What to do if your cat or dog is lost
Lost pets are nightmares of pet owners. This is a way to keep an eye on people and notify them to reunite their pet and their owner.
Better Business Bureau warns of a return of pet scams.
Reports submitted to BBB’s fraud trackers and recent alerts from WatchDog Group Scambusters say these scams often take place in cycles.
Dennis Horton, senior director of the Rockford Regional Office, said the list of fraudulent pets is emotionally devastated and financially exhausted.
“Pet scams are especially cruel because they take away not only the money but the joy and connection they wanted,” Houghton said. “In addition, these frauds can pose physical dangers. Scammers often arrange pickups in isolated locations, putting victims at serious risk.”
The BBB offers some tips to avoid becoming a victim of these scams.
- Purchase only from reputable dealers. Please check the BBB Business Profile on bbb.org for complaints or customer reviews before purchasing.
- Look directly at your pet before paying. Scammers are unlikely to comply with this request. This helps to avoid fraud. At the very least, they request a virtual meeting between the seller and the pet.
- Reverse image search for pet photos to search for distinctive phrases in the description.
- Research to get a sense of fair price for the variety you are considering. Be careful if someone is promoting pure dogs for free or fraudulent offers for purebred dogs.
- Consider visiting a local animal shelter online for pets you can meet before you hire.
BBB recommends contacting petscams.com. This tracks complaints and catalogs puppy scammers. Report scams to BBB scam trackers and share experiences on social media to help prevent others from being victimized. If your credit card number is shared, the incident will be reported to the credit card issuer.
For more information, please visit bbb.org on social media.
This story was created by reporter Abreana Brows; ablose@gannett.comwith the help of artificial intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, reviewing, editing and publishing process. See more details at cm.usatoday.com/Ethical-conduct.
