Alert for pet scam...please crosspost

[brumzoo]

I received this from Dez Crawford, the Assistant Director of East Baton Rouge Parish Animal Control. Please crosspost!

Hi folks -- please be alert for international "animal dealers" wishing to adopt animals in large quantities from your organization.  I know you are all to smart to fall for this one, but you might know someone who is not so wise.

Beware < target="_blank">in particular anyone from Nigeria offering to adopt dogs and/or cats, puppies and kittens in quantity from your oganization.  The general scam is that the animals will be purchased in a large quantity, destined for pirvate homes.  They are also looking for protection breeds to work as guard dogs.

The general scam goes like this:

1. You will receive instructions to ship the animals to a destination, either an American port city or some destination in NIgeria.

2. You will receive a check (drawn on a Nigerian bank) which you must cash at an American bank, and convert to American dollars.  The check will be large enough to cover the amount of your adoption fee times the number of animals to be shipped, PLUS the "international shipping and customs costs" which the perpetrator of this scam claims must be paid on the receiving end. 

3. The idea is for you to cash the check, pay yourself the adoption fees, and return the balance in the form of a check drawn on an American bank, to the animal dealer. 

DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!  There are no homes on the other end.  This is a typical scam where one of two things is going on:

1.  A scam on the exchange rate for conversion of US dollars; or, more often,

2.  You must at some point divulge a checking account and/or a credit card number, either a personal account or your organization's account,  "for verification purposes at the Nigerian bank."  What happens? Your credit card is stolen, your bank account is emptied and your identity, either corporate or individual, is stolen.

3. Even worse, there are animal-buying scams on the Internet where animals supposedly go to loving homes and are sold for unscrupulous purposes.

Please beware of this and pass this on to anyone you know working in animal rescue. 

Thanks,

Dez Crawford