Online Puppy Sales
Sadly, as with so many other things now-a-days there are a lot of thieves wanting to steal your money when you try to purchase a puppy online. With the cost of buying a pure breed dog coupled with the convenience of sitting on your couch looking at cute puppies makes for easy prey for online thieves.
I was even, almost, caught in one of these scams. I thought I would put down what I did and help someone else steer away from having their hard-earned money taken from them.
After losing one of our beloved Greyhounds, and after the grief had worn down, I started thinking of getting a puppy. After a few weeks of investigating different breeds we had settled onto the idea of getting a Border Collie. There were several reasons for this decision, but the main one was that I needed a dog that could do service work for me and one that could help keep me active. With the decision being made we started looking.
Starting with sites like the AKC I was dumbfounded at some of the prices. The local breeders looked more within our budget and we were not looking to show or very interested in breeding, so we were getting warmer. Then we fell upon a few sites that had gorgeous puppies and all the sites showed that the puppies were ready to be shipped if the prospect meet-up with the breeders’ guidelines. WOW! Not only would I not have to leave my house, but the price was awesome!
Well, we help off for a few weeks, still doing a pro-con list. I would check this site every few days, and to my hearts relief the puppy was still available. However, I noticed something that really bugged me. The age of the puppy (8 weeks old) never changed. As a IT/Web guy that really annoyed me and as a Prospective new puppy owner I began to think, well how old is this puppy really.
A few more weeks went by, puppy still available… and still 8 weeks old. Well, maybe this breeder wasn’t much for going into their site and updating the age, right?
The day cam when we were going to inquire into buying the puppy. Site was well laid out and was easy to send information to the webmaster/breeder. I sent that I was interested and filled out the questionnaire. I also checked the email and the “whois” information of the site and both were from Arizona (if I remember correctly). I also asked them for some current photos and videos of the puppy.
Within minutes I received a reply from the site, they were happy to let me know that I met the requirements for the pup and gave me information on sending money in. They also had sent some grainy videos of the puppy.
With the quickness of the reply questions really started to pop into what’s left of my brain. The part of my brain that had already fallen in love with this animal just told me that the breeder just happened to be at the computer when I sent in the request. The Logical side said that this was an automated message.
I fired off another email to the address listed on the reply I had received and simply asked a few questions.
• How old is the puppy.
• What is the puppy’s birthday.
• Please send me the puppys parents names and AKC numbers
• And finally, a picture of the puppy with a current newspaper where I can see the date.
Also, I took the pictures that were sent to me and looked at their metadata. A lot of time you will see where the picture was taken and the time the picture was taken. For my photos it didn’t list the location, but it did list the date, and it was way off! According to the date this puppy should be over a year old already.
I never got a reply from the site after this, and a week later the site was gone. I was able to file a complaint with the hosting company about the site.
I really need to put this down before I go into “Buy a puppy online guide”. If you can always get your puppy from a breeder that you can go visit. The breeder can help you pick what puppy would be best for your home. This is something you simply can not do through the internet.
If you are going to buy a puppy online continually question yourself. Too good to be true? Do not be scared to ask questions and ask for proof. Any good breeder will be more than happy to satisfy your quarks. It shows them that you really are interested in one of their puppies.
Most scammers use your heart stings to get into your wallet. Best way, cute pictures! Be wary of the pictures. Check the images and see if the dates of the image fits in with how old the puppy is supposed to be.
• Download the picture
• Right click on the downloaded image. Select properties, then details.
Or in Chrome • Although you can access an image’s properties straight from the browser on Windows Explorer, if you are a Chrome user, you may find that the same process does not apply. The best you can do is control + click > Inspect. This may give you more than what you want and not the correct information, since you will be viewing code. • To view the properties of the photo, you’ll have to download an extension. We chose the View Image Info extension. Navigate to the Google Chrome web store. Search for “view image info” and you’ll see a few image options. View Image Info does not have a thumbnail. It is free to add. Restart your browser. • Now, control + click > View Image Info. Go ahead and select that option and a new screen will appear with the picture’s metadata. Check the prices of the same breeds from different sites. This should give you a baseline in which to base what may or may not be legitimate. Our low price was about 800.00 for an 8-week puppy and went up from there. The site I found was selling at around 500 to 600.
Use a service like PayPal to exchange money! Services like this may be able to refund, at least, some of your money if this turns out to be a rip-off. If you see a fake seller post it everywhere, with your reason(s) for it being a fake site. Dog communities are very tight, and most of them hate thieves!
