Giving away cute puppies on Facebook? Stay away, because this is often advance fee fraud!

Fake Facebook profiles with tempting offers appear again and again, especially in dog groups: valuable puppies currently living abroad are being offered as gifts, only the transport costs of 150 to 200 euros have to be covered.
But behind such offers there is advance payment fraud!

Fake profiles on Facebook

In a Facebook group for missing dogs, a user is currently drawing attention to this scam. What is striking is that the stories of the fake profiles are very similar: someone has died, so the puppies have to be given away urgently - without exception puppies, which are usually quite expensive!

Purebred dogs to give away? No!
Purebred dogs to give away? No! Source: Facebook

What is striking is that these are mostly fairly new Facebook profiles with very little information, the people themselves live somewhere abroad, and the profile names sometimes differ from the URL.

The URL contains a completely different name than the profile
The URL contains a completely different name than the profile, source: Facebook

Advance payment is required!

The alleged puppies, whose pictures often come from other sites, are always abroad so that no one comes up with the idea of ​​simply picking up a puppy themselves. You can only get in touch via Messenger or WhatsApp. The messages say that an advance payment has to be paid.

Only available with advance payment
Only available with an advance?

For a payment of 200 euros for transport costs, the puppy will be delivered directly to your home - at least that's the promise, but the reality is different: the money is gone, you never get to see a puppy.

How such advance payment fraud can be recognized

  • Fairly new Facebook profiles with little information
  • Puppies are offered very cheaply or for free, well below the normal price
  • The puppies are always abroad, for example Corsica or Montenegro
  • Advance payment is usually made via Western Union accounts; other payment options, such as PayPal, are not possible
  • Video calls in which the puppy is shown to you are never possible

Conclusion

Rule of thumb for the Internet, which also applies to trading puppies: If something is free or much cheaper than usual, then stay away from it! It is best to report such profiles to both Facebook and the group admins.


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Notes:
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