SYR's insurance only applies if there is a problem during shipping. It doesn't apply if you send money to a scammer.
The best way to protect yourself is:
1) Never send money as a gift, and
2) Use a credit card, not your bank account or a debit card, to back up your PayPal payment. That way if there is a dispute and PayPal does nothing for you due to its policy of not covering live animal transactions, you can make a claim through your credit card company.
Note: scammers are also well aware of #2 when buying - they purchase something (not just animals) and then claim it never arrived or was not as described with their own credit card company. Since the seller can only deal with PayPal and not the merchant processor or credit card companies involved, the seller often loses the dispute even when the item was shipped and arrived safely. The scammer then ends up with both the item purchased and gets a refund, and the seller ends up with not just the purchase price but also any chargeback fees pulled from his PayPal account.
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