Pet-sale scams on the rise in Connecticut
As Liana Henderson-Semel tapped the button to send a $300 down payment over Apply Pay for a French Bulldog puppy to a woman she’d never met, the 23year-old realized that she was never going to see her money— or the puppy— ever again.
Henderson-Semel, who lives in Fairfield County, had been looking to buy a puppy this past fall when she came across a Craigslist ad that included an Instagram handle. The account had photos of cute French Bulldog puppies for sale.
Henderson-Semel contacted the “breeder,” and connected with a woman who told her the puppies required a down payment of $300 and a total payment of $900— significantly cheaper than a normal French Bulldog which costs between $1,500 and $3,000. She also told Henderson-Semel she could come pick up her puppy on Oct. 2. All she had to do was send a down payment through Facebook or Apple Pay.
But as soon as the money was sent, the messages stopped.
“Looking back you see all those red flags you ignored in the first place,” Henderson-Semel said. “They really get you with the emotions. I think, certainly, some red flags I overlooked sort of in the excitement of it all.”
Henderson-Semel is not the only one to fall victim to a pet scam in the state. In fact, experts have noted a significant increase in online pet scams since 2017, with victims paying top dollar for designer dogs, kittens, and even parrots that never materialize. In the past three years, an estimated 8,632 pet scams were reported in the U.S. and Canada, with a monetary loss around $5.28 million, according to the Better Business Bureau.
Last year, at the start of the pandemic, it got even worse. People were lonely, stuck at home, and looking for love and connection. Some figured lockdown was a great time to buy and train a new dog. Shelters were emptied, breeders were in high demand. And pet scammers took their opportunity to prey on unsuspecting victims online.
In a December report, the Better Business Bureau projected more than $3.1 million in losses, and logged 4,000 reports of pet scams in 2020.
“There was a huge explosion in puppy scams last year,” said Steve Baker, international investigations specialist at the Better Business Bureau. “So there’s, as you could imagine, a massive problem.”
Connecticut’s pet scam problem
Hearst Connecticut Media found at least 77 pet scams throughout Connecticut between 2020 and 2021, the vast majority relating to puppies. At least nine others were reported between 2018 and 2019.
“Puppy scams are extremely popular in Connecticut,” said Luke Frey, media spokesperson for the Better Business Bureau serving Connecticut. “I would say they’re one of the top two that come across the state.”
At least three pet scam cases were reported in Danbury, and one in New Milford. Five were reported in Waterbury, four in Avon, and three in New Haven and Stamford.
The total losses to these scams were calculated to be more than $57,000, which Frey said probably only represents about 10 percent of the total losses in the state.
The average amount lost was $600, but that estimate includes several reports where victims caught the scam before paying the scammers.
The highest monetary loss was a Bridgeport victim who paid $3,250 for a 12-week-old Yorkshire terrier named Monica. The report to the bureau said costs included alleged puppy vaccines, insurance, transport, and the puppy herself. The victim reported that they paid through Zelle.
Beyond the monetary impact, pet and puppy scams are particularly painful because they involve an emotional aspect that isn’t always connected to other online scams.
“It’s a real emotional wallop,” said Baker.
Baker heard from a victim whose 9-year-old daughter cried herself to sleep for days after learning their puppy never existed.
The monetary impact adds to the emotional loss.
Esther Ehrman, a teacher living in Danbury, lost $750 to a scam for a Maine Coon kitten she planned to name Kyle. She said the loss of the kitten made her “very distraught” and was a “huge distress” monetarily.
“I mean, gosh, we’re in the middle of a pandemic, I’m a school teacher, my husband was laid off, my mother lives with us and she was laid off, I’m the sole financial provider for my home,” she said.
One New Milford victim lost $500 trying to buy a Great Dane puppy online from Super Great Dane Puppies.
“I’ve lost $500 deposit of my hard work money that was supposed to be my children XMAS present and now I don’t have anymore,” the victim wrote in the report to the bureau.
The makings of a pet scam
Pet scams aren’t very complicated. Typically, there is a network of scammers and developers who work together to carry out the crime. Someone is paid to create a website, others create and register phone numbers to make the site look legitimate. Another person runs the scam. When a victim reaches out, scammers usually ask for some sort of down payment, and possibly transportation costs, then communication cuts off.
There are often tell-tale signs like language lifted from other sites, photos copied from elsewhere, and payment through wire transfers and other cash-sending apps like Zelle and CashApp.
But sometimes even the most careful shopper and scam-proof tactics fail.
When Ehrman decided to look for a new kitten online during the pandemic, she knew to be wary of scams. She came across Maine Coon Paws and thoroughly researched its background, even checking the Better Business Bureau, doing a reverse-image search, and connecting personally with the breeder before deciding to move forward with payment. She paid $750 through Zelle to the breeder, but when they began asking for even more money for “shipping costs,” she realized something was wrong.
“It was just scary,” said Ehrman. “I thought I had done all my due diligence and I still got taken advantage of.”
The scammers are generally hard for law enforcement to track. While some occur in the U.S., the bureau and other legal agencies have also tracked the majority to countries outside of the U.S.
“It’s hard to track down these guys because usually they aren’t even in our country,” Frey said. “We haven’t in particular seen any operation out of Connecticut.”
Baker’s research leads him to believe many of the scams come from organized crime groups centered out of West Africa, and specifically Cameroon.
Seeking and finding scammers
Scammers are adept at changing tactics to continue stealing from victims without detection.
“I’m very wary about giving out advice,” said Paul Brady, founder of PetScams.com, a website that investigates and publishes information on sites running known pet scams. Once Brady speaks to media outlets about specific tactics, he said the scammers change their ways and adapt.
“It’s an arms race. Whatever we say, they will work around.”
Brady began working in the Cybersecurity space over 20 years ago, and then pivoted to focusing on pet scams because they were relatively formulaic.
But the industry has changed significantly in the years Brady has been working in this area. Five years ago, Brady noticed operations really ramping up, with scammers making more professional websites, implementing the scams on a more industrial scale by spending less time on individual victims and more on the number of victims.
When the pandemic hit, experts noticed pet scams exploding. Brady noted a 700 percent increase in visitors to his site in March of 2020. Frey called it a “puppy boom.” And Baker’s research projects that at the current pace, the bureau will receive 4,300 complaints, suggesting that pet scams have quintupled since 2017, which was the first year the bureau conducted an in-depth study of the issue.
“People don’t visit our site by accident,” Brady said.
Now, PetScams.com has about 200,000 visitors per day with about 40 comments from people.
“The huge step, and it’s well documented, was this time last year when people started to feel emotional because of loneliness. Now, because of COVID, people were feeling lonely. That’s a very strong emotion,” Brady said. “Scams work on emotion.”
Recently, Brady was combing through the websites registered within the past seven day period, and had already found 130 new sites.
“Tomorrow, I’ll find another 100, 130, 150,” he said. The work is non-stop.
The main advice from experts is the same: go see the dog in person. At the very least, it’s important to have an authentic video chat with your new puppy.
“Our advice now is have a face-to-face video chat with the breeder. Make sure that you are introduced to the puppy and the breeder,” Brady said. “It has to be a video chat.”
Frey recommends doing thorough research and verifying a breeder on the bureau’s website before purchasing a puppy. Frey also urged people to report scams to the bureau.
Ehrman plans to look for another kitten to join her brood of cats back at home, but said this time she’s going to go to a local shelter where she can meet the cat in person and talk to the people there.
“I think I learned my lesson.”