AI Pet Adoption Scam Checker — Cited Risk Report

Describe a pet listing or seller and get back a scam-risk assessment: matched puppy-scam red-flag patterns, a recommended next step, a confidence rating, and the real source URLs behind every claim — live Google Search grounding, not a guess from stale training data.

Tutorial: how to run it

1. Click Try for free (or Start) on this page.
2. Fill in situationDescription — or leave the prefilled puppy-scam example to see it work immediately.
3. Optionally add sellerName, breed, or platform for more context.
4. Click Start and open the Output tab once the run finishes.
5. Read verdict, confidence, and redFlags for the headline result, and recommendedAction for what to do next.

Common questions, answered directly

How do I know if a puppy or pet listing is a scam?

Describe the listing, seller, and story so far — it checks the details against known puppy-scam and fake-breeder patterns and returns a verdict with cited sources.

What are common signs of a pet adoption scam?

Overseas/military-relocation excuses, no in-person meeting offered, escalating fees after the first payment, and reused photos are the classic patterns this Actor is built to catch — it names which ones apply to your specific case.

Is there a tool to check if a breeder is legit before I pay a deposit?

Yes — paste what you know about the seller and listing and get a scam-risk verdict with a recommended next step before any money changes hands.

What you can use this for

• Personal use — a sanity check before sending money to a breeder or seller you've never met.
• Rescue/adoption platforms — an automated screening layer for suspicious listings.
• Consumer-protection tools — a backend for a "check this before you pay" feature.

Input

Field	Description	Default
situationDescription	Describe the listing, seller, and story so far	a classic puppy-scam example
sellerName	Seller/breeder name (optional)	—
breed	Breed (optional)	—
platform	Where you found it, e.g. Facebook (optional)	—
model	Gemini model	gemini-3.8-flash
apiKey	Your own Gemini API key (optional)	—

Every field has a working default — hit Start with no changes and you'll get a result.

Output

{
  "situationSummary": "...",
  "commonScamType": "puppy scam / fake breeder",
  "verdict": "likely_scam",
  "confidence": "high",
  "redFlags": ["Seller claims military relocation and refuses in-person handoff", "Escalating fees after initial payment", "..."],
  "positiveSignals": [],
  "recommendedAction": "Do not send further payment. Insist on an in-person or live-video meeting before any money changes hands. Report to the platform and the FTC.",
  "sources": [{ "url": "https://...", "title": "..." }],
  "searchQueries": ["..."],
  "groundingUsed": true,
  "model": "gemini-3.8-flash",
  "verifiedAt": "2026-09-04T12:00:00.000Z"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-event: $0.12 per situation checked. No subscription, no minimum.

Actor recommendations

• 🏠 Rental Listing Scam Checker — same cited-verification approach, applied to apartment and rental listings.
• 💔 Romance Scam Checker — for checking an online relationship instead of a pet listing.
• 🛒 Online Store Scam Checker — adds a real domain-age lookup for verifying e-commerce storefronts.