Puppy Scams: Do not buy puppies online❌

Are you thinking of buying a puppy online? DON’T DO IT.

If you have decided to enlarge your family by getting a puppy or a kitten, we advise you to not purchase them online.

The reasons are explained here below.

Scams of online Pet Sales – How does it work?

It is increasingly more often that fake ads appear on internet sites, such as E-bay, Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace and many others, posted by people pretending to be certified breeders, stating that they have to donate (or sell at bargain prices) breed puppies – usually small size – on the ground that they cannot keep them due to various reasons.

For the transfer of the puppy, they ask for a refund of the expenses incurred for the transportation, amounting to about 150/200 Euros.

According to the information supplied by the alleged “breeder”, the puppy is available in Europe, but as you proceed with the contacts, the payment for the puppy is requested through Moneygram or Money Transfer (which is untraceable), on a bank account that is usually outside the EU (generally in Africa).

Once the first part of the payment is made, in order to extort more money from the victim, the alleged “breeder” invents that the puppy is blocked at the airport for reasons related to the shipment insurance and, in order to continue the shipment procedure, it is necessary to make a further payment of an amount that may vary between 700 and 1000 Euros.

In order to increase the possibility that the victim pay that extra amount, the scammers invent that – if the entire amount is not paid – the pet will remain blocked at the airport and the future owner may be held responsible and subject to a complaint.

Another strategy put into practice by the scammers in order to increase their credibility is the one aimed at the unlawful use of another person’s identity [identity theft], through the dissemination on whatsapp of videos of Italian persons holding their identity documents in their hands. These audio-visual materials are stolen from social networks and used to create a false identity and establish a certain trust with the unaware victim.

Scams perpetrated under the name of BLISS PETS

The above-described scam is often made by the scammers through the unlawful and improper use of our name and that of our company, as you can see from the photo here below.

The fact that Bliss Pets is specialized in the international transportation of pets makes it much easier for the scammers to fool their victims.

However, even after a first reading of the fake emails, one can see that it is quite obvious that the persons writing are not Italian but made use of online translators to translate (very badly) their emails.

BLISS PETS IS IN NO WAY WHATSOEVER ASSOCIATED WITH SUCH ACTIVITY

As a matter of fact, the scammers make an improper use of logos and photos illicitly taken from our sites and/or social portals, email, etc., of reference. The only way to understand if you are legitimately talking to a member of our staff is to always check the email addresses from which the communications are sent.

Bliss Pets’ only official email domains are the following:

• @blisspets.it
• @blisspets.eu

Scammers use email addresses such as blisspets@aol.it or other domains NOT ASSOCIATED WITH BLISS PETS!

7 rules to be followed in order not to fall into the hands of false breeders

• Why should you purchase a puppy from a person you don’t  know?

• Establish telephone contact with people you are in contact with via email. You will see that they will not answer and if they do you will understand that they are neither Italian nor from other European countries;
  
  
• Be wary of anyone who gives away/sells purebred puppies on the internet. The prices for buying a purebred puppy start from a completely different type of figure (usually not less than Euro 800.00);
  
  
• The costs for having an animal travel by plane unaccompanied (or as special cargo) are undoubtedly higher than the Euro 150/200 requested in the first phase of the scam. Usually the figures for organizing this type of special transport start from Euro 800.00;
  
  
• Pay attention to the content of the communications you receive, linguistically and grammatically: many of the communications received from potential scammers are written in incorrect Italian and the information on the email is summary or presented in a disorderly manner. Be wary of this type of communication. These are clearly automatic translations made through search engines;
  
  
• If you are contacted from a BLISS Pets account, always make sure that the email addresses are either @blisspets.eu or @blisspets.it;
  
  
• If you are contacted from other domains not connected to BLISS PETS, don’t answer, call us on the phone!