Ok-this is scary!!PLEASE READ!!

I placed an ad on petfinders yesterday for the kittens and I got this email today. I dont even think I am going to *ship* my kittys to another state! And the email just kinda freaked me out! What do you all think?

Good Day Sir/Ma

Am Mr Jibi Omoba ,I Hail from Salt lake City {Utah} , I will like to tell that i want to adopt /buying your pet that you you advertised on the internet but i want to know if the pets is in good condition becasuse i want toadoptlbuying the pet for my dougher cos her pet just died and she;s not happy at home m she felt lonely all the times andshe ask me to get another pet for her so that she can be happy again and to know tha final asking price , including the pictures if available ,and i want to tell you that you are less concern about about the shipping becaus there's a pick up company from Nigeria Lagos city that always do pick up for me , they are international pick up company fast and reliable ,i hope this transaction will be fast because is within the state . So i want you to reply soon

Best Regards
Jibi Omoba

I placed an ad on petfinders yesterday for the kittens and I got this email today. I dont EVEN think I am going to *ship* my kittys to another state! And the email just kinda freaked me out! What do you all think? And then at the end theres another email, and I have NO clue what its about! I am totally confused here.

Good Day Sir/Ma

Am Mr Jibi Omoba ,I Hail from Salt lake City {Utah} , I will like to tell that i want to adopt /buying your pet that you you advertised on the internet but i want to know if the pets is in good condition becasuse i want toadoptlbuying the pet for my dougher cos her pet just died and she;s not happy at home m she felt lonely all the times andshe ask me to get another pet for her so that she can be happy again and to know tha final asking price , including the pictures if available ,and i want to tell you that you are less concern about about the shipping becaus there's a pick up company from Nigeria Lagos city that always do pick up for me , they are international pick up company fast and reliable ,i hope this transaction will be fast because is within the state . So i want you to reply soon

Best Regards
Jibi Omoba

Goodday,



am interested in buying your Dog,let me know the price you are willing to sell it for me,and i will want you to attach the current picture and send it to me ok.And i will come over and pick it up.and i

do located in Ont canada.

Waiting.

Frank.

Originally Posted by catloverin_ks

I placed an ad on petfinders yesterday for the kittens and I got this email today. I dont even think I am going to *ship* my kittys to another state! And the email just kinda freaked me out! What do you all think?

Good Day Sir/Ma

Am Mr Jibi Omoba ,I Hail from Salt lake City {Utah} , I will like to tell that i want to adopt /buying your pet that you you advertised on the internet but i want to know if the pets is in good condition becasuse i want toadoptlbuying the pet for my dougher cos her pet just died and she;s not happy at home m she felt lonely all the times andshe ask me to get another pet for her so that she can be happy again and to know tha final asking price , including the pictures if available ,and i want to tell you that you are less concern about about the shipping becaus there's a pick up company from Nigeria Lagos city that always do pick up for me , they are international pick up company fast and reliable ,i hope this transaction will be fast because is within the state . So i want you to reply soon

Best Regards
Jibi Omoba

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I think someone got a similar response recently from a Petfinder ad. It is indeed very creepy - I guess I'd just delete it.

Originally Posted by kluchetta

I think someone got a similar response recently from a Petfinder ad. It is indeed very creepy - I guess I'd just delete it.

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YES!! I went to delete it and it asked me for a password-which I have no clue as to what they are talking about! I am totally creeped out here! My mailbox is full from these people wanting my cats! And they arent even from the same state! Why would they want a kitten from another state? Thats what worrys me!! HELP me please! I want my ad OFF of there-I am really freaking out!!

It sounds as though he was using a translator. I would simply ignore it, or ask to speak to him on the phone. Shipping a cat is very dangerous, and I would not chance it.

Why does he speak of a company that is international if he does not need it? Perhaps it would be best to simply delete it.

Originally Posted by catloverin_ks

YES!! I went to delete it and it asked me for a password-which I have no clue as to what they are talking about! I am totally creeped out here! My mailbox is full from these people wanting my cats! And they arent even from the same state! Why would they want a kitten from another state? Thats what worrys me!! HELP me please! I want my ad OFF of there-I am really freaking out!!

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How did you put it on in the first place? I know there are people on here who have used Petfinder, but I haven't, so I'm not much help except for moral support. I may look online a bit to see if there are other people with this problem.

Ok, I found this on a message board, one person posted, and another said it was a scam and this is how it works:

...Yep,it is something like that.I have heard of these scams before and apparantly these scammers do scan the Petfinder classified ads regularly because there have been numerous people posting on the messageboards about these similar types of e-mails.You did the right thing with alerting Petfinder.I just hope these scammers don't cause Petfinder to do away with the ads. ...

So I guess the best thing to do it contact Petfinder...

It is awful that people do stuff like this for there own kicks.... I wish you luck in deleting the email....

It's a scam. If you get an email from someone not in your state about your pet, it's a scam. Think about it. Is there a shortage of moggie kittens anywhere in the world? Nope. Are yours super amazing and wonderful to justify flying them all over? Probably not. (though to you they are!)

They'll send you a money order to cover the cost of the kitten with extra in it to cover the cost of the shipping. Then you take the extra cash and your kitten to their "shipper" who will take your money and your pet and you'll get home to discover that thousand dollar money order you cashed was a fake and your bank will hold you responsible for the balance (which you don't have as you gave it to the "shipper". I have no idea what happens to the pets.

Basically all pets need to find homes in your city where you can meet, greet and inspect. Friends and family are best for these situations but not always available.

I personally never had any luck with petfinder ads. You would be better served by contacting local no-kill rescues to see if they will take the kittens or place courtesy ads for you and let you come to their adoption events.

