening, broad chances of cheating people have opened up in front of the pet scammers. According to BBB report, from mid 2019 to the running year 2020, more than 70% online pet buyers are subjected to be cheated. Most of the time, the buyers lose their money and no animal is handed over to them. Sometimes these scammers produce advertisements by saying ‘free adoption’ if exotic animals for those who want to cover the shipping cost of pet transportation. If anyone responds to them, they immediately trap him or her by their tricky conversation and make the buyer pay as soon as possible. To gain the buyers confidence they would provide some fake pet shippers’ websites. After the payment is done, their fake sites also vanish like mirage! So, if you are also planning to bring a new four legged or feathery or scaly member to home, it is recommended to discuss with your local reputable authorized pet breeder, shelter or pet rescue houses.
Red Signals
- Ask the seller to provide multiple photos of the pet with current specific items like news paper, balls etc. If they sent you copied pictures, beware immediately.
- If the specific popular breeds of animals are too cheap than average market rates.
- Avoid dealing with such sellers that ask you to pay money to another country.
- If the seller can’t give you proper breeding registration information and breeding verification, do not hesitate to call cops.
- Avoid breeders or sellers if they are not from your particular country.
- Ask information about the vet center and the doctor’s details where the pet has taken for check up. And ask them to give the doctor’s phone number; if it is not your native country’s phone number, do not contact them.
