The BBB of Arkansas has received two complaints in the past week regarding the online purchase of puppies. One complaint is from North Wildwood, NJ. The second is from Springfield, TN. The cities the scammers claim to be from are Augusta, AR and Benton, AR respectively. Both complainants have wired advance money for the purchase and shipping of puppies. Though this office has only received two complaints so far, the extent of the problem nationally prompted the Arkansas Attorney Generals office to become involved earlier this year. Information from that office can be found at www.ag.arkansas.gov
Jason Stewart with the Arkansas Attorney General’s office added the following information to help identify outside the country emails which, on the surface, appear to be local based upon the content of the email:
“It appears the scammers are also using “.tl” domain extensions are country codes for East Timor, which is in South East Asia. The domain of “.cc” is the Cocos (Keeling) Islands, which are in the Indian Ocean halfway between Australia and Sri Lanka. Typically, scammers register their “scam site” domains in regions where they are located. As you know, anyone can obtain phone numbers with particular area codes of their choice. This is typical of these types of scams. So, even though it appears you are calling a local area code, your call is most likely routed to the scammer located anywhere in the world.
I feel confident saying these scammers are not in AR…especially since your complainants said they wired money outside of the country.”
For more information, please go to www.bbb.org
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