Pet Shipping Scams

The purebred puppy of your dreams is free to a good home -- and all you pay is the shipping cost. Your lost cat, allegedly a stowaway in a moving truck, has surfaced in some faraway place, and a good Samaritan wants to send it home -- if you pay the fare. The animal en route to you from Nigeria or Cameroon has been detained in another country, where officials are demanding a payment of $500 or it will be killed. These scenarios and more are well-worn scams targeting softhearted animal lovers.

  1. To Good to Be True?

    • "When it comes to our pets, it̵7;s hard not to think with our hearts," says the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, and this is why animal-lovers often make easy prey for con artists. Nicole, an Ohio woman seeking a Yorkshire terrier, shared her scam story with the ASPCA. After sending out numerous feelers by email, Nicole was contacted by "Tiffany" in Georgia, who claimed to have three Yorkies to give away. To get one, Nicole needed only to send $150 via MoneyGram to cover shipping, which she did. But when she was asked for an additional $420 to pay for a new shipping crate, Nicole smelled a rat. Luckier than many, she acted fast enough to get her $150 refunded from MoneyGram.

    The African Connection

    • Nigeria has the dubious distinction of being a pioneer of Internet fraud of all kinds, including animal-shipping scams. According to the International Business Times, 51 percent of cyber crimes worldwide originate in that west African country, although Russia and Brazil are up-and-coming stars. Since the Nigerian government hasn't acted to shut down Internet fraud, private businesses in that country, with the help of such Internet giants as Google and Microsoft, are taking matters into their own hands. The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon also warns of a "dramatic increase" in scams targeting foreigners, some simple but others elaborate, involving the adoption of pets, including parrots, dogs and monkeys. The dogs most often mentioned in these scams are Yorkies and bulldogs.

    Be Suspicious If...

    • Suspect offshore scammers if you detect evidence of a weak command of English in emails, on a "business" website or on the phone -- and be particularly suspicious if someone won't to speak to you on the phone at all. Fraudsters often overplay their hands by claiming to be in God's service as missionaries, priests or nuns. Anyone in possession of pedigree dogs should have documents proving parentage to show prospective owners. And, according to the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association, if someone asks you for $250 to $350 to cover international shipping, you know right away they're lying because it costs a lot more than that.

    Protect Yourself

    • On its website, IPATA features what it hopes is an up-to-date list of websites and email addresses of all known pet-shipping scammers, but the organization admits that too many variations of these ever-evolving schemes exist to cover all the bases. The U.S. Embassy in Cameroon "strongly cautions" Americans against sending money to anyone they don't know outside the country "for goods or services not yet performed or delivered." The Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota says victims of these stings are often surprised to find out how expensive purebred dogs really are, pointing out that people who own such valuable animals aren't likely to give them away free.