Buddy Bandana, The Scam That Continues

In September of 2019, I happened upon Buddy Bandana on instagram. They were advertising that they needed brand ambassadors. Being a huge dog lover (all animal lover, really), I was immediately enthusiastic. A handful of messages later and I was in. I thought I had accomplished something but really, they had found another sucker.

SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

I ordered my matching dog bandana and human scrunchy set with the discount code that they provided (that’s how they get ya!) and waited, anxiously. When they came, I had my son take pictures of my dog and me.

I quickly shared them with my contact at Buddy Bandana and waited for our feature on their page. As well as plenty of attention which would lead to fame and fortune! Ok, well, I definitely expected the picture to be posted, anyway.

(My sweet Captain)

LEARNING THE TRUTH

But, nothing happened.

Never the less, it gave me something to blog about! So, I did. If you missed it, check it out here—> The Buddy Bandana Is Perfect For Your Buddy (Or Not) I wrote about my new adventure, sang their praises (particularly the part about their apparent commitment to donate to animal shelters) and shared a discount code.

After posting, I still expected to see my boy, Captain, on their page and I definitely didn’t expect to find out that Buddy Bandanas is one big scam.

It didn’t take long for the comments to start rolling in.

I never got my order.

They aren’t reachable.

I sent pictures and they never responded.

On and on.

At first, I wanted to pretend that it was the wrong Buddy Bandana or that they had fixed their issues. But, like I said, the comments went on and on. So, I added a disclaimer to the top of my post so readers wouldn’t think that I was actually associated with the company.

I’m sure you can figure out that I never heard from them again; not even when I reached out with a link to my post. I was trying to give them an opportunity to solve the problem and show us all that they were good guys, after all.

So, yeah, they’re not good guys, after all.

THE STORY CONTINUES

About a year later, I received a message from a guy from the BBC. He explained that he was doing a documentary on instagram brand ambassador scammers including Buddy Bandana. He said that my post had been the breakthrough that he needed and through the post and the comments, they believed that they had tracked down the scammer behind the cute dog pictures.

So, fast forward to an awkward zoom interview with a fellow across the ocean. This came complete with a bad connection and being forced to turn the video off so that the sound would at least work. It wasn’t fun to talk to a black screen but I could still hear his Scottish accent so all was not lost…. 😃

Anyway, after being told repeatedly that I had inadvertently really done a good thing as they were hopefully going to be able to stop them; I said good-bye and set about feeling really good about myself. I also looked forward to the link that he promised to send me when the documentary aired.

I find it a little ironic that I never heard from him again, either. But, at least, this time, my money wasn’t involved. He didn’t really owe me anything so no worries. Either way, I took with me the belief that I had been part of the solution and that, my friends, is pretty awesome.

BUT, WAIT, THERE’S MORE

But, then, the other day, I got an instagram message from Buddy Bandanas, asking me if I would like to be a brand ambassador. What?!

Well, I may be part of the solution but the problem clearly hasn’t been solved yet.

So, be careful out there, people. It’s painfully hard to know who you can trust. And who you can’t. If anyone has had a similar experience with Buddy Bandana or another scammer, please let me know in the comments. That’s how we can help each other stay safe and un-scammed!

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29 thoughts on “Buddy Bandana, The Scam That Continues”

  1. The scammers are everywhere. I’d have even been cautious with the Scottish accent guy. I know two people who experienced identify theft via phone calls where they didn’t give out any banking info, but were on the phone long enough for the damage to happen.

