PetHall - Scam pet sellers

Confirm the Seller's location:

Make sure the Seller's address and phone number (land line) corresponds with the area in which the pet is being sold.
Do not fall for the common scammer tricks that they recently moved to some foreign country and must now sell their pets stranded in the US.

Request references:

The references normally should have phone numbers which are listed in the Seller's local area's phone book or directory assistance.
Ideally the seller should be a member of a local or national club related to the particular pet. You may obtain references from the club about the seller.

Check Seller's website:

Some Sellers will have websites that may have references you can contact.

Beware of Sellers:

Who want money sent overseas when they have a US address. Never send money overseas to someone you do not know personally.
With pets priced t0o low to be true, including shipping.
Who do not want you to pick up the pet, but instead want to ship it.
Who keep asking for additional money after you have paid the asking price.
Hopefully, it hasn't gotten that far.

Report Scammers:

Internet Providers do not have much tolerance for a customer who abuses the internet.
You may want to use this handy website for looking up IP addresses and ISP providers of scammers: www.analysespider.com
Please report any suspicious activity to webmaster@pethall.com
We make it our business to stop and report scammers to the proper authorities.

Below is an actual pet scam we intercepted due to a vigilant PetHall visitor.

Only the identity of the PetHall user who alerted us to this scam has been protected

Category:

Dogs & Puppies Classifieds

Subcategories:

Yorkshire Terrier

Breed

YorkieShire Terrier

Age

9 Wks

Weight

3.5lbs

Price

0.00

Description

i have a lovely puppy,she's lovely and great,she's
looking for a loving home,she akc registered and she has all her
shots up to date.send me a mail for more informations about her...
gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com

Contact Information

Contact:

Gloria Williams

Location:

lansing, Michigan 48906
USA

Telephone:

Hi Pethall,

My name is D******** M. k******* I am a big fan of your site and I constantly use it to try and find me a puppy a "yorkshire terrier" just to be specific.

During my searches, I found a lot of matches. The thing is that everyone that I find seems to be supscious about the matter. I am writing you so that you can examine this situation and let me know if it is okay to purchase this pet from your seller. Here is the info from her profile off of your website: Ad

Number: 188, Name: Gloria Williams, LOCATION: Lansing, Michigan 48906, Date Posted: 12/23/2006, Date Expire:03/23/2007. I just would like for you to examine the conversations below and let me know if this is legitimate or not before I send my money.

Thank You. Here are the conversations from that me and the seller had:

>From: *******@yahoo.com

>To: gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com

>Subject: Reply To Your Ad at the PetHall Pet

Classifieds

>Date: 28 Dec 2006 04:06:03 -0000

>

>Hi Mrs. Williams, how are you doing today? I am very

interested in

the

>Yorkie puppy, she is very pretty. I can guarantee

you a great

environment

>for her, so please contact me asap. Thank you

HER REPSONSE:

This message is not flagged. [ Flag Message - Mark as

Unread ]

From: "Gloria Williams"

<gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com> Add to Address Book

Add Mobile Alert

To: *******@yahoo.com

Subject: RE: My Puppy is still available

Date: Thu, 28 Dec 2006 12:32:25 +0000

Hello,

Thanks for your interest in my puppy,I want you to

know that my puppy

is

still available,she is still for sale,she is fully AKC

registered with

all

shots up to date including all necessary health

document and

certificate

ready for shipment, she is lovely with kids and wants

to meet her new

family.At full grown she will weigh 3.5-4lbs, She is 9

weeks now. She

is a

pure breed yorkie,Get back to me for her pictures.

Actually my husband and I are in West Africa on a

Christian mission in

Nigeria to be precise,we are here for missionary trip

from the States.

We

used to live in Philadelphia, Pennysylvania with our

lovely puppy,but

since

we left for the missionary trip we have to bring our

baby along because

of

care and the harsh in weather here i have to get her a

home very

fast,so

that is why we are looking for a good home for our

little lovely baby.

If

you are interested in our little lovely baby,get back

to me with your

full

name,address,contact and direct phone number we can

reach you ,and the

nearest airport to your home so we can proceed

shipment on this puppy

to

your home,the puppy will be shipped by Delta First

Pets Airline .I am

giving

her for free just need you to pay $200 for her and the

shipping because

we

really need a good home for my baby.

Hope to read from you soon.

Thanks And God Bless You

Regards

Gloria

MY RESPONSE:

>From: D********Kellam <*******@yahoo.com>

>To: Gloria Williams <gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com>

>Subject: RE: My Puppy is still available Date: Thu,

28 Dec 2006

07:29:50

>-0800 (PST)

>

>Thank you for the responese. Yes Mrs. Williams I am

>still interested in the puppy. I am so in love with

>yorkies. I am willing to pay the money for the puppy

>and I would like to knmow what payment method we will

>be using. My name is: D******** k******* My address

>is: **** , Apartment # **. Daytona

>Beach, Fl. The nearest airport to me is the Daytona

>International Airport. My number is 404-578-****.

