For Lea Gemini, it was love at first sight when she saw the French bulldog advertised in the picture, “she just had the most gorgeous eyes, as soon as we saw that face, that was it.”
But despite paying $10,500, all she got was heartbreak.
The Melbourne woman decided to buy two dogs after losing her mother in 2020. It was one for herself and one for her daughter – both of them were going through tough times, and living apart amid Covid-19 lockdowns.
But when the breeders continued to demand further funds telling her the dogs were stuck in transit and would starve if she didn’t pay more in addition to the $8,000 deposited, Gemini began to realise it was a scam.
French bulldogs – in addition to cavoodles, mini teacup puppies, golden retrievers, corgies and dachshunds – are the breeds Victorian police said are most commonly used in the state’s widespread puppy scams.
Victorian police issued a warning on Monday as detectives across the state investigated reports of hundreds of people who have lost thousands of dollars after being scammed by fake puppy advertisements.
Police said Gemini’s case conforms to a pattern they are seeing, with victims asked to make cash deposits into a bank account for a puppy, which often includes costs for interstate transport, insurance and registration fees.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) said losses from pet scams have increased more than 1,000% over the last two years. Losses were just over $375,000 in 2019 but rose to more than $4.2m in 2021.
Liam Kennedy from consumer advocacy group Choice said pet scams have surged due to the pandemic creating a “perfect storm” making people more vulnerable to being ripped off with a fake pet.
Kennedy said more people were feeling isolated and sought pets to give them emotional connection. That meant fewer genuine pets were available at the same time as lockdown-imposed travel restrictions meant people couldn’t do as they normally do, visiting pets in person before buying them.
The ACCC told Kennedy most scams involved dogs and puppies, but could also involve cats, especially with Maine Coon kittens.
Dr Cassandra Cross, a criminologist at the Queensland University of Technology, told Choice the success of pet scams came from the fact buying a pet is an “emotional decision” which defrauders can easily take advantage of.
Kennedy emphasised the importance of reporting scams to your financial institution used to make the payment and the ACCC’s Scamwatch, as well as the platform you may have seen the ad on, such as Gumtree or Facebook marketplace.
But he said the cases were often hard to investigate because sometimes the scammers are based overseas.
Ann-Marie Freeman, a disability support worker in New South Wales, said her client’s malteliers (maltese cross King Charles cavelier) inspired her to get her own, Lola, 15 years ago. Freeman couldn’t stand the thought of losing Lola but struggled to find maltelier puppies until she came across an ad on Gumtree.
Freeman said they were already starting to pick out names for the new addition to their family, but when she asked for a video to be able to see the puppy’s nature, the breeders gave excuses and continued to ask her to pay in full.
“Then the ad for the puppies disappeared,” Freeman said. “We were heartbroken. So the search for the puppies started again.”
Freeman secured a male puppy called Knuckles, but when they were on their way to visit a companion for Knuckles the breeder started asking for more money than the $50 deposited. Eventually, they found the address given did not exist.
The acting Det Sgt of Brimbank crime investigative unit, Laura Montgomery, said “not only do victims lose a significant financial amount, this type of scam takes an enormous emotional toll on people who are devastated that they have been taken advantage of after wanting to bring in a puppy into their lives.”
Gemini said: “In the end, I didn’t care about the money. It was the fact that I couldn’t get this puppy and help my daughter who was at the time living in NSW.”
“So I couldn’t even put my arms around her and hold her. That’s what the dog was for.
“When we found all this out, it was just heart-wrenching. I really can’t describe the words … but I was gutted.
“Even though I know it wasn’t my fault, I did blame myself.”
Police and Choice have issued a range of advice to pet-buyers, including reverse searching images of pets to verify their source and to seek advice about the seller from a reputable breeder’s association.
A spokesperson for Meta (Facebook’s parent organisation) told Guardian Australia the company has partnered with IDCARE, Puppy Scams Awareness Australian and the Australian Small Business and Family Ombudsman’s office to run two consumer awareness campaigns in the past six months to help users identify scams.
Gumtree has been approached for comment.
