14 DAY TRIAL // Scammers have become bolder and make efforts to reach a wider audience, such as investing in an ad that appeared in two issues of The New Yorker newspaper offering for adoption two bulldog puppies.
The scammy ad is nothing complicated and just promises a male and a female English bulldog for free, with an email address for contact.
The dogs are free, but shipment from Africa is not
Upon investigating the announcement and contacting the owner of the email address, BuzzFeed received a reply from someone claiming that, after the announcement was published in the newspaper, they left for Africa on a church mission and the puppies were no longer in the US.
However, the individual was willing to send them back to America, if the caring owner would split the shipping costs.
“But i’m very sorry to tell you that it is too late for you to get the babies now. What really happened was that i just left the state for Africa in some few days ago after i posted the the ad the 2 English Bulldog Puppies on the newspaper and before i left, i did not get any response from anybody that could take very good care of them for me,” the reply email said.
As a bait to the victim, the scammer claims that the dogs, named Adam and Eve, are 14 weeks old, they are home and outdoor trained, and received all their shots. Obviously, all the papers required will be delivered with the puppies. Basically, all the new owner has to do is pay their part of the shipping costs from Africa.
Scam has multiple variations
This is a slight variation of the classic 419 Nigerian scam, where an individual promises a huge reward in exchange for an initial advance payment.
If one should wonder how much is one to lose if they fall for this trap, the answer is that the costs could even reach several hundred dollars, depending on the gullibility of the victim and the social engineering skills of the scammer.
The scams with puppies are quite frequent, but it rarely happens that an ad is posted in a newspaper such as The New Yorker to carry it out. On the other hand, this allows the scammer to try to persuade a larger number of potential victims. Who wouldn’t like free puppies?
Check the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association page on the clues revealing that an ad is actually a scam.
A similar deceit running in ad sections of newspapers are rent offers, much lower than the current market. The lure is different, but the scam is the same: the owner is in a different country and wants to share the shipping costs for the keys of the apartment and the necessary papers with the tenant.
Given the low rent, most victims are willing to cover their part of the expense only to find out that they’ve been duped.
