| |
1 February 2007
We advise we no longer accept international reports of
online pet scams
that are not from New Zealand or those that do not
involve our own website, petsonthenet.co.nz
This is because we have been absolutely DELUGED with
international online pet
scam reports worldwide that have nothing to do with
petsonthenet. After many hundreds of volunteer hours
spent helping at least three scam victims PER DAY,
for well over two years now, we have finally reached breaking point and cannot put any more
volunteer time into helping international
scam victims. We are supposed to be focussed on
running this free community service for lost and
found pets
in NZ..! We are sorry we just can no
longer cope with this
ever increasing online crime and it is distracting
our very precious volunteer time away from providing our
actual core service.
However we can offer the following advice to help
you...
Other websites specialise in anti online
fraud services and are far better resourced to
assist you. One of the best is
fraudwatchers.org. It has excellent free
resources to help you. The FAQ section is a MUST
READ, there are well patronised forums to post your
scam scenario/emails on for assistance, warnings ie
"do not "play" with scammers", how to report to
various law enforcement/fraud agencies and a scam
sniffer service. We highly recommend you visit and
use fraudwatchers.org.
We do feel for all of you out there who are worried
about a scam, threatened, or have already been
scammed. We know it is gut wrenching. But we are not
the best ones to help you and we just do not have
the resources to continue to pour into this internet
crime, unless it specifically relates to our own
website. We've also had threats against us for
exposing international scams. I know we have helped
thousands of scam victims and we have helped more
thousands avoid scams through our warnings and our
huge email correspondence, so that is great. We will
keep our warnings up here for all to see, but we
cannot answer or comment on individual queries any
more UNLESS they involve petsonthenet.co.nz
directly.
Please go back to
www.petsonthenet.co.nz/scam1 and read our
information and warnings to help you now.
Tip; If you're suspicious, you're probably right,
it is probably a scam. Go with your GUT and be
suspicious. Thousands of people who have lost lots
of money (and worse), wish they had been less
"gullible" and seen the "red flags"
We originally posted this scam information to protect our own
online users and as a result no one has been successfully scammed
via our own website in the last two years, as we have a whole raft
of security measures in place and we also educate/warn our users.
But we quickly became an unofficial point for support and advice
for pet classified victims (from other websites), worldwide
I know our internet pet scam information comes up really high in
Google, which is great, especially if you see it BEFORE your get
scammed...
I know from the emails we get that we have already helped stop
thousands of people from potentially losing $250 - $800 EACH.
Sometimes we also hear from those who have lost that amount of
money too...
> What you can do.
Cease contact completely
Have no more contact whatsoever with the scammer. Block
them on your email anti spam (i.e. Norton). Do not tell them why
you are ceasing contact / not proceeding - ignore them. This is
because they will debate it is a scam or not with you and possibly
threaten you in some way. Do not reveal your source of information
was via petsonthenet.co.nz. Please protect us as we are trying to
protect you. They have threatened us with legal action
several times, for defamation (so we took their names and emails
off the scam page) - they change their emails and names and
stories several times a day anyway...They have also threatened us
to sue us for "loss of business"...! Can you believe it?!
These people are criminals they are desperate to make money from
you. I think they could be dangerous, they certainly get very
aggressive if someone pulls out or refuses to send the "second"
payment. What I mean by "second payment" is... say you sent money
by western union, money gram or other "non refundable" means for
the dog or cat or birds etc (or whatever you thought you were
getting), that is when they ask for MORE money. Once they know
they have you sucked in, they go for the jugular, again. Here is
an email from a person who was scammed twice and nearly bitten
thrice. it was only at that point they realised it was a scam
sadly...Moral of the story, cease contact immediately.
" I think I definitely fell for a
scam from Boulua, Cameroon. The person was supposed to be selling
me a parrot and an airport in Douala Cameroon was supposed to be
holding the parrot. I did send $200 as a down payment, then he
said he needed pet insurance, I sent $50. Then they both emailed
me saying they need $190. I did not send that. I told him I was
turning him in if I didn't get either my money or the Macaw, he
keeps emailing me with a line, can you help me stop this guy
,thank you"
(victim has placed this in the authorities hands now...)
Seek active help from
the website (newspaper) involved
Many people tell me the source of this scam came from
various pet classifieds websites. I am suggesting to all of you
who were scammed or nearly scammed to email or phone the website/s
involved. Tell them all about this scam and importantly, tell them
to put warnings on their site! I still see very few or mostly no
warnings out there, so please do this. It is not the other
websites fault that scammers place ads, or reply to ads but they
can and should help by placing warnings on their websites.
On petsonthenet.co.nz, we delete all that we can that we recognise
and I can sniff them at a thousand paces now. But I think all
websites like ours with pets for sale or adoption etc, should have
clear warnings on their sites, it is not a legal obligation, but
with this crime continuing to grow in size, a moral obligation in
my opinion.
Be aware that some websites are actually run by the scammers, they
can be openly African based, but a new twist is the seemingly
US based website. The whole site can be a scam, not just the odd
ad.
Report to authorities
Also pass the emails on to yahoo or whoever the ISP is (usually
it is yahoo they like to use) and say they were fraudulent
emails. Also pass on to police, FBI or appropriate internet
fraud authority in your country/state.
Very good luck and stay careful out there...
Kim Buchanan
www.petsonthenet.co.nz
Volunteer Administrator
NZ's nationwide database for lost and found pets + pets for
adoption
PS If you have appreciated our advice /warnings, and
if you would like to thank us in the form of a donation (any
amount helps this free community service!). We gratefully accept
even the smallest of donations worldwide
via PayPal.
Thank you very much for your support.
|
