File :-(, x, )
PetFinder Woes Anonymous
Hello dearest /an/, I need your advice.

I recently posted a Petfinder.com ad for two guinea pigs I rescued but now need to rehome. I've got 4 responses, but they all seem a bit fishy. I don't know if people regularly troll PF and send generic emails to try to get cheap animals or set up pyramid schemes or what the fuck. Here's one such response w/ personal info omitted:

"My name is XXXX From Usa, I hail From XXXXX. I will like to tell you that am interested in adopt/buying you pet that you place for adoption. I just want to know if the pet is still available and i will like you to send the picture of the pet if avaible as well. I want you to tell me the asking price of the pet and its my pleasure to tell you that the pet will be pick up from your location through a pet pick up company that i had already contacted so i will like you to reply me soon."

So that's totally sketchy, yes? I have 3 more emails from people who can't type and want me to ship the pigs various places. But they're all vauge as fuck and it just doesn't feel right. Is this the typical PetFinder experience? I feel dumb as shit for not being able to identify these as spam or not...
>> Anonymous
     File :-(, x)
Obvious scam is obvious. Artists get "offers" like this all the time.
>> Anonymous
i would never send my pets/animals to someone that can't even type. they sound like some illegal immigrant who wants to take the GP's to eat. i would screen the people a lot better than that.
>> Anonymous
id say just go around to local pet shops and put up some flyers on their bulletin boards, same with local vets; don't adopt the guinea pigs out to someone unless you can meet them to make sure they aren't going to use them as snake food or something stupid
>> Anonymous
OP here,

I've been trying to find them a good home, but I typically get the "duuur snake food" response. A few people just want one of them to put in a 10g tank X.X;; Yes, obviously I want to meet and talk to whomever is interested. It never occured to me that scammers would browse a site like PF, but in retrospect it makes sense. Time for some flyering, there's quite a few vets and pet shops around here...
>> Anonymous
No ones gonna make all the effort to get your guinea pig for snake food when they can buy a large rodent for like 3 bucks.
>> the mexican
Yes, I worked for a shelter with a Petfinder site and these e-mails were regular. What you want to do for guinea pigs is find a local rabbit association (ARBA is the big official one but there are smaller clubs) or a club like 4H if it exists in your area. Rabbits and cavies (guinea pigs) are related and raised under the same club, and they sometimes know the numbers of rescues or of people who are always interested in taking in new animals.
>> Anonymous
Sounds like a Nigerian accent
>> Anonymous
Yes, this experience is typical. Post them to Craigslist, and NEVER agree to ship your pets if you care at all about them.
>> Anonymous
doesn't shipping cost like $40 and a guinea pig like $20? Why would anyone try and scam for a guinea pig??
>> Anonymous
>>205808

I'm guessing either the scammers are the shippers themselves, or that there are people in the world who believe shipping $40 is still cheaper than a full $60 in paying hte price of the guinea pig too.

Idunno.
>> Food Anonymous
Guinea pigs are a delicacy in some parts of the world, so maybe they are trying to eat them, or use them to breed more to be eaten. I don't quite get it either because I'm sure the cost of shipping / buying seems like it would outweigh any kind of profit you could get off them (They are compensating you for shipping at least right?).
>> Anonymous
OP again,

The weird spam is pouring in. General slant is that so-and-so wants to buy them will send someone to my house to pick them up and they'll be sending a money order soon. All I can figure is people are trying collect pets and then the money order mysteriously never shows up...?

"i want to adopt the pet for my daughter that had lost her pet some months back. she need pet to keep her bussy and for her to concentrate on what she was doing. its not been easy for her cos she just lost her father some months ago and she is the only child of the family and i had promised that i will do anything she wanted in order to make her happy....we will send pick up company to your location for the picking up of pet direct from you."
>> GERG DURP UGH DUH Anonymous
Even if the request was ligit, the asshole can't put a decent sentence together to make sense. It shows they're too stupid to care for a pet anyway
>> Anonymous
>>205875

OP, do not accept money orders. I used to work for a bank, and counterfeit MOs were common (though I never heard of one used for a guinea pig transaction). Take cash only. Guinea pigs aren't so expensive that the person can't give you cash for them! If they absolutely insist on giving you a money order, then YOU insist on them meeting you before you give them the animal, then take them down to the bank that the MO is drawn on, and cash it right there.

This is very important since if you accept a MO and deposit it into your account and it proves fraudulent, YOU are held liable by the bank and the law when the MO is returned as fake...which means you lose the money.
>> Anonymous
>>206937
also, don't take checks. If someone gives you a bad check, you have very little chance of getting your money back, period.
>> Anonymous
OP here,

Thanks all for the tips. I finally got a legit contact. A woman and her husband who have two pigs already (both males) and are interested in 2 more. I'm going to meet them tomorrow.