Hello to all of those who have been scammed/almost scammed by these AWFUL and sick people in West Africa regarding pet adoptions.
I responded to these people after they posted an ad on craigslist for two bengal kittens. I recently rescued a bengal kitty and she passed away at the young age of six months from FIP.
I was heart broken and seeking to rescue more kitties of her breed. I found this ad and responded. Here was the first response of many that I received from these people:
"Hello,
i am very happy for the concern in regard to my kittens,just 2 kittens are still available ( 1 female and 1 male )they are 12 weeks 1 day old today.We give them out for free adoption to any reliable home.They have attended to all their shots and vaccination programs up to date.My husband and i have always gave the babies the best of parental attention,we love them very much but it is rather unfortunate that we can not keep all of them and their mom and my husband have traveled and i am unable to take good care of them in the absents of my husband.My husband have traveled to Haiti for a one year contract,he is a builder.The decision to let the kittens go was hard but finally,i came to conclusion that they need new homes where they can find parental attention.There are many people willing to adopt them and i want to make sure that i make the best choice for them.I want them to have just what they have always had .They have so much love to offer if there are accepted with open arms.I live in Salinas,US.My husband has arranged with the airpets delivery company for the transportation of the Kittens and the cost is 140$ to transport one Kitten from Salinas to your location. I really do hope that you are the right family for the Kittens.
Kindest Regards"
I am a traditional business lady, but tolerated their incompetent emails for some time because I was responding with emotion. The kittens were supposedly going to arrive today, and I received an email asking to wire money to CAMEROON. I thought that was strange and did some research. Apparently they have done this many times to many people. They are pathological and sick people. They target Americans who have either suffered a pet loss or are just seeking animal companionship. I am so grateful for this website; after reading some threads, I came to the hard conclusion that my kitties were indeed non existent. On top of that, I nearly lost $300.
These people seem to go by many names. For me, I was in contact with a person by the name of SALEM LOPEZ.
I hope that posting this person's first email will help prevent others from falling for their evil trap. Here are some patterns I noticed when contacting this person:
1) they often referred to the kitties as "babies" and never kittens or cats
2) their English is very poor
3) I emailed a lot of questions that went unanswered, such as "are they spayed/neutered?" "will you send their health records?" "what's the name and number of the pet delivery service?"
4) I pushed them to talk on the phone. They insisted that they had phone issues, so I suggested they use a pay phone or a friend's phone or even skype. They did not respond to these suggestions which was a huge red flag to me
5) they ultimately provided me with a phone number that was out of service. they claimed to live in Salinas, CA.
I feel very distraught that I was nearly scammed. However, I am so grateful that I found this site prior to sending them money. I truly hope this helps somebody else as it helped me.
If you are a victim of this scam or one similar to it, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. Do NOT blame yourself. Sociopaths victimize good hearted people; it's what they do. It is unfortunate that evil people exist in the world, and you are not alone as a victim. Channel your experience into a positive one by spreading the message of your experience with the intention of preventing or intervening on other good hearted people who are in the blinding emotional midst of these awful scams and people.
Here's to Honesty, Truth and Compassion. Best of luck to all.
I responded to these people after they posted an ad on craigslist for two bengal kittens. I recently rescued a bengal kitty and she passed away at the young age of six months from FIP.
I was heart broken and seeking to rescue more kitties of her breed. I found this ad and responded. Here was the first response of many that I received from these people:
"Hello,
i am very happy for the concern in regard to my kittens,just 2 kittens are still available ( 1 female and 1 male )they are 12 weeks 1 day old today.We give them out for free adoption to any reliable home.They have attended to all their shots and vaccination programs up to date.My husband and i have always gave the babies the best of parental attention,we love them very much but it is rather unfortunate that we can not keep all of them and their mom and my husband have traveled and i am unable to take good care of them in the absents of my husband.My husband have traveled to Haiti for a one year contract,he is a builder.The decision to let the kittens go was hard but finally,i came to conclusion that they need new homes where they can find parental attention.There are many people willing to adopt them and i want to make sure that i make the best choice for them.I want them to have just what they have always had .They have so much love to offer if there are accepted with open arms.I live in Salinas,US.My husband has arranged with the airpets delivery company for the transportation of the Kittens and the cost is 140$ to transport one Kitten from Salinas to your location. I really do hope that you are the right family for the Kittens.
Kindest Regards"
I am a traditional business lady, but tolerated their incompetent emails for some time because I was responding with emotion. The kittens were supposedly going to arrive today, and I received an email asking to wire money to CAMEROON. I thought that was strange and did some research. Apparently they have done this many times to many people. They are pathological and sick people. They target Americans who have either suffered a pet loss or are just seeking animal companionship. I am so grateful for this website; after reading some threads, I came to the hard conclusion that my kitties were indeed non existent. On top of that, I nearly lost $300.
These people seem to go by many names. For me, I was in contact with a person by the name of SALEM LOPEZ.
I hope that posting this person's first email will help prevent others from falling for their evil trap. Here are some patterns I noticed when contacting this person:
1) they often referred to the kitties as "babies" and never kittens or cats
2) their English is very poor
3) I emailed a lot of questions that went unanswered, such as "are they spayed/neutered?" "will you send their health records?" "what's the name and number of the pet delivery service?"
4) I pushed them to talk on the phone. They insisted that they had phone issues, so I suggested they use a pay phone or a friend's phone or even skype. They did not respond to these suggestions which was a huge red flag to me
5) they ultimately provided me with a phone number that was out of service. they claimed to live in Salinas, CA.
I feel very distraught that I was nearly scammed. However, I am so grateful that I found this site prior to sending them money. I truly hope this helps somebody else as it helped me.
If you are a victim of this scam or one similar to it, IT IS NOT YOUR FAULT. Do NOT blame yourself. Sociopaths victimize good hearted people; it's what they do. It is unfortunate that evil people exist in the world, and you are not alone as a victim. Channel your experience into a positive one by spreading the message of your experience with the intention of preventing or intervening on other good hearted people who are in the blinding emotional midst of these awful scams and people.
Here's to Honesty, Truth and Compassion. Best of luck to all.