A South Coast man has been convicted of recklessly dealing with nearly $50,000 swindled through an online puppy scam.
Jeremadra man Steven Rootsey, 33, was asked to convert money to crypto currency by an unknown person via Snapchat last year, according to documents tendered to Batemans Bay Local Court.
Rootsey was promised 10 per cent of the funds in return.
The documents state he told police the deal originally sounded "too good to be true".
The proceeds of a scam selling non-existent puppies to the public were deposited into several bank accounts under Rootsey's name during July last year.
A number of victims were scammed from a series of websites and Facebook posts advertising puppies for sale and asking for money to be transferred into personal bank accounts.
There were five victims identified in court documents who reported the crime to police after each of them said they had not received their dog or further communication from the website seller.
The transactions ranged from several hundred to several thousand dollars each and were all from different account holders with references to dogs and city permits.
Lucrative deal for crypto exchange
Court documents show police discovered the total amount of the transactions amounted to $46,886 of which Rootsey gained a $5290 share.
They also found he converted 90 per cent of the proceeds into crypto currency as directed and transferred it into the person's online accounts, which police said were untraceable.
Rootsey transferred the remaining 10 per cent into his own personal accounts.
Information from the Scamwatch website, which was also tendered to the court, revealed numerous other complaints in Australia and internationally about websites like classypuppyhome.com and activestaffordshirebullterrierpuppies.com having defrauded other customers.
The website, classypuppyhome.com is currently shutdown and a police check on the website's email showed it used international IP addresses.
Rootsey also said he was suspicious of the African area code on the number used to call him about converting the currency.
He pleaded guilty on Monday to four counts of recklessly dealing with the proceeds of a crime.
He is due to face Batemans Bay Local Court for sentencing next month.
