An Arizona animal shelter has provided one local woman with a happy ending to her harrowing story of being scammed online while trying to buy an adorable puppy.
According to AZFamily.com, Prescott Valley resident Diana Alvarez was searching online for a furry friend when she thought she stumbled on to her dream pet.
To make the deal even sweeter, the seller didn’t even charge her full price. They merely requested a delivery fee of $150, and the dog would belong to Alvarez.
“I was to [send a] money order [for] $150 to her, and she gave me all of her information, so I did. I went to MoneyGram and I sent it,” Alvarez said.
After growing impatient while waiting for the dog to be delivered, Alvarez realized that something was wrong. As it turns out, there was no dog, and Alvarez realized that she had sent her hard-earned $150 to some stranger for absolutely no reason.
“I was like, ‘What? You can’t do this to me!'” she said.
Upon seeing Alvarez’ story on the local news, Arizona Small Dog Rescue, a non-profit animal shelter, decided to take matters into their own hands and give Alvarez the dog she deserves.
“We wanted to help Diana out and we had her look at some of our dogs, and she has picked out a really cute puppy,” said Kimberly Smith of Arizona Small Dog Rescue.
The shelter gave Alvarez the dog for free on account of her unique situation, which was kind of them, considering puppies usually cost around $280. Pets are big business, and Americans spend more than $50 billion on their beloved dog and cats every single year.
Because the pet industry is so lucrative, scams like the one Alvarez fell victim to are not entirely uncommon. According to Global News Canada, a woman in British Columbia was recently duped out of a whopping $1,800 after a man in Cameroon convinced her that she would be receiving two tiny British bulldogs that didn’t even exist.
As for Alvarez, she decided to name her new puppy “Cash.” Hopefully she can hold on to her new Cash better than the cash she gave to those petty scammers.
Sources: AZFamily.com
GlobalNews.ca