by AquaFin
Fri Jan 31, 2014 9:19 pm
Recently I found an ad on Craiglist listing a 13 month old pug puppy named Hal. I had fell in love at first sight with this dog, and I contacted the owner of the ad immediately. Upon talking with this owner, I discovered she lived across the country from me and I was beginning to doubt that I would be able to get the dog. When the option came up for her to be able to send him to me via airplane, she jumped at the chance, and requested of me to wire transfer her 250$ via Western Union Bank. Of course I wired the money to her, but something was a little off. The person I had wire transferred the money to had a different name of the owner of the dog. I blew it off, because I was excited to get a new puppy. The next day, the woman emails me saying there was a problem at the agency where she dropped off the dog. Since it's been so cold in my area as of late, they needed me to rent a special carrier to be able to send the dog in. Global Animal Transport sent me a shady looking email saying I needed to pay an additional 375$ to rent a crate to send it in. I didn't trust the email, because I had called the phone numbers that were located on the email that was sent to me and there was no answer, it just went straight to voicemail.
I then called the airport that the dog was supposed to be sent out of and they said they had nothing to do with those sort of things and that it was a major red flag. They referred me to the Attorney General. Before I contacted the Attorney General, I looked up Global Animal Transport's website and found it looked nothing alike the email I had received. I contacted the owner of the company and found out that it was a small family business that handled all sorts of things, from shipping zoo and aquarium animals to household pets too. The owner of Global Animal Transport was very nice and told me to post on Scamwarners.com, and that she had received calls of that nature all the time.
It takes awhile to fix an issue such as this, especially if you have given out your private information. Because of this, I am at risk of other scammers, because my information could be sold out to just about anyone. I got my case with the Attorney General, and I notified the Federal Commission Trade of this. To avoid scams such as this, do your research first. Ever since I found out about this scam, the hard way, I've found various websites telling me about this exact same thing. Never wire transfer anyone you do not know. Especially to a place called Cameroon. It is a city in Africa, and usually used in scams such as these. If you have any additional questions about my experience, feel free to ask. I do not mind helping others avoid this troubling predicament.
I then called the airport that the dog was supposed to be sent out of and they said they had nothing to do with those sort of things and that it was a major red flag. They referred me to the Attorney General. Before I contacted the Attorney General, I looked up Global Animal Transport's website and found it looked nothing alike the email I had received. I contacted the owner of the company and found out that it was a small family business that handled all sorts of things, from shipping zoo and aquarium animals to household pets too. The owner of Global Animal Transport was very nice and told me to post on Scamwarners.com, and that she had received calls of that nature all the time.
It takes awhile to fix an issue such as this, especially if you have given out your private information. Because of this, I am at risk of other scammers, because my information could be sold out to just about anyone. I got my case with the Attorney General, and I notified the Federal Commission Trade of this. To avoid scams such as this, do your research first. Ever since I found out about this scam, the hard way, I've found various websites telling me about this exact same thing. Never wire transfer anyone you do not know. Especially to a place called Cameroon. It is a city in Africa, and usually used in scams such as these. If you have any additional questions about my experience, feel free to ask. I do not mind helping others avoid this troubling predicament.
