Victim Location 90012
Total money lost $650
Type of a scam Online Purchase
on Monday April 6th, 2020 I was looking on instagram for Bengal kittens cause I was interested in adopting one for my girlfriend and I and came across a instagram (@bengalkitten_rehome) and notice that they are breeders and can ship kittens out to wherever for $500 for the kitten + $150 for shipping. Ive read on sites on how to avoid being scammed to I asked a lot of questions and he (Gabriel Frank most likely fake) was quite reassuring that he is legit about his business. I asked to FaceTime which we did but the connection kept cutting off and barely got a clear shot of his face so I asked for a reference and he gave me one so I reached out to them but never got a reply back. After hours of waiting my girlfriend and I decided to proceed with the adoption. I gave him my shipping info and told me that ill be in contact with the shipping agency. The morning of Wednesday April 8th, 2020 I received a email from the shippers asking me to pay the $650 right now so that they can ship the kitten asap. A bunch of red flags popped up for me about there shipping website then they called me and told me to pay now so they can ship out the kitten that day. The guy had broken Jamaican English and hard to understand. I was already very nervous and sketched out about everything. I got in contact with Gabriel and he told me that I need to pay the $650 so they can ship out the cat to you and I asked him, "but how come the $500 isn’t going to you and the whole $650 in going to them? I thought you told me it was $150 to ship" he responded with "they hold the $650 and once you receive the kitten in your arms ill get the $500". After hours of going back and worth with these guys my girlfriend and I decided to pay the $650 and strongly knew that this was mostly a scam but we thought to give them the benefit of the doubt cause the breeder seemed like a good guy but the shippers were a lot more aggressive and very unprofessional. My girlfriend paid $500 though Zelle and I paid $150 through Zelle. They told me i’ll be getting updates in the next morning. The morning of April 9th, 2020 I received a email from the shippers stating that I need to pay a $1460 insurance fee for the kitten to be shipped but the $1450 would be refunded once I get the kitten which I knew that was BS. At this point I am beyond furious because there was absolutely no record of them saying that so I was pissed off. I told them I’m not paying anything more then I agreed too, but if I was told this from the beginning then I was never had went through with this, but I knew I should’ve of as well so I’m kicking myself hard right now. After talking to the breeder he was also informed of the $1450 charge and was not aware of it as well. The shippers kept telling me to come up with the money so they can move forward. I was like, "NOPE!". The breeder was quite adamant that he was going to fix this but now my girlfriend and I are extremely disappointed and pissed off but also embarrassed so we just wanted a refund. They said they’ll refund us but it’ll take 7 days to do so, 7 days?? we paid through Zelle! Zelle us back our money which they said okay. The breeder kept trying to help fix the situation but I just told him that were done and want our money back. He’ll text me directly saying that if I have $460 then pay it but I told him, "no! I dont have that cause you guys took all my money" then he’ll ask me what I have right now but told him that’s not his concern. Later he asked me to $260 but again I told him the same thing but with more "!!!" and demanded for a refund. He told me to be patient and calm down and he’ll refund me but I have to wait till the next day. I have yet to hear back from the breeders and shippers. They blocked me on instagram cause "we weren’t serious about it". I am hurt by this cause to gain my trust he kept saying that "he is a man of god and faith" and kept quoting the Bible and this happens. Extremely disturbing. My girlfriend and I just want our money back and to learn from this and hopefully provide awareness for future buyer. Apologies for the novel and typos.
I have screenshots of the conversation and records of the transactions that were made.
I didn’t receive what I paid for.