Scams target adoptors & humane societies

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From ANIMAL PEOPLE, October 2008:

 

 

 

Scams target adoptors & humane societies

 

MONROE, Louisiana--The Better Business Bureau of Northeast

Louisiana on November 2, 2008 issued a warning against e-mail and

classified ad scams offering puppies or " rescued " dogs for adoption,

if the recipient will pay transportation costs in advance.

The would-be dog adoptor may also be asked to fill out an

" adoption screening questionaire " which requests information that can

be used to access the victim's personal bank and credit card accounts.

Then, after the dog has supposedly been sent, the scammer

may report some sort of complication in transport, such as the dog

becoming ill or being detained by customs inspectors, which is said

to require additional payments and more personal information from the

would-be adoptor.

Many legitimate rescue organizations adopt out animals

through comparable arrangements--including many overseas

organizations that send dogs to the U.S. and Europe from parts of the

developing world known for e-mail scammers.

Avoiding getting scammed requires independently verifying all

claims of identity, including the prefixes of telephone numbers and

IP numbers in e-mail headers.

Some scammers use bogus contact information for legitimate

charities, operating from different nations that the charities they

pretend to be.

The Better Business Bureau alert was issued, wrote Matthew

Hamilton of the Monroe News-Star, after six Monroe residents

complained about a classified ad for two Yorkshire terrier puppies,

placed by a " Rev. Brown, " who claimed to be a missionary in Africa.

" We're due for more travel to some remote part of west africa, " the

purported missionary wrote, " and we cannot risk taking them along as

we know it will have adverse effect on them, health wise. "

Added Hamilton, " Swindlers can as easily run a scam buying

puppies as in giving them away. A West Monroe police officer ran an

ad in September to sell border collies. Via interpreter, she

communicated with a deaf woman in Seattle who agreed to buy the

puppies. The check for the puppies arrived from a bank in North

Carolina, postmarked from California, with instructions to wire

money to a third party in New York. The check was written for $1,900

more than agreed. "

The police officer " knew something wasn't right and canceled

the sale, " Hamilton wrote, " but the buyer asked her to cash the

check anyway and wire a fraction of the money to New York, " to

refund the overpayment.

In this type of scam, " If you deposit that check, it will

take a couple of weeks or a month to fully clear, " explained Amy

Lawson, president of the Monroe branch of the Better Business Bureau

of Northeast Louisiana. " Meanwhile the scammer cashes the money

order, " sent as the refund, " and disappears from contact. "

The victim loses the animals or merchandise sent in exchange

for the overpayment, the supposed refund, and all the associated

bank fees.

Lawson " considered the involvement of puppies in both scams a

coincidence, " Hamilton wrote, " but said swindlers do try to prey

upon a potential victim's emotions- whether for animals, noble

causes or the disabled. "

The overpayment scam is sometimes structured to hoax humane

societies into believing they have received an unexpected major

bequest, as sometimes actually happens. In March 2006 such a scam

clipped the Performing Animal Welfare Society, of Galt, California.

PAWS deposited a forged cashier's check for $95,000, and for five

days used the money to pay off debts, before the check bounced.

PAWS did not refund any money to the scammer, however, and promptly

warned other humane organizations to beware of similar frauds.

The Louisiana alert was issued just as a similar scheme

resurfaced, apparently originating in Thailand, in which a scammer

pretends to be a veterinarian who is going back to university,

relocating, or retiring, and offers to donate veterinary equipment

to a humane society that will cover the transportation. Working the

same way as the puppy adoption scam, but trying to collect larger

sums, this scam is almost as old as any humane presence on the

Internet.

Variations costing humane organizations thousands of dollars

during the past two years involve bogus online vendors of veterinary

supplies, promotional merchandise, and opportunities to boost web

traffic. These schemes are often promoted by personalized e-mails

sent directly to executive directors or shelter managers, sometimes

on the pretext of having met the recipient at a recent conference.

The scammers' web sites look like those of legitimate

companies, with apparently legitimate contact information, but the

street addresses typically do not exist, the telephone numbers go to

cell phones, and credit card payments go to processors located

outside the U.S. and/or the European Union.

The web sites themselves may disappear soon after an order is

placed and paid for--and sometimes turn out to have been posted

without authorization at inactive web addresses belonging to deceased

individuals or defunct businesses.

 

 

--

Merritt Clifton

Editor, ANIMAL PEOPLE

P.O. Box 960

Clinton, WA 98236

 

Telephone: 360-579-2505

Fax: 360-579-2575

E-mail: anmlpepl

Web: www.animalpeoplenews.org

 

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