Pet scam is on the rise, not just in India but also in the northeast and in the last few years incidents related to pet scam have risen exponentially in Assam.

Who doesn't love to have a dog or a cat as a pet at home? Right from the toddlers to the grown-up adults, passing time with a pet is one of the most favourite pass time.

When we bring home a pet, it does not just remain an animal, but it becomes a part of our family.

We become pet parents and we care for it as we care for our own child.

For a newly married couple, a pet becomes their first child and when they have a child of their own, the pet is considered as the elder sibling.

We take our time to attend to its medical visits and do our best to keep the animal healthy and fit.

In pets, dogs are mainly preferred over others and this has been a tradition since time immemorial.

History says that dogs were the first animal that was domesticated and the trend has continued since then.

With the passage of time, people's choice for dogs have changed and these days people prefer to buy exotic foreign breeds over the local ones and to do so they approach various dealers and sellers, requesting for their choice of breed.

While some get their desired breed, but a few, however, remain unlucky and once such unlucky buyer is Guwahati-based journalist Siddharth Deb.

Deb, who is currently at his ancestral residence in Silchar, ordered for a French Mastiff through a Guwahati-based pet seller shop named Pets Nation (Rocky's Kennel).

As per the request of the proprietor of the store, Deb paid an advance of Rs 12,000 and it has been almost three weeks that the payment was made but the pet shop's owner has been showing no signs of delivering the dog.

On being asked he says that the "breeder", who is in Patna in Bihar, |has not provided him with the puppy" so he is unable to deliver it.

Deb then asked for a different puppy at the same rate, to which this Pets Nation guy had no specific answer.

And when Deb asked for the refund, Pets Nation refused to receive his calls.

Out of frustration, Deb on December 20 night wrote a Facebook post tagging Pets Nation and sharing screenshots of the WhatsApp conversation he had with Pets Nation.

Reacting to this, Pets Nation replied Deb on December 21 at 3:52 am, blaming him of tarnishing Pets Nation's name.

"Look at their audacity, this guy now blames me of damaging his reputation. He further has the guts to tell that he won't become a king by siphoning my Rs 12,000," Deb said while speaking to The Story Mug.

Screenshots of Deb's transaction

"I have had four to six dogs earlier and the last one was a Doberman. I have always bought it directly in person from shops in Guwahati. Since I am here at Silchar due to some urgent family business, I booked a dog online via this Facebook group. Before I paid the advance, this guy would call me 100 times in a day. But after receiving the money, neither he has sent me the puppy nor has he been receiving my calls," Deb said.

"I think I have been framed by some fraudster who has been running this duping business," Deb added.

When we called on the Pets Nation's number 8638096534, there was no response. We doubt the page admin had deliberately avoided calls from unknown numbers.

This is certainly not the lone case where a pet lover has been looted of his hard-earned money and cheats like they are in galore.

Next time you decide to buy a pet through a Facebook group, just be careful and double-check its credibility or else you could be the next victim of such a pet scam.