The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

Local News

March 21, 2007

Greenville woman victimized by dog scam on Internet

By Patrick W. Connelly

GREENVILLE — A Greenville woman has been scammed out of $240 after trying to buy a dog through the Internet.

Jennifer Sheffer, 18, said she tried to buy an English bulldog puppy Friday through a classified advertisement on Yahoo.com.

The seller, who was listed as living in Ohio, was offering to give away the bulldog for free to a caring home as long as the buyer paid for shipping.

Miss Sheffer decided to buy the puppy, and the seller told her it would be delivered Monday.

Miss Sheffer said she sent the seller money through Western Union, but didn’t get the dog.

After contacting the buyer, she was told the dog was going to be shipped from Nigeria. At the suggestion of the seller, she agreed to pay more money so the pet could travel in a special shipping crate.

“He kept sending e-mails wanting more and more money,” Miss Sheffer said.

The seller, who is only known through a Yahoo e-mail address as “Donald Ray,” continued to send requests for money as recently as Tuesday.

Miss Sheffer said she called state police Monday to see what she should do next.

“These Internet crimes kind of limit us to what we can do,” said trooper Robert Soros.

Miss Sheffer first paid $165 for the shipping and handling of the bulldog, then an additional $75 for shipping from Nigeria.

The trooper said he alerted security at Yahoo of the scam. Yahoo told Soros they would look into the matter, but couldn’t offer any evidence for his local investigation.

Because the amount of money wasn’t that large, Soros said it would be hard to track, especially if it is now overseas.

Yahoo! Inc. is a global Internet portal that offers a wide range of online tools. Among those services are a search engine, news articles, e-mail, games and shopping.

A shopping feature on the Web site allows users to list products they would like to sell, and other users have a chance to buy those products.

Sellers usually ask buyers to pay for their purchases through a trusted online money transfer service like PayPal, while others will sometimes accept personal checks or money orders.

Other victims of what Yahoo is calling the “Nigerian dog scam” created a message board to raise awareness so others don’t get tricked.

Classified advertisements on other sites Wednesday featured similar postings using the same e-mail address to sell dogs.

One ad lists a Chihuahua puppy for sale in Hawaii, while another has a Yorkshire terrier for sale. The ad for the terrier lists a phone number with an Alaska area code.

Miss Sheffer said she plans to be careful if she buys anything else online in the future.



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