~Julia

Julia's right, that is exactly what will happen if you respond. As for the password in the e-mail, contact the company through which you have an e-mail account and they can delete it, probably, if you tell them that it's scam spam.

As for placing an ad with a rescue or such, often shelters place their ads through petfinder too, so I don't know how well that will help except then they're the ones getting the scam spam. Some shelters do have listings like this one: http://www.bereaanimalrescue.com/paws.html so make sure you check out how they do it! Often they're too busy trying to adopt out their own animals that it's hard for them to try to adopt out yours when the good homes are in such short supply, so by asking them to do this you may be taking away a spot for a shelter kitty. A lot of people have good luck through their vet's office.

I deleted it on my own(finally!)! And I also emailed them, but just asked them to delete it. I think I will email them about the scam though!! I know I got an email about my DOG and I never even posted anything about a dog-thats really scary! Theres no way I would ever sell my kittys to someone out of state-thats ridiculous! Like mentioned before, theres already so many homeless pets, and probly a million kittens in the state that the "adopter" lives-ughh.....anyhoo, problem taken care of(I hope)

It's a scam artist trying to get personal info from you or $$.
Report them to Petfinders and don't respond.

Originally Posted by jlutgendorf

It's a scam. If you get an email from someone not in your state about your pet, it's a scam. Think about it. Is there a shortage of moggie kittens anywhere in the world? Nope. Are yours super amazing and wonderful to justify flying them all over? Probably not. (though to you they are!)

They'll send you a money order to cover the cost of the kitten with extra in it to cover the cost of the shipping. Then you take the extra cash and your kitten to their "shipper" who will take your money and your pet and you'll get home to discover that thousand dollar money order you cashed was a fake and your bank will hold you responsible for the balance (which you don't have as you gave it to the "shipper". I have no idea what happens to the pets.

Basically all pets need to find homes in your city where you can meet, greet and inspect. Friends and family are best for these situations but not always available.

I personally never had any luck with petfinder ads. You would be better served by contacting local no-kill rescues to see if they will take the kittens or place courtesy ads for you and let you come to their adoption events.

~Julia

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Hey,

Julia is a 110% correct those fools do exactly that! This happened to a friend of mine who was selling a motorcycle... and there he was with a fake money order!! So he called the police and started recieving threaten phone calls so he dropped the charges in fear of what these crazys would do! Makes me angry to know that they are so evil to bring poor kitties into there sick scam! I HATE scammers!

When I posted a "found" ad on Petfinder, I received the same very strange emails. Several of them actually. There was one very nice person (or so I thought) who emailed me asking some questions that I didn't think were that strange. They said they were from a french bulldog rescue, which is what we originally thought Brody was, they became very insistent that I should allow them to foster him. They were inquiring about which vet I would be taking him to so they could meet me there to pick him up. I just didn't respond to the emails after that. They went on for several days though. I found it very creepy and removed the ad right away. It's sad that these people, who clearly don't have the best intentions for the animals, pursue people on a site like Petfinder.

No way am I responding to any of them!! I did save the emails though-I contacted someone from petfinder and they gave me a link to email the *scams* to, so thats what I am getting ready to do. People are so ignorant

This is another one I also recieved Like I am going to email somebody all that info~goodness!!

Hello Dear Sir / Madam,


Good to meet you, My name is Wendy Teed.The Pet is to be relocated to my home in a city called CEDAR RAPIDS in IOWA. I saw your profile online at www.petfinder.com that you are will to place your pet been adoption and immediately, I got so fascinated about having the pets. I am an honest, caring Woman with the utmost fear of God. Having the Pet is like owning a fortune and the thought of the Pet makes my vein leap for joy because i really Love Pets.


I will like you to foward to me the ADOPTION FEE CHARGES so as i can make payment sent to you as soon as possible.I will have a Pet Transporter Company who will comes for the Pick-Up as soon as the Payment is Cleared from the Bank.Will email you the et Transporter Company Email address when you got the payment for the ADOPTION FEE for the pet.


I will prefer you email me back as soon as possible with your details to make the payment via MONEY ORDER or US CERTIFIED CHECK.


Email me back with this Below Information:


NAME ON CHECK:

ADDRESS:

CITY:

STATE:

ZIP-CODE:

COUNTRY:

PHONE NUMBER :


Have a splendid day


Regards.



Reply Me Back to: [email protected]

- Wendy Wendy

The poor english tranlastion and refering to the kitten as "the Pet" is a dead giveaway.

They are creeps.

Oh I have gotten dozens of these for the past year or two. I ALWAYS have ads up on petfinder and craigslist and they always try to scam me. They do always refer to it as "your pet" or "your lovely pretty pet" and "my lovely pet just died and I want another pet" They never say cat or dog or kitten or the specific pet. They as you for all the details and tell you they live out of the state or country and that they have a shipping service that will take care of everything. I carried a conversation on with one once a long time ago. I knew it was a scammer and it was probably really dumb to keep on it but they said they live in Toronto and want it shipped there. I said no I will deliver I am actually coming to Toronto this weekend! I was like Good News! we don't have to ship, I will deliever and then you can pay my in person, just tell me where you live and I will take a taxi when I get there!! didnt work, didn't expect it to, just messing with them right back. Now I just delete and report them and please do that also.

Oh and I just got one from Jibi Omoba this morning!

It's a scam for sure. I got a very similar email about a dress I was selling on Ebay and my stepdad got a similar email for truck he was selling online. These scammers use the same formatting for their emails, regardless of what it is you are selling- even animals you are adopting out. They want your checking account number, address, etc.