Pets4homes- requiring passports to respond to ad!

[Meezer]

I signed up to this website today as there is a litter of cross puppies we think may be suitable for our family (we lost DD a few months ago). The breeder has replied, but my account has been 'locked' as I didn't give the website a copy of my PASSPORT on signup which they say is required to communicate with sellers, so I can't reply to her!

Has anyone come across this before? I would understand it for an advertiser collecting money, but doesn't seem safe to upload my passport to a pet website in order to send an email.

Any advice please? Seems a shame (if you are Valentina C in London selling your litter of puppies apologies for silence!).

Sorry for your loss. I don't know I'm afraid, but sounds dodgy. Does the pets4homes website have any FAQ's whether this is a requirement to email to others? What if someone doesnt have a passport? Do you think its just this 1 seller making it mandatory? Do they not have a phone number? Hopefully someone with more advice can help.

No phone number for seller and I can only find info on the website that says sellers have to provide passports for ID as they are collecting money...Nothing about possible buyers in order to email at all...

Never heard of that, sounds like a scam to me.

Yes worries me too! Think I'll have leave it and keep looking, what a shame though.

Hi OP, sorry for your loss. I lost my dog end of last year and I used Pets4Homes recently and found my new puppy on there and collected her mid-April. I never had to register a passport. Very strange that you were asked to do that. I just logged on using Google account. Were you mistakingly registering as a seller 🤔. I also used Freeads but found Pets4Homes much better.... when I sent message to seller/breeder on Freeads I was told message in a queue and to pay and become premium member so message could be sent quicker 🙄.

Sounds like a scam, can you report the advert?

Pets4homes usually only has puppy farm puppies - respectably breeders (even of mongrels) don’t use it.

TBH sounds like a lucky escape, OP!