AMERICAN organizations and concerned individuals last week unveiled a new type of crimes of persuasion, known locally as 419 carried out by Nigerian con men through the use of dogs and their puppies. In this new wave of 419, Nigerian fraudsters are said to be luring prospective and unsuspecting buyers of dogs and lovers of puppies to buy these domestic animals that are non-existing through the internet.
Last year alone the concerned groups, including the Council of Better Business Bureaus, the Humane Society of the United States, the Internet Crime Complaint Centre and the American Kennel Club disclosed that about 700 Americans were defrauded through the sale of puppies on the internet.
For each fraud, the con men reportedly stole between N40, 000 and N300, 000 through the sale of imaginary puppies. According to reports, though some of the fraud may have originated from within the United States, but Nigerian con men were particularly fingered in the ones that originated from overseas. In these schemes to make money from unsuspecting pet lovers, con men are said to have created websites indicating that they have puppies for sale.
They use two types of tricks which involve what is being described as overpayment scam in which a fraudster contacts someone and negotiates a price and later sends payment for the animal in form of a cashier�s cheque. However, the fraudster would ask the potential victim to return the overpayment through an electronic transfer, back to the fraudster or a third party.
The report by Leslie McFadden added that “the victim eventually learns the cashier�s cheque is counterfeit and loses the money he or she was supposed to get for the dog, plus any funds wired to the scammer. If the victim actually sent the dog, he or she won�t get it back.�
In the case of Nigerian 419 men using pets, the Americans warned on the internet last week that the con artists run advertisements on web sites they specifically created for the ploys and offer �purebred puppies – typically English bulldogs or Yorkshire terriers – either free or at a discounted price.�
The con artist then claims the animal �is free or discounted.� They also lie further that the owner is a missionary who has been looking for a new home for the dogs who has been suffering from terrible weather or climatic conditions in her present location or that the dog needed a new home after she was rescued from terrible natural disaster
Unsuspecting victims would then be asked to pay for the shipment or transportation of the dog, payment for innoculation and other fees. When the victims pay for all these, the dogs are never sent and the con men keep asking for more money and they give reasons for the delay in transportation.