Rover is an app where you can sign up to walk or house sit dogs – or find a dog walker or dog sitter for your pooch. It’s a terrific service. However, the app is subject to scams, just like any other app, and today was my first experience with one.
We signed up not long after our Golden Retriever, Noah, passed suddenly in March of this year, because we felt it would alleviate Nigel’s loneliness.
Here was an email I received from someone today allegedly looking for a dog sitter.
“Hello,
How are you doing? Thanks for getting back to me, am really excited to have you to take care of my dog. Like i told you earlier that I’ll be traveling to Istanbul(Turkey) for holiday,my mover will be moving my belongings with my dog over to my new apartment,I will let the house agent mail the key to my apartment to you,the mover will be the one to arrange my belongings into my apartment,it’s really nice to meet you.
About the payment,i would have love to do it through rover but i don’t have credit card or Paypal,i hope you understand this,so i will like o pay your service by sending you a cashier’s check because am trying to make my plan fast. Kindly provide this information below :
Full name : (To appear on the payment)
Full mailing address (address,city,state,and zip code)
Cell Phone number:
Kindly provide this information so that i can quickly process the payment before traveling. I’ll let you know my traveling schedule as soon as i have it.
Hope to read from you soon…”
Lots of red flags here. First off, what dog lover/owner has their mover move their dog into a new place – or into someone else’s place – and takes off for Turkey? Then there is the cashier check thing.
One version of this scam is that the scammer sends the sitter a check that’s lore than what the job is paying, and asks the sitter to return the difference. Then, no surprise, the check bounces and the sitter is out that difference.
I find this type of scam particularly pathetic because it involves dogs. Tis scmmer even included photo of her dog. Here is Meadow Gonzalez’s pooch:
So consider this an APB, Meadow or whoever you are.
Victoria Jackson DeLaurentis Always a red flag when they can’t communicate in full sentences, besides the payment nonsense!
– from facebook
Good point! And then there’s the “the mover will take the dog to your house.”
Yeah? Really? And you’re a dog owner?