One in three pets go missing in their lifetime, and owners resort to posting sensitive information on lost pet pages and social media sites in hopes of a reunion. But that makes these frantic pet owners easy prey for potential scammers.
Palm Beach County officials are warning residents after receiving reports of the scam. According to the Palm Beach County Department of Public Safety’s Division of Animal Care and Control, scammers are taking information from Petco Love Lost, Pawboost, the Loxahatchee Lost and Found Facebook page, and posts made on NextDoor.
Callers are representing themselves as animal care employees and reporting that lost pets have been found injured and owners need to send money immediately to save their pets’ lives.
“Please do not transfer funds or share account/credit card numbers with anyone representing themselves as us,” the ACC wrote on Facebook.
This scam has not yet been reported to the Broward County Sheriff’s Office or the Broward Animal Care Division. If a call like this is received, residents are advised to hang up, call 911 and report suspicious calls to local law enforcement and the agency where the lost pet is listed.
To avoid posting personal information online, the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center strongly recommends that families microchip their pets to prevent loss.
“It is a minimally invasive procedure, in most cases for low or no cost, that allows a vet or shelter to electronically identify pets,” the Broward County Animal Care and Adoptions Center said in a statement to the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “The solution here is to be proactive.”
All pets adopted through the Broward County Animal Care are microchipped with a Smart Tag chip. About the size of a grain of rice, these forms of permanent identification are inserted between the shoulder blades of a dog or cat.
“It’s a quick procedure like a vaccine,” said Dr. David Shapiro, a veterinarian at the Broward County Pet Care Clinic. “The procedure is very safe and it is rare to see complications. There is always the potential for infection but we do thousands of these procedures a year and it is very rare.”
Once the procedure is complete, Smart Tag offers free, 24/7 registration of any brand of microchip. According to Shapiro, registration is the most important part. Registration allows owners to connect their contact information of choice to the chip. Without it, scanners will simply pick up a random code. Microchips are available for sale at the Broward County Pet Care Clinic and Palm Beach County Animal Care.
Both the Palm Beach County Department of Public Safety’s Division of Animal Care and Control and the Broward County Animal Care and Adoption Center remind residents that they will never call and ask for money over the phone.
For victims of financial crimes, the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office Volunteers against Scams Team provides preventive advice and assistance in recovery from crimes involving identity theft, fraud and other financial crimes. For more information, call the Community Services Office at 561-688-3970.
