Victim Location 86404
Type of a scam Online Purchase
We were looking into getting a golden doodle from Mikes Golden Doodles (website). We contacted him through emails and texts getting info. He said the puppies were regularly $1000, but now half price because they were retiring from the business and moving to Canada. He sent about 5 more photos. They would ship the puppy to our address for $150. He said they were out of Atlanta GA. We live in AZ. That was the first red flag. We got to the point where he wanted us to send the funds, but he wanted to continue through texting. He wanted us to send it through Zelle and gave us his sons email account to use. 2nd red flag. I had a few more questions and wanted to do it over the phone. I called him then and a person with a Mexican decent accent answered the phone claiming he was Mike. When I questioned his accent to the photo on their website, he said that was his brother. Another question about the lividity of using his sons email account. (The website family photo showed the two sons as little kids.) That question caused him to hang up. I did a little more research and found their facebook page. It had a different name. Mike and Sara’s Goldendoodles. There were a few family photos that appeared to be close to the same website family photo, but not exact. There was a different phone number so I called that and got an Asian decent accent female that answered saying she was Sara. I just hung up. (The family photo shows a white American looking Family) A few minutes later we got another text from Mike asking if we still wanted to deal. I sent him an answer back asking why he hung up. He then called me saying he just lost connection. I questioned him why he was trying to scam us and without any argument, hung up. Proud business owners would not attempt to stand up for their name and companies reputation. Their website and Facebook page looked very legit. They even have an Instagram page, but known of the three link together or mention each other. The guy saying he was Mike, his area code was out of Mass. The website phone number goes back to a Southbend IN. area code. Luckily for us they didn’t do such a good job at making the transaction as they did on their website.