Consumer complaint received 2019-01-29
Company: RIA FINANCIAL
State: CT
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
I describe below in detail the incident. I learned a lot of people are being scammed and the fraudulent XXXX page is still up despite my attempts to put it down. 

1 - I decided to give my wife a puppy for her birthday. I researched on multiple places from physical stores to online. One page was very responsive : XXXX XXXX  XXXX 2 - They showed me multiple puppies and replied promptly to questions about the parents, and etc. They told me to go to a XXXX and make a XXXX transfer to XXXX XXXX from XXXX, Georgia. 

3 - I made he transfer of XXXX USD on XX/XX/2019 at XXXX, XXXX Reference XXXX. I sent a picture of the receipt and he asked me to wait few minutes. 

4 - I received then an email confirming the shipment at XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX spoofed email 5 - At XXXX I received a second email from XXXX ( also spoofed ) where they claim there is a problem with the travel crate and that I had the option to rent one so that the shipment could continue. The rental price would be largely be returned once the dog arrived. At that moment I realized I had been scammed and they were trying to get more money. 

6 - At XXXX I receive a call supposedly from XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) Agent XXXX, the operator had an XXXX accent, he told me to go thru the 2 emails he sent me that he would call again in 5 minutes. At XXXX He called again and I got his number so the person who was shipping the dog could reach him directly. 

7 - At XXXX over XXXX chat I ask the seller to contact XXXX and then he claims it was the first time this happens, that he does not have the money to rent the crate. 

8 - He starts to menace I was not the owner of the puppy, legally responsible for it. I ask him his phone number so that we could discuss so at XXXX he gives the number XXXX. 

9 - I call the number and the voice on the other side was the same XXXX accent I had heard minutes before " XXXX ''. I told him to solve it or give my money back. 

10 - He is then back to menaces I was legally responsible, I was abandoning the puppy and that he would call the copes on me. All this logged on XXXX chat. 

11 - At XXXX I called 911 and they said it was not an emergency so I had to contact the correct agencies, they asked me to call a number that seemed to be a mistake. 

12 - At XXXX I called XXXX who said my funds had gone and they could do nothing about it. ( easy no? ) Since then I called XXXX, XXXX  XXXX XXXX several times. I wont be able to have my funds back as per their feedback. 

I tried to report the page multiple times on XXXX, the page is still up deceiving other people. Nobody seems to care. XXXX autocloses my tickets. 

If there is still someone reading this please stop this people now. I am since Saturday reading tons of reports like mine. Let me know what can be done. Who do i contact? Is the money gone forever? Is this guy happily deceiving other people? 

Please ask XXXX the details of this XXXX XXXX as well as video to catch him. Please let me know if it happens, my feeling of impunity for fraudsters is quite high. 

Thanks for your support.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation