DURBAN North police have opened a case of fraud after a man was scammed out of R98 000 in an online pet scam. According to Capt Raymond Deokaran, spokesman for the station, the victim had paid the money for several pure breed French bulldogs.
Since the money was deposited however, the victim only received one of the dogs and the suspect involved in the case has now disappeared.
“The victim saw an online ad selling pure-breed French bulldogs. He contacted the person whose details were listed on the advert. The scam artist asked for the money to be paid upfront, which the victim did, only to receive just one dog. He has since tried to contact the number but there was no answer. In most of the cases we’ve opened this year, the scam artists takes the money without delivering,” Deokaran said.
Read also: Man loses 6K in ‘pedigree’ dog online scam
Deokaran said they were increasingly seeing more cases of people being defrauded online.
“This is the sixth incident this year alone involving the sales of pedigree dogs. We are warning residents to be wary of scams like this. If it seems to too good to be true, in most cases it is. We urge residents not to deposit monies without checking the authenticity of the seller,” he said.
He urged residents to adopt animals from reputable shelters and breeders.
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