There are a lot of scammers posing as breeders, pretending to sell fictitious puppies. They take your deposit and you never hear from them again. These scammers often are running out of foreign countries, posing as USA or Canadian breeders selling adorable little puppies, when in fact they don't even own a dog themselves let alone have a puppy to sell. How can you tell if the breeder you are dealing with is for real and not one of those scams running out of countries such as Nigeria or other foreign countries? Be extra cautious of ads found in free classified ads, (sites where it is free to post an ad). One does not have to avoid sites which run free listings, as there are plenty of legit ads on them, however do be extra cautious, as scammers feed on free places to find their pray. A lot of these scammers create a website or classified ad page to sell their so called "puppies". They steal images and text off of actual breeder websites. At first glance their websites look really legit. You fall in love with the picture, contact the scammer and begin to talk to them about purchasing the adorable little puppy. Eventually you send them a deposit via usually Western Union, and you suddenly never hear from them again. You never receive your puppy, because there was no puppy, and you just lost your money. These scammers often steal pictures from the internet of the most irresistible dogs and puppies and post them for sale. For example, here is a blog on the same deceased Pekingese being sold over and over again. http://ravinwoodfarm.blogspot.com. The dog's name is Hershey and he passed away late 2005. A good way to determine if a picture of a dog or puppy posted for sale is really for sale, or is simply a stolen picture, ask the seller to send you a picture of that same dog or puppy with something in the picture which you can identify. Such as a piece of paper with the date written on it, or even with your own name written on it. Beware of doctored pictures, so ask to see different shots of the same dog in different poses with your identifiable object in the picture. Because these scammers are running out of third world foreign countries, catching them is difficult to almost impossible. In order for you to prosecute the scammer, the country you are in would have to work with the country they are in. In most cases, the country the scammer is running out of is not willing to cooperate. The cost of prosecuting the scammer is very high and the country you are in will most likely not be willing to fork out the money. So what can we do about these scams? We can educate ourselves on how to detect them, and not fall for it. If scammers can't scam us, they wont make money and we all know it's the money that is driving them to do it. Useful tips on detecting a scammer posing as a breeder 1. Look at the website very closely for clues. For example, these scammers are stealing pictures from other websites and adding their own description under them. One website pretending to sell Beagle puppies had a photo of a dog that was clearly not a Beagle puppy. They also had photos of male puppies and under the photo claimed the dog to be a female or vice versa. 2. Ask to see more photos of the same puppy from different angles. Ask to see a picture of the same puppy when it was a few weeks younger. Can the breeder produce them? 3. One reason these scam websites look so legit is because they are stealing text from real breeder websites. If you find another website with those same exact words on it, a red flag should go up. Either the site you are investigating has stolen the words, OR they have had their words stolen from them. 4. Does the "breeder" you have contacted communicate in broken English? Since most of these scammers are working out of foreign countries, their English is not very good. They will usually have many spelling and grammar errors in their emails. 5. A red flag should go up if the scammer will only take their payment via Western Union, or another odd form of payment. The best solution? Don't buy from a breeder! Go to an animal shelter and adopt a pet from there. The animals in pounds and shelters all desperately need loving homes or they will be put to death. You'll love and adore your new companion just as much as if you'd bought him from a breeder. It's a wonderful feeling to rescue an animal and watch them blossom as a result of your kindness and loving care. And thousands of dogs in animal shelters are purebreds! You can even go to a purebred rescue group and adopt a dog (even a puppy) from there. Adopting cats and kittens through rescue groups is wonderful, too. You'll avoid scams and you won't be supporting horrific puppy mills. Remember: DON'T BREED OR BUY WHILE SHELTER PETS DIE!!!