Never mind the dog, beware of the dog-seller using puppy lures to unleash your cash
GRIEVING after having to put down her six-year-old Rottweiler Rolo because of bone cancer, Gemma Steel never imagined her efforts to buy a new puppy to help ease her son’s pain would see her fall victim to an online puppy scam.
And she is not alone, it appears, with similar reports emerging from other parts of the country.
For Steel, from Port Elizabeth, her experience began after she’d spent nearly two months feeding Rolo a combination of morphine and other medications to alleviate the pain as the dog continued to deteriorate. Then, in early July, she made the difficult decision to put him down.
Devastated, Steel visited the local animal shelter with her 12-year-old son, Cameron.
But she didn’t feel ready to purchase a new dog in person.
“I sat and cried in the car and told my son I’m not ready for another dog. But he was so hurt I thought it might make it better for us both, hence a quick website search.”
A few days later, she found an advert for Great Danes on the free online classified Junk Mail site.
Only after depositing R2 500 for a female Great Dane named Roxxy did Steel learn it was an online pet scam.
Steel believed she had arranged to have Roxxy shipped from Upington Airport to Port Elizabeth in late July. But the Great Dane never arrived.
Instead, the seller – who called herself Marie – asked for an additional deposit of R5 000 for a special crate to ship Roxxy via private courier.
“I refused to make the payment of R5 000 for the crate,” wrote Steel. “I phoned the courier person and I told him I don’t have the money to pay for the crate and his response was ‘the puppy will be taken to a shelter. Don’t phone me again’.” Steel also asked for her R2 500 back multiple times, but never got a refund.
When Independent Media called the same number, it went straight to voicemail.
Christine Snyman from Joburg suffered a similar fate when her search for Maltese puppies led her to a vendor selling 10-week-old dogs online at R2 000 each.
The seller, who called herself Miriam, claimed she was based in Upington, and said it would cost R1 000 to fly puppies Max and Suzy to Joburg.
Claire Cobbledick, head of marketing for the online classified site Gumtree, said the best indicator of a pet scam was if the seller did not allow a buyer to see the animals before purchasing them.
“They will usually respond to say they are based in a different province or country, and then offer to ship the pet once payment has been made,” Cobbledick said.
On Sunday, September 11, Snyman paid a R2 500 deposit to ship the two pups to Joburg.
The seller said the pups would be flown on the Monday, and Snyman eagerly waited for the seller to provide her with a tracking number.
But, after receiving no further updates, she started getting suspicious.
“My suspicions were confirmed when the lady said she was in (an) accident en route to (the) couriers, but the pups were at the courier.
“By that time I’d called all the couriers in Upington and the only courier that did transport pups to Joburg said they hadn’t received any pups.”
She was then given a contact number for the alleged courier, who later sent her an e-mail stating that “due to bad weather conditions the pups now needed a temperature regulated crate for a refundable deposit of R5 000”.
Snyman said she alerted the classified site, Junk Mail, to the scam, and would also lodge a complaint with the police.
To avoid online pet scams, Cobbledick said Gumtree strongly encouraged people to adopt animals from reputable shelters.