A Cruel, Emotionally Manipulative New Scam Targets Cat Owners

“I had to leave work because I was a wreck, fully believing my cat was on the verge of life and death. It’s cruel that people do this,” one victim said.

Two weeks after his beloved cat vanished, Justin Hills received a phone call that simultaneously gave him hope and filled him with dread.

The man on the line spoke with practiced professionalism and told him that his cat, Little Wayne Shorter, had been found badly injured after he was hit by a car.

Little Wayne urgently needed surgery, said the man who identified himself as a staffer with Seattle Animal Shelter. Veterinarians were ready to begin surgery if Hills gave them the go-ahead and sent $2,800 via Venmo.

“The back of my head is screaming, ‘This is a scam. This is a scam.’ But at the same time, because it’s such an emotional pull, I’m thinking, even if there’s only a 10% chance that this is real, you know, I want to go ahead with it,” Hills told Seattle’s WKIRO.

Little Wayne Shorter

“The guy was rehearsed, was smooth. He sounded like, you know, an experienced person,” Hills said. “They had done some research on me before they called. You know, they knew my name. They knew my cat’s name, you know, the address and all this.”

When Hills called his bank, they warned him it was a scam. Hills said he’s glad he didn’t send the money but also devastated his cat is still missing — and that he was given false hope by someone trying to manipulate him in his desperation to be reunited with Little Wayne.

He’s not alone. In a post to Facebook group for missing pets in King County this week, Seattleite Harris Alex described a call from a person who claimed to work for Seattle Animal Shelter.

“They said someone found my cat, Binx, and that he had been hit by a car. They told me if I didn’t pay for surgery, he would die or be paralyzed within the next hour,” Alex wrote.

A caller said Binx, above, was seriously injured and needed urgent — and expensive — veterinary care.

Alex grew suspicious when the caller asked for a payment via Venmo, Paypal or Chime.

“I called the shelter to confirm they do not have him,” Alex wrote. “I had to leave work because I was a wreck, fully believing my cat was on the verge of life and death. It’s cruel that people do this. Be careful out there.”

Staff at Seattle Animal Shelter, which is run by the city, are aware of the scam and have gotten several calls from people asking if the shelter has their cats after being in contact with the impersonators.

“We would never ask somebody over the phone to make a payment,” said Don Baxter, manager of field services at the hospital. “We’re going to get that pet to a veterinarian and get it care and treatment, and then we’ll work out how to get the pet back to the owner after that.”

The lost/injured pet scam isn’t limited to Seattle, and the perpetrators will often switch to targets in another city if too many people become aware of their efforts, only to pop back up again later. The scam’s combination of social engineering and emotional urgency encourages victims to act quickly without giving the situation too much thought.

Experts advise people to keep their cool despite their hopes or fears, and demand proof that the person has the animal:

“This is one of the more difficult scams to deal with emotionally. If someone really has your pet, they should be able to at the very least send photos. Most people should be able to do a video call.

In general, scammers will pressure you to send money in advance. They will often make lots of excuses for not being able to provide proof they have your pet or meet in person.”

This general category of scam isn’t new, but social media has enabled scammers to believably pose as shelter staff using information pulled from the victim’s own lost pet posts and profiles, the FBI notes. The bureau also warns of several variations on the scheme.

Binx

The people running the con find their victims by scanning local missing pet groups on sites like Facebook and Reddit. They gather names and descriptive details, spin a narrative that shocks their intended victims, and create a sense of urgency by saying the cat will die if there’s any delay in performing surgery.

That’s what happened to Susan Burgess, who’d posted about her 15-year-old tabby cat, Linus, going missing. The caller said Linus was hurt and he needed to confirm her name, but Burgess realized he would have known it if he’d scanned Linus’ microchip.

She gave the scammer a piece of her mind before hanging up on him.

“On the off chance that you do have my cat, I hope that you are able to show some compassion and do the right thing,” she told the caller. “But I’m pretty sure that you don’t, and what you’re doing is very cruel.”

PSA: Speaking of scammy behavior, I can’t control the ads that are shown on PITB, but if you’re seeing ads for an amazing-looking, ultra-realistic toy rabbit presented as a great Easter gift, don’t fall for it. Here’s a video revealing what you’ll actually get from the deceptive seller:

27 thoughts on “A Cruel, Emotionally Manipulative New Scam Targets Cat Owners”

  1. Bertie went on his travels twice when living with us ( he knowm lives with Ann further along our little road, and is very content!) first time we had a call from someone who recognised him from a post on the neighbour net, naturally I went hurtling over there and it was genuinely him! the relief is in describable. On his second travel time I was honestly imagining all sorts of horrors, reading this article I dont know what I would do if a scammer had called, would I have responded, how would I deal with it ? – don’t know… stress makes us all do anything to save them. Just shows how scummy some humans are

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    1. It really is a sick thing to do to people.

      Happily, I could easily verify whether someone actually has Bud. If they’re begging me to take him back, then they have him. If they say “I have your cat, he’s very chill and sweet,” I’ll know they’re liars.

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      1. so true with Bella as well- she would be returned as they couldnt afford the food bills and she would also eat anything they tried to cook!

        Liked by 1 person

  2. This is so sick & depraved, I just can’t deal with it. It’s a step below the lowest you can go. You’re going insane with the n loss of your furry kid and then some POS calls to tell you the their found, but… Just when I think that people can’t go any lower, I’m reminded the bar is in hell.

