“THE SCAMMERS ARE GETTING MORE SOPHISTICATED AND becoming better at camouflaging themselves, and pretending to be you.”
thing that looks suspicious. If you have a web presence on the Internet, do some general searches occasional- ly just to ensure that your information hasn’t been stolen and is being used to sell invisible puppies. We need to be visible to the public, but we need to be aware and constantly on our guard for fraudsters who will use our good reputations to further their crimes.
might need to give the warning fre- quently. I post warnings on our breed and kennel clubs’ public Facebook pages, as well as in groups and on my personal page frequently. Finally, if your information has been stolen (photos, website, pedigrees or anything they can use to illegally sell invisible puppies), let everyone in the group know and tag the administra- tor so that the admin can block them. If your website is copied and used as a counterfeit site, use a resource such as https://lookup.icann.org/ to tell you who the host domain is for the repli- cated illegitimate website. Once you find that domain, send an email with the information to: abuse@ that do- mainname . Also, send the information to: https://petscams.com/report-pet- scam-websites/ . They only investigate website domains. Additionally, report the scam to: https://reportfraud.ftc. gov/#/ . And finally, report it to the FBI, as they investigate and track cyber scams at https:// www.ic3.gov/ . You can report it to Facebook if they posted there or if they’ve misappro- priated your photos from your pages. However, so far, Facebook just keeps sending us messages that they haven’t violated any “community standards.” I’ve announced several times in my groups that we’ve reported the po- tential scams to the FBI, and some newmembers immediately disappear from the group. The scammers are getting more so- phisticated and becoming better at camouflaging themselves, and pre- tending to be you. Work with your social media groups and your breed clubs to be pro-active and warn peo- ple of the dangers. Look out for each other’s information and report any-
This is where the theft of your identity lies. The information on the Facebook pages, puppy pictures, and kennel names are quite possibly yours. In a recent example, the scammer’s Face- book page profile had my bitch Spar- kles’ photo. The website was copied completely from one of our national club member’s sites, with just the “Contact Us” information changed as well as a few photos swapped out. The kennel and website name used was another kennel from overseas, with the domain name extension changed. They didn’t even change the breeder’s name in the “About Us” they had sto- len from the legitimate website. To the puppy buyer, it looks com- pletely legitimate. You are ignorant to the fact that someone is using your kennel information (and maybe even your name) to steal someone’s money by selling them a non-existent puppy. So how do we fight this fraud? First, we need to market our breed clubs to the public, and direct people to our puppy referrals and breeders’ listings. When contacted by a potential puppy buyer, don’t ignore it just because you don’t have puppies or because they are all spoken for. Re-direct them to legitimate sources. If you are on Face- book or other social media and you see suspicious identities, Facebook pages, comments or websites, inves- tigate them and report them to the group and page administrators. Ad- vise people when they state that they are looking for a puppy that if they get a private message, they should verify with a breeder or kennel club that the person is legitimate. We need to edu- cate the peoplewe interact with on so- cial media about the dangers of puppy scams. If you are in a breed group, you
BIO Susan Thibodeaux began showing dogs in 1978. Ten years ago, after years in the Sporting Group showing pri- marily Vizslas, Cockers, and English Cockers, she made the decision to segue to the Toy Group and now has Toy Fox Terriers and Toy Manchester Terri- ers. Susan is Vice President and Breed Education Chair for the American Toy Fox Terrier Club and on the Board of the Brevard Kennel Club. In addition to showing, Susan can be found hav- ing fun in various events such as Rally, FastCAT, and Barn Hunt as well as stewarding and judging sweepstakes and match shows.
24 • T op N otch T oys , J anuary 2022
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