A couple from Long Eaton were almost scammed of hundreds of pounds after searching for their dream family pet.
Lucy Scotney (26) and Eleisha Brissett (24) had been in an intense search to find their new addition to the family and favourite dog breed Cocker Spaniels.
They had visited many online spaces catering to the breed when they found ‘Rebecca Cocker Spaniel farm’ on Facebook.
On the group page they found what appeared to be a dog breeder/trainer as well as a photo of a puppy that captivated the pair.
They enquired about the pup, who at the time was supposedly ten weeks old.
“The lady I was speaking to seemed really nice which was a major pin-point as to why I continued the communication.” Lucy explains.
“she would feed me a lot of information – basically telling me what I wanted to hear.”
The seller replied stated the pup was fit and healthy, had had his vaccinations, was potty trained, had been outside – endless positives.
The couple began to have doubts about the puppy as everything seemed too perfect.
Couple approached their friends who were dog owners and discussed the conversations had with the dog breeder.
A friend asked to see photos of the pup and noticed that there were several images of the puppy claiming to be 10 weeks and that each was different and, in fact, several dogs instead of the one puppy.
The couple then decided to dig further, without revealing their doubts and asked to potentially view the pup.
The dog breeder who claimed as per her name on social media and her breeding location that she and the animals were based on a ‘farm’ in Manchester.
Once given the address the Lucy and Eleisha googled mapped the address to find it was a small bungalow located in Manchester.
“One thing that confused us was when she had mentioned the puppy ‘slept downstairs’ in a crate.
“Most bungalows don’t tend to have a second floor and there was no visible space to accommodate such a potentially large breeder.” Eleisha stated.
The address clearly did not reflect a place that looked to hold and accommodate breeding dogs.
Looking into the situation further they found that the contacts linked to this page were ‘accounts’ from America, roughly all within the same town or city, and all quite robotic and repetitive in comments towards the page.
This sparked the question that the puppies were then ‘imported’ or ‘shipped’ which the breeder stated they could in fact do.
The young couple decided to reverse image search the supposed account on google and carried at a completely different persons account – Danielle and her two sable spaniels Monty and Mable.
Danielle and her dogs are on all social platforms, helping dog owners find better alternative to care, training and dietary plans catered towards the spaniel breed.
Lucy decided to message the account holder to establish whether this lady was aware her identity and information had been stole.
Danielle had been completely unaware and was outraged that a ‘breeder’ had been using her content.
Since then the profile on Facebook has been reported multiple times, through Danielle’s influence in Hampshire and through Lucy and Eleisha whoo have repeatedly reported the account.
However the devastating blow is that Facebook feel the page has not breached any social guidelines resulting in the page remaining on the popular social platform.
Without tighter restrictions on social platforms such as Facebook, the problem of scamming and obtaining other users data is at an all time high making it harder to combat.
A report conducted in 2024 by the State of scams in the United Kingdom stated that in the last year alone £11.4 Billion was lost to scamming in general across the UK.
The report suggests scammers have become more sophisticated, using AI tools and targeting retail sectors to accumulate money.
The real concern for the nation is that 71% of Britons decline reporting the circumstances showcasing a growing distrust in law enforcement’s ability to resolve these cases.
We contacted Rebecca from ‘Rebecca Cocker Spaniel Farm’ at the time of publication and received no reply.
