Woman loses hundreds while trying to adopt dogs

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    NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) — A woman called News 4 Nashville in tears after she says the puppies that she wanted never arrived.

“I feel really stupid. And there’s nothing I can do about it,” Deborah McCahon said.

$1,000 gone and no puppies to keep her company.

“And now, I can’t afford to buy any dog,” McCahon said.

MaCahon wanted two Yorkie puppies. Her friend got in touch with a seller online.

“On Sunday, she decided to go ahead and ship them to me, and so she took them to a shipping company called Companion Pet Movers,” McCahon said.

The company told McCahon they need $400 for a thermal crate, and told her she had to go out and purchase a gift card in order to make the payment. They wouldn’t let her do a bank transfer.

“They said no, it had to be like an American Express card that you buy. So I went out and bought four cards,” McCahon said.

But the company kept saying that there were more expenses she had to pay. Eventually, McCahon spent over $1,000 and still, the two Yorkies didn’t arrive.

“It really makes me angry,” McCahon tearfully said.

News 4 took McCahon’s picture and did a reverse image search, only to discover these two Yorkie’s popped up everywhere in classified ads from all across North America. One of the ads were on Pinterest, another from Denver, Colorado, another ad was from Alberta, Canada. One ad showing the same puppies was posted over a year ago. The BBB of Middle Tennessee and Southern KY says this is a sure indicator of a puppy scam.

“These scammers, when they create these sites to sell puppies, almost as quickly as the transaction goes through, the site disappears. And they create something else,” Robyn Householder, President and CEO of the Better Business Bureau of Middle TN and Southern KY.

The BBB says soon after cities and states began to impose tighter restrictions to curb the spread of COVID-19, BBB Scam tracker saw a spike in pet fraud reports, with nearly 4,000 reports received in 2020 from the U.S. and Canada.

News 4 reached out to the so called movers, but after asking them questions about when McCahon would get her puppies, they hung up.

“I had my heart set on it. And I think we’ve been broken. But I don’t know if it’s reparable.” McCahon said.

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