Buying a puppy online – sight unseen – is a recipe for heartbreak…

and an invitation to pet scammers

Besides being a hotbed of scams, pet buying online without “due diligence” is guaranteed to get you a puppy mill dog, if you get a dog at all.

Due diligence means

(a) visiting the pet first;

(b) getting references from other buyers and checking them out and

(c) drilling down on the internet to learn all you can about the seller.

There are lots of ways crooks can get your money for nothing:

• advertising a dog that doesn’t exist
• switching dogs from the one shown in the ad, to a different, sickly animal
• free puppy – but you are asked to pay very high shipping costs. The dog never arrives. As the DogInfoCentre says, “These scammers are usually running out of foreign countries, posing as USA or Canadian breeders selling adorable little puppies, when in fact they don’t even own a dog themselves, let alone have a puppy to sell.”
• These scammers even create elaborate websites to advertise the non-existent pets they’re selling.

Be extra cautious of ads found in free classified ad sites such as Kiijii and Craigs List. You don’t have to avoid sites that run free listings — there are some legit ads on them– but do be extra cautious, because scammers feed on free places to find their prey.

As with online breeders, visit and do your research.

Scam #1 – Switching Pictures

A common trick of swindlers selling dogs online, is to run an ad that features a gorgeous-looking little dog for sale. Should you buy and actually receive a dog, you’ll notice that your puppy looks nothing like the one you saw.

That’s because the scammer has stolen pictures from a legitimate person’s website and portrayed these as his. Usually, the actual dog is a reject from a puppy mill, or …. there’s no dog at all.

Scam #2 – “Registered” designer dogs

This is a one that’s designed to push up the price of your Morkie puppy. As much as we love Morkies, they are not purebred dogs. They cannot be registered with any Kennel Club, anywhere in the world. That’s because it’s not possible to track their parentage the way a group like the AKC (American Kennel Club) can for example.

“NO registry would let you register a mixed breed dog. If you found a registry that would, the papers would be worthless.” – from the American Kennel Club

There are several new organizations who claim to register the new cross-breed or designer dogs. Although their intentions may be good — for example, to track mixed breed dogs — there’s simply no way to keep liars and scammers out. All that’s needed is your signature to declare the dog’s a Morkie (or whatever. ) 

Scam #3 – Free to a good home

Free or super cheap Morkies. This one is rotten, because in all likelihood, there isn’t even a Morkie involved.

Instead, the fraudsters lure you in on price or “free” and when the hook has been set, they ask you to pay for shipping, which is suspiciously consistent at $400.

“Just cover the cost of shipping.”

Buyers are asked to send payments via a Western Union wire transfer or money order. This is a favourite among crooks because it’s the equivalent of sending cash– the money can’t be traced and recovered by the victim.

You send the money off – and unknown to you, it usually goes to another country – and the dog, of course, never arrives. You can’t get your money back because you sent it with Western Union.

Scam #4 – Fake Morkie Rescue

The ASPCA has identified another despicable trick.

Sellers put up a website featuring pictures of terrible animal abuse, and claim they are rescuing dogs from a puppy mill or even another country like North Korea, where dogs are regularly eaten.

There’s no rescue; they ARE the puppy mill, and the dogs are sickly, weak and nervous.

Instead of doing a good thing by helping dogs, you end up with heartbreak on your hands.

You can tell this is a scam when you see the price tag — the “adoption fees” or shipping for these dogs often exceeds $1,000! Breed rescue groups charge nominal fees – usually no more than $300, because their goal is to find good homes for their rescues, not make money.

How to spot a phony adoption group

Breed rescue groups online tug at our heartstrings, but too often they’re just a front for cast-off dogs from puppy mill operations.

Petfinder tells us:

“For-profit breeders have increasingly tried to take advantage of the public’s desire to adopt homeless pets by posing as rescue groups, even using the term ‘adopt’ when selling their, all too often, puppy-mill-raised pups”  — says Kim Saunders, Petfinder’s vice president of shelter outreach.