Valley sellers fall prey to puppy scams
Seller beware. We’ve all grown up hearing that as buyers we should look out for our own self interest.
Well, now it’s time to turn the tables because when we become the seller we may be setting ourselves up for the newest crop of scams.
In the past few days numerous area sellers report that con artists have set them up for scams.
The common link to all our victims is their attempt to sell items through classified advertising.
The puppy scam:
Local dog breeders advertising their puppies in local and Web based classified listings are contacted via e-mail by puppy-purchasers.
When the price has been agreed, the buyer e-mails the local seller and makes arrangements to send a cashier’s check via express delivery service. The buyer tells the seller that the check will be for several hundred dollars more than the agreed price so that a third-party pet shipping service can be paid for their services. The buyer gives instructions on how to have the seller’s bank wire the extra funds to a special account.
If this sounds like a new version of scams we talked about before, it is. This is the newest twist on our old friend the Nigerian/foreign check scam.
However, by targeting a group of sellers who may not have experience with the scheme, they increase the odds of success.