Consumer complaint received 2021-10-13
Company: Early Warning Services, LLC
State: CA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Me and my family were looking forward to owning XXXX XXXX XXXX puppies as our first family dogs but we ended up just trying to get one and got scammed in the process. Basically, we found a website called XXXX XXXX XXXX. Each of these XXXX XXXX puppies were {$550.00} each from Nebraska while we live in California. We were interested in 2 of the pups so I put in my email and phone number. The next morning XX/XX/, I got a text and email from the breeder asking if I'm still interested and other information about the puppies. We kept texting and texting, and later on we decided we just wanted one female pup. They then said the total with shipping was {$730.00} and they were asking me my full name, address, city, closest airport, etc.. After that, they told us the payment was by quick pay with Zelle XXXX online banking and our bank is XXXX XXXX XXXX This was new to us because we never used Zelle. After that he gave us his name and email to send him the money through Zelle in XXXX XXXX. I asked him when the puppy will arrive and he told us they can ship tomorrow or the day after. He also said that he'll provide tracking information as soon as he gets the money. So I sent him {$500.00} that day and {$230.00} the next day on XX/XX/XXXX since XXXX XXXX can only send {$500.00} daily. Both times I sent him money, he asked if I can screenshot the payment for confirmation which I did. The next morning XX/XX/, My son was kind of skeptical about this so I asked the breeder if it wasn't a scam or anything and he said it's legit. I also asked him if we can video chat and see the puppy but he apologized and said they didn't have an option for that. That's when it sort of gotten fishy. But at the same time, he was sending us pictures and videos of the puppy so we believed it. After that, he told us they'll ship the dog tomorrow in the morning with tracking and it would arrive around XXXX to XXXX XXXX. So in the next morning XX/XX/, we got a text from another phone number claiming to be an agent from XXXX XXXX XXXX stating the details and tracking of the delivery. The XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX said they got the puppy and told me to reply to the email they sent asking if my address and information was correct. The weird thing was that the email said " XXXX XXXX XXXX '' which wasn't even the same dog breed. However, the tracking said " XXXX XXXX '' which was right. I texted the breeder about this and he said it was probably a mistake and that I can call them to confirm that its a XXXX XXXX puppy. I tried calling the XXXX XXXX XXXX website 's phone number but it didn't work which was weird. I responded to the email and phone number saying everything is correct. After that, they sent me another email saying I have to pay {$990.00} minimum for a pet carrier which the breeder was supposed to provide. This was when I knew it was a scam. I asked the agent why I had to pay for the pet carrier and how the breeders are supposed to provide that. I got no text after that. Then, I texted the breeder about this and how I wanted my money back. I got no text after that either. After that, my son looked up the website on XXXX and found out another person had also gotten scammed from the website and same breeder. Additionally, XXXX XXXX XXXX is a fake shipping company. We also found out that Zelle doesn't have fraud protection but we still tried calling Zelle however, they said that only our bank could handle our issue. We have already filed 2 claims with our bank but they couldn't do anything about it because they said that we agreed with the Zelle payment but we didn't even know it was a scam at first and we didn't know anything about Zelle. I have saved both the breeder 's and fake shipping agent 's numbers as well as the conversations.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation