A Lubbock couple was targeted by online scammers while searching the internet for a new puppy.
Charles Sanchez and Amanda Flores wanted to find a male English Bulldog puppy as a companion for their current pet, a six-month-old English Bulldog female named Mercy.
The couple had another pet that died in May. They said friends and family had been sending them links to online ads, some on Facebook and some on Craigslist.
They found an ad on Facebook that seemed too good to be true. A woman said her sister had become ill and could no longer take care of their English Bulldog puppy, so she was giving it away for free.
“That sweet little puppy face is what first caught my attention,” Flores said.
Sanchez messaged the woman, not expecting a response, but heard from her right away. He said the messages seemed like they had been copied and pasted, but he continued the conversation, curious to see where it would go.
“There’s so many questions that a normal person would ask someone who they are about to give their dog to,” Sanchez said.
The woman told Sanchez she lived in Virginia, but if he would send her $210 she would have the dog shipped to him. She asked for his address, name, email address and phone number. When Sanchez countered back with the same question, the mood changed.
“I need to know who I am sending money to and who is sending me a puppy,” Sanchez said. “They said to me ‘you can’t be serious’ and I said ‘very’ and that is when they blocked me.”
“It makes me sad,” Flores said. “It makes me upset that there are people out there that take advantage like that, but it made me sad.”
“It made me angry,” Sanchez said. “There are other people who wouldn’t do deeper research into it.”
The couple said they posted about their experience on Facebook, hoping it would educate others to do their research too.
