4 years ago
The US has charged Fodje Bobga a 27-year-old Cameroonian, a university student who scammed people into buying puppies which didn't exist, the justice department said.
He was charged in the city of Pittsburgh with conspiracy to commit wire fraud, forging a seal of the US Supreme Court and aggravated identity theft. The website he used in the alleged scheme, www.lovelyhappypuppy.com, has been deleted, the department said.
The authorities accuse him of exploiting the social isolation during Covid-19 pandemic to defraud victims using photos of cute puppies.
The BBC's Jonathan Savage reports that one of the victims include a woman in Pennsylvania, who was conned out of more than $9,000 trying to secure a mini-dachshund puppy for her mother.
Another victim lost $1,500 trying to purchase a Chihuahua named Bentley. The FBI Special Agent in Charge, Michael Christman, warned "the pandemic has created the perfect condition for illegal pet sellers to thrive".
