puppy scam

Local woman becomes victim after posting Craigslist ad:

This one is really weird. A woman in Charlotte, NC placed an ad on craigslist to rent her house. This one doesn’t go where you think it might. She wasn’t targeted by Nigerians. Instead a woman showed up at her house claiming she had sent the woman $500 for a puppy. It seems that someone used the woman’s address that they got from the craigslist ad in the puppy scam.

Now for those of you in the Charlotte area WCNC has taken this scam straight to the CEO of craigslist and they’ll have his answer tomorrow night during the 6pm broadcast.

There’s also going to be someone else on that broadcast…

Tuesday night on NewsChannel 36 at 6, hear from a local man who says this type of thing happens all too often. So much so, he’s started his own website devoted to Craiglist related crime.

I really can’t wait to see that guy.

Have you ever heard of the Cameroon puppy scam? It’s like the Nigerian 419 scam but the scammers are usually advertising pure bred puppies for sale and sometimes free, with a massive shipping fee. They ask you to wire the money to Cameroon and then of course you don’t get the puppy because there was no puppy to begin with.

It seems that the Cameroon..ians? Cammeroonites? Kirk Cammerons? Anyway the scammers from Cameroon have graduated from puppies to babies.

Reader and anti-scam advocate Trish found the following ads on Hallo London, a free classified site in London, England.

A BOY AND A BABY GIRL FOR ADOPTION IN NYC

I have a boy and a baby girl for adoption.please help me I have no means to take care of these children.I want to give out these my two babies for adoption.I want them to go to good and loving homes as soon as possible.I can not afford to take care of them.Any body who is interested in adopting them should kindly help me as soon as possible. details,contact

Thank you

And that ad lists a cell phone number in Cameroon.

LOVELY CHILDREN SEEKING A NEW HOME

We like to tell you that if you are looking to get a child we have some that we want to give out to any families that are interested in get a child if you one of those then get back to us.

That sounds just like one of the puppy ads except with the word child instead of puppy.

Trish requested that Hallo London take down the ads since they are obvious scams but received no response.

First off I’m disgusted by these particular adoption scams because they are preying on people who can’t have children of their own. Secondly I was adopted so I take offense to anything that gives adoption another black eye such as these scams. Adoption processes already have enough headaches without having to worry about scammers. Lastly anybody who is going through a craigslist knock off to find a child to adopt is obviously looking in the wrong place.

‘Puppies R Dead’ :

In Novia Scotia Gail Benoit is being investigated by the SPCA for selling dying puppies to people through the website Kijiji.

Benoit was already facing animal cruelty charges from another incident.

In the most recent incident Benoit is accused of selling dying puppies out of a van that says “Puppies R Us”. Because as we all know all reputable sales come out of a van.

Benoit claims she is going to reimburse the people whose puppies died within days after the sales but she’s waiting to be reimbursed from the ‘breeder’ who sold her the bad puppies.

Don’t hold your breath waiting for your money people.