Purchasing a French Bulldog - Phantom Puppy Scams
Puppy-sale scam gets woman year in jail
Original Article - http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/metro/20051005-9999-2m5davis.html
Nonexistent dogs offered on Internet
By Ray Huard
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 5, 2005
CHULA VISTA – An unemployed Imperial Beach woman who sold phantom puppies
on the Internet was sentenced to a year in jail yesterday for grand theft.
Elizabeth Rivera Davis, 40, told probation officials the scam of using cute
puppy pictures to sell pets she didn't have was so lucrative she couldn't give
it up even though she knew it was wrong.
Advertisement
Click Me!
"I was going to stop, but the money kept coming in," Davis was quoted
in a court report as telling probation officials.
Davis, a former nurse, took in $14,155 from 17 victims scattered across the
United States and Canada between December 2004 and July 2005, according to court
documents.
She told authorities she used the money to pay bills and play slot machines
at a casino. Davis pleaded guilty Aug. 26 to two counts of grand theft.
Judge Jeffrey F. Fraser said the puppy scam was "a very sophisticated
type of theft" that was "almost akin to abusing a position of trust."
The judge said that Internet shoppers have faith when they order goods the
sellers will deliver as promised but that Davis broke that promise.
"It was simple greed," Fraser said.
In sentencing Davis to jail, the judge said he hoped to send a message to others
who might be tempted to use the Internet for fraud. "The word has to get
out," Fraser said.
The judge ordered Davis to repay her victims, placed her on probation for three
years and ordered her to stay out of casinos during her probation.
Fraser said Davis could get out of jail in 240 days if she entered a residential
alcohol treatment center for the remainder of her one-year sentence.
Davis apologized in court, and her lawyer, Selena Dong Epley, said Davis' abuse
of alcohol and prescription drugs was partly to blame for her actions.
Davis said that at the time of her arrest, she was drinking five to six beers
and a pint of liquor a day, according to court documents.
Her husband, David, who is caring for their daughter, said he wants to return
to full-time work so he can repay the victims.
Prosecutor Richard McCue said Davis was able to string people along in e-mail
and cell-phone conversations until they sent money, then refused to take their
calls and blocked e-mail messages they sent her.
Davis told authorities that she started the scam after finding a Web site where
pets were sold over the Internet.
She posted an advertisement on the site, using pictures of Yorkshire terrier
and bulldog puppies she got from the Internet. She never had any animals to
sell, police said.
Ray Huard: (619) 542-4597; ray.huard@uniontrib.com
|
