So we have a very good name, lots of fans and 90% of our clients have come from word of mouth. Clients buy Cavoodle one, then Cavoodle two then Cavoodle three and they refer as they have a super friendly and happy dog. With a good name, a good website, excellent content comes fabulous SEO. This means we appear in the top ten searches when people search Cavoodle Sydney or Cavoodle Adelaide etc. So of course we became the target of an overseas scammer who copied all of our photos and made his own '.com' website. He was silly enough to leave my mobile number on and our facebook page link on his scam website. People were messaging me at all hours eager to buy Bonnie or Casper for $2500 or $3000 dollars. This scam popped up a few months after COVID hit hard and puppies were becoming extra popular, just like real estate! I think everyone realised we won't be travelling for a while, so we might as well work from home with a beautiful puppy!!! And here came all the puppy scammers...... 

So my story gets quite interesting, this man's story was "I am in far north qld and I must fly the puppy and if you pay into my account I will send a tracking number and your puppy will arrive tomorrow" 

Alarm Bells were 

1. Cheap pups compared to breeders prices
2. Puppies at 10 weeks that looked photo-shopped and all ready to fly
3. Fly? really with which airline? You can't fly a dog before 12 weeks
4. Tracking number? With who? Starlight... who are they, another scam?
5. Wow why does this website have so many spelling errors

So I asked all of my fans and dedicated clients to jump onto the "fake site" and ask about all the puppies and get the account numbers, I spent a whole week phoning the international money group in north sydney closing his accounts, then he moved to a Bankwest account and NAB and we shut those to. The Cavoodle community jumped on board and I was receiving texts and emails with his details. We worked together as a team, we put up notices on Cavoodle chat groups to beware, we also changed all of our practices to fight this scammer and we won. Not to mention the names on these accounts were not aussie names, they were from countries far away.... 

Our lawyers sent international requests to the domain hosting company who were hosting this scammers website (well it was 90% my website, except for the spelling errors and the .com instead of the .com.au)  Our IT team put in multiple take down requests and reported him on multiple levels, name cheap decided to listen to our lawyers and the evidence we provided. 

We won in the end however we do live in a desperate world where people see opportunity during COVID to take peoples money and not deliver a puppy. 

So we have spent a lot of money investing in extra steps, we have stopped flying puppies interstate and drive them now, we have our lawyers verify and converse in writing about our business, we ask that all clients complete the application form now to pass recaptcha test to ensure no scammers or robots are applying for puppies. 

We have had vets, judges, doctors, dentists, pilots, reporters and people from all walks of life purchase one of our beautiful Cavoodle Love fur babies, we deliver on time, we ensure our clients know we are a registered company paying GST and tax and more importantly they will receive their puppy!!!

So thank you to our dedicated IT team and lawyers who helped us shut this guy down. I am sure he will pop up somewhere else, so here is my advice:

1. Look for a .com.au website, it will have an ABN
2. Do the ABN lookup and check that the ABN or ACN is active
3. Ask your accountant to check up on the business
4. Ask for references - a good breeder who is established can find people in your area and ask them if they wouldn't mind receiving a call from a potential buyer 
5. Ask if the breeder can facetime you puppies on their website that they are advertising
6. Stay away from people who just place an add - you really want to ensure the breeder. has a website, mobile, email, ABN, references
7. If you have a friend that bought and is happy "follow the word of mouth"

We try to get back to everyone, sometimes there are just too many emails to answer, eventually we get there. 

And remember the golden rule You get what you pay for and the saying If it sounds too good to be true, it normally is!!!

So when the $2500-$3000 price tag was printed over all the stolen photos of puppies belonging to others... all these people thought they had stumbled across a bargain, when all they had stumbled across was a scammer offering a cheap puppy, hoping people would take the bait. 

Please remember this is an investment for the next 10-15 years, so buy where you feel comfortable and at peace. 

Just remember to be careful and if you don't feel good about who you are dealing with, wait and find a better breeder. People upgrade their smartphone every year or two and this can be very expensive, a Cavoodle is expensive, as are all the dogs world wide. So be discerning where and whom you buy from. 

We are not cheap, nor are we expensive, we are value for money as everything is super organised, vet reports, insurance, warranty, contracts, lawyers, puppy packs, lifetime rehoming for your puppy and more. 

Make sure you head to www.cavoodlelove.com.au and write about how a puppy would spend its days in your home. 

In the next blog we shall address the cost of puppies and the puppy shortage world wide.

Over and out 

Kerrin and Rachel 

Cavoodle Love Mother & Daughter Team