Va. family says safety is at risk because of Facebook puppy scam

NEW KENT, Va. (WWBT) - A woman in New Kent fears for her family’s safety after a hacker took over her mother’s Facebook account.

Amy Jackson called 12 On Your Side after dealing with the scammer for about a month.

On the fake account, listed as “Teresa Jackson (Teresa letterman jackson),” the hacker claims to have Yorkie puppies who are in need of a new home for sale.

“People have showed up in our driveway at 10 o’clock at night looking for Yorkie puppies that we obviously don’t have,” Jackson said.

She said once the posts are made, potential buyers send the fake account a direct message.

The hacker then asks for at least $200 via a mobile payment service, like Cash App.

To make it seem like it isn’t a scam, Amy said the hacker then replies with a picture of Teresa’s real driver’s license.

“And they’re sending it out to God knows how many people that now knows where she lives,” Jackson said.

Two different people have since shown up at their doorstep looking for the puppies. Others online have threatened to physically attack Teresa at her own home.

Amy has tried to alert others on Facebook about the scam. She’s gone as far as filing an incident report with the New Kent County Sheriff’s Office.

“I do not believe that it’s originating here even in the Richmond-Metro area it’s more than likely from clones probably outside of the Commonwealth of Virginia,” Sheriff Joe McLaughlin said.

He said there aren’t many details he could share, but they are investigating.

This isn’t the first time hackers have posed as Amy’s mother on Facebook.

Teresa’s account was hacked back in December 2021, when hackers claimed they would send money via Cash App to whoever could guess what the picture read.

That’s when they tried to recover the account by contacting Facebook. Amy said in order to verify Teresa’s identity, she had to upload a picture of her driver’s license to what looked like a Facebook recovery form.

So she did, but Amy isn’t sure if that method was actually from Facebook itself.

She said last year, Teresa received a message that sent her a link claiming it had pictures of her. Teresa clicked on the link that Amy believes opened the door to the hacker.

Amy tried time and time again to get the fake account taken down, but Facebook keeps denying the request.

This means that more people could show up at her doorstep expecting a puppy in return.

“People believe that it’s her, you know, scamming them. So they could very well show up at our driveway and be very angry. So I do worry about her safety and what it could possibly do. It absolutely got the potential to turn bad,” Jackson said.

The sheriff’s office has made a post about the scam to their Facebook page to warn others.

They recommend meeting someone in a public place before handing over any money and giving them a call if they feel like they have been scammed.

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