MT. HEALTHY, Ohio (WXIX) – The owner of Animal House: Pet Store in Mt. Healthy believes someone is trying to scam his customers using AI.

Owner Michael Raleigh has been using Facebook for his business for years. He believes some of the comments on Facebook posts are part of a scam.

“It’s disheartening that people try to cheat others out of such a big decision as purchasing a puppy,” Raleigh said.

Raleigh said her posts have received unusual comments over the past eight months, most of them replies to people who had already commented on a post, responding with websites and links to dogs for sale.

“I think they require upfront payments and things like that,” Raleigh said.

Raleigh showed a post on Facebook with a photo of Cavapoo puppies. Someone replied to the post: “So cute.” He said an account immediately replied to the comment with a link to similar puppies.

“It pops up immediately and as soon as we block it, another one pops up under a different name,” Raleigh said.

FOX19 NOW tech expert Dave Hatter says the comments are bad for business, even if they are legitimate and not a scam.

“Even if it’s not fraud in the sense that I define traditional fraud, like if you click on a link and install some kind of malware or steal your login information or your credit card or something like that, the behavior is fraud at best and really unethical,” Hatter said.

Raleigh says he never clicked on the links, but immediately blocked them.

“We don’t want to be confused with scammers,” Raleigh said. “You can come to our store in person and never put a deposit on a pet without being there in person.”

He wants his customers to continue to be able to interact with Animal House’s Facebook account

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