Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Animals / Crime
African Internet Scam -- for Puppy: A New Twist on Old Crime
Posted
By Joe Eskenazi
on Wed, Sep 29, 2010 at 12:01 AM
You ain't nobody until you get your first
frantic e-mail from some hapless potentate begging you for funds and promising vast wealth in return. Just wire money to Africa, and ... hilarity ensues.
Yet a San Francisco man found a novel new way to fall victim to the African scam this week. And it involved a puppy.
The victim responded to an online ad for said pooch -- but saw fit to send his money to, yes, Africa, via Western Union. After his hard-earned payment was received, the other party in Africa then demanded more -- or else the dog would not be sent.
At this point, the would-be dog owner figured he "was being scammed," as the subsequent police writeup put it. Sending money for a dog to Africa was fair game. But after the "seller" asked for more -- cognition.
Western Union, incidentally, informed the man his money had been claimed. A San Francisco Police officer dutifully completed an incident report. No word on whether the victim was advised to write his next check to San Francisco's Department of Animal Care and Control.
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Tags: African scam, Dog, Fraud, Nigerian Scam, SFPD, Image
About The Author
Joe Eskenazi
Bio:
Joe Eskenazi was born in San Francisco, raised in the Bay Area, and attended U.C. Berkeley. He never left.
"Your humble narrator" was a staff writer and columnist for SF Weekly from 2007 to 2015.
He resides in the Excelsior with his wife, 4.3 miles from his birthplace and 5,474 from hers.
