Dog Community

Does this seem strange or is it just me?

Posted : 7/12/2006 6:58:32 PM

I am helping a friend of mine find a home for her dog. She having family troubles (she is only 1

. They kicked her out of the house and said to take the dog or find it a home. She can only afford a small apartment which will not allow her 80 lbs dog. So anyway I posted an add on the classifieds on petfinder.com, and this was my first response. Am I crazy or does it sound strange at all?

Hello,

How are you doing today ? I was browsing on and saw your ADS on the site, i decided to drop and let you know that i need a pet for y daughter and my entire home, i just packed from the Oak to the UTAH, i and my entire family lives there, but there is not shelter here where we could adopt or get any pet, i sincerely would love to bear any amonut in which you care to give it out on ? I so kind and bless with passionate family, expecially my daughter, her birthday is coming up soon, but i would like to make the pet as surprise to her on her birthday, i am pleading that i will like to get the on any cost you intede4d in given out as adoption fees.

I have made a stronger arrangement with a shipping compnay in unitedstate, but would need to be contacted and explain everything about the living and health of the pet, the same thing could be express to me either, but i would love to know that you contact tjhe shipping company first, as the first stage proceed, they are so eligle and relaible, thier email address is --------- as soon as you do that the details in which how they will be cvoming for the pick up of the pet would be given to you.

I would love to make my payment by CERTIFIELD CASHIER'S CHEQUE OR MONEY ORDERS, the payment will be issue on an EXESS, which mean that the shipping cost of the pet will be issued along with adoptiopn fees of the pet, if you are okay with this, kindly get back to me, but i would love to have the pet as part of my family after i had read little about the pet on the (ADS).

Thansk

glenmar

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:12:10 PM

Oh my....I think I'd just hit delete on that one.....

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:15:03 PM

Assuming here that you typed that exactly like you received it ... I'd say it's very strange indeed.[:-] I agree - delete it.

Joyce

hlb118

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:15:26 PM

For some reason... I couldn't understand much of anything that was said. I would NOT adopt my or my friends dog to this person. I have to laugh, did they go to school? [:'(]

If I were her, I would want to communitcate with the possible adopter, and meet them in person. You can tell a lot about a person in the way they present themselves.

puggylover

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:18:00 PM

I just e-mailed back as said i'm not shipping him like a package. Just strange that she doesn't want to meet him first and see how he acts even though he is a great dog. I really want to do the whole check over and all before we give him away. He deserves just as much love and attention as my friend gave him. I am going to go pick him up this weekend so her parents don't do something crazy like drop him off somewhere or anything. I feel so bad that she can't keep him. She was saving up to put a down payment on a house with some friends, but now that her parents are kicking her out she needs a quick place to live.

fuzzy_dogs_mom

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:21:29 PM

I didn't quite get the "Oak" and "Utah" thing, but something about the post makes me think this person is not in the US and maybe English is a second language. Surely they don't expect you to ship a dog to another country??

Joyce

puggylover

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:26:42 PM

Yea I didn't understand that either. I part that really got me was contacting the shipping company to find out a pick up time. This a sweet loving living thing not a something that you call a shipping company to pick up and throw in a back of a truck.

jprinz99

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:38:43 PM

It is a money scam, report it to USPS, petfinder and your internet provider. We had the same thing happen here a while back-
jane

dasher

Posted : 7/12/2006 7:53:42 PM

I agree with Jane, it is a money scam. It is seen fairly regularly with people selling horses. Basically the jist is that they promise to send you a cashier's check to cover shipping plus the cost of the animal plus any extra. Many times they make the check out for more and ask that you send them the extra cash and will also pay you extra "for your time and effort" . Turns out the cashier's check is a fraud and your bank will not know right away, so you think all is good, then about a week later the bank tells you the check is no good and you are out that money. By that time the scammer is long gone.

alieliza

Posted : 7/12/2006 8:48:43 PM

Definitely don't ship the animal to this person, or anyone for that matter. Carefully screen any adopters. This is a scam, for sure. The person probably is not in the US, and English is not their first language, if they didn't get this message translated. There are so many errors, it could be just their mistakes, or translated by an inaccurate machine.

Edit: **Not that you shouldn't adopt to someone whos second language is English, but there are a lot of scams with overseas transactions.**

huskymom

Posted : 7/12/2006 8:53:53 PM

The red flag went up for me when she started referring to the dog as a "pet". I'll check again but I don't think she once refers to it as a dog.

puggylover

Posted : 7/12/2006 9:27:07 PM

Now that you say that huskymom I also notice she never referred to it as a dog. I got this e-mail really early this morning and read it still half a sleep, but I still knew that this sounds like a scam. My friend and I both want to meet with whoever wants to adopt this pup to make sure he gets the best, which is what he deserves.

B L Stroud

Posted : 7/12/2006 9:31:44 PM

SCAM please run the other way as fast as you can......

anne

Posted : 7/13/2006 7:37:10 AM

It's a long story but I ended up having to put my foster dog in the petfinder classifieds. I got a couple weird responces like that. One person claimed to be from TX but had an email address that clearly was from a different country. Neither of the people responding seemed to know English very well but wanted to get the transaction done quickly. I emailed the addressses & emails to petfinder and replied to the people who sent the emails there is a special place for people like them. The sad part is a lot of people DO fall for this, although it is hard to see how, especially the ones that I received. I also got a very strange phone call. Who knows why these people cruise the classifieds.

I just saw on our local news last night that they found 20 starving

its who were used for fighting but were left to die out in the woods. They also found a whole bunch of cute puppies that were going to be used as bait dogs, obviously they got the puppies from somewhere. I would assume they got them for free out of the paper but I wonder if that isnt why some of these people are sending these emails to petfinder posters. Some people truly disgust me, that is why most of the time I prefer animals over people.

dogslyfe

Posted : 7/13/2006 8:41:39 AM

I found the person that is adopting Mitzi through the petfinder classifieds. However, I've probably received 10 emails like this, or similar. I've deleted all of them - they are definately NOT above board. Pretty creepy actually.

I've also received about 5 or 6 emails that said, "I saw your ad for Mitzi. What's the adoption fee?". Delete delete. Or I've sent them my application to fill out and never heard from them again. Its my personal feeling that if they want to know the adoption fee in the second line of the email (or even the first email period, ususally) then I don't want to adopt to them. That's just me though.