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Fraudulent website
pupvote.com
| Date | 07/09/2020 |
|---|---|
| Url / Website | pupvote.com Scamdoc Trust Score | Contact / Whois info |
| Scam contents | Site is using fake accounts on their site, they don't list the organization they claim they donate some of the proceeds from people buying votes. There are hundreds of dogs listed without a single vote, it appears the dogs who win have been linked to this group. They start off with absolutely no votes, no history of votes. Yet somehow, they end up with thousands....all of sudden they start getting random votes, hundreds. |
| Comment / Review | Not a single random vote for weeks but a few days before the contest ends they get thousands and the votes come in non-stop. There is a buying votes feature but there ws a period of time on their site it was disable and no one could vote. You can also win coupons(which are votes too). However, during a particular contest 5.29-6/12. All the 3 dogs that placed in the top 3 had no prior votes, no coupons and the ability to buy votes wasn't working. How the heck do these 3 dogs get 8-9000 "random" votes in a few days when not a single vote came through for months on any of them. There are pets that have won multiple times, which according to Pupvotes rules, they can't win more than once in a nine week period. Lots more red flags on this site.
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Reviews and comments left by Internet users are sorted in chronological order and are not checked a priori
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Jen 07/10/2020 at 08:22 AM
This site is a scam.
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Report #264171 08/14/2020 at 01:51 PM
Pupvote fails to publish the name of the organization for which they donate a portion of the money collected from people purchasing votes on their site. They claim they recently implemented the program but it appears from comments left on their sites such as Instagram and Fb they've had been running the program since march 2020. I have a screenshot of the comments as Pupvote removes comments they feel necessary. Since I have inquired issues on their site, I have been blocked and accused of be...
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Pupvote stated they would have the name/names of the non-profit organizations that they donate a portion of the money collected from people buying votes at the end of July on their sites. As of 8/14/2020, they have nothing published.
Pseudonym : Vote4Food
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tbritt99 08/20/2020 at 12:39 PM
Runs the same as King Pet which is worse. The scammers and fraudulent vote buying is out of control. No longer a contest but a banking game.
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Dan 09/01/2020 at 09:04 PM
Cheaters! I hope you sleep well. Why are these people allowed to operate? So fools like me will be scammed?
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RyanW 09/03/2020 at 11:21 AM
Well I cant really speak for them. But I cannot imagine getting so worked up over a site where photos of dogs and cats are shared.
Also, I think the using of a stock photo is pretty common. People like you who are a bit fanatical can go crazy and bother employees. The internet is a crazy place. Why dont you use your full real name and profile picture here on this site?
Eitther way, I have nothing to lose or gain here. My girlfriend likes Pupvote and has a lot of fun on the site. I just cannot imagine people get so worked up over a cat and dog website haha.
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Noxie 10/02/2020 at 04:33 PM
I think the site is now rigged in another way. Bought some votes for a mates pet and did get a good stream of random votes. Then the random votes just stopped. 12 hours / 18 hours later - still no votes. We did a test; bought some more votes...and within minutes, the random votes started up again. Just to clarify - the votes we bought did not change my mates position on the leaderboard, so can't blame placement / higher visibility for extra votes.
Anyone else noticed this or something similar?
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MelaniePupvote 11/15/2020 at 02:51 PM
Hi Noxie, as stated in our email correspondence (I sent the entire history of your friends pet). Your friends pet jumped from 52th to 6th on the leaderboard after the votes were bought. The pet was also featured on our homepage in the top rising category. We have hundreds of thousands of visitors per day, so naturally more exposure leads to more people seeing the pet / more votes.
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Milenasandra 11/13/2020 at 09:44 PM
I have noticed the same. If you buy votes, you get many random votes. This site is like a banking game! Somebody have to stop it.
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MelaniePupvote 11/15/2020 at 02:53 PM
Hi Milenasandra, please see the reply to Noxie above. Whenever you purchase votes your pet climbs the leaderboard and gets a "Trending" tag on the homepage. With hundreds of thousands of visitors per day the pets gets a lot of extra views and often an increase in votes.
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Milenasandra 11/18/2020 at 05:43 PM
Don't trust Pupvote! If nobody buys votes for the pet, the pet doesn't receive any random votes, even the pet is in the top 5 many days in a row! This is a real banking game!
