If you’re looking to buy a purebred puppy or dog online, listen…there are a lot of people who are going to judge you. Unless you have a breed-specific service or protection need, there are about a million mutts in the shelter who will happily take their place as your family dog.
If you are looking for a specific breed for one reason or another, this account says they can let you know what to look out for to avoid getting scammed.
The video on TikTok is by @telltailpets, and in it, they talk through the most common scam they see online.
TellTail is “the only matching service for certified dog breeders and qualified puppy buyers,” and so their goal is to help you find the perfect (legit) puppy.
The four words they want you to be on the look out for are “for adoption and rehoming.”
Image Credit: TikTok
TellTail claims it’s a red flag for people or groups trying to prey on people looking for a specific breed of puppy.
“I spend my days studying these scammers. I know how they operate. They prey on people who are looking for very specific types of dogs by creating these groups that are easily found in Facebook searches. Just as a disclaimer, I can’t say 100% for sure that these are scammers, but from the research that I’ve done, they don’t look very legit.”
She uses screenshots to demonstrate her points, like this one, where there seem to be random photos.
“There are lots of posts like this just gushing over at this particular Facebook admin. There are also lots of photos that don’t belong to the person posting them.”
Image Credit: TikTok
And she describes what exactly looks like a red flag and why she believes it is one.
“That was actually one of the first really big red flags that I saw on these groups, is that the only people who are allowed to sell dogs are the admins of the group or what appear to be very scammy accounts. They also turn off commenting on most of the posts. So the only people who are allowed to comment are admins or what appear to be very hacked scammy accounts.”
Also, sometimes the “happy adopters” posting photos don’t look like the people in those photos.
“These are real people looking for real puppies, and the process of bringing a puppy home is so exciting and so emotional, so to get scammed in the process is just devastating.”
Some people in the comments were happy for the head’s up, but others are skeptical of the account itself, and anyone who would support breeders at all.
Image Credit: TikTok
TellTail offered this comment to The Daily Dot regarding those remarks.
“It is core to the TellTail mission that we support only ethical breeders. We have a thorough screening process, which includes ID verification, puppy mill screening, and live interviews to ensure that only responsible breeders are certified. We also provide education, resources, and other support to breeders to help them in any way we can, and we have breeders on our staff who can help answer questions and help in the screening process of new certified breeders.”
Here’s the full video…
@telltailpets #petscams are getting worse on social media. Here are four words that might help you to avoid them in your search for a #newpuppy #puppyscam #breeder #dogbreeder
Tiktokers had some thoughts…
Including what to avoid at all costs…
Photo Credit: TikTok
And some other helpful tips…
Photo Credit: TikTok
Overall, people were very thankful for the info.
Photo Credit: TikTok
Be careful out there when buying anything on the internet, basically.
Everyone should know that by now.