usbestcorgipups.com

Grant –

Victim Location 33611

Total money lost $350

Type of a scam Online Purchase

We were in the market for a corgi puppy and came across www.usbestcorgipups.com on a breeder directory. We reached out to the email address listed on the site and got a reply about a day later informing us with more details, payment information, pricing, etc. It sounded legit, but this was the first time we’ve ever looked for a dog online. A few days later, we submitted an initial down payment of $350 via Zelle (red flag #1). Even if we changed our mind, the email stated we could get our down payment back with no questions asked.

We then asked for a few more pictures of the puppy and were emailed TWO videos of what we thought was our puppy. In the video, the owner even says the puppy’s name that was listed on the website.

A few days later, we tried sending the remaining $350, which amounted to $700 for a pure breed corgi SHIPPED to us (red flag #2). There was an error with my wife’s account on Zelle and she was unable to make the payment. She called the phone number listed on the site and was told she could send the money via MoneyGram to the account information given to her by the man on the phone (red flag #3).

As soon as I heard MoneyGram, I suspected something. Sure enough, a simple google search of usbestcorgipups.com yielded a detailed report on petscams.com. We immediately called the number back asking for our $350 back. The guy immediately changed his tone, tried to convince us to send the rest of the money. After requesting for our down payment back multiple times, he said he’d send it when he got to it. It’s been three days now and we’ve gotten nothing. Payments can’t be canceled once they’ve been sent through Zelle. We’re probably never getting our $350 back.

Don’t let the eagerness of getting a new pet blind you from the obvious like us. If it sounds too good to be true, it is. I went back on the website and found out all the testimonials were copied and pasted from other (probably scam) sites. The domain name was registered in Panama. The site was all in broken English.

Even those convincing videos were probably pulled from another legitimate breeder’s site.

Lesson learned.