BEWARE OF THE PUPPY SCAMMERS
Australians desperate for a furry friend are losing millions to online cons
Marguerite Caskie suspected she’d been scammed when the cavoodle she’d paid a $500 deposit for didn’t turn up. “The breeder said she’d bring him to my house. I paid her $100 in petrol money but five hours later she still hadn’t arrived. I didn’t want it to be true but I knew it was,” Marguerite from Wagga Wagga, NSW, tells Woman’s Day.
Marguerite was hoping to surprise her 15-year old daughter Abbey with a much-longed-for pup but her plan went awry when she was conned by an online ad.
“I asked lots of questions and the seller sounded professional,” says Marguerite. “She had a breeder number on her advert, but I didn’t know then that I should have checked it.” Student Taelum Slijderink never imagined she’d be the type of person who would fall for an online scam either. But earlier this year, the 23-year-old was stung for $18,000 by a sophisticated con that promised to transfer a pup to her via courier.
“I wanted a companion dog,” she explains. “I found a bulldog online and I had no reason to be suspicious. The owner said she was terminally ill and wanted to rehome the dog.
“She sent videos and pictures from her home in Geraldton. I was going to drive and get him but she suggested it would be easier to use a transport company.”
SOMETHING’S WRONG
Things went drastically wrong for Perth-based Taelum as the supposed transport company started asking for more and more money to pay for crates and vaccines, insurance and pet passports.
“I had their bank details so I thought they could be easily traced and they kept explaining that most of the money would be refunded so I wasn’t worried initially,” says Taelum. “Then I had to borrow money from my dad and he was the one who saw I’d been scammed.
“I was a wreck for the first few days. I’m a cancer survivor and that money was for any future medical emergencies.”
It didn’t help that people kept asking Taelum how she could be so stupid.
“I did the checks,” she says. “I’m paranoid about stuff so I didn’t think this would happen to me.”
NABBING SCAMMERS
But Taelum and Marguerite aren’t alone. In 2020 Australians lost more than $1.6 million to puppy scams.
In April 2021, Scamwatch reported a big spike, with $30,000 lost in a single week as criminals took advantage of people desperate for a furry companion during COVID lockdowns.
Border closures and travel restrictions have only made things easier for scammers as they limit people’s ability to meet their potential pups in person.
“We are seeing four or five scams reported to our Facebook page every day,” says Sandy Trujillo, who set up the Puppy Scam Awareness Australia Group in August 2020 after being scammed and finding little support or advice.
“We have 12,000 members now. It shows the extent of the problem,” she says.
Meanwhile, police are attempting to clamp down on scammers. In March, a 26-year old Albury man was charged over an alleged $16,000 puppy scam. He was arrested after residents in NSW, Victoria and South Australia sent the alleged offender money to secure a pedigree pooch that never arrived.
In another case, which led to the May arrest of a Sydney man, police found an international crime syndicate was behind a scam that collected more than $90,000 in deposits from 23 buyers.
“The scammers are not necessarily overseas,” says Sandy. “They’re here in Australia. They’re creating websites with com.au, which means they have access to an ABN.”
Scammers post fake ads on websites, in newspapers or on social media platforms and often steal photos of real puppies from breeders. Marguerite got in touch with the police as soon as she suspected she’d fallen victim to a scam. “I was able to give them a lot of information – phone numbers and two bank accounts and they said they could help me get my money back.”
Incredibly, the $500 was back in her account within the week and while the $100 is yet to be recovered, Marguerite and Abbey’s story has a doubly happy ending.
“I discovered the ad I’d been scammed with had been stolen from a real breeder,” says Marguerite.
“I turned detective and contacted her and she had real cavoodles to sell.”
Unfortunately, Taelum never recouped the money she lost, but finding French bulldog Chico through a reputable breeder has helped ease some of her pain.
“He’s been my saviour in all this,” she smiles, hugging her new furry friend.
‘The ad I’d been scammed with was stolen from a breeder’