Your Dog is Missing, but Scammers are Targeting You

Fido, your beloved labradoodle, has run away. You immediately post his photo and your contact information on Instagram, TikTok, Twitter and Facebook pages dedicated to lost pets.

Then the phone rings. It’s the animal shelter. They have Fido, but he needs emergency surgery, and you must pay immediately. It’s a matter of life and death.

Except it is not. This is the latest version in a line of scams that target pet owners. Fraudsters search social media for lost pet notices, and then call the worried owners, pretending to be from an animal shelter or hospital. Your caller ID may even list the shelter name, but the scammers have “spoofed” the number to look legitimate. This fraud is being reported in suburban Washington D.C. and around the nation, according to Reasa Currier, director of Fairfax County’s Department of Animal Sheltering.

“We’re never going to ask for financial information to be provided to us over the phone,” Currier told pet owners on WTOP, a Washington D.C. radio station. If you get a call like this, hang up, she said, and call the facility – after you independently confirm the phone number.

Wake County, in central North Carolina, put out a similar warning earlier this year. “We know at least one cat owner has fallen victim to this artist who is preying on people when they are most vulnerable,” said Susan Evans of the Wake County Board of Commissioners.

The FBI says scammers know that pet owners are vulnerable to fraud when their beloved animals disappear, and they are desperate to get them back. Criminals sometimes join missing-pet pages and falsely claim they have the injured pets but can’t pay for their care, seeking to raise money from unsuspecting animal lovers, the FBI warns.

Pet scammers may share a photo that seems to show they are sheltering the missing animal, when in reality they are using an old image posted by the owner that has been edited, such as by changing the background. Even so-called “pet detectives,” who offer to recover missing pets, can be shady. It’s important to check references before spending money on such a company.

Pet owners should always be extremely suspicious of any stranger who claims they have their pet and seeks money for the animal’s medical care. As in most fraud schemes, a request for cash up front from someone you do not know is a classic warning sign of a scam.

A Retiree Loses $700,000 Life Savings to Elder Fraud

Barry Heitin was all set for a comfortable retirement with $740,000 in savings – until a moment last year when he tried to log on to his 401(k) account. It would not let him in. Soon after, a message flashed on his computer screen instructing him to call the investment firm’s fraud department.

He called the number in the message, which connected him to scammers, and Heitin’s ordeal began.

The former attorney, whose story was recounted in the New York Times, was about to lose his life savings to scammers based in India.

The criminals pretended to be financial investigators working to solve a fraud. And for three months, Heitin cooperated with them − providing an array of personal financial information which they used to drain his retirement accounts. By the time a detective spotted Heitin’s name on a receipt for gold and suspected he was a scam victim, most of his nest egg had vanished.

According to the New York Times, scammers target older adults because they often have significant life savings. In 2023, the 60-plus age group lost more than $3.4 billion to fraud, more than any other age group, the FBI has reported. Frauds related to tech support and investments were the leading categories. The India-based scam that caught Heitin had at least seven other victims.

“My dad was set up for a very comfortable retirement, and he is just not anymore,” Heitin’s daughter told The Times. “One of the most difficult parts of the aftermath of a scam like this is that it feels like no one cares.”

One party that does care is the Internal Revenue Service. Due to a past change in federal law, losses such as Heitin’s have become subject to taxation. According to the newspaper story, the scam victim is now on the hook for almost $285,000 in federal and state taxes.

“Alas, stories like Barry’s are common as countless older Americans get targeted by scammers,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said in a tweet. He has co-sponsored a bill to reinstate the tax deduction for “scam victims like Barry,” noting that taxes just add “insult to injury.”

Scammers Go for the Gold 

Con artists typically seek payment in a manner their victims cannot easily recover, such as gift cards, wire transfers, and money moved with payment apps. But a recent wave of scams points to a new kind of payment that is gaining popularity with criminals: gold bars.

The gold-bar scams typically have three main stages, ultimately leading to a loss for victims that can reach many thousands of dollars, according to AARP:

1. Contacting the target. The fraud begins when a scammer contacts the victim by phone, email, or text message and pretends to represent a legitimate organization, such as a tech firm or a government agency.
2. Worrying the target. Scammers gain their victims’ trust and inform them that financial accounts have been hacked. Scammers then advise individuals that they can protect themselves by emptying out their accounts and shifting the assets into gold (or sometimes a different precious metal).
3. Stealing from the target. In the final step, the fraudster sends a courier to meet the victim and pick up the gold, promising that it will be protected. Once this happens, the victim is out of luck – and potentially out of their life savings.

Gold has multiple attractions for crooks, just as it does for honest investors. Its value stays strong in times of inflation and political uncertainty, experts point out. It is easy to move and hard to trace. In a gold-bar scam, victims may be put at ease by the fact that couriers – real individuals – show up in person with promises to safeguard the wealth.

Unfortunately, this kind of fraud can take a tremendous toll. The Washington Post recently reported on a gold-bar scam that cost a 64-year-old woman $790,000 – and noted that other losses have exceeded $1 million.

AARP cautions the public to watch for certain warning signs of a gold-bar scam. Most clearly, a request for payment in gold is highly unusual and should immediately raise doubts. As with other frauds, an “out of the blue” request for your financial data or a suggestion that you shift assets is a red flag. Moreover, if someone urges you to act swiftly about a financial move and advises you not to tell anyone, those are hallmarks of a scam.