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Buying a Puppy Online: How the Non-Delivery Scam Works

Adorable photos, a small deposit, then fee after fee for a dog that was never real. Here's how the pattern runs, and the check that stops it before you pay.

You find the puppy on Facebook, on Instagram, or on a clean-looking website near the top of a search. Right breed. Right price, or a little under. The photos are perfect: a fluffy face, a pink collar, a sunlit kitchen floor. There's a story too, a family moving overseas, a breeder downsizing, a pup that needs a good home fast. You message. They're warm and quick to reply. You send a deposit to hold him. Then the fees start.

There is no puppy. The photos were lifted from an old listing or someone's social media. The deposit was never really a deposit, it was the opening move. What follows is a run of urgent, official-sounding charges for shipping, a special crate, insurance, customs, each one framed as the last thing standing between you and the dog. Every charge is the product. The scale is real: from January 1 through October 15, 2023, the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center logged about 3,500 puppy-scam complaints and roughly $6.6 million in reported losses.

This guide is not about one seller. It's about the pattern, so you can see it before you pay. The named cases live on the verdict pages. Here's how the machine runs, and the short check that stops it.

The listing is built to move fast

The setup is designed to feel like luck. A purebred at a fair price, or 'free to a good home, just cover shipping.' A short, sympathetic story explains why such a good dog is available so cheaply. Then comes the pressure: another buyer is interested, it's the last of the litter, the family flies out tomorrow. The urgency isn't a coincidence. It exists to stop you from doing the one thing that would end the scam, which is checking.

The photos are the weak point. Scammers rarely own the images they post; they reuse them from older ads and other people's social media. That's why a reverse image search works so well. Right-click the photo, copy its address, and search by image, which is exactly what the FTC recommends. If the same face turns up in an older listing, or under a different name in a different city, you're looking at a scam. More than half of pet scams, by the Better Business Bureau's count, start on a website found through a search engine or social media.

The deposit is only the opening

You send the deposit and assume the hard part is done. Instead, a 'pet shipping company' contacts you, sometimes with a logo, a tracking number, a case worker. The dog needs a special climate-controlled crate to fly. It's expensive, they say, but don't worry, it's fully refundable when the puppy arrives. So you pay. The crate fee is not refundable. Nothing is.

Then comes insurance. Then a health certificate, a customs charge, a vaccination fee, an airline temperature surcharge. Each is urgent, each is 'the last one,' and the puppy is always at the airport, always one payment from your door. The Better Business Bureau's reports put the median loss in the hundreds of dollars, but buyers who keep paying describe totals running into the thousands, sent in installment after installment. The dog never boards, because the dog was never there.

The payment method is the point

Watch how they want to be paid. Scammers steer you toward Zelle, Venmo, gift cards, wire transfers, or cryptocurrency. These share one trait: once the money moves, it's gone, and there's no bank on your side to reverse it. As the FTC puts it plainly, only scammers will insist you pay with a gift card, a payment app, cryptocurrency, or a wire service.

A credit card is different. It gives you chargeback rights, which is precisely why a scammer won't take one. If someone selling you a living animal refuses a card and insists on an app, a gift-card code, or a wire, that refusal is your answer. You don't have to prove the scam. The payment method already told you.

Why the setup works on careful people

Nothing here is technical. No account is hacked, no password stolen. The scam runs on two ordinary feelings: wanting the dog, and not wanting to lose him. The cuteness lowers your guard. The manufactured urgency takes away the time you'd normally spend checking. Smart, cautious people fall for this because it's built to bypass caution, not to defeat intelligence.

The escalating fees work on sunk cost. Once you've paid the deposit, walking away feels like losing what you already spent, so the next fee, and the next, each seem smaller than quitting. That's the design. It helps to reverse it in your head: every new charge that appears after 'I already paid' is not a delay in getting your dog. It's the scam continuing to work.

How a real seller behaves

A legitimate breeder, shelter, or rescue will show you the animal. Ask for a live video call and they'll get on it and show you that specific puppy, moving and making noise, right then. They'll let you visit in person, or arrange a shipper you can independently verify by phone. They don't disappear or get 'too busy' the moment you ask to see the dog alive on camera.

They also don't invent a new fee at every step. A real transport cost is disclosed once, up front, before you commit, not drip-fed as surprise charges after your deposit clears. Reputable sellers expect you to check them out. The FBI recommends verifying any seller through reviews, their social media presence, and the Better Business Bureau before sending money, and a real one won't flinch when you do.

Here's the check

Before you send a cent, run three checks. First, reverse image search every photo; if a face shows up in an older or unrelated listing, stop. Second, ask for a live video call and have them show you the specific puppy doing something on request, walking across the room, or the seller holding up three fingers beside it. A real dog and a real owner can do this in thirty seconds; a scammer will make excuses. Third, search the seller's name, phone number, and website alongside the words 'scam' and 'complaint,' and see what surfaces.

Then watch the money. If they'll only take Zelle, Venmo, gift cards, a wire, or crypto, walk away. And if a simple deposit turns into a crate fee, then insurance, then customs, you don't need any more proof. You've already found the scam; the only question left is whether you keep paying it. A real animal comes with a seller who'll show you their face and take a card. Everything else is a photo and a story.

Documented cases

Sources

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