Aww, look at the cuteness and send me all your money. Gullible women are falling for the Nigerian advance fee scam because they think they are helping to get a cute fluffy puppy. Okay, maybe some men are falling for it too, but I seriously question their masculinity.
From FoxNews here, with a hat tip to MyCrimeSpace.
Cute Puppies Being Used to Scam People Out of Money
The Council of Better Business Bureaus and American Kennel Club are warning that cute puppies are being used to scam people out of money.
Fraudulent Web sites, MySpace postings and print ads are asking people to help save puppies in desperate straits by sending money overseas.
“It’s like the Nigerian advance-fee scams we’ve been seeing for years, except with the face of a puppy,” Steve Cox, a council vice president, told the newspaper.
The sites and ads usually show bulldog puppies that are said to have become stuck in Nigeria, Cameroon or other countries and are offered free to new owners. A variation offers the expensive purebred English bulldogs at vastly discounted prices.
Victims eventually were asked to send hundreds of dollars to cover expenses such as shipping, customs, taxes and inoculations. Some reported paying more than $1,500. But no matter how much was paid, no puppies arrived.
Does no one go to the pound anymore?