MY STORY

I will start my story by saying I am presenting  the events that took place as accurately and honestly as I can.  I have copies of all transactions, messages , chat  conversations and emails from my attempt to purchase a puppy.
 We recently lost our 11 year old sheep dog and our hearts were broken. There was a huge void in our lives so we decided to find a puppy or young dog to add to our family. We searched online and checked many FB groups looking for the one that took our hearts. She was a 12 week old Sheepadoodle and was located fairly close to us. SHE WAS THE ONE.  Her owner asked about our situation and I explained our recent loss. ( Oops! Now there was a flashing light on our heads saying "vulnerable!"  She nicely expressed her condolences and sent more pictures of the precious puppy.  She shared the details about the puppy and her price.  We had already fallen down the rabbit hole. 
Hubby and I kept asking each other if we were ready. About a week after my first conversation, we agreed to proceed.

We contacted the pet owner and  committed to purchase the puppy and to let us know what happens next.  While waiting to hear from her, I contacted the group administrator and asked for references. She highly recommended Ella Madison which was very comforting.  Within the next day or so the administrator took over the purchase details. Seemed a little strange but not unreasonable as the admin and moderators all seemed to interact.  We agreed on a deposit that was more than half of the total price and I was fine with that.
Still ok so far.
The next day, I was asked for the $400 to get the puppy ready to deliver. The admin said I needed to send the money via Zelle or Apple Pay. I was out of the house at the time and wasn't getting Zelle to go through and didn't have my account info with me.  When I returned home, she sent a message asking that I send a payment to another person and phone number. Just a tiny flag went up as now I am on the 3rd person and phone number. I told her I rarely use the pay sources they were asking for and suggested PayPal. She agreed and asked that the funds be sent via friends and family and gave me another name and email address. I tried to send my $400 payment to the email address that was provided and received a message that the email account was not receiving payments at this time. My little red flag got a tiny bit bigger. Still my love for the puppy guided me. 

I sent a message to advise of my problem. I was asked to try again which I did and was met with the same results.  While this was all going on, I was trying to refresh my Zelle account and make sure everything was ok with my Apple Pay. Both seemed fine. It was a Saturday and trying to get my goal of paying for my puppy accomplished started requiring a lot of time. I decided Apple Pay would get things rolling so I told her I would send the $400 via Apple Pay which I did. She said it didn't go through and asked that I send it again. I checked my band and it showed pending. She said that it still didn't go through so could I please send it again and if it accidentally duplicated she would refund the money.  Ok, now I'm still cooperating nut my red flag is getting bigger but my puppy is still driving me to keep going because I don't want to lose her.