Exotic animal scams on the rise in Tri-State

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) -The Tri-State is seeing a rise in scams again, only this time with exotic animals.

The Tri-State Better Business Bureau says this is something that they haven’t seen before.

The BBB says that aspiring pet owners are being scammed, thinking they are buying exotic animals like monkeys and snakes.

But why are people trying to buy exotic animals in the first place?

“[They’re] just trying to figure out something to spice things up, [they’re] just looking into something that might be cute,” said Oana Schneider, Tri-State BBB’s director of media services. “Social media plays a huge role in this. You see a cute video of a monkey online and think to yourself, ‘How hard can that be? I bet I can get my hands on one.’”

To avoid being scammed, the BBB said to use a reverse image search to see if the photo of the animal came from online. If so, it is most likely that it is a scam.

Another piece of advice is to search the address and phone number of the business selling and be aware of red flags.

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