Puppy Scams
	Internet scammers are luring puppy buyers with cute pictures and empty promises. Scammers will take you on a emotional and a costly financial ride. Many organizations and puppies for sale on line report an increasing number of complaints concerning online pet sales, including the American Kennel Club, the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Humane Society of the United States and the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3. Over the past year, the Internet Crime Complaint Center has received nearly 700 complaints, mostly coming from people contacted by fraudsters, answering the victims ads for pet sales or people who answered fraudsters ads themselves. Don't buy sight unseen. Check out referrals, see the puppy in person. don't pay via wire transfer, don't buy or sell from a overseas agent. There are three main types of pet scams: an overpayment scheme, a Nigerian pet scam and a sale that provides you with an ill, dying puppy or no puppy at all. Because the scammers frequently operate from overseas, it's often impossible for victims to recoup their money or take legal action. It maybe true in the United States, California, Florida and Louisiana are hot spots but we have been contacted in Connecticut over 50 times and have reported them to the FBI and the web site customer care for violating terms of use.
	Overpayment pet scam How it works: An animal owner publishes an online ad offering a pet for sale. The fraudster contacts this person, negotiates a price and sends payment for the animal in the form of a cashier's check. The trick is that the check is for an amount much larger than the agreed upon price of the pet. The scammer then asks the potential victim to return the overpayment, usually through wire transfer, back to the fraudster or a third party. The victim after deposits the check or bank money order, in 2-3 weeks you learn the funds are counterfeit and you lose the money you were supposed to get for the dog, plus any funds wired to the scammer. If send any money you won't get your funds back. Sure fire way to tell you are being scammed. Terrible spelling (they can't spell), they will ask you last condition of puppy (you are only selling healthy puppies), last asking price for the puppy (price is not negotiable), they are on a business trip and will have a third party or agent pick up the puppy so don't worry (worry a stranger at you door), they will be paying by certified bank check (made that day on their printer, it's not a good check) for more than the cost of the puppy, Oh yeah, can you send the extra funds to them (like you have extra cash to send to strangers), They will ask you for your bank routing and account numbers so they can wire the money to you directly to your bank (they will clean every last penny out of you account and you will be put on their sucker list). More scammers will contact you.
	Nigerian pet scam How it works: Scammers run online classified ads on any free classified web site or create breeder Web sites offering purebred puppies, Chihuahuas, English bulldogs,Yorkshire terriers are at a discounted price (too good to be true). The story varies, just a good buy today, your lucky day, a missionary for puppy causes needs to find the puppy a home, terrible weather, the animal was rescued from a natural disaster. You are then asked to pay for the dog fees,  shipment, payment, inoculations and other miscellaneous fees. The victims wire money for the dogs but only get excuses for the delay (they are not sending you a puppy). Instead, they ask for more money to cover additional "fees" invented by them (you are still not getting a puppy).  Once you wire the money, it's gone.
	The bait and switch How it works: Scammers are selling purebreds, "designer dogs," mutts and even made-up breeds through online classified ads and breeder Web sites. Often what people get are different dogs than the ones requested or puppies that are sickly. Mostly they don't get anything.   People searching online for a dog they want find a Web site or ad offering puppies for sale and send e-mails or call the breeders requesting ones they want. It's common for the scammers to send you photos of the puppies they're shipping to you, but the pictures may not be the dogs you actually receive. Sending you a photograph doesn't mean they have that puppy, It's just a picture of a puppy Scammers count on people not wanting to send puppies back, even if they are different from the ones they ordered. Who is going to send a puppy back? The animal you receive might be from a puppy mill, a factory-like place that produces large numbers of puppies in cramped, unsavory conditions for sheer profit. These puppies can come with severe health and behavioral problems. And that's if you actually receive the dog. Joy Ringer of West Hartford, Connecticut was looking for an Chihuahua puppy when she found a Web site offering several puppies and wired $2,000 through Western Union to Miami to pay for the dog of her dreams. and its shipment. She was then asked her to pay another $500 for a DNA test that the airport supposedly required (airport do not DNA test animals for shipping). She sent the money and never got the puppy of her dreams or her money back. She contacted authorities, the FBI and even Western Union about the scam with no luck. "We didn't get our puppy and lost all our money," she said. joy says the seller had a normal looking Web site, claimed they had been in the business for 11 years and said the puppies were AKC,CKC dual registered. As it turns out AKC and CKC had never heard of the seller.
Where to report a scam: FBI, Internet Crime Complaint Center , Better Business Bureau, American Kennel Club, Continental Kennel Club or the web site hosting the fraudlent ad.
How to buy a puppy : Using the Web to find a local breeder is OK, but I recommend physically going to visit the puppy and seeing its living conditions before making a purchase. (You should never buy a dog, puppy, cat, ferret  etc. over the internet sight unseen)Reputable breeders will always require that personal meeting, they are going to want to meet you and have you come and see the puppy. (we turn people away who try to purchase a puppy and should not have children yet alone buy one of our puppies)
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