buying a dog off the internet

My neice and her partner I heard after the fact other wise they would have been advised of the correct way to get a dog were getting a Chihuahua from a breeder in Cornwall?they somehow, found the breeder on the net, sooo turns out they had to pay £250 deposit then the breeder came back and said they had to Pay another few hundred for the shipping, then ANOTHER couple of hundred for the paperwork, bla bla bla so they ended up paying over £1,000 for the dog who they expected to be shipped out to them and arrive Monday morning, guess what NO DOG, the money has been taken by the "breeder" they paid through something called Western Union I beleive, and this is not protected. they contacted the breeder by phone initially, the breeder said if they have any worries they could contact the local authorities to check him out (they didnt) and now they cannot get the breeder to answer the phone ?AND THEY ARE SURPRISED? they went to CAB for advise non forthcoing, they went to the police who say they need more evidence and that they cannot trace the person because it was probably a pay as you go phone that has been gotten rid of now. they didnt see the dog for real, they never saw the parents, they just saw a pic on the internet and fell for it hook line and sinker, the bloody idiots. I said to them why the hell didnt you come to me I would have somehow found you a decent breeder their answer well we didnt think, yeah well they got that right arghhhhhh.

Mo

you can t believe some peopel are so gullible ,can you.

I thought Weston Union was a secure payment

Did they pay be credit card,,, maybe get in touch with them , their insurance may cover them.

Jezzz... and I know we keep saying it , but there is one born every minute..

I hope they get some result , but either way they have learnt a very hard lesson , and will (with luck) never repeat it

its a well known scam unfortunately and yet it still amazes me how many people fall for it. Yet it clearly goes to show that people still dont realise that they only way to buy a dog should be to visit and see both parents if possible.

Sorry to hear this.

That's a very expensive lesson learnt by your neice and her OH...hopefully one they won't forget in a hurry.

I think Trading Standards are usually more interested in cases like this than the police?

If the police really wanted to, I'm sure they could trace the people through the payment.

Oh dear.......I hope they get sorted...but its not sounding hopeful

This link might be of interest to them

http://www.thisiscornwall.co.uk/news...l/article.html

there's a phone number on the bottom to contact (though it does say BEFORE any money is parted with!)

HMmm free ad sites are full of ads like this, usually in badly written english and offering teacup dogs or monkeys, cant believe people fall for it but what a shame, i do feel sorry for them.

I agree trading standards are probably best.

Western Union aren't secure, they were on watchdog a wee while back when scammers used them for getting people's deposits for flats.

Oh dear! This has been happening big time in the Chi world for a year or two now. I thought everyone was aware of the scams. A lot of Chihuahua breeders put on their websites about being careful of scammers.

Just out of interest, I emailed an obvious scam (similar to the one your Niece answered) a year or so ago. I wanted to see how they got away with it. They are very clever indeed. However, whenever I hear about payment via Western Union or vaccs spoken about as "shots" and the "teacup" word (although a lot of breeders have adopted this term now ) alarm bells ring big time.

There are some really fab breeders about in the Chi world. It's such a shame your Niece got fooled this way.

I think I've seen an ad on E***z for Cornwall (a while back now) which looked like a scam. The pic of the Chi in the ad was so NOT eight weeks, more like four and I thought then I wonder if that's legit There's some real scumbags out there

I hope your Niece finds the Chi she deserves. That's if she has any money left to buy one

Thanks for the link about the scam I have sent it to her, and also told her about trading standards although I think now she may as well kiss the money goodbye, cant beleive they have done this, you expect it happening to people that have never been involved in dogs, but this is a girl who has grown up in a family ALL are dog savvy and aware of what to do, I guess she was never listening when the family has been sat around discussing the hazards of buying dogs

Mo