December 14th, 08
Please be careful when looking for your puppy. A lot of scamming is going on with it being the holiday season and I feel with many people in financial stress scammers are feeding on your thoughts of spending less for a bulldog puppy.

Please check the ad out!
What to beware of:

1. Only email address to reply to - a free email addresses such as yahoo or hotmail. This doesnt mean that anyone using a yahoo or hotmail address is not a legit breeder it just means you won't find a scammer using a personal email address through thier isp. (internet service provider)
   
2. Ask them to send you recent photos of the puppy you are wanting to purchase. Legit breeders will either quickly send you new updated photos or at least email you stating that they will in a few days. Please don't rush into a purchase!
   
3. If they have a website or page on the internet, check the site out. Look for personal information such as a name and phone number. Look over the photos, I have seen some sites put together that look and feel just like a legit breeders site. Such as the ad found last year using our name in the ad that was a scam. This is impossible to stop unless an attorney is hired and of course that action doesn't usually happen fast.

• What to look for on a scammers site:
  Look over the photos. Look for birthdates of the puppies, look for names and photos of the parents.
  Look at the puppy photos if they are stating they are all the same litter and are all available now, question the age do they all look the same age or is there a big size difference. Look for more information on the puppy.
  
• Did you know that you can check out who owns the site by going to whois.com
  You will need to type in the domain name in question such as bulldogangels.com
  And the type in the security key number and you will get a page that will state the name of registant and where it is registered and also where the site is hosted. Did you know that web hosts can get into a lot of trouble if they knowingly host a scammers site. So if it is brought to their attention that this site is a scam and after they look into it they will most likely bring the site down. This of course doesn't stop the scammer from going somewhere else to get hosted but at least slows them down.

Always call and talk with the person that has the puppy for sale. Don't buy a puppy through an email conversation!

Attention Breeders

What to watch out for on people trying to purchase your puppy and not paying for it!, YES it happens so this is what Breeders should be watching out for.

Emails that come in that are broken english, today it is hard to tell sometimes because of the the text messaging you may receive in your inbox. Look for the difference! People that are text messaging you may keep their questions short but in my opinion they will always end with their name. Scammers will typically not reply with their name or yours, it will be just a direct statement.

Example of a possible scammer emailing you about your puppies.

Hello this is Larry i will like to know if you have puppies for sales and if so i will want you to get back with the picture of the breeds you have so that me and my daughter can look through them and also i will like to let you know that the Dog is for my daughter,she as been asking me to get her one.

Kindly get back as soon as possible.

Larry.

Also scammers will not be interested in a particular puppy. I just received one that wanted a white bulldog puppy. If they had visited my website, (which is advertised in all my ads) they would know that I have one that is 3 weeks old. It states this directly on the puppy page that she is white with a dark tip on the tail. I emailed them back.Being a little hesitate to send photos just yet. I stated they could go to the website and look at the white puppy. They replyed that yes this is the one they wanted that I sould send more photos of this puppy. Well on my website I have my puppies named. If someone were to check out the website they would be asking for more photos of Magnolia. I have a feeling that this is a person that is just wanting me to send them more photos in hopes that I will send them some that are not watermarked (this is what it is called when you have your name or your logo stamped over the photo.) Why would they want more photos of my puppy? To use them in a scam.

Well I delieted the emails and if they reply in a few days again I will maybe respond if I think it is not a scammer at that time.

Breeders take the time to watermark your photos and this will cut down on the people that will get scammed. You can use a type tool on most any photo editor. Please watch what you are sending in an email. Scammers are getting ahold of these photos to use in these ads from you!

Please don't get in a hurry. Always get your agreed purchase price for the puppy before you make the transaction. And you have the right to refuse the sale! If something doesn't feel right don't let the puppy go with the intended person. Use your instincts this is what dogs will do. I am amazed at how well my dogs will alert me of the type of person I am dealing with.

One thing I would suggest is not to have an automatic response to your emails, this will alert scammer of any kind that your email is getting to you. Take the time to personally email the legit buyers back.

