The rise in dog and puppy theft is well known, but it seems the criminals are now widening their attentions to the equipment that accompanies dog breeding – which includes ultrasound machines.

There has been a spate of credit card fraud recently, with at least three ultrasound machines that we are aware of having been purchased with stolen credit cards (thankfully, none from our company so far this year, in part due to our rigid procedures when it comes to accepted payments types and in-person collections, having been victims of fraud ourselves in 2019). On top of this, two of our customers have told us that they’ve had ultrasound machines stolen from their vehicles.

When considering purchasing a used ultrasound machine:

• Buy from an ultrasound company. You won’t pay very much more than buying privately (you might even pay less!), and you’ll get the peace of mind of knowing the machine is legitimate, with warranty, and you will be supported and looked after. You can view our used veterinary ultrasound machines here.
• If you must buy privately, ask the seller for proof of purchase, or verify the serial number with the company they purchased it from.

Remember that ultrasound machine warranties do not automatically transfer. That means that even if you buy a machine that was purchased only yesterday by somebody else, the company will not be able to provide you warranty repair unless their engineers have checked the machine over prior to you taking possession. That is why buying from a private individual is always high risk.

If someone is offering you a ‘too good to be true’ cash deal for a brand new machine, this should raise suspicions. If you think you might have been approached by somebody offering you a stolen ultrasound machine, please let us know about it.