I was scammed by a fake puppy breeder, so I made an app to stop it happening again

I was scammed by a fake puppy breeder, so I made an app to stop it happening again Tanyel Mustafa Published December 2, 2025 7:15am Updated December 2, 2025 7:15am Share this article via whatsappShare this article via xCopy the link to this article.Link is copiedShare this article via facebook Comment now Comments Catching out fraudsters (Picture: Kate Margolis)

‘I’ve been a cat person my whole life, and the wound hadn’t healed after my cat passed. So my partner and I discussed getting a dog,’ says Kate Margolis, 39.

‘We decided what breed we’d like, thought about what our life would look like, as we always knew we wanted to move from north London to the Cotswolds. So, with that in mind we looked for a breed suitable for the area and that would be a good family dog.’

They settled on a golden retriever. Other friends of theirs had dogs of this breed, too, so it felt like somewhat familiar territory.

‘I scoured the internet with the information I had from family and friends, which was to make sure the dog is coming from a licensed breeder. I had a decent amount of knowledge. 

‘I engaged with a breeder from Mid West England. I filled out a form on their exceptionally polished website, showing testimonials and his credentials. It ticked the boxes in my mind.

‘Within an hour of filling in the form, the breeder called me and he was straight to the point and told me the criteria around getting a puppy. He told me it would be £500 to secure the puppy. He asked about my background, too.’

He emailed over this bank details and Kate, whose career background is in design and tech, sent the money across. As far as she was concerned, this was a done deal and no alarm bells were ringing.

Kate and her dog Milo (Picture: Kate Margolis)

In early 2020, they were meant to pick up the puppy, but the day before Kate got an email saying ‘we’re really sorry, but your puppy has eaten plastic and died, do you want a girl instead?’. 

‘That was absolutely devastating. We’d bought the crate, the toys, we’d booked him in with the vet, we’d enlisted him into some training. We’d been prepping for months, making sure he had the right food, treats, and setting ourselves up for success.’

Kate replied saying she didn’t want a girl and asked for her money back. Swiftly the email address was blocked, the website taken down, the phone number disconnected, and there was no way to get in touch with the breeder. At the time, she didn’t register it as fraud. This is despite her previously having worked in ID verification, money laundering and fraud in the conveyancing industry.

‘I remember the exact moment it clicked. One minute I was refreshing my emails thinking there must’ve been some mix-up… and then suddenly the website wouldn’t load. The phone number went dead. It was like watching a door slam shut in real time.

‘That was the moment my stomach properly dropped. It wasn’t confusion anymore — it was that cold, sinking rush when you realise you’ve been played. I felt stupid, angry, embarrassed… but mostly heartbroken. I’d already pictured this little puppy coming home, built all this excitement around it, and in one swipe it all just vanished.

‘When the shock settled, it turned into this almost physical heaviness — like someone had taken something from me that I couldn’t get back. That’s what pushed me to go to the police. It stopped being about the money and became about the principle….If they’d done it to me, they were doing it to other people too.’

She went to the police and didn’t get much help, and instead was advised to report it to Action Fraud (which she didn’t do, because she still hadn’t fully accepted it was fraud).

Kate then found another breeder and now has a golden retriever called Milo, who she very much adores.

Kate and app co-founder Garry Clarke (Picture: Kate Margolis)

A few years after this harrowing experience, Kate learned about the rising issue of puppy fraud, and that other people had lost much more money.

A total of 14,300 pet scam reports were recorded between 2019 and 2024, according to data obtained through a Freedom of Information request to Action Fraud.

London, Manchester and the West Midlands were among the areas most affected. The Metropolitan Police recorded the highest number of cases (1,684) and the largest financial losses, totalling £1.19 million.

Separate research by The Kennel Club shows many prospesctive owners are tricked into buying unwell puppies, as one in four puppies (25%) found on social media get sick or die before their first birthday.

Having met Garry Clarke in the workplace, she pitched to him that they work with verification technology as a way to begin to solve this problem – something they both understood through their jobs – and they began researching.

This whole experience led Kate and Garry to develop Petproov last summer, an app to verify breeders, shelters, and sellers. 

The way it works, is a buyer might find an animal listing, put in the breeder’s information into their app, then Petproov emails the breeder asking them to complete ID verification, among other questions to build a profile of this breeder. Anyone that doesn’t comply is listed as a risky breeder to buy from. 

‘We give users the guidance and confidence to make a decision about whether that breeder is worth going with,’ Kate says. Each pet costs £4.99. Already, Kate has seen risky breeders be ‘scared off’ when approached, which is a win in her eyes as it suggests something isn’t right.

Petproov has so far raised £120,000 through private investors. The app build was financed by themselves and a pre-seed round of family, friends and angel investors.

It’s just Kate and Garry working on the app, and they still have full-time jobs, so the app runs on contractors and their free time. Love Island’s Faye Winter has been brought on as an ambassador, bringing more awareness to the app, given her animal welfare advocacy.

‘We do this as much as we can in our spare time, including weekends. We want to make sure all of the money we’ve raised in our investment round is going to the right places, and not our pockets,’ Kate explains.

The hope is to one day make the business viable enough that they can quit their day jobs and actually take a salary while doing worthwhile work.

More Trending

1. 

   I'm a cabbie on £20,000 a year — the Budget is going to make my life unbearable

   Channel: Money Money 1 day ago By Sarah Davidson
2. Martin Lewis reveals how long you should keep bills, receipts and paperwork
3. Where to Invest: how to turn £100 into £1,000
4. Sainsbury's makes major change to Nectar card so you can earn more points

‘We want to stop fraud in this space, raise the standards of animal welfare, and put animals into the hands of buyers who really understand the responsibility of what it means to have an animal,’ Kate adds.

Most recently, Kate and Garry have been working with the the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Animal Welfare’s (APGAW) on a new form of verification to help breeders decide if their pets are safe to continue breeding.

It’s called the Innate Health Assessment (IHA) Tool, and it has a 10-point checklist that will assess how healthy is dog is before determining the result.

Kate is thrilled to have worked on developing this, and sees as it as a step in the right direction. The tool will open more doors for Petproov, which she is determined to keep growing in years to come.

Arrow MORE: I’m a cabbie on £20,000 a year — the Budget is going to make my life unbearable

Arrow MORE: Sainsbury’s makes major change to Nectar card so you can earn more points

Arrow MORE: I found solace in a graveyard – I turned it into my job

Comment now Comments Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google Add as preferred source