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A warning has been issued to puppy lovers over a widespread scam selling young Yorkies on Facebook.
Hackers took control of a former policeman’s Facebook account for more than nine months in a bid to sell dogs that don’t exist.
The real officer has been left having to answer dozens of victims who were duped by the scam.
A Facebook post published on his account, read: “FREE PUPPIES!!! They are Yorkies full Blooded, we can’t keep eight puppies. Sady… so they are in need [of] good homes […] only rehoming fee please dm me.”
One viewer, named Taheshah Krejchi, was lucky enough to dodge the scam, after being asked to pay £239 ($300) rehoming free for the dogs.
READ MORE: ‘I spent £1,000 buying a puppy online – the picture was a red flag’
In an interview with KCENNews, Krejchi said she had messaged the person she believed to be Ken Miller in January about the free Yorkies on Facebook but eventually suspected she was being duped and called off the deal.
“Then I was on a mission to make sure that the real Ken Miller was notified and that this page was taken down,” she told the news outlet.
The real Ken Miller behind the hijacked Facebook page told the news organization of his upset at finding out his account was used in the “crooked” scam, saying: “It hurts my heart.”
The retired police officer said he had people showing up to his home in Texas and calling him on the phone demanding to see the puppies.
Pet scams have become rife in the US since the pandemic sent Americans’ demands for pets soaring. In reports dating back to 2021, Texas ranked highly in the number of states in America where puppy scams are most frequent, coming in second place after California.
In almost all cases, the fraudsters behind these scams target buyers to send deposits through wire transfers or popular cash applications.
The con artists typically prefer to handle all communications with their scam victim in writing and avoid the phone at all costs.
One of the best ways to avoid having your account scammed is to make sure a two-step authentification setting is active on your devices, as this prevents your information from going public.
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