Le Pontet: a woman scammed out of more than €2,000 for a fictitious cat
This mother was desperate to give her family a pedigree cat as a Christmas present, but her scammers decided otherwise. She paid almost €2,000 for a cat she never saw. An investigation has been launched.
An attractive advert
The advert read as follows: "Pedigree kitten, litter declared Loof, chipped, tattooed, primo vaccinated, unspayed", and the photo showed a 4-month-old Sacred Birman, a high-value pedigree cat, for sale for the modest sum of €500. Our mother had always dreamed of having one, so when she saw the advert last weekend, without thinking too much, she immediately told the seller that she was interested. Payment was made just as quickly. All that was left was for the seller, who is based in Corsica, to send the kitten by plane to our mother's home in Marseille.
A seemingly secure transaction
After confirming that the transfer had been received on the following Monday, the seller told Marie that he was going to send the Persian kitten and that she would be able to follow the progress of her future kitten in real time via a link on the internet.
In fact, the very next day, Marie received an email from the company responsible for transporting her kitten, giving all the information she needed to track her parcel. It was just after this that things got complicated.
The first complication is
Two hours after the confirmation email, the transport company contacted our mother to tell her that "the cat had not been able to take the plane because it was not in a heated cage". To solve the problem, Marie had to pay €500 to hire the famous heated cage. When she was told that she would be 98% reimbursed because her seller had taken out insurance, Marie accepted the additional costs without hesitation. The transport company told her that thanks to this payment, the cat would be able to take the next flight. Tracking resumed without a hitch.
Further regularisation required
On the day her cat was due to arrive, Marie received a worrying e-mail. The Sacré de Birmanie now had a paperwork problem, as the seller's name had been retained on the new cage, and on top of that it was missing a vaccination. Being illegal, Marie had to redo her Persian cat's papers or risk a fine. The amount needed this time: €1,000. It had to be paid online using Cashlib. The annoyed Pontétienne paid the €1,000 required, thinking that this was the last and final step before receiving her cat. Following the payment, Marie received a code which she was told would be used to collect her cat, along with documents on the Société Vétérinaire de Paris letterhead.
One expense too many...
Since this last payment, our victim has had no news, no progress in the follow-up, nothing. So she decided to contact the Paris Veterinary Society. She managed to reach a lady who asked her for the microchip number of her Sacred Birman so that she could locate him and find out the status of his transfer.
It came as a complete surprise when Marie contacted the transport company initially responsible for transferring her cat to obtain the information, only to learn that it had not been 'chipped'. They told her that new fees would have to be paid to regularise the situation. She was asked to pay €850. Still on the line with the young lady from the Paris Veterinary Society, who had heard about the extra charges, the young lady told Marie that it was probably a scam and that she really shouldn't pay what they were asking.
After refusing to pay the €850 demanded by the transport company, Marie was never able to contact them again. Neither the transport company nor the Corsican seller. The scam was real: Marie had spent nearly €3,000 on a cat she would never see. Our victim went to the gendarmerie to lodge a complaint for fraud. An investigation was opened. Marie says she won't give up on the case and that she'll do everything she can to win her case!
Buy your pets safely with Obvy
Selling pets between private individuals is a very common transaction, so scams are also very common. We have written an article to help you avoid this type of scam.
What's certain is that by using Obvy as a payment method for your transactions, you are safe from scams. Obvy guarantees the security of your online transactions as well as your own security. In the event of a dispute, our customer service team is available to help you resolve the situation.