Victim Location 31210
Total money lost $670
Type of a scam Other
I saw an ad off of Craigslist for a specific type of dog that I wanted. There were three ads in total for the same dogs, one being newer than the one before it to make it look like an ongoing sell. The newest ad had advertised the dogs to be selling at a ‘reasonable price’ as the dogs were getting older. I contacted the number on the page through text, in which I soon agreed to pay a deposit of $400 to a person named ‘Lace Williams’. This person’s Venmo couldn’t work, so I had to send the payment to a person named ‘Jeffery Brewer’ instead on CashApp. One thing I noticed was that the ad was listed under Georgia, where I’m at. But the seller was in Ohio. He then said that the dog was ‘ready to be shipped’. The next day I paid an extra $150 for a total of $550 for the dog itself. I was later asked for $120 to pay for the crate that the dog was to be put in. Throughout these transactions, the seller would send pictures of the apparent dog and even a picture of the crate. Now apparently that day I paid for the crate, the shipping company was closed for the day, and instead he ‘went’ the next day. That same day I was told to pay $340 for insurance to get the dog past ‘control point’ due to security changes caused by Covid-19. Therefore, the dog was stuck at the airport and could not be delivered to me. I did not pay this, and insisted to know the name of the airline that was used to ship the dog, to which I was not answered nor even told why exactly I had to pay for insurance. The reason stated above was only provided by the seller himself whom I demanded an explanation from and also seemed to know more about the issue than the shipping company itself was willing to answer. He went to say that the insurance was ‘refundable’ and that it was he who would need to hand it in in person to the shipping company in Ohio to pay it, in which I would then be refunded $320 and they keep $20 for unknown ‘charges’. I demanded to get my money back, in which the seller proceeded to say to ‘press charges’ against him instead and if anything were to happen to the dog, that I would be held ‘accountable’ as it was already under my name (as stated on a fake certificate he had sent earlier in the process). Some other details include him pretending to be an old man with a grandson whom he would send to the shipping company to hand over the insurance money if given. He also further pretended to have shipped this dog and that he does not own this fake shipping company website which he also couldn’t provide video proof of its actual existence in Ohio when I asked him to. He also provided a tracking number for the dog shipment (which he took too long to provide perhaps because he was creating it himself) that I’d have to input into the shipping company site which then showed shipment details that weren’t specific at all. This shipping company does not have a working phone number (it led to a stranger that was wondering why I was even calling her number) and an unreliable address. They could only be contacted through email but even then do not answer inquiries despite having read them. The address of the seller himself does not exist on the map and his phone numbers were obtained through Google Voice and Textmail, and not a reliable trackable cellular service.