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tlisa 01/19/2021 at 01:59 PM
Interesting find.....on the review site Sitejabber.com there is a Consumer alert informing people that Pupvote has offered compensations for leaving reviews on their site. They had over 300 reviews in one day....really?? All these people decided in a 48 hour period to place a review. I noticed reviews have become scarce on their site but now appear on Trustpilot. My initial review was deleted from Sitejabber but somehow landed on the site "trust momma". You're probably thinking "so what"? I have nothing to gain for sharing this information....just want people to make an informed decision if this is the type of contest they want to enter their pets in.
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Karen 02/15/2021 at 03:36 PM
I can't see any harm in this competition - it's a bit of fun! Isn't that what competition should be about? I would like to know where my money goes if i buy votes though
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tlisa 02/25/2021 at 02:04 AM
The question that should be asked to this company prior to entering the contest is "has there ever been a pet to win on votes alone?" I don't think any pets have won without people buying votes.
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MelaniePupvote 03/09/2021 at 12:40 PM
Hi Lisa! Glad to see you are still around :). Yes, each round we have many winners in different countries without a single paid vote. We have hundreds of thousands of users looking for the cutest pet on the platform. We have also recently added Pupswipe, which encourages people to vote for the pets they like more easily.
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tlisa 03/09/2021 at 01:00 PM
Hi "Melanie". I receive emails from this site anytime someone replies/posts in regards to the review I initially left almost a year ago. I'm glad you made changes to your site, it means I did something right. If you didn't do anything wrong, why make changes and there were many. You can explain the changes to make it seem like they were done to improve your game but we both know the truth.
I'm glad to know people are actually receiving their winnings and enjoy your site. I feel partially responsible ( along with another individual, you know who they are too) for people receiving their money as they didn't in the past. I will continue to respond as long as people keep posting their comments on my review. Have a great day!!
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MelaniePupvote 03/10/2021 at 02:25 AM
Hi Lisa, it is quite normal for a startup company to keep improving on its products. We have many exciting new things planned for the future!
While we appreciate your feeling of being a catalyst for change in our organisation, I am happy to let you know that everyone has received their winnings from the first contest we organised until the last, and every single one in between.
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tlisa 03/30/2021 at 01:36 AM
Hello "Melanie" from Shutterstock ...oh wait...you updated your photo after we found "you" on Shutterstock.com and brought it to your attention. Are we doing this again?
I'm sorry...I don't buy your response. I know different, many of your winners weren't real accounts....remember?? I found the photos posted elsewhere on the internet, like I found yours on Shutterstock.com. I found them and contacted you weeks after the contest...they were still listed as winners "until" I contacted your company. Pupvote had no choice but to correct it when the owner of one of the pets I contacted, contacted you. Gee...how did she know her pet "won" a contest she didn't even enter...uh...not from you. Pupvote should have given her the winnings....she is the rightful owner of the photograph but you didn't. BTW.... Interesting find on the "Sitejabber" website. There is a red bold consumer alert for your company on their site informing consumers that individuals are receiving compensations for posting positive reviews for Pupvote. No way!!! Pupvote wouldn't do such a thing....they just happen to received hundreds of reviews posted for them on Sitejabber within 2 days. Hundreds of people(think it was around 300 people) decided within a 48 hour period to leave reviews and get this you replied back to each of them too...amazing. Was there a timeframe for which people had to post a review? An expiration date of some sort? Now you have positive reviews on another site I think it's called...Read more
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MelaniePupvote 03/30/2021 at 02:47 AM
Hi Lisa, thank you for your continued dedication. We already spoke at length about many things you address here. But let me address them again for the record.
- When a pets wins one of our contests we have a special verification procedure they have to go through to prove they actually own the pet. The user you found, who indeed used someone else's picture to participate, could not provide this in 21 days. We do give people some extra time to verify as sometimes people forget to do this within the provided time. When alerted we took action and resolved this within 24 hours. I don't know how we could have handled this better.
- About not using a personal picture for our support employees. As you could probably very well imagine, people get a bit overexcited or disappointed when their pets don't end up in the desired place. We protect the personal identity of our first line customer support employees to protect them from potential harassment in their personal life. This is quite common practice in large customer facing companies with with millions of users. Please try to contact any customer chat support of a company (e.g. Facebook) and you will see they only show their first name.
