Scammers target pet owners who have lost their pets

Little Rock, Arkansas – Pet owners are being alerted by the Humane Society of Pulaski County to a scam that preys on people who post about missing canines on different lost and found websites.

Phone calls from scammers claiming to be Humane Society personnel have been reported by a number of people.

The Humane Society’s board president, Debbie Howell, stated, “A few weeks ago we did receive a phone call from a lady who had spent quite a bit of money on this PayPal site.” She had been informed that we had her animal, so she called us. The unfortunate truth is that we wouldn’t even ask for it, because that wasn’t us.

With the Humane Society’s phone number shown on the caller ID, the scammers are asking for substantial quantities of money to be transferred to a PayPal account in order to pay for purported medical expenses.

“So what’s happened is anytime anyone loses a pet, I mean like loses it, gets away from them, people go into a panic mode,” explained Howell. “It makes sense that they would post on a notice stating that they had lost a pet as their first action. That’s precisely what they must do. People who do that are unfortunately being taken advantage of by several crooks.

These callers make up the story that the pet was struck by a car and needed immediate medical help.

“How we got involved in this is that they’ve started using our name and they’ve started adding a story to it, by saying the pet has been hit by a car and it will cost them $10,000 or $1,000 or whatever,” said Howell. “They use a big amount of money, it will cost them a lot of money to actually get the pet medicated and sent back to them.”

It is recommended that pet owners use extra caution when responding to such calls after business hours.

“Taking no action at all is the best course of action. “It’s best to end the call right away,” Howell said. “Because I am able to confirm that this is a fraud. Especially from the humane society, no one will call. However, we are discussing exploiting those who are extremely distressed about the loss of their lost pet. And the idea that we would ever be involved in something like that makes us really sad. We simply want people to understand that’s not who we are.

Don’t divulge any money or personal information if you get a questionable call. To confirm the situation, call the Humane Society of Pulaski County immediately at their official number during business hours.