Need to know
- Losses from pet scams in Australia have increased by more than 1000% over the last two years
- Experts say the surge in demand for pets brought on by the pandemic has led to easy pickings for scammers
- Buyers and breeders alike have suffered from the proliferation of fraud, but have found ways to avoid and disrupt the scammers
Ben (surname withheld) and his family had just been at a pet shop buying toys for a toy poodle they had ordered online when he received a suspicious message.
It was his first clue that they had just lost $2500 to a puppy scam.
“We were all in the car when it happened. My eight-year old son was distraught and cried. The website did look very professional … but the minute I saw that email from a Gmail address, it was kind of obvious to me.”
It was the sort of email that has become a hallmark of the burgeoning pet scam industry: a request for more money to cover ‘unforeseen’ costs that comes after aspiring owners have already paid all they had expected to for an animal.
Ben paid $2500 to the operator of this site for a dog that never arrived. Source: Petscams.com.
For Ben, a teacher on the NSW Central Coast,…