- Regarding the reviews. We sent an email to a small group of our user base to leave an honest opinion about our platform on Sitejabber. To our surprise over 300 people wrote a review within 24 hours. Most of them great, some of them constructive criticism. Apparently on Sitejabber it is not allowed to...Read more
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Sierra 03/09/2021 at 12:29 PM
Pupvote is just a fun voting website for dogs and cats, there is no possible way for a scam. I have been in state leaderboards with my baby, Scout and it has been a lot of fun. I highly recommend Pupvote for a pet contest where everyone is so nice with their comments and will really vote for you. If you have a problem with paying for votes, just have fun with your own votes in the contest.
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tlisa 03/09/2021 at 01:15 PM
Seriously?? The internet is full of scams. This site had so many red flags that they made numerous changes to their game since 7/9/2020. I'm glad people are "now" receiving their winnings and having fun. Pupvote considers me a nuisance and a sore loser but if it wasn't for me and another individual perhaps none of the changes made would have been done. Good luck, hope you win.~
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DennisUS 05/18/2021 at 02:51 PM
Thank you for speaking up about this shitty company. Literally, they call you a sore loser if you don’t want to spend thousands of dollars on your pet to win. If you don’t spend any money on their site you automatically get no votes. This site is so full of s*** 😂
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tlisa 06/13/2021 at 10:31 PM
It's interesting that this company states they refuse to be extorted from review sites but will ask their patrons for reviews. According to a reviewer on Trustpilot, they were given 250 votes in an exchange for leaving a review. Pupvote didn't respond to his review.
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Jay1971 04/23/2021 at 04:57 PM
Never been a suspicious person but watched Homeland recently and now I am a bit.
Was a bit pushy about signing up,so I searched the name and here I am so.🤷🏻♂️
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tlisa 05/15/2021 at 04:39 PM
I have been a thorn in this companies side for almost a year for good reason. Myself and a few other contestants had insight on some of this companies tactics. We were proven correct when they "changed" their platform and openly admitted to "scam" tactics for which myself and another person found on their site. They have an answer for everything with the exception of the explanation how 3 pets were able to receive thousands and I mean thousands of votes during a period when "votes" couldn't be purchased.
Three dogs started with 0 votes and won with almost 10,000 votes each in a matter of a couple of days. I find it hard to believe that these were all random votes as I and another contestant received a few random votes but not thousands. You can see the names of people voting and those voting for my pet were consistently the same, family and friends. it was easy to see the same for one other pet but the dogs that won I didn't noticed the same pattern. Believe me, I was paying close attention as I mentioned in other reviews that this site had red flags that were proven accurate.
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DennisUS 05/17/2021 at 12:54 PM
This site is definitely a scam site.
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roxanac 11/05/2021 at 10:47 PM
I havent received my prize yet, the 300 pounds. its always the same response" we will release your payment soon ".
very disappointed, Melanie!
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tlisa 11/07/2021 at 01:13 AM
Sorry you haven't received your winnings, hopefully soon. I can't say anything good about this company.
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The Weka 12/10/2021 at 12:24 PM
MY CORRESPONDENCE WITH PUPVOTE
On Thu, Nov 18, 2021 at 1:41 PM Ania Davidson wrote:
I have coupons for 1800 and 500 points that I am unable to redeem. I have been trying to use them and I am concerned that they have expired. If they have I disagree as my dog Ned earned them on the last Pet Competition and then there was a couple of months until you opened this latest competition, so I was unable to access them to even use for the weekly challenge. Can you please advise me how I am meant to use the point coupon or release them to me so I use them?
Coupon unlocked. You have coupon for 1800 votes available
4 months
Coupon unlocked. You have coupon for 500 votes available
4 months
Regards
Ania Davidson
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On Fri, 19 Nov 2021 at 01:15, Pupvote wrote:
Hi Ania,
Thanks for reaching out. All coupons expire after a month. I can see from your email that they have been awarded 4 months ago.
Have a wonderful day!
THIS COMMENT INSULTED ME - FIRED ME UP TO TAKE ACTION - CONDESCENDING!!!!
Melanie - Community Manager @ Pupvote
P.S. Don't forget to pet a dog today
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Re: Redeeming Coupons
19 Nov 2021, 17:05
to Pupvote
Are you serious! I think you need to make changes to the coupon informing voters they have limited time to use before the expiry date. Searching through the Terms and Conditions I managed to identify the only clause that could refer to the coupons only... Read more
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Report #436441 01/02/2022 at 07:40 PM
Pupvote does not pay me my winning money.7
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After winning the competition I contacted Pupvote to ask them how do I claim the money that I won? I was then told I need to complete a form, which I did. Then when I contacted Pupvote I was told that they needed me to send them a photo of my Pet and I, holding a notice with the current date, Pets name & my name. Which I did.