    Have a good weekend Buddy’s 🫶🏼🐾🐾👣🫂

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    1. Sometimes when I hear about this stuff, I’m amazed that there are people who even think about doing this in the first place. I mean, you have to be seriously heartless to see missing people posts and think “Hey, this is a good opportunity to screw these people over!”

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  3. Omg, I’m half asleep! Please forgive me for every misspelling & typo in my b reply. It is so bad. My apologies 😱

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  4. Scammy? How about SCUMMY?! I never heard of this. It is a new low. Always call shelter or hospital to see if your pet is there. I would never fall for this. Don’t have much of a trusting nature since a cat was dumped on me.

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      1. I was robbed a block away 40 years ago. I guess being a teen i kinda got over it. But everyone is different.

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      2. My Flower Shop got robbed the day before Christmas and 5 minutes before we were going to close for the next 2 days. It’s not fun having a gun stuck in your face. The girl that worked for me quit and I couldn’t blame her. I didn’t have that luxury. I worked I the shop alone until the end. Cried every day. I’d told my husband 2 years before it happened, when I first bought the place, if I ever got robbed at gunpoint, that’s it I’m done. And then it happened. 6 months later I closed the shop for good. They took the love I have for my job and that place and destroyed it. It’s been 31 years later and I still think about it a lot. It scars you for life.

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      1. There is also a shitty thing some pet owners do when putting up fliers and offer a reward. They do not give reward when pet is found. Happened on my block. My neighbor found lost cat in basement and owners did not give the measly $50. I knew the cat owners. They could afford the money. Cat was from rescue i volunteered for.

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  6. This is a version of the “relative is in trouble, send money” scam. The scam involves someone pretending to be a grandchild in trouble begging family members to help with money. It’s easy to say I’d never fall for that, but anyone can be scammed. Guess how I know? 😦

    In any case, this scam is appalling and beyond cruel. Scammers are scum.

    Hopefully the missing cats will come home.

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    1. I’m so sorry to hear some lowlife got you with the grandkids scam. How do these people sleep at night?

      I’ve got my mom pretty well aware of scams, but every once in a while she’ll tell me she’s got some email or popup and wants to know if it’s legit or not.

      The worst are those “pig butchering” scams in which literal captive slaves in lawless Myanmar are forced to run extremely long cons on Americans, pretending to befriend them and earning their trust over months to get them to “invest” in fake crypto sites. People get taken for everything they have.

      The scammers lure people with promises of jobs, then kidnap them, bring them to Myanmar, and beat them until they agree to spend 18 hours a day conducting the scams on behalf of their captors. I just read an article the other day about China rescuing several of its nationals from a compound in Myanmar.

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    2. To Quilpy. I might have done the same thing. Another way of scamming is you NEVER answer the phone if yiu do not recognize the number. My client who is FBI agent told me that but i never did answer with unknown number. And thise square black and white codes you see in the streets? NEVER SCAN THEM.

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      1. I just never answer my phone. Partly so I don’t have to deal with scammers like these and partly because I don’t want to wear my implant to hear 24 hours a day draining the batteries. They cost 260 bucks a piece and you need to get qt least 2 so you have a backup. If people really want to talk to me that badly, they can leave a voicemail and I’ll get back to them. Or they can text me. Those I answer. 😂

        And scanning QR codes? I never scan them unless I know it’s from a reputable business that I know. It’s just not worth the hassle.

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  8. We’ve been warned about this scam by the Oregon Humane Society. Somehow the scammers manage to make the call come up as from OHS. OHS would never ask for funds to be sent before saving a life. Thank you for getting the news out to even more people.

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    1. Yeah, they’re using spoofing technology to fool the caller ID into displaying the names of shelters, Humane Societies, SPCA chapters, etc.

      I’m not really familiar with the method, but I’ve read it’s fairly trivial for scammers to spoof caller ID.

      Thanks for letting everyone know it’s happening in your area too. There are probably multiple groups running this scam, but they also switch up cities fairly often to avoid getting caught and too many people wising up.

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  9. Hey Big Buddy! Spunkmeyer and I have been locked out of your email blog! Aaaarrrrgggghhhh! Don’t have any other ways to do this! It has locked me out of both of my email addresses! I would really aplreciate it if you knew a way to get your blog without email! Would it be a real pain to email me stuff separately? No, wait! I can’t get anything on any emails! If you reply to this.I may habe.found a way to.GRT your.emails and Little Buddy’s emails! Spunkmeyer would really appreciate it!

    Liked by 1 person

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    1. Hey Sissy: I’m sorry you’re having trouble. When you say you’re “locked out,” what does that mean exactly? Is It possible the emails are going to your spam folder?

      You can always visit us directly at http://www.littlebuddythecat.com

      The email digest/post notifications are a nice feature, but they’re just copies of the posts on the site, so the originals are always hosted here. I think the formatting here on the site is probably better, easier to read and displays the images correctly as well.

      If the site isn’t allowing you to sign up for email alerts, let me know if you’re getting an error message and I will check with WordPress support.

      Please give Spunkmeyer a head scratch for me!

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  10. That’s horrible. They must be related to the people to try to scam the elderly to pay to get their grandchildren out of Mexican jails. I’ve never lost an animal; it must be heartbreaking.

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