Ask Wendy: Scammed over a fake puppy
Martin Young of Durban is one of many who’ve been scammed when responding to an online advert for purebred puppies. He asks out consumer journalist Wendy Knowler what to do...
In his case it was the Locano site, and “West Highland white terriers” advertised for sale by an "Estelle Gregory of East London", complete with photos of the adorable pups, clearly acquired online by the fraudster. (There’s the first clue - for some reason, phishing fraudsters tend to use surnames which could also be first names.)
Young paid her R2000 for one of the puppies, plus R500 for it to be couriered to him.
On the day the pup was due to be flown from East London to Durban - last Friday (SUBS: JULY 1) - Young was contacted by “Amber Steve” (again the first name as surname thing) of “Pets Porter Courier Service Nationwide”, a company that does not exist, to say the crate supplied was inadequate and he’d need to pay R5000 to rent a special crate, which would be refunded to him when he returned the crate, he was told.
In all he paid R7650, including a day’s rental for the fictitious super crate, for a puppy that never existed.
“Not bad money for placing a free advert on Locanto,” Young said. “When you get that demand for another R5000, you jump as you want your puppy as soon as possible, and can’t just leave him at the airport, so you do it!”
And after that, of course, all communication with the fraudster died.
“We then started to check in more depth and our research soon revealed, horror of horrors, no flights from East London on Saturday; no Pet Port Courier in East London; no answer from any phone number, only an office cell; a dodgy letterhead that could have been “cut and pasted”; and a gmail address. The warning signs of only a cell number and a Gmail address were overlooked in the excitement of the expectant family pet that we have waited for, for nearly two months,” Young said.
And that’s how these scams work. Too much excitement and little to no time spent interrogating the information or its sender.
Young missed something else: scam emails almost always include references to companies and particularly government bodies which do not exist in South Africa: So the email from the fictitious pet courier included this sentence: "Pet Taxi Handler is governed by the rules, regulations and mandates of the Animal Welfare Act. The AWA and the Federal Law governing scheduled airline air cargo shipments…”
“I had been corresponding with the ‘dog breeder’ for more than a month, been sent pictures of the puppies' parents, brothers and sister,” he said. "I was taken for a chump for sure!
"Please share and forward to your friends to stop these swindling scum of the earth crooks that prey on your emotions.”
Clearly, not everyone would be scammed into parting with R7600 for a fluffy puppy, but whatever your fancy - from designer clothes to a generator when load shedding strikes - there’s no shortage of fraudsters waiting to exploit your desire.
Ntuthuko of Midrand wrote to me recently after being scammed over two dresses.
While browsing the net for an outfit for a friend's special occasion, I stumbled upon this particular online store and bought two dresses.
"I've never been one to trust online shopping, but with our very busy lives, one can't help but eventually fall prey to the convenience of these stores,” said. And therein lies the danger!
She paid for the dresses, and was then told they didn’t have one of them in stock, and asked to choose another. She asked for a refund for that dress instead and was told they do offer refunds or exchanges. A disagreement followed, and in the end she received no dresses and no refund. And she can’t track them down. "They do not have an address on their site, nor do they have a telephone number.”
WHAT TO DO:
-Unless you’re dealing with one of the many established, renowned online retailers, proceed with extreme caution when browsing online. Assume the worst of someone offering you goods for sale, until your checks have proved you wrong. Google the company name and that of the contact person to see if others have complained about them. Imagine something has gone wrong with your order and try to track the responsible person down - if you can’t make contact, other than via email, move on.
-Avoid making EFT payments. If you pay by credit card, and you don’t get what you paid for, you can apply to your bank for chargeback, and get refunded that way. There is no such protection with other forms of payment.
-Gumtree advises consumers who use the free classifieds site to avoid being scammed by ensuring that all transactions “take place locally and in-person”. In other words, check out the merchandise in a public place and only hand over your cash when you are satisfied. "Remember that Gumtree is a local classifieds web site and most ads are not reviewed before they go live on the site.” Important warning, that.
-If you can’t do business face to face, make use of Shepherd, which Google is affiliated to. It safely facilitates transactions between the buyer and the seller and requires both parties to register on www.paywithshepherd.com. The buyer pays the money to Shepherd for safekeeping and the seller pays for a courier to collect and deliver the item to the buyer. If the buyer is satisfied, he accepts the item, at which stage the payment is released by Shepherd and the seller is paid. If the buyer does not accept the item, the transaction and delivery is simply reversed. There is no need to meet face-to-face and no risk of payment fraud.
*Catch Wendy chatting about consumer issues with Thami Ngubeni on Radio 2000 every Wednesday from 8.40pm to 9pm.
Listen to the show here: