Scammer "wants to buy best boy/girl": UPDATE!!!

[Irena]

Just thought I'd post it here, for everyone's information. I have been contacted by an individual via my guestbook on the Latvian Weims site, and she writes she has decided to import a pup from the UK and has written to several breeders. It would have been a nice thing to do - were it not for the fact that this same person has bugged the hell out of us on our local Latvian dog board, bragging she was going to import a Tosa Inu, Bordo Dog, Mastiff and what not, from Russia, Poland, Italy or somewhere else. She would come on the board, post asking about how to do this or that or what the import regulations were, and then disappear for a while. When I was getting ready to import Audry, she emailed me asking how much she cost and how much was the flight because she figured she too wanted a Weim as it could be another "rare" and "prestigious" breed, as she had referred to those other breeds she wanted to import.

Anyway, in the guestbook entry she says she is waiting for a reply from some UK breeders; and I JUST got a private message from her on the Latvian board asking me how much the flight was from Australia because she wants to import a Flat-coated retriever from there.
Her emails are
olga-kaza4kova@...............
and dasha@...................

I would like to hope I am wrong, but she has really been as annoying as a fly with all her grand plans on DIFFERENT breeds and none of them (I don't think) ever happening. She never introduces herself properly, but I don't know why she thinks no one would remember her last topic when she comes on with a new one, yet that;s what she does.

Anyway, just for the sake of information. I really hate to spread rumours or anything, but I personally believe this person is not worthy of owning a Weimaraner, no matter what her motives are. I am not even sure why she does all this spamming at all. If she is looking for all these dogs for someone else (which a lot of people do, and that is not wrong), she has never told us so - she always says it is HER wanting to import the puppy.

[Irena]

Just wanted to bring this to your attention again. It has been confirmed that this person (who calls herself many names) is a well known scammer.

It is not known why exactly she does it - she does live in Latvia and is just a mere high school kid, probably owns a labrador. But she is interested in puppies from all over the world.

At any rate, below are a couple of emails from her sent to breeders.

From: DINA ZEGALSKAJA <[e-mail]>
Date: Feb 16, 2007 1:59 PM
Subject: SUNS UN KUCITE
LABDIED CIENAMI AUDZETAJU MUMS LOTI INTERESE LABAKAJS SUNS UN KUCITE NO JUSU MIETENA
IR TADA ESPEJA IEREZEVET TOS?
KUCEMI PREKS SHOW CARER
LV,LT,EST.RUS,BLR,UKR
CIK BUS MAKS JUSU KUCIENI
AR CIENU
DINA
LATVIAJ,RIGA
Translation:
Subject: boy and girl
Text: Hello dear breeder, we are very interested in the best (pick) dog and bitch from your litter. Is it possible to book them? the puppies are for a show career, LV,LT,EST.RUS,BLR,UKR [championships] How much will your puppies cost?
regards, Dina
Latvia, Riga

* * * * * * *
from DONNA GRASSE <[e-mail]>
date Jan 13, 2007 7:45 PM
subject LABAKAJS PUIKA UN KUCITE
LABVAKAR
MUMS LOTI INTERESEJA LABAKAJS SUNS UN KUCITE
VAJ IR IESPEJA IEREZERVET LABAKUS?
IZSTAZU KARERAJ
LV,LT,EST,PL,CZ,,,,,,

* * *
A friend was sent this by her colleague:

Hello,

Please, can you help me? Do you know "Olesja Semenova" from Latvia???
His/her phone number is [phone]. I call her but nobody answer me.
How is this person? Is he/she honest? Whether and what he/she works with
dogs?

Thank you for your time and help.

Ivan from Serbia

(note the phone number)

* * * * *

hello,dear breeder if i will say that your dogs ar great it will be nothing becaus ethey are matveleous!
\we arerally interested in regarding 2 pups from your outstanding litter, boy and girl
we live in russia
in big privat house
pups will be shown in RUS,UKR,PL,CZ,FIN,SK,IT,LV,LT,EST,,,,,,,,
NORD W,EUW,WW,,,,,
BEST REGARDS
ALINA
PS
HOWMUCH BEST PUS
PLEASE SEND PHOTOES

What she does is - books a pick bitch, dog or both, promising a stellar show career, and when the time comes to actually buy the puppy, she backs out never to be seen or heard from again. She may also make enquiries about shipping semen. She also sometimes posts puppy ads full of the wildest imagination possible - multi-mega-champion lines, exclusive litter, rare colour etc etc (any breed that she feels like "breeding" in her imagination at the given moment).

She can contact you as Dasha, Dana, Anna, Olesya, Alina or any other name.

