A NEWPORT woman lost more than £400 to a bogus online seller who promised to sell her a pedigree dog.

Bernadette Latham, 40, of Pontfaen, and her son, Haydn, 23, bought a Siberian husky puppy online through tapthat.co.uk in November from a seller calling himself Mark Patel, from Glasgow.

The pair paid £150 for the puppy, which was to be their joint Christmas present, but were soon asked to pay a further £219 transportation costs.

A few days later they received a request for another £70 for a permit to transfer the dog from Scotland to Wales.

They paid the money but were later told the puppy had died in transit because of food poisoning and were asked to pay £700 to an insurance company to get £6,500 in compensation.

They refused and reported the matter to the council’s trading standards department.

Ms Latham, said she and Haydn, who had his right leg amputated below then knee after an infection in 2006, were very disheartened by what had happened.

She said: “Christmas was unbearable, we lost all that money. How could people do this? It was really wrong."

Investigations have since revealed the seller is based in Cameroon and not Glasgow, as advertised and found many people across the UK have been victims of the scam.

Newport council’s cabinet member for environment and community safety, Cllr David Fouweather, said a number of incidents had been reported but because the scam is operated offshore trading standards is unlikely to find out who is responsible or to recover any money.

He added: “The public should be made aware of the lengths that these con men will go to, and our advice is to have nothing to do with offers of this kind.”

Newport council is working with the Office of Fair Trading to warn consumers of bogus sellers and scammers as part of the “Scamnesty Campaign” which runs from February 1 to 26.

To report a scam contact Consumer Direct Wales on 08454 040506.