By now if you’ve been on Facebook for any length of time you’ve seen links to dog groups for adoption or rehoming. Or, if they weren’t groups for dogs they may have been groups dedicated to some other animal.
THESE ARE RUN BY SCAMMERS.
I have tried numerous times to post an educational post about these groups and Facebook has taken my post down. I have photos to illustrate the fake profiles, the ways to recognize the fake groups and the scammers and Facebook claims they go against Facebook standards.
It is my firm belief that Facebook is working with the scammers, because it has been obvious they aren’t doing much to stop them. It seems that for each one that gets taken down, there are 100 more to take their place.
Today I attempted to post a long detailed educational post about these fake adoption groups. My post was removed in my scam education group Facebook Sleuths Deconstructing Scammers immediately upon posting it there. I had posted it on my profile. A photo illustrating the clock icon that shows when a post date has been changed was removed. Facebook says I was trying to get likes, shares and views in a misleading way.
A friend posted it to her profile twice and it was removed. Another friend shared it from her page and so far it has remained up. We will see how long it remains visible there.
I’m very vocal against the scams and scammers. I run an intelligent group dedicated to educating people about scams. For this reason, I believe Facebook has put a target on my profile.
While looking at my insights, it’s obvious that I have been hit with a shadow ban. This means that my posts are not reaching anyone’s feed. I’m performing for an empty theater. Teaching an empty classroom.
So, I’m going to attempt to post my informative post here in my personal blog. Although it isn’t what this blog is usually about, this is something near and dear to my heart and I want it said. It hurts my heart to see the victims of these cruel scammers.
With that said, here is the post I wrote and the photos I attached as well:
This will be a long post but very educational. Please read through and look at all the photos which help to illustrate what I am trying to teach.
Share this information with anyone in your life who may be looking for a new pet and is checking out Facebook groups.
Today I am addressing all the fake animal rescue/adoption/rehoming groups.
People are constantly looking on Facebook to find a new pet. To begin with, Facebook has rules against the buying and selling of live animals by the general public. So it’s a risky thing right off the bat.
But there are thousands of fake groups and profiles trying to sell animals and that number grows daily. It isn’t limited to puppies and kittens either. There are fake groups to adopt or rehome almost any animal you can imagine.
These groups don’t have just one or two scammers in them. Usually they have a whole room full of scammers working the group. Some are admins, some are “breeders” and some pose as satisfied customers. Any profile in a scammer-run group is automatically suspicious.
I have taken just a few of the groups and illustrated how you can try to determine if they are run by scammers. The initial photos with the yellow borders are random photos from various groups. The other groups I used are distinguishable by border colors.
Some of the red flags you can see:
Group is less than 2 years old
Group is called xxxxx ‘for adoption or rehoming” or something similar
Group name changed
Group has foreign admins and moderators
Group has a large number of admins and moderators
Group admins/mods have fake profiles
Group has a similar sounding “page” for an admin
Group has an “official” breeder and others are not allowed to post
Group has a lot of missing comments (because legit people are removed)
Group information is poorly or awkwardly written
Group information is missing or too simple
Posts are over the top with praise for admin or breeder
Lots of “thankful for” posts from “satisfied customers”
Admin posts and comments use “@ everyone”
Cost of pet is overly cheap or even free (the scam comes after the sale is agreed)
Direct messages are insisted upon. They don’t like conversations in the public eye
Posts use a lot of hashtags
Posts use a lot of emojis
The group has one more more “accepted” breeders because those people are companion scammers. The job of the admins is to direct “customers” to the breeder scammers. Then the breeder scammers work the victims. They ask for a deposit fee to start with. From there the story can change in many different ways. Sick puppy needs vet bills and medication covered. Registration and paperwork fees. Delivery fees by the scammer’s designated delivery service (which doesn’t exist). Special crate fees. Or the scammer claims to personally deliver and then “breaks down” on the way there and needs car repairs or gas money. There are many various ways they bleed the victim dry until the very end when they simply block them.
They insist on the direct message because they don’t want anything in the public eye. They can’t risk someone else warning the potential victim. And once the messaging begins, they are pushy. If you got quiet or are “thinking about it” they will message you trying to force you to commit to their pet.
The posts in the group are usually over the top. High praise for the breeders. Fake profiles claiming to be satisfied customers post how smooth the transition was and how wonderful the breeder is.
They use the “@everyone” tag liberally. This is to make all the group members aware of the post and potentially pull in more victims. It can be used with a post for animals to rehome, or it can be used in comments.
As with most scammers, they love emojis and their posts often have little emojis to “warm your heart” to the post. They also love to use hashtags. In this way, anyone on Facebook who searches the phrase in the hashtag will be brought to that particular post. One post can have a hundred or more hashtags.
One of the biggest clues to your group are the admins. Learning how to analyze a profile is an important necessary skill on Facebook these days. Even if the profile looks legitimate, their actions in the group may be what gives them away. Every clue is necessary when trying to determine if a person or group is legitimate.
Scammers think if they warn you about scams it will make them seem legitimate. Scam warnings, then, are NOT a way to determine the validity of a group. More and more scammer-run groups are posting warnings about their own future actions.
There should not be ANY anonymous posts in one of these groups. There should be no reason for anonymity. Therefore any group which allows anonymous posts should be suspect. Everything should be out in the open for everyone to see to prove legitimacy.
The use of AI is making it easier for non-English speakers to write up fairly legitimate sounding posts and introductions. But sometimes even the AI can’t help them and they have a sentence or phrase that stands out.
When checking out admins profiles, look for angry or laughing emojis on any of their older posts. These are a way of warning others about a bad profile. If there is a photo with either of these emojis, it’s a red flag for that admin.
Please do your homework if you belong to any of this type of group. If you want help checking out a group, post a link and a question to the Facebook group “Facebook Sleuths Deconstructing Scammers “. Someone there would be glad to check it out and let you know if it’s legitimate or fake.
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