On February 26, police received information of a scam regarding the online sale of a dog. The person selling the dog represented themselves as residing in Salt Lake City, Utah. The victim contacted the seller, and was informed to send a Moneygram to a representative with UShip Care Services in Atlanta Georgia, who would then ship the dog to the victim’s address. A stipulation was added to the Moneygram, but the perpetrator managed to attain the money with a certain amount of identification.
This is the second time within a week that police have received information of an online scam regarding the sale of a dog, and in both cases, the victims lost several hundreds of dollars.
These types of scams are becoming more common and agencies such as The Humane Society, warn the public against purchasing a pet online, and say that the risks are too great. In many cases, people who do receive pets following an online purchase, find that the pet is not what was advertised.
According to humanesociety.org, when looking for a legitimate source to find a pet, your first stop should be your local shelter.