Holiday Puppy Swindle Has Consumers Howling

2020-12-22 20:32

Puppy photos are undeniably irresistible but beware; researchers have uncovered a scheme selling fake German Shepherd puppies for Bitcoin, leaving buyers crushed and without a tiny fuzzy friend to cuddle on Christmas morning.

The scammers have been operating since Nov. 2018, according to the Amomali report, but have ramped up their efforts in advance of the heavy online holiday shopping season.

Fodjie Bobga, much like the other puppy scam, would offer dogs and other animals for sale, collect a deposit and set up a fake delivery.

Anomali also advised the more tech savvy online holiday shoppers to do a reverse search on the site's images and checking the HTML code for connections with other known suspicious domains.

Mele told Threatpost he hopes the report will help everyone be a bit more careful shopping online, particularly during the busy holiday season.

News URL

https://threatpost.com/holiday-puppy-swindle-consumers-howling/162565/