The Puppy Scam

Now that we are moving into a new villa that lets us have pets, my girls have been nagging me about getting a dog.

We talked about getting one from the pound (SAD) so they went and had a look to see what was there. Unfortunately, not very many were on offer, so they went looking further afield, and came across some cute ones that were free for adoption in Abu Dhabi. A pair of Maltese free for adoption on www.muamat.com . So I used the contact box to get some more information.

Two days later I got a reply from Jessica Adama (adamajessica@yahoo.com) which read

hello thanks for your interest towards my puppies which are available i got 2 male and femal e

so where are you located?

will you need both?

do you wish to have more of their pics?

thanks and waiting on you

I wrote back saying we really only wanted one, that we were currently in Khalifa A and were about to move onto the Island. And yes I did want some more pictures.

The girls were excited and kept asking me if there was a reply but nothing turned up for a couple of days. Then finally I found a reply in the spam box on Googlemail, but it hadn’t been languishing there, it had only been there for 40mins by the time I found it.

Alarm bells immediately went off as I read the text, and I didn’t tell the girls about it until I could do some research. Here is the text.

Hello

Sorry for all the Questions and the late reply. (i mean no offense)

but just that i

really need a very loving home for this puppies

As you can see i am giving this puppies out for free, i

am giving out them for free since they were owned and taken care

of by my late wife whom i lost to a drunk driver couple of weeks ago.and

i have relocated to QATAR due to the mobile nature of my

job as a company driver. right now i can't take proper care of this

puppies which was a

sole responsibility of my late wife. they really do remind me of her

sad memories all the time i look at them and hurts deeply. So, my

greatest desire is to find someone who can properly take care of the

puppies and if you can, i can arrange for delivery if you cannot come

right up here for the pick. Delivery am sure will be moderate since we

spend just too little bringing the puppies up there (if you will be

taking both as you said then you are to pay 1250AED ) .

If this is ok by you, i will immediately need the following

details

full names.?

home address?

city?

postal code..?

phone number?

in order to change the ownership papers and get them registered for a

home delivery to your home(at your door step)

Be reminded that these puppies are for free and all you will have

to do is to pay only for the home delivery of these puppies to the

delivery agency which will deliver the them to your home.My prayer

is that you love and care for this puppy just as my wife did and i

will be always great full to you if you should.Do let me know if all

is fine ... again i will like you to mail me as soon as you receive

the the puppies ok so we can talk also on their feeding schedule

thanks for understanding _

And waiting

thanks...

Something also to note is that the email came from a different email account! This time is was jenniffer lucas (lucasjenniffer@gmail.com)

Neither email had been signed. Hmmm, so they want me to send money for delivery. They have advertised as free for adoption in Abu Dhabi. They have ascertained from the first contact that I am in Abu Dhabi, but now state that they are in Qatar so a transport service is required. Now money is involved and we are talking about a distance that is a little too far to go and pick them up. Convenient that!

So the first thing I did was do a google search on the names and email addresses. And low and behold they showed more puppies for sale ads on muamat.com but this time in Dubai and Sharjah! Most of the ads on muamat.com don’t have email address showing so I think this scam artist probably is behind a whole lot more of the pet ads they are hosting. To their credit muamat.com do have a scam warning which does specifically mention this kind of deal – I found it at the bottom of their scam advice page.

8. Free Pet Delivery at the cost of shipping price

• The user offer you to take the pet free, but you have to send him shipping and insurance cost
• You are requested to send the shipping and insurance cost for the pet through Western Union or any other mean
• If you sent the money, the user demand more and never send you the pet.

Armed with my evidence I showed the girls. It was a good lesson for them in internet dishonesty. They were disappointed though.