{"id":10591,"date":"2021-02-02T09:00:45","date_gmt":"2021-02-02T17:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/blog\/?p=10591"},"modified":"2021-01-29T11:45:54","modified_gmt":"2021-01-29T19:45:54","slug":"pet-scams-are-on-the-rise-due-to-the-coronavirus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.socialcatfish.cloud\/scamfish\/pet-scams-are-on-the-rise-due-to-the-coronavirus\/","title":{"rendered":"Pet Scams Are On the Rise Due to the Coronavirus"},"content":{"rendered":"

During the coronavirus quarantine<\/a>, many people have felt lonely since we have had to quarantine in our homes away from many of our friends and family members. This is why many people have started to adopt pets in order to make some of the lonely feelings go away. However, many animal shelters and pet shops have sold out of their pets due to the spike in pet sales during this time. This has caused many people to try and look for a pet online<\/a>, but scammers know this and have also created fake pet sales websites. This has caused many people to become heartbroken as they become victims of pet scams.<\/p>\n

Pet Scams Have Risen Due to the Coronavirus Pandemic<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Turtle-on-the-grass-745700-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

According to the BBB,<\/a> there have been around 4,000 reports of pet scams in the year 2020 due to the coronavirus pandemic. In April 2020 during the first full month of the coronavirus, there were more reports about fake pet websites than the first three months of 2020 combined.<\/p>\n

This has continued into the holiday season of 2020, where people were trying to gift pets to their loved ones for the holidays, but instead, they were left heartbroken and disappointed. There were 337 reports of pet scams during the holiday season<\/a> of 2020, compared to only 77 reports of pet scams in 2019.<\/p>\n

How Pet Scams Work<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Grey-kitty-892223-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n

Scammers send phishing emails<\/a> promoting\u00a0fake pet store websites<\/a> that look legitimate in hopes that they can steal money from their potential victims. These websites include cute photos of puppies and kittens, as well as cool-looking exotic animals, horses, and birds. These photos are enough to make their victims fall in love with the animal behind the screen, as they become desperate to get to meet the animal in person.<\/p>\n

However, scammers are clever<\/a> and tell their victims they can’t meet their animal friend in person unless they pay for the animal, due to the coronavirus. They ask their victims to wire them thousands upon thousands of dollars so that they can meet their furry friend, and the victim complies excited to meet their new animal friend.<\/p>\n

The scammer asks for more money due to extra shipping fees, convenience fees, cleaning fees, and any other fee they can come up with as an excuse. The victim wires them more and more money, only to realize that they are giving money to a scammer and will never meet their new pet.<\/p>\n

How to Avoid Pet Scams<\/h2>\n[aesop_image img=”https:\/\/socialcatfish.com\/scamfish\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/Muzzle-of-calm-purebred-brown-447977-scaled.jpg” panorama=”off” imgwidth=”100%” align=”center” lightbox=”off” captionsrc=”custom” captionposition=”center” revealfx=”off” overlay_revealfx=”off”]\n