With local breeders (Latvia) and sometimes others she uses her phone [phone] to communicate (send SMS's). (But can be other numbers too of course)

PLEASE BEWARE and don't even respond to this person. I was contacted by her the other day too, with the same text. Probably the worst harm is that she "books" a puppy from your litter and you turn other serious buyers down, and then it turns out you've been had. I tried to email her back asking questions such as how much she knows about the breed etc, but her replies may even sound "normal" if you don't beware. I am not sure what diagnosis this is, but I'm sure there's got to be one for this child.

I think we all need to remember the main thing - that there are OTHER people like her out there too, and we need to be careful as to who we agree to sell puppies to.

Please feel free to cross-post this. She obviously wants to be famous, so let's help her become that. ;D

Photos of her have been posted here: www.dogs.lv/board/viewtopic.php?t=1715&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=120

[tasha]

what a nightmare... I ummm and ahhh sometimes about certain things like whether to breed or not from my own bitch or whether to buy a puppy from the uk or from europe and have made some stud enquiries myself only to rule the dogs out for one reason or another, we can all be indecisive but would never do this sort of thing, how appauling, one of the reasons I ummm and ahhh so much is because its so hard to know who to trust from other countries when you have only had internet contact and cannot get to see them yourself as much as you might wish

Puts you off selling to people from abroad...

[Anci]

These things are really awful! We have had a woman here in Sweden doing similar things, but she was even worse! She was sent to jail for a while, but is out again. Same doggy-business and the latest things I heard was that she now also is into horse-business!

So, I guess there is only one way to solve a problem like this:
I have a very strong believe which I do follow! I never sell a puppy to a person I haven´t met myself (or: if the person have very GOOD references from other breeders, then I might consider thinking about it!) And one other, very easy thing; never to promise anything before you BOTH have signed a contract!
@nci

[Fala Love'a]

She has contacted us too (as Alina) wanted to buy 4 pups from Lola & Boogie!!! Crazy person. Of course when we asked any question she disappeared...

And also couple weeks ago some man called Samuel Tony from the UK asked for a puppy, he was mostly interested in giving him account numer so he can pay money for the pup and that someone will pic up the pup from our home! When we asked him questions also on how is he going to enter UK with a puppy as there is a 6 months quarantee??? he just said: someone would pick him up and the puppy would be happy with me"!!! He gave us a mobile phone so Nina called him but he didn't answer any question either...
Eh......

Magda&Kriss

[Pasquinel]

Hi

Have also been contacted by this one , this time as Alina. Never answered her , so she´s around in Sweden to

best regards Kristina

hello,dear greeders your doga are really greta we arerally interetsed in regarding
best boy andgirl from-CUMMEL
bestboya ndgirl from-chenoa
pups will be shown alot in rus,ukr,pl,cz,fin,sk,it,,,,,,,,
ww.ew.nord w
betregards
alina
russia

[Alkemist]

Tasha, just in response to the bit about selling a pup 'abroad', I have to say that possibly the worst scam I have heard of involved this guy that Magda mentioned, and he was supposedly in the UK. When I rang there were LOADS of dogs barking in the backgroud. Couldn't get anything from the man at all, so it's not just abroad..........

BUT we are all of course doing the right thing by highlighting that there are some very strange people all over the place that get kicks out of inconveniencing breeders like this. And it's also a good thing that we all have friends all over the place that can help us check these things out ;O)

Nina

[tasha]

why doesn't that surprise me

[Joanna]

I must ask, how are you sure this is just a kid??
I got a very similar e-mail about 17 months ago, asking for an undocked dog, pick of the litter etc, and she got a reply back from me saying they were already docked and the pick of the litter was long since picked!!
I never heard from her again.
If this is just a kid, she's been at this for a fair length of time.

[silvasheen]

Just picked up on this thread today and I must say that I am always wary of enquiries from abroad regarding puppy availability. It is just too easy for some unscrupulous backyard breeders to sound genuine about importing a puppy - let's face it, most of them have had years of practice ! Hence, we have never exported a puppy from Australia. I am sure there are some genuine people who have nothing but the puppy's best interests at heart, but I always follow up any queries with an invitation to the person to call me reverse charges, to discuss purchasing a puppy from us. I have only ever had one reply from a lovely gentleman in Hawaii. Sadly, he became terminally ill before we could place a puppy with him, although in hindsight perhaps it was meant to be....

If this person is making enquiries about other breeds...i.e. Flatcoated Retrievers etc, I think it would be prudent to make it known to as many Flatcoated breeders/clubs to be wary of any enquiries from this person. Most breeders would hear alarm bells ringing anyway, but there may be the novice breeder who has not come across this situation before and be totally unware of the dangers involved.....

[tasha]

sorry I could help out in the UK but not in the States. I think we are lucky enough here that we aren't really a big country and prehaps could arrange to have someone vetted similar to how we do a rescue homecheck.