>Could you please send me some pictures of her and can

>you also send me your CONTACT INFO and further

>instructions also. Thank You so much.

>--- Gloria Williams <gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com>

>wrote:

>Hello D********

How are you and your family,Hope you have a wonderful

christmas with

you,I'ill always wish you a happy New Year,I'm so glad

to hear from you

once

again,My puppy is still available,My husband and I

will put you in

prayers,You have just made us happy,cos we know our

puppy will be

taking

good care of and You giving her all attentions she

needs,She will be so

excited to meet her new family,She's lovely with

kids,and also with

Other

Dogs,Yes sure i have her pictures,I'ill send them to

you Okay....I

really

know your kids would be happy to meet my lovely

Puppy,Your informations

has

just been forwarded to the shipping agents,They will

make the

arrangement As

soon as Possible.

Hope to read from you

Thanks And God Bless You

Regards

Gloria

MY RESPONSE:

>From: D********K***** <*******@yahoo.com>

>To: Gloria Williams <gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com>

>Subject: RE: My Puppy is still available

>Date: Fri, 29 Dec 2006 11:27:58 -0800 (PST)

>

>yes i am still interested. Joy is so pretty and I

>love her already. I am just waiting on the payment

>method and I would like a little information from

you.

> So could you please send me your name, address, i

>need your phone number, and a couple of references

and

>their address and phone numbers. I just want to be

on

>the safe side. Thank you so much

Her Response:

Hello D********

How are you doing?I'm glad to hear from you,I really

want my puppy to

be

taking good care of,it would be faster and safer if

you could make the

Payment Via Western Union Money Transfer or Money

Gram,That's the only

way i

can get the money here,The money will be paid to the

shipping agents

informations Okay...I'ill get back you with the

Payment informations

and the

shipping agents number,So you can speak with them on

the Phone.

Hope to read from you

Thanks And God Bless You

Regards

Gloria

And Her Final Response:

From: "Gloria Williams"

<gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com> Add to Address Book

Add Mobile Alert

To: *******@yahoo.com

Subject: RE: My Puppy is still available

Date: Sat, 30 Dec 2006 09:31:09 +0000

Hi D********

I just got the information from the shipping

agents,Below is the

shipping

agents Payment Information.

Receiver's Name:Emeka Johnson

Address:38 Airport Road

City:Ikeja

State:Lagos

Country:Nigeria

Zipcode:23401

Pls use this Text Question And Answer Below.

QUESTION: My favourite Colour

Answer:Blue

Hope to read from you

Thanks And God Bless You

Regards

Gloria

PetHall Responds after investigations

Dear D*******,

Thank you for alerting us to this pending transaction. I am also glad you chose the safe route.

I am not an expert on fraud but I am 99% sure this is a scam.

Here is how I know.

1. Too much story just to sell a puppy for $200 2. Playing with your emotions (the Christian touch)

3 If it is too good to be true, it usually is false.

4. Did you notice that the name of the recipient of the money is no longer the name of the original seller. This is because scammers usually use fake identities but they reserve some real identities for actually collecting money. You need an ID to collect money via western union in Nigeria. Though you can make an ID for a fee there, but making an ID for all the scammers fake names could be expensive and also the ID is usually required to be at least 6 months old in other to be used for western union or moneygram.

5. Also, take a look at the spelling of "color" in the text question, it was spelt the British/Canadian way. Tell you the person probably never seen an American Airport.

Finally ---Please DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAMMER. We will be deleting their profile from PetHall and with your permission we will reprint this email so as to protect others.

Thank you for using PetHall

Webmaster
PetHall.com

The following classified ad was deleted from the PetHall Pet Classifieds:

188|gloria1979|user|12/23/2006|ok|90|0|||||Gloria Williams|821 pine

188|gloria1979|user|street|lansing|Michigan|48906|USA|411-241-2000||glor

188|gloria1979|user|ia.williams1979@hotmail.com||Dogs & Puppies

188|gloria1979|user|Yorkie For Free|i have a lovely puppy,she's lovely

188|gloria1979|user|and great,she's ~nl~looking for a loving home,she

188|gloria1979|user|akc registered and she has all her ~nl~shots up to

188|gloria1979|user|date.send me a mail for more informations about

188|gloria1979|user|her... ~nl~gloria.williams1979@hotmail.com

188|gloria1979|user||YorkieShire Terrier|9 Wks|3.5lbs|0.00||||||