Then when I contacted Pupvote I was told it would take 21 days for me to receive the money. Now it's been almost 40 days and I have NOT received any money.
I emailed Melanie from Pupvote several times and now they don't reply my emails.
When I bought Votes, they withdrew my money from my Card in seconds. But now to get the money that I won, it's impossible.
It's easier to get blood out of a rock, than get the money I won from Pupvote.
This is an absolute SCAM.
Fraudulent email : melanie@pupvote.com
Pseudonym : Pupvote
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Report #464999 02/28/2022 at 09:54 AM
I bought votes n they double charged me I only for the one vote for that charge n they said they will pay the other back but taking my votes which I never got the votes ! Also people that runs that contest like everyone mention the people are the once’s making there own profile just to get us not to win once it’s clise to closing contest ! I started noticing this when your do so so far ahead like over 35,000 n the person that wasn’t even 500 votes got all the way til top ! These people are...
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After I told them I’m going to my bank that’s when they decided to pay it back ! They are a scam !
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Beverly 04/27/2022 at 08:28 AM
I have placed my pet on this site and I bought votes my pet was 3rd in the contest but as the end date nears suddenly out of nowhere these new pet pics coming up with 40k plus votes. How did that happen one minute it’s not there and suddenly random cats pic come up with thousands of votes into 1st 2nd and third place.How can a random pic which was no where in sight suddenly climb the ladder to first place with 60k+ votes.
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Jack & Jill 10/21/2022 at 02:58 PM
This site is definitely a SCAM SCAM SCAM, stay far far far away from this website as well as everyone working for them, it's disgusting how much money they take take take take from people.. especially for fur babies who does that?? PUPPY VOTE THAT'S WHO DOES THAT...
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Report #664116 07/09/2023 at 06:35 PM
They make fake accounts and cheat. In regards especially to the weekly challenge the pets submitted are not in relation to what is the challenge is for. Also the picture's are stolen elsewhere.
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My dog Bagel (now in second place) was in first place for quite a few days. He probably will go down more once the contest ends since the voting is frozen.
He clearly is in a funny pose.
That dog in first is not even in a funny pose. THIS IS CHEATING.
THOSE PETS SHOULD BE DISQUALIFIED FROM THE WEEKLY CONTEST! This needs to he fixed immediately if my dog (Bagel) doesn't win the $250 and loses to the dog that is in first place that is clearly not in a funny pose. You will never get a cent out if me again, nor will I ever recommend any of your contests again. Totally UNFAIR. You will also refund all purchases if this happens. All the pictures I attached are of dogs that have got past my dog clearly NOT in a funny pose.
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Report #717089 12/04/2023 at 12:10 PM
I put my own dog in their weekly challenge, a photo challenge , my dog had been 1st place even when the countdown timer cut out .. however he received 3rd place instead of 1st ... 1st and second place were given to 3/4 place instead I even have screenshots of when it ended and who was given what
Pseudonym : Pupvote
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MiMi 05/06/2025 at 05:23 AM
Have been chasing my prize money for over a month now - each time, I am told by Melanie of Pupvote that I will be notified when there is an update and that my winnings has been placed in the next batch of payouts. I am beginning to think that I will never get my winnings, but I did donate money for votes so I will be reporting this as fraud if I do not get my prize money.
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Amanda 10/25/2025 at 03:02 PM
At first I thought Pupvote would be a fun way to show off my sweet cat. My cat Jingle Belle actually won 3rd prize in the August 8th-29th contest. But so far no prize has been received. I've emailed and have been told my payment is in the next batch of payments. I've emailed again several days later,then being told they aren't certain when the payment will come. I'm starting to think this website is definitely a scam. Not only do you have to buy votes,but they don't even reward the winners with their payments. I'm definitely not giving up until I receive my prize. It's been over 30 days,and I've already verified my identity. I just hope Pupvote does the right thing!
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John St. 01/15/2026 at 03:58 PM
Don't you folks feel that, in the first place, the idea to sell calendars (and for a hefty amount nevertheless...) including to the very dog parents whose dogs appear in the calendar (!), seems in itself unusually shameless and should pull a strong alarm signal about the practices and the (dubious) status of this company? Just saying...