Welsh Corgi Breeder

Victim Location 78221

Type of a scam Online Purchase

I was looking to buy a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and stumbled upon the welshcorgibreeder.com website. When first scoping this site, it does not present itself as sketchy or a scam – it is very well put together and ultimately, deceiving. When reaching out to the seller for the interest of "Charity," an 11 week old corgi, I was sent an email providing some information about Charity and some questions they had for myself. They thanked me for my interest in the dog and explained that she is groomed in every aspect, also explained that she is AKC Certified with current vacs and stated some facts about her daily life. They also detailed some adoption requirements with questions that needed responses. After responding to those questions, I asked a couple questions for myself. They answered my questions well and even texted me, saying I could reach them at their cell phone number as well. They asked that I send a deposit of $300 through Zelle. My bank account does not work with Zelle so they asked that I used MoneyGram. Once I sent the money through MoneyGram, I notified them letting them know it was on the way. The entire time via text, their punctuation and grammar was very poor and it definitely seemed off. I recieved notification from MoneyGram that there was a transaction error. When I let the seller know, he did not respond to me until 2am. I called MoneyGram to ask for more info about the error and they asked me a series of questions as to why I was sending this money to the seller. After we spoke, they told me that other customers provided the same feedback and this was most likely a scam and were going to block the transaction and I would not be able to use this app to pay the seller. They provided a refund. Once I told the seller this, he insisted that I visit a MoneyGram location to send them cash. I asked the seller for more information to prove the validity of this sale, he responded with "What else do you want to know ?" I then went onto the internet to learn more about questions to ask animal sellers in different states. Google suggested a couple things: 1) if the price is unusually low, its likely a scam. 2) if their communication is poor, it’s likely a scam. 3) check bbb.org for more scam reports to see if the website/seller was listed on there. So I visited BBB.org and found many reports, not with the exact same website name, but every single question that was asked in the initial emails, prices on the website, list of pet names and ages, were exactly the same as what I experienced. So I asked the seller what vet clinic they took their dogs to so I could call and confirm the health record and legitimacy of the dogs. I also asked if they could take a picture of the dog with a note in front of it stating they are ready to come home with me. After I sent those texts, I did not receive a response. I also noticed that their area code was not a Michigan area code, as they stated they were located, but a Charlotte area code. I also was not able to locate this person on Facebook as he had a very uncommon name and could not locate the business name.Overall, do your research before putting any money down and look up these companies on bbb.org. After reviewing other reports about these scams, I am glad I found this website to make me stop this ahead of the game before paying someone over 3k for a non-existent dog.