On one of the other forums there have been two puppies dumped on the A5 road in an area where other dogs have previously been dumped, with dogs reaching the prices that they do I am not surprised that puppy farming is so popular or that unscrupulous people have managed to aquire our breed

Prehaps the only way forward is a recommendation from someone who is recognised in the breed who could vouch for the person purchasing the puppy? Difficult but not an impossible proposal.

[jai]

Hi all,
Yesterday at training I talked to Wolfgang about this same topic. Seems that there is man and woman here in Germany who have been trying to do the same. Ofcourse, with Germany being so strict on hunting, they were turned down, but they seem to be very persistant from what Wolfgang has told me. They have approached several of the districts here as well.
jai
oh kobie... good gut instincts.. the email was very vague. Plus, with all the breeding they have in the USA it would be easier for him. Tennessee is over 3400 miles away! And congrats on the beautiful litter! They look so cuddly and awwww!
hugs to all!
jai

[jai]

Oh.. I forgot one thing about these people... Wolfgang told me that he understands they have 10 dogs of various breeds and they are not taken care of. I don't know how he knows this information, but these people may be seperate or together. I also don't know if they speak any other language aside from German.
jai

[tasha]

the sad thing is that anyone who can offer a good hunting home that wants a dog from better stock than available in their own countries will be turned down by breeders because of people like this and yet good hunting homes aren't the sort of people who will be well known because they don't show their dogs or compete with them.

I know some of the people I have met with other breeds rarely see other people their dogs do a job and other than maybe half a dozen who all shoot they don't mix in the show or competing circuits, I do also wonder if sometimes breeders are more interested in homes that will gain the dog a title instead of a good days honest work. With so many countries losing their hunting and with others like the UK where showing or pet homes are the focus and hunting is now only done by a few individuals, it is becoming more difficult to find dogs from good working stock so going abroad is one of the only options but this is removed if no one will sell you a dog.

I find it a little disappointing that true working homes are not being catered for because of these idiots or they are ripped off by being asked to pay above the odds for a puppy...

Over here one of the things that I have found interesting is the way that the weimaraner is received on shoots or in working circles, they are just not taken seriously, those of us that do work our dogs do a great job that people recognise but in the pub conversations afterwards it is always the reliable spaniel or lab or the GWP's that they favour over the weimaraner which are deemed too difficult to train and a waste of time because they lack drive.

I honestly think in some countries now you only see a watered down version of a true working weimaraner but how do you improve that situation if no one will sell you a dog???

Puppy famers make me mad they ruin it for everyone else!!!

[narelle]

Ah we got this email to from this person in Russia...however a simple 'Who are you' and we didn't hear from them again !
Narelle

[greyflyte]

Just wanted to highlight one thing which seems to have been passed over in this thread and that is the comment by Magda that the enquirer seemed more interested in her bank account number to deposit money. This is a well known scam tactic, cant quite rememnber how it works (Im sure someone will) but there have been warnings over the last year or two about this sort of thing with the breeder being ripped off in the end.

I also want to comment on the person who is requesting a European dog to be imported to NZ. I dont know this guy or anything about him but I wonder if he has talked to any breeders in NZ or met any of the breeding stock here.

I believe that there are still lines in NZ which would do the job they are bred for. Im sure I speak for some other breeders (even tho I shouldnt but they arnt saying anything themselves AGAIN) in NZ when I say puppy buyers who want hunting dogs are subsequently full of praise for their dogs abilities in the field. I have sold a number of dogs over the years to hunting homes and have had excellent feedback on their prowess.

The number of litters born in the last year has been very small and there are alot of people out there looking for Weis,

Just my 2c worth.
CYd

[Anci]

Thanks, Cyd!

I couldnt´have said it better! The NZ-guy contacted us as well. (We´re expecting a litter in some couple of days.)

My thoughts were the same as yours; why go to the other side of the world to get a puppy, why not buy a dog from NZ, why not contact a breeder near-by, or: has he been turned off from breeders in NZ?
He told me that he had been turned off from two breeders that didn´t want to export puppies.

Anyway; told him "We do not mind exporting puppies, we have done it several times BUT;
We do never sell a puppy to someone we haven´t met in person! My very strong believe is that a puppy should have the right owner, and vice versa."
End of story.

@nci

[simona]

Just would like to update you. Girl "Dasha" again started her game. I was asked for puppies:

Hello,dear breeder 1st of oll i would like to say that you have AMAZING dogs
we are erally interested in asking you to let us have 2 1st choise girl
girl from Rio litter
girl from Anabel litter
pups will be in really good hands thay will be shown oll ower europ and wold
they will be showned on hiest lewel and on the moust prestiseous hsows as CRUFTS,WW,EUW,NIRDW are
they will be shown in RUS
LV
LT
EST
PL
CZ
FIN
how much yours pups
how much we must pay now for reservation
have a nice day
Dasha
Latvia

and one of my friends who is also expecting puppies from my Drake has the same. So I send her this thread to help her look through.

Simona