Christine Wylde, 48, from Fishwick, had already paid an extra £200 for insurance after the online breeder claimed the tiny chihuahua – which she has seen on a picture – was suffering from stress.

She is warning people of the dangers of buying dogs online after the much-wanted puppy failed to arrive.

It now appears she may have fallen victim to a Cameroon-based scam.

Mrs Wylde – who already has a Jack Russell, two Yorshire Terriers and an American Bulldog – ordered the pup from a breeder called Lee Chong, claiming to be based in Thurso, Scotland, after seeing it advertised online.

She contacted Mr Chong on a mobile phone number and paid £235 for the pup as a Christmas present for her daughter Katherine, eight.

But a few days later she received a call asking for a further £635 for insurance to ship the treasured pet to Preston.

Mrs Wylde said: "The next thing they told me the pup was too ill to travel, it was suffering from stress and they needed £235 for a special cage to transport down from Scotland."

Mrs Wylde transferred the money to an address in Cameroon using the Moneygram international money transfer scheme at Walton-le-Dale Post Office.

She says she was told the company was undergoing auditing and all funds would have to be paid to the international head office.

It was only when the shipping firm, International Pet Flights, asked for £473 for a passport to bring the dog into England that Mrs Wylde began to get suspicious.

Under regulations introduced in 2003, animals being transported into the UK from overseas need a pet passport, but travel between Scotland and England is unrestricted.

But Mrs Wylde says: "I have had various threats saying pay this money or I'll be sorry and I still haven't seen the dog."

Mrs Wylde says she has been led to believe the dog is being kept at the breeder's headquarters in Scotland until she pays the extra cash, but she now fears for the chihuahua's health if it exists.

She said: "They said it didn't need injections but now they have given it injections for its stress.

"I don't know if it even exists but if it does they are being very cruel to it.

"My main concern is that cruelty to an animal is going on.

"I'm not bothered about the money. If I've lost it I've lost it."

The two mobile phone numbers for Mr Chong and two mobile numbers for International Pet Flights are dead.

A spokesman for Trading Standards confirmed that complaints had been made to Consumer Direct about International Pet Flights.


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