The promise of pure-bred puppies has taken the online world by storm after several incidents of puppy scams were reported across the United States.
The shocking incident emerged after Google filed a lawsuit against a conman based in Cameroon for defrauding thousands of people by “perpetrating a puppy fraud scheme to exploit the COVID-19 pandemic for personal gain.”
In the lawsuit, the giant tech company listed 20 sites as fraudulent saying that the person in Africa used several Google services in the scam.
According to the suit, the scam used “alluring photos of purebred puppies” along with “testimonials from supposedly satisfied customers” to trick the gullible victims.
It said that people paid thousands of dollars for puppies that never arrived.
The New York Times reported that scammers capitalised on people’s loneliness during lockdowns.
For instance, a victim was tricked into paying $700 in “electronic gift cards” to buy a puppy. After sending the gift card information through Google Voice accounts, the victim was told to pay an additional $1,500 to deliver the puppy. According to the complaint, the puppy never arrived, reports The Guardian.
Google took note of the scam after it was flagged by AARP, an interest group focusing on issues affecting people over the age of 50.
The company tracked a network of linked email addresses, voice numbers and websites that all promised puppies – with no deliveries.
In a blogpost about the lawsuit, Google says the scam disproportionately targeted older Americans, who can be more vulnerable to cyber attacks.
Federal authorities estimate older people are scammed out of $650m a year.
According to the Better Business Bureau, a non-profit organisation, 35% of all online shopping scams reported to them in 2021 were “pet scams”, reported Fox News.
Another study found that from January through October 2021, “there were 165 per cent more puppy scams in the US than during the same period in pre-pandemic 2019.”
Watch | Attention, puppy buyers! Don’t fall for pet scams online
(With inputs from agencies)
