You are scrolling, and there she is. Nine weeks old, fluffy, looking straight at the camera. The caption says the owner can't keep her and is heartbroken. Underneath, a hundred people have commented "how do I adopt her?" and the owner has replied to every single one with the same three words: message me privately.
Before you send that message, read this. The post you are looking at may be exactly what it says it is. But it may also be one of the most-run scripts on social media, and the difference is visible in the post itself — you do not need to wait until money is involved to spot it.
What the script looks like
These posts are recognisable because they are copies of each other. If you look at several across different accounts, the same elements keep appearing:
| Element | What you'll see |
|---|---|
| The animal | Almost always a puppy, 8–9 weeks old, and almost always an expensive designer cross — Maltipoo, Cavapoo, Goldendoodle, Pomsky |
| The caption | A hardship story: a move, a landlord, a death, an allergy, a job |
| The bait | A complaint that "nobody is even asking about her adoption process" — sometimes word-for-word identical across unrelated accounts |
| Location | Never stated publicly. Every request for it gets "message me privately" |
| The reply | The same canned line under every comment, regardless of what was asked |
That last one is the clearest tell. Someone genuinely trying to rehome an animal answers "where are you based?" in public, immediately, because location is the entire point — they need someone nearby. An account that will only give a location in private is not screening you. It is moving you somewhere the comments can't warn you.
There is a second tell that is easy to miss. Real rehoming is overwhelmingly adult animals. People rehome pets because life changed — a divorce, a move, an illness, a baby, a dog that didn't get on with the resident cat. Very few people are rehoming an entire litter of eight-week-old designer puppies. Those are being sold.
And watch the comments for the question the crowd asks when it senses the truth: "How much?" Nobody asks a shelter how much a rescue dog costs before asking anything else.
What happens after you send the message
The scripts converge quickly, and they follow a pattern documented by consumer protection bodies for years.
The puppy is free — you only pay the shipping. Then the shipping needs a special ventilated crate. Then the crate needs insurance. Then there's an unexpected vet fee, a customs fee, a temperature-controlled transport surcharge. Each one is urgent, each one is the last one, and the payment is always by a method with no recourse: Zelle, Cash App, wire, or PayPal Friends & Family.
No animal ever arrives, because in many cases there was never an animal — the photos were taken from someone else's account. The Better Business Bureau put the median loss at around $600 in 2025, and many people lose far more before they stop.
The cruelty of it is that the emotional investment happens first. By the time the fees start, you have named the puppy.
Five questions that end it in sixty seconds
You do not need to be an expert. You need five questions, and you should ask all of them before any money is discussed.
1. "Where exactly are you, and when can I come and collect her in person?" A genuine rehomer wants to meet you — many will insist on it. Refusal, vagueness, or an immediate pivot to shipping ends the conversation.
2. "What's her microchip number?" In most countries an animal must be microchipped before it changes hands, so a legitimate rehomer has this. A scammer cannot produce a number that will check out.
3. "Can we do a video call now, with her?" Live video is the single hardest thing for a scammer to fake, which is why the excuses arrive immediately — the phone is broken, the puppy is at the vet, the signal is bad.
4. "Which vet has seen her, and may I call them?" Real animals have a clinic. Ask for the practice name and ring it yourself.
5. "Can I pay when I collect her?" This one is decisive. Every part of the script depends on money moving before you do.
If any of the five produces a reason rather than an answer, stop. You have lost nothing.
Check the photos, too
Take one of the images and run a reverse image search — on a phone, hold the image and choose to search it; on a desktop, drag it into Google Images or TinEye. If the same puppy appears on a breeder's page in another country, on a stock library, or on someone's Instagram from three years ago, you have your answer in ten seconds.
Reused images are also worth watching within a single account. The same puppy posted repeatedly over weeks, always still available, always with a fresh sad caption, is not one family rehoming one dog.
What a genuine rehoming actually looks like
For balance — private rehoming is real and often the kindest outcome for the animal. It just looks different:
- •The person states where they are, publicly and without being pushed.
- •The animal is usually an adult, and the reason is specific and checkable.
- •They ask you questions — about your home, your hours, your other pets. Somebody who cares where their dog ends up interviews you.
- •They will hand over paperwork: vaccination record, microchip number, neutering certificate, what food the animal is on.
- •They want to meet, often at their home, and they are relaxed about you seeing the animal in its current environment.
- •Money, if any, is small and paid in person, at handover.
If you are being interviewed rather than sold to, that is a good sign, not an obstacle.
One country does this better than the rest
Australia has a rule worth knowing about even if you don't live there, because it shows what a fix looks like. Since 1 July 2019 in Victoria, anyone advertising a dog or cat for sale or to give away must include an identification number in the ad — the microchip number, a breeder identification number, or a rehoming organisation number.
The effect is simple: a legitimate rescue has a number and shows it. A person running the script generally cannot get one. If you are in Australia and a listing has no identification number, that alone tells you a great deal.
Elsewhere, the equivalent question is the one in the list above: ask for the microchip number.
If you have already paid
You are not the first and it is not a reflection on you — these scripts are built specifically to work on kind people acting quickly.
Contact your bank or payment provider immediately, even where recovery is unlikely; some payment types can still be reversed if you move fast. Report it to your national consumer protection or fraud reporting body, and report the account to the platform. Keep every message, receipt and screenshot before anything is deleted.
Where to look instead
Go through an organisation you can verify. Shelters, humane societies, provincial and state societies, and registered rescues all have a legal identity you can check — a charity or non-profit registration number, a published address, a physical location you can visit. They also give you the thing the script never can: an animal that actually exists, with records that come with it.
The process is slower. You may be interviewed, and you may be asked for a landlord's permission or a vet reference. That friction is not a barrier standing between you and a dog. It is the reason the dog is real.
FAQ
Is every "free to a good home" post a scam? No. Genuine private rehoming happens all the time. But a genuine rehomer will state their location publicly, will meet you in person, and will hand over paperwork — a scammer will do none of the three.
Why do they always refuse to say where they are? Because a public location invites people nearby to offer to collect the animal today, and the script depends on shipping. It also lets locals contradict them in the comments.
They asked for a deposit to "hold" the puppy. Is that normal? For a private rehoming, no. Be extremely cautious about any money that moves before you have met the animal.
They sent a video. Doesn't that prove it's real? Not on its own — pre-recorded video can be taken from anywhere. A live video call, on the spot, is much harder to fake. Ask for that instead.
What if they're overseas and offer to ship? Treat shipping as a stop sign rather than a convenience. Almost every version of this script routes through a shipping fee.