MASON CITY, IA - For many people looking for a pet means browsing through the classifieds section. The animals are usually local and buyers can talk directly with the breeder, but a growing number of scam listings are causing concern for one area shelter.
When the Humane Society of North Iowa has extra kennel space they look for listings both in the paper and online giving animals away. Those at the humane society say lately some of those ads are turning out to be scams, and they want to make sure people around here don't fall for them.
“Somebody had listed some free yorkie puppies,” said Sybil Soukup, executive director at the Humane Society of North Iowa.
Soukup says she found one such ad in a local online listing.
“I'd emailed the contact because they had an email and immediately he responded and said he'd just love to give these dogs to me and I thought too good to be true,” said Soukup.
Turns out it was.
“I Googled this guy's email address and discovered that this is a major international scam that lots of people have been scammed out of thousands of dollars because of it,” said Soukup.
The scammer claims the dogs are overseas...and requires insurance and ownership fee payments be made before the dogs are sent.
“People are wrapped up into it and they really are picturing this puppy in a cargo hold and they're worried about it,” said Soukup.
And unfortunately this type of scam is nothing new to law enforcement.
“Oh I think it's something we see every day,” said Brett Hollander, investigator with the Mason City Police Department.
Hollander says even though more and more scams are discovered each day, people are still falling for them and losing money.
“Unfortunately in this economy people are always willing to make some money and there's thieves out there that are willing to take your money,” said Hollander.
Hollander says it's never a good idea to do business overseas with people you don't know.
“Stay local if you can it's tough to find a lot of things that are local but you're going to be much more likely to come across a trustworthy source that way,” said Hollander.
Especially when looking for a pet.
“There are hundreds of thousands of homeless, abandoned and displaced animals in our very own country in our very own backyard that are looking for loving homes,” said Soukup.
Soukup says in one week she ran across two different pet scams online.
