Wednesday, July 25, 2007

New Home for Ginger..? Or a Big Scam...

Today, my husband is meeting someone from a rescue group to turn over our dog, Ginger. This was a difficult decision to make, but in the end, it was the best decision -- for us AND for Ginger.

See, Ginger is a 4-year-old German Shorthaired Pointer. If you know anything about the breed, then you know they are HIGH ENERGY hunting dogs. They need exercise. Activity. They don't do so well with the laying around, chilling out thing -- at least, ours doesn't.

Poor Ginger just hasn't gotten much attention since Nicholas arrived -- even before that. Our focus has been on so many other things.....a new house/moving, our wedding, then my pregnancy, then the baby, now new jobs and my business......there really isn't much time or energy left for a dog.....especially a dog who craves activity.

While Andy was out of town, I placed an online ad on Petfinder.com and some other sites. And I quickly started getting E-mails......but they were from a bunch of scumbag scammers! Oh, let me tell you how this scam works.....and warn you: Don't fall for it!!

The first time somebody tried to pull this scam on me, I was selling a breast pump via Craigslist. They contacted me and said they were in California. Red flag #1. They weren't anywhere near me, so, of course, we couldn't meet or anything. If someone is contacting you from far away, then it's probably a scam....I mean, come on, there aren't any breast pumps for sale in CA?

Secondly, they wanted to pay with PayPal. Now, this wasn't a red flag to me -- I feel PayPal is pretty safe. I didn't think of somebody sending funds from an account that isn't their own, though. The scammers trying to "buy" my dog, however, wanted to pay with Cashier's check or money order. These should be red flags, because you can forge both, but I would say PayPal is more of a pink flag. And banks will cash these fake checks and money orders and then come after YOU later for the funds.

Red flag #3 -- they all mention that they have a mysterious, yet highly reliable, "shipper" who will pick up the item from me at my home when it's convenient for me. Hmmm......MAJOR clue that it's a scam. As soon as you see the word "shipper" and not "UPS" or "FedEx"....you will know.

Red flag #4 -- some of them wanted to make sure they could TRUST me in regards to the transaction. From one E-mail: "
i'll like this transaction to be kept in outmost trust". OUTMOST trust....? What is that exactly? Does that mean you trust me NOT to report you after you steal my money....? Or you trust me to be a gullible moron....? How about this one: "
I ALSO WANT THIS TO BASE ON TRUST CAN I TRUST YOU?" The more important question is, can I trust YOU? The answer is obviously, "Yes, I can trust you to steal my money."

Red flag #5 -- English is OBVIOUSLY NOT their first or even second language. Not ONE of these scammers had even semi-decent grammar. Some E-mails were hard to read while most were just laughable. They don't use verbs much.....or punctuation.

Okay, so we agreed on a price. Let's say $300 for the dog and a shipping crate. Oh, that was another thing -- nobody would talk about how they were shipping a LIVE dog. MAJOR RED FLAG. Or answer my questions about their home environment and where the dog would live. They all wanted to skip right to my "last asking price" and making payment as quickly as possible.

Then, they say they need my name and address for the cashier's check or money order. And OH, by the way.....they are going to add "some funds" to the total amount and TRUST ME to pay their shipper:

i have seen the price and its ok by me,then i will issue a cashier check to you.meanwhlie i will also include the some of $3000 on the payment so you should expect a cashier check of $3300.why is that the shipper that is coming for the pickup of the pet we collet the excees fund from you when he or she is coming foir the pickup at your location.

Wow....so, this TOTAL stranger is going to TRUST ME to handle their $3000....????! Oh, the reason for the extra amount? Because the shipper is picking up another 7 dogs "in my area", and I guess I must be the most trustworthy of the group to pay the SHIPPER.....?

Here's what scares me -- were they going to really take the dog? And, if so, what were they going to do with her.....? Maybe Michael Vick is behind this scam......

There are some really sick people out there. I almost wish I had continued with the scam and then made arrangements for the shipper to come "pick up" the dog.....and our fine boys in blue would be waiting there instead. My guess is that the shipper might not actually be part of the scam! Who knows?

Other signs someone is trying to scam you:

1. E-mails often end with "God Bless" and "Have a Nice Day!" They seem so nice, don't they? Somebody who blesses me would never SCAM me, right....?

2. They don't really seem to care about the item and often don't want details. When it came to my dog, only one asked for a photo. Some asked questions that seemed like they had cut and paste from some "form" E-mail......from a "How to Scam 101" manual or something. What are the "conditions" of the pet.....? Very few asked any NORMAL questions -- how old, is she good with kids, in good health, what's she like, why are you finding her a new home, etc.

3. Their names are weird....Tonne or Kerry or Mista. Or they might have a first name like "Joe" or "Jim" but then a weird last name. And their E-mail addresses are often odd, too, and make no sense. Rarely do they include their name. And they are usually from Yahoo or Hotmail.

4. They agree to any price waaaaay too quickly. Of course they do! They don't actually plan to PAY you anything. In fact, they basically ask, "what ARE the fees?" and don't really care what you answer. They just want to get you that "extra" amount ASAP, so you can pay their SHIPPER.

5. They usually offer you a little "extra" for your time and effort: "
i will also compensate you $100 for your self for the running around" One scammer couldn't do his math, so I was actually going to LOSE money on the deal. I mean, I would be losing money anyway, because they would have MY money when it was all said and done, and I'm guessing I would be responsible to the bank or whomever. But this one scammer said to "keep" $100 for running around, but then the balance he told me to wire to his shipper included that amount! D'oh. Say it with me people -- RED FLAG.

For the PayPal scam, there were some other red flags. The person who contacted me originally was a man who lived in California. Payment came from a woman in Arizona. [Oh, and the note on her payment said it was for UNICEF!]. The "shipper" was in D.C. Red flag, red flag, red flag.

There is also a variation of this scam. Once I was trying to bid on iJoy chairs on eBay. I lost an auction but was the second highest bidder. Somebody contacted me and said they were the seller and the high bidder backed out -- did I want the chair? Well, of course I did! But first, I would have to wire cash [RED FLAG] via Western Union [RED FLAG] to England [RED FLAG!]........even the mention of Western Union is enough to tell you that it's a SCAM.

Fortunately, I didn't fall for any of these scams, and I hope you don't either! People like this make me sick....

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Baby's First Shoes

Nicholas got his first pair of shoes today. I was out shopping at lunch and popped into the nearby Gymboree. They are having a great sale, and lots of the summer stuff is 40% off. I picked up the CUTEST outfits for Nick -- with sailboats, so Daddy loved them, of course. He wore his one shirt to the Flying Scot regatta at Cowan Lake a few weeks back.

Anyway, I thought I should get some shoes for Nicholas, even though he isn't really walking. He can scoot around furniture and will walk if you hold his hands. But he hasn't learned to balance that big noggin just yet.

I had to guess at the size, since he wasn't there. I went with 4 and bought some cute summer shoes. He can wear them in the water, so they will be great at the ocean.

Got them home and thought I'd try putting them on him while he was busy stuffing his face with veggie poofs.

Oh my GOD! You would have thought I was beating the poor child, he was crying so hard. The shoes seemed to fit, so I don't know WHAT was wrong. I guess he doesn't like shoes -- which means he is so not related to me or my younger brother.....Curt might have had more shoes than Imelda Marcos at one point.....

Anyway, Andy got home last night, and I showed him the shoes. We are going to take the Pickle to the mall tonight and try fitting shoes on him and see how it goes. Maybe the 4s are too small, or maybe they were pinching his toes or maybe he just didn't like them. Don't know. But he's going to have to learn to wear shoes at some point!