NOTE: If you don't reply to a scammer or click on a link in your email you will not get as much spam. The spam comes from emailing back or clicking on a link with in the email. This confirms that the email goes to a person. You can block senders but they can easily set up the email to show it comes from a different email account. Email accounts can be hacked into and used as spam and then your email is banned from the internet. If this is an email you are currently using I would suggest looking into a more secure email account. Some really good hosting companies are networksolutions.com
GoDaddy.com

Scammers and People getting Scammed will always be a topic to discuss. And a topic that we can never know to much about so keep your eyes and ears open and alert someone if you see something that is not correct. Maybe it could save someone from being taken advantage of.

1-29-09
I recieved several of these emails in the past and this is also a acam from someone hoping I will be interested in making some money buying puppies that they do not have. And of course they want me to reply back to an email - no name no number in the request. Just a bit fishy!

Hi,

My mother in law who I was really close to passed away unexpectedly. As sad as it was she left behind a litter of adorable bulldog puppies and parents.

These dogs are playful with kids and other home pets and they come with complete shots and worming. Puppies are very playful and they do the funniest things and you just can't get enough of their playful antics.

Please contact me only if you are interested in providing a loving and caring home for these pets.

Have a nice day,

I have developed a front page under the domain SIESS RANCH here for all to see who we are, when time permits I will add more information.

3-15-07 Another ad was found on livedeal.com
I actually placed my ads on livedeal this past weekend and the fraudulent ad is using the exact wording from my ad including our name SIESS RANCH (selling the pup for $600) They are not using my photo, it is of a white puppy. Please be cautious!

3-14-07 Today I was notified by another person in the Arizona area about several scams involving telephone fraud using our name SIESS RANCH in one ad. Possibly what they are hoping you will do is call the number listed which is a fraudulent area code and you will get charged $1000's for making the call! You can go to whitepages.com and click on reverse phone numbers and check to see who the carrier of the number is. Also you can check area codes to see if they are out of the country on whitepages.com. Found out that the ads that were placed on arizona classifieds (AZCentral) were placed with stolen credit cards, and the numbers are just random phone numbers, with the hopes of people contacting them by email when they realize the phone number is not valid. I am sure these ads have been removed, but be careful because they can do this sort of thing again anywhere!

Please be very careful when you are checking out ads. If it seems to be to good to be true, pinch yourself and realize people just don't sell these dogs for less the $1000! Please verify everything down to the phone number's given before you place a call or email.

2-21-07 One scam involves our Stud Bulldog Oscar. Ad was spotted in the Phoenix newspaper listing Oscar for $800 and was a Washington State phone number.

9-26-06 I was contacted by another breeder today about an ad that is using Ruddy's Photo and the exact same description I have placed on an ad of mine He is selling Ruddy for $750 Please dont fall for this!

These scammer would not be doing this if they didn't get people to fall for it. It is very hard to catch a scammer. Yes it is
illegal to steal someones photos and represent something for sale but who is going to stop them. Be very careful when you are researching puppies for sale. And please don't send any money without verifing that there is a puppy and you are seeing
the exact photos taken of that puppy. (you have to be able to talk with the breeder who should be the owner of the dogs) It is often suggested to ask for additional photos of the puppy with some sort of identification in the photo such as a paper with your name on it.

I personally recommend you talk with the breeder on the phone, and if they are not giving you the information you need
then don't buy from them. We take photos of our babies each week and have now identified all our photos on the site with our website address. All photos I send will be watermarked in this same way, so that you will know they are our puppies. We don't hire anyone else to sell our puppies as some breeders do. Be cautious in a situation where you are not buying directly from the breeder. For all you know the breeder may be a puppy mill!!

What was really wild about this particular scam is that it even has my watermark, (website name across the front). So if a person is smart they will check out the website and either email or call about the puppy. And if they look a little closer on my website they will see that the price is tremdously different!

This particular scammer has been following my website and if you contact them. they will send you photos that were taken a few weeks ago of the puppy also. I don't have these photos listed on my website anymore but I did a few weeks ago! SINCE THEN WE HAVE PLACED OUR WEBSITE ADDRESS ON EVERY PHOTO ON THE SITE AND IN OUR ADS.

Here are the photos of Ruddy in the scammers ad:

This ad states to send request to maxgwen1967@gmail.com and list his name as Max,
The name and email doesn't matter because this is a free email account that cannot be tracked down and he can change this to something else tomorrow!

Please be careful when you are searching for your little bullie. Always buy from a trusted reputable breeder.

Learn what you can about finding a reputable breeder. I have written a book on finding the Best English Bulldog Puppy . And I always welcome your questions and comments you can email me here.