Tennessee dog rescue warns of fake puppy schemes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) – Before adopting a dog, you might want to make sure it’s a real organization before potentially losing hundreds of dollars. Russell Rescue Tennessee has been a target with people impersonating them online.

“Russell Rescue is an all-volunteer dog rescue we specialize in small dogs,” Volunteer Tara Shaver said.

Theo is one of the many dogs Russell Rescue Tennessee has helped give a forever home. They’re looking to do that for more of the 200 hundred dogs they have, but they’ve been running into some issues.

“Imposter pages are popping up, and they’re responding to comments on our Facebook page, and it makes it look like that we are responding,” Shaver said.

Pages like that have been offering to hold puppies for people if they pay, the problem is they’re fake. It’s getting worse too. They say fake accounts used to be reported about once a month, recently it’s happening every day.

“If they see someone reaching out who appears to be us, and then they’re asking for money to hold a dog, or they’re asking for more money, or they’re saying, well, you know, we could offer you this other dog, then people start to question the legitimacy of Russell Rescue Tennessee because they’re just not sure. You know what’s truth and what’s not,” Shaver said.

There are three steps the AARP says you should take to verify an organization is legitimate. One, do your research, and check to see when the page was made and if they have any followers. Two, meet the dog in person before agreeing to adopt. Three, never pay upfront.

“It’s as much about protecting ourselves as it is helping protect other people who maybe don’t get this message, and helping to remove those scammers before they can take advantage of people,” Shaver said.

If you think you found a fake organization or have fallen for a scam some resources can help on AARP’s website here.

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