BBB: How to protect yourself from online pet sellers, avoid puppy scams

MILWAUKEE -- If you are looking for a pet to add to your family, be on the lookout for scams. As more consumers turn to the internet to find new pets, more scams are popping up online. Experts say a shocking 80% of sponsored advertisements about pets may be fake.

BBB ScamTracker has 907 reports on this type of fraud and a Federal Trade Commission report found some 37,000 complaints involving pets. A vast majority of those were believed to be puppy sale scams. When you consider that FTC finds that less than 10 percent of victims of fraud actually complain, you can see that the problem is even larger than the numbers indicate.

​BBB Serving Wisconsin has seen a rise in this type of scam in recent weeks, with several consumers reporting similar experiences: they find an irresistibly adorable pet for sale online and wire money to the seller, who is tasked with shipping the pet to them, but instead the seller pockets the cash and is never heard from again.

The BBB International Investigations Initiative conducted an extensive study of online puppy scams. The study looks at the scope of this problem, who is behind it, and the need for law enforcement consumer education to address the issue. You can read the full study here or download a PDF here.

The study also has tips for avoiding puppy scams:

 What if you have been a victim of a puppy scam?