We lost $300 as a result of allowing ourselves to be victimized by Ezekiel Great Dane. In a series of emails with my wife, the seller refused to provide a phone number, and the street address in Augusta, Georgia, is in a neighborhood that does not fit the business. The seller tried to get my wife to pay via American Express gift card. There are misspellings and faulty syntax throughout the scammer’s emails.

My wife found ezekielgreatdane.com (no “s” on dane) by internet search. A photo of a puppy named “Jake” on the website attracted her, so she filled out the contact form on the site. The email chain with the site’s operator shows that Ezekiel immediately touted their “cheap” price (“50% discount”) and their “free shipping coupons” if we would buy. My wife alerted me when she was having trouble getting the buyer to acknowledge a down payment sent to Ezekiel by Zelle.

The seller instructed that Ezekiel’s “Cashier’s Zelle name” is Halema Younger. It was never clear that the person my wife corresponded with was this person. Further, the seller instructed my wife to use for Zelle purposes their “CASHIER’S e-mail”: Abdulyounger22@yahoo.com.

Initially, my wife had misspelled the Zelle recipient’s e-mail address, and that transaction was successfully cancelled; however, the corrected Zell transaction went through, but Ezekiel would not acknowledge receipt of the payment of $300. Suspiciously, the seller suggested that we send money via American Express gift card, instead.

Now suspecting things were amiss, I looked deeper into Ezekiel’s website. Photos of available puppies on https://ezekielgreatdane.com/available-puppies showed some 18 Great Dane puppies. Remarkably, all pups are the same age: ten weeks old. I noticed that the puppies in the photos were pictured in very different locations. While most are pictured indoors, evidently in different houses, the outdoor photos showed pups variously on green grass, on snow, and with leafless trees.

The seller did not provide a phone number for Ezekiel Great Dane, but they offered a street address: 2116 Crosley St, Augusta, GA 30906. Looking at this address in a satellite photo, one would not think that it is a location where a Great Dane might live at all, and certainly not 18 pups and their parents.

These facts, along with the e-mail chain, provide good evidence that Ezekiel Great Dane is illegitimate. There are no external references to this seller, and it is apparently not a member of any breeder association. A whois lookup of their website host shows that the domain is registered under NameSilo.com, but the Domain Administrator Organization is PrivacyGuardian.org (1928 E. Highland Ave. Ste F104 PMB# 255, Phoenix, Arizona 85016), which does not have, in my opinion, a reassuring history.]

Today (10/3/2022), the scammer’s website is offline. Thanks to PetScams.com.