E-mail asking to place pups is a fraud

By Joy Moffat, Best Friends Staff

Many of our members have been receiving an e-mail with the above subject; in fact, some people received it so many times that they got suspicious and asked us to investigate. The e-mail sounds harmless enough:

From: 'Dorothy Thompson.' <dorothy@inmail24.com>
Subject: Fwd: Bulldog Puppies For Adoption!!!

Hi! I am looking to place a litter of 5 adorable bulldog puppies and also the parents, they belong to my late mother in law who I was really close to and she passed away unexpectedly, these puppies are so cute with correct conformation & excellent dispositions with shots and wormings up to date. They do the funniest things. You just can't get enough of their playful antics. And they are growing so fast, contact me immediately if you are interested in them. Have a nice day, Dorothy

I e-mailed "Dorothy" asking if the dogs still needed placement and asked where she was located. Here is the response:

Hi! Thank you for emailing, these are english bulldogs and I need help placing puppies and parents, my mother in law's death was unexpected and she left no instructions, I am doing this in good faith to find these cute babies a permanent loving and caring homes, I am located in bangkok and I work as a nurse and put in a lot of my time at work and so can't afford the time and space needed to care for the dogs, they are 12 weeks old and have their complete shots and worming. I will be happy to place them all in a good home, adoption is $200 and shipping is $400. Pictures will be sent upon request. Looking forward to hearing from you, have a nice day, Dorothy

Even though I had not intention of sending $600 to Bangkok, I thought it would be interesting to see the photos. I received six .bmp files, one of which is shown above.

What you can do

Do not under any circumstances forward e-mails unless you have checked them out and know them to be true and you know that the person you are forwarding to actually wants to receive the message. Even if you trust the person who forwarded it to you, that does not mean the contents are true.

If you'd like to adopt a dog, please contact your local shelter or rescue.

---