The inevitable wave of scammers

[Crys]

Just a head's up to everyone on the site: as happens periodically, we're being hit by a deluge of scammers and spammers. This time they seem to be hitting the story comments and the classifieds pretty hard. We've got some smart ones too, people selling puppies claiming to be from rural areas of Wisconsin but who are actually posting from Africa.

So we're trying to catch them all, but please be aware that there is always a chance we'll miss a couple. Before buying or selling anything, make sure you are really dealing with who that person says they are. If they give you a Wisconsin phone number or address, make contact with them using that information rather than letting them make contact only, and if possible verify the information (such as doing a white pages lookup) with a third-party source.

[Scarberry2003]

Speaking of puppy ads,, what about obvious puppy mills. I have noticed classifieds by people with up to 10 different breeds, and more dogs than any normal breeder would have.

[Kris10]

Originally Posted by Scarberry2003

Speaking of puppy ads,, what about obvious puppy mills. I have noticed classifieds by people with up to 10 different breeds, and more dogs than any normal breeder would have.

Yes! Unless you are a rescue, why would you have so many different breeds? Surely a rescue would also identify itself as a rescue. I'd like to hear from these classified posters... why do you have so many dogs, and how can you justify $1000+ prices for "designer dogs" that are simply mutts?

Puppy mills are a huge problem in Wisconsin, particularly in Clark County. Do your research before buying a puppy:

www.nowisconsinpuppymills.com

[pk]

I will say without actually naming the member that there is one that comes on here quite often and claims the 'dog' is a family pet but they need to reduce down because they have to many. Or the dog is a friend's dog and they are trying to help out by putting the ad on.... etc. She use to only put one ad on at a time but I noticed she is getting more bold and putting several ads on at once now.

I know of this person simply because this was one of the several places I went to looking for a small dog one time. All I can say is the fact that she certainly has alot more dogs as 'pets' since she showed me she had when I was there. And that was just a few months ago. Her pricing has gone way up also.

pk

[Scarberry2003]

I know who you are talking about, ,there is a new one too that has been posting lately,, has at least 10 breeds of dogs. Any "responsible" breeder limits themselves to one, or two breeds and those are usually 2 breeds that are similar.

And this "designer" doggie thing is a joke. Used to be you got Peek-A-Poo's for free because it was a accident most of the time. I bet the people at AKC are just loving this designer trend thing.

I tend to believe the best dog is a mutt myself,, our best dog so far was a collie/golden mix,, and she was a freebie!!!

[tjsharky]

If they give you a Wisconsin phone number or address, make contact with them using that information rather than letting them make contact only, and if possible verify the information (such as doing a white pages lookup) with a third-party source.

Http://www.att.com/directory is the site I find to be very helpful, and may help steer someone away from a bad incedent. If you can't find info from a phone number here, it's best to stay away.

[Scarberry2003]

I also believe this is the same person trying to sell merle/merle crosses for a "friend" ANY breeder that knows what they are doing knows that you do NOT cross 2 merles. You end up with tons of health problems. These dogs are usually blind, deaf, and have a host of other issues. If anyone tries to sell you a dog whose both parents are merles, the pups will either have issues,, or the parents are not who they say they are. Good chance the momma got with a unregistered dog and they are trying to pass the pups off as registered by using a different sire on the papers.

Had this issue once with someone trying to sell a horse who's color was genetically impossible considering the sire and dam's colors,,, but there was this suspicious other stallion that was most likely the sire.

[Crys]

Unfortunately, there's really no way for us to be sure when we're going through the classifieds. Suspicions aren't hard evidence and I prefer to err on the side of not driving away legit users. All I can really say is whether or not they're posting from Wisconsin, and with some ISPs I can't even be one hundred percent positive of that (for instance, Road Runner's got some of their servers registered with ARIN as regions and states, and a lot of legit users that I know for certain are posting from Wisconsin show up as having Hawaiian or Coloradan IP addresses). I'm a little concerned about certain unnamed members being puppymills too, but the best thing to do for that really is to educate people what to look for and so drive the mills out of business. Unless there's some kind of fraud or abuse conviction against a person, I can't really justify deleting them. Innocent until proven guilty, you might say.

I believe the next big overhaul of the site includes a reputation system as we've talked about implementing. I think that will also help cut down the instance of mills advertising on the site because they will probably end up with a negative reputation which will warn users not to buy from them.

If there aren't posts on puppy mills, how to detect them, how to deal with them, etc, already in the Pets forum, I greatly encourage you to create a few and keep them lively so they stay near the top of board. Education on the subject is the best weapon.

[kmfarm]

Crys,

You and the team are doing a great job. Keep up the good work and stay on the path.

Mark

[Crys]

Thanks Mark!