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    1. I hear you! Thankfully, he wasn’t asking me anything that wasn’t in the blog already but yeah, it’s so scary out there! That’s extra scary that identity theft can occur without even giving out info. 😳

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    2. Guess who contacted me today
      Yep buddy bandana. Though they never said anything about being an ambassador they did give me a code that I can share that will knock 40٪ off the price. Should of known it was to good to be true

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    3. Thank you so much theyve been asking me for a couple of months to join there team but sometimes has had me hesitant. I dont thinks its fair @ all when people take advantage and to say they donate to shelters i find it hard to believe if they even do that ???. Hope you and your precious pup are doing better , Happy 4th . Good luck, Ceasars Mom 🥰🥰🥰

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    5. I just posted a picture of my pup and instantly got a message from them. At first I thought and replied “great” to their question how am i doing. Then I looked them up and found your blog. When they asked if I heard of them, I replied “No, but I looked it up online just now. I read it’s a scam” to which the reply was “we have thousands of reviews from real customers please look at the tagged photos’ I responded with a thumbs up hoping that was that. It wasn’t so they came back about their new brand of dog bandanas for supporting rescue shelters and over 14k donated to AHW Foundation (I have no idea who that is either). I responded, “Yes I read about the code and so on. Stop texting me please”. They stopped. Thanks for your information about them. I would’ve probably fell into it like others.

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  2. Pingback: The Buddy Bandana Is Perfect For Your Buddy (Or Not) – the6parkers

  3. This post was veeery helpful. They have reached me here (in Brazil) and I was like… “leave me alone!” since they dont stop messaging me!

    They’re waiting for me to buy a bandana. Haha

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  4. Just got approached at my dogs account that they want us to collaborate with them and they gave us a discount code with 40% off which is quite nice but as sceptic as I am I googled it before I went buying stuff and glad I did😅 I don’t want to support or make commercial for a company that don’t do what they say and take money from us without giving to the 🐾 in need…thank you for sharing your experience ❤️

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  5. Thank you so much theyve been asking me for a couple of months to join there team but something has had me hesitant. I dont think
    its fair @ all when people take advantage and to say they donate to shelters i find it hard to believe if they even do that ???. Hope you and your precious pup are doing better , Happy 4th . Good luck, Ceasars Mom 🥰🥰🥰

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  6. I read a post from them saying they were looking for dog models. I replied, since like everyone else, l think l have the cutest dog on Earth. But before getting scammed luckily l googled it and found this story. I always double check things before l commit so l was so happy to see this and not get scammed by these jerks. They need to be removed from Instagram and whatever else sites they are on. Since l know it’s a scam l might play around with them for awhile…lol. Thanks for taking the time to write about your experience, I’m sure you have saved a lot of people money.

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  7. I unfortunately did not see this before I fell for the Buddy Bandana scam and paid for one. I messaged them and they said they canceled my subscription but there hasn’t been a confirmation email or anything. So I’m terrified they will keep charging my card. Does anyone know how I can go about this and make sure they don’t charge my card?

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    1. I’m sorry that they got you, too. 😞 Maybe your bank could block any future transactions from them? I’m not positive but talking to your bank would be my suggestion. Good luck!

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  8. I messaged them via Instagram and got my discount code, but before I checked out I wanted to research the company more. As I was researching them, they TEXTED me and I asked how they got my number as I never gave it to anyone. They told me they got my number from the checkout cart from where I had filled it in online. They gave me another discount code and a link back to my checkout page. I am definitely getting weird vibes and will not be buying from them.

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  9. They wanted my dog to be a model. I spent almost $110 on cutw bandanas ajd matching head gear for me only to be told my card was being declined. I reached out to “Megan” who gave me a code and a discount just to find that tje instagram user had vanished. Luckily my bank recognized right away that inwas being scammed

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  10. Thank you for your post and comments! I’m from Ukraine. A girl Laura just wrote to me (her Instagram account has only 1 photo🤷🏻‍♀️). She offered to become an ambassador of the pawtly.com platform. Everything is identical as you described! Their account was created only 5 days ago and already has 77.5 thousand followers. Yes, I believed so. Thank you for your experience, it saved many of us!

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  12. I was contacted on IG. Not directly by Buddy Bandana, but an IG user that told me to reach out to them because they wanted to collaborate with me. Why wouldn’t Buddy Bandana contact me directly and why didn’t this IG user have any followers or posts? I googled to see if Buddy Bandana was legit and your blog popped up. Crazy.

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