Sadly, as with so many other things now-a-days there are a lot of thieves wanting to steal your money when you try to purchase a puppy online. With the cost of buying a pure breed dog coupled with the convenience of sitting on your couch looking at cute puppies makes for easy prey for online thieves.
I was even, almost, caught in one of these scams. I thought I would put down what I did and help someone else steer away from having their hard-earned money taken from them.
After losing one of our beloved Greyhounds, and after the grief had worn down, I started thinking of getting a puppy. After a few weeks of investigating different breeds we had settled onto the idea of getting a Border Collie. There were several reasons for this decision, but the main one was that I needed a dog that could do service work for me and one that could help keep me active. With the decision being made we started looking.
Starting with sites like the AKC I was dumbfounded at some of the prices. The local breeders looked more within our budget and we were not looking to show or very interested in breeding, so we were getting warmer. Then we fell upon a few sites that had gorgeous puppies and all the sites showed that the puppies were ready to be shipped if the prospect meet-up with the breeders’ guidelines. WOW! Not only would I not have to leave my house, but the price was awesome!
Well, we help off for a few weeks, still doing a pro-con list. I would check this site every few days, and to my hearts relief the puppy was still available. However, I noticed something that really bugged me. The age of the puppy (8 weeks old) never changed. As a IT/Web guy that really annoyed me and as a Prospective new puppy owner I began to think, well how old is this puppy really.
A few more weeks went by, puppy still available… and still 8 weeks old. Well, maybe this breeder wasn’t much for going into their site and updating the age, right?
The day cam when we were going to inquire into buying the puppy. Site was well laid out and was easy to send information to the webmaster/breeder. I sent that I was interested and filled out the questionnaire. I also checked the email and the “whois” information of the site and both were from Arizona (if I remember correctly). I also asked them for some current photos and videos of the puppy.
Within minutes I received a reply from the site, they were happy to let me know that I met the requirements for the pup and gave me information on sending money in. They also had sent some grainy videos of the puppy.
With the quickness of the reply questions really started to pop into what’s left of my brain. The part of my brain that had already fallen in love with this animal just told me that the breeder just happened to be at the computer when I sent in the request. The Logical side said that this was an automated message.
I fired off another email to the address listed on the reply I had received and simply asked a few questions.
• How old is the puppy.
• What is the puppy’s birthday.
• Please send me the puppys parents names and AKC numbers
• And finally, a picture of the puppy with a current newspaper where I can see the date.
Also, I took the pictures that were sent to me and looked at their metadata. A lot of time you will see where the picture was taken and the time the picture was taken. For my photos it didn’t list the location, but it did list the date, and it was way off! According to the date this puppy should be over a year old already.
I never got a reply from the site after this, and a week later the site was gone. I was able to file a complaint with the hosting company about the site.
I really need to put this down before I go into “Buy a puppy online guide”. If you can always get your puppy from a breeder that you can go visit. The breeder can help you pick what puppy would be best for your home. This is something you simply can not do through the internet.
If you are going to buy a puppy online continually question yourself. Too good to be true? Do not be scared to ask questions and ask for proof. Any good breeder will be more than happy to satisfy your quarks. It shows them that you really are interested in one of their puppies.
Most scammers use your heart stings to get into your wallet. Best way, cute pictures! Be wary of the pictures. Check the images and see if the dates of the image fits in with how old the puppy is supposed to be.
• Download the picture
• Right click on the downloaded image. Select properties, then details.
Or in Chrome • Although you can access an image’s properties straight from the browser on Windows Explorer, if you are a Chrome user, you may find that the same process does not apply. The best you can do is control + click > Inspect. This may give you more than what you want and not the correct information, since you will be viewing code. • To view the properties of the photo, you’ll have to download an extension. We chose the View Image Info extension. Navigate to the Google Chrome web store. Search for “view image info” and you’ll see a few image options. View Image Info does not have a thumbnail. It is free to add. Restart your browser. • Now, control + click > View Image Info. Go ahead and select that option and a new screen will appear with the picture’s metadata. Check the prices of the same breeds from different sites. This should give you a baseline in which to base what may or may not be legitimate. Our low price was about 800.00 for an 8-week puppy and went up from there. The site I found was selling at around 500 to 600.
Use a service like PayPal to exchange money! Services like this may be able to refund, at least, some of your money if this turns out to be a rip-off. If you see a fake seller post it everywhere, with your reason(s) for it being a fake site. Dog communities are very tight, and most of them hate thieves!
