Victim Location 33133
Total money lost $1,540
Type of a scam Online Purchase
Benjamen Austerklin (telephone number (276) 293-1429 ) representing his website avalonpups.us, wherein he advertises puppies for sale, sold me a puppy on 4/7/18. Prior to that we had exchanged emails about the puppy in the course of which he wanted me to pay $550.00 for the purchase of a puppy named Charlie. I duly paid the $550.00 + $12.50 in fees via MoneyGram on 04/06/18 and Mr Austerklin collected the money at 12.44pm CST on 4/7/18 in Virginia. He gave his address as 19 Garland Street, Hampton, Virginia, 23669. He said he would arrange to ship the puppy to me.
On 04/07/18, I received an email from petsrelocate.us, purporting to be a pet relocation service (telephone number (757) 656-9217), saying my puppy REQUIRES A REFUNDABLE INSURANCE POLICY OF $970.00 prior to shipment. I subsequently spoke to one Harrisen Mbachick from petsrelocate.us, who said that the money was to be paid via Walmart to Walmart transfer as his computer had been hacked and so he was unable to accept payment in any other way. I went to Walmart and did the transfer to him, total amount $970 + $8.00 in fees. My Mbachick collected the money in Walmart Store # 5941 at 99H Street, NW Washington DC, 20001, at 10.08am EST.
After Mr Mbachick collected the money at 10.08am, he telephoned me at about 10.15pm, saying that the crate that the seller provided for the transporting of the puppy was inadequate and would cause distress to the puppy if used, that a temperature controlled crate was needed to transport the puppy at a cost of $1,499.00 USD, 90% of which would be refunded to me upon delivery. I then became immediately suspicious, looked online and saw warnings about these people/websites being scams. Since then neither seller nor shipper has answered phone calls or emails, and I have no puppy.
I have since discovered that both websites were registered to one name, one "Morgan Lorga".