ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. – Orange County Animal Services is warning owners of lost pets that scammers are impersonating the shelter to try and take victims’ distress to the bank.
The shelter says it’s become aware in recent weeks of scammers that pretend to be OCAS agents telling victims that their lost pets have been found and must undergo medical care with immediate payment.
“They’ve posted their pet on our forums, they’ve put flyers out and these scammers are reaching out to them saying, ‘Hey, we found your pet but it’s injured or it’s sick or this and that. We’re going to need some money up front,’” said Bryant Almeida, public information officer with Orange County Animal Services. “They’re claiming to be us. The calls are claiming to be coming from us. It’s absolutely terrible because these people are preying on pet owners at their most vulnerable”
It’s similar to if not the same scam that OCAS was warning people about earlier this year, and the shelter’s message is unwavering. Noting it has set fees related to reclaims, the shelter said on social media that it would never charge more than those amounts and, further, would never solicit money via gift cards or money-transfer apps.
When we reach out to owners about reclaiming their pets, the first thing we ask them to do is visit the shelter, not send money. If someone is contacting you on behalf of our shelter and you have any suspicion about the legitimacy of the information, please visit our shelter in person to speak with our staff, we are open seven days a week.
Orange County Animal Services post Nov. 20, 2024 (excerpt)
“If you do receive a call like that, just hang up. Just say, ‘I’m going to go in person and I’ll handle all this in person.’ Never do anything over the phone,” Almeida said, adding it’s a good idea to have your pets microchipped. “Just come to the shelter, do a walk through and see if your animal is here. We are never going to call you and tell you, ‘Let’s get this going, let’s get this transaction going.’”
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The latest warning, though, included a story about how the rescue operator of United Paws Rescue, Inc., was recently targeted by the scam.
The rescue operator said they were contacted by a private number which identified itself as OCAS and said a woman had just brought in Bella, a pet that had been missing some 20 days, claiming she had been hit by a car. Noting they were consumed with grief and worried about Bella, the rescue operator seemed to gloss over the scammer’s request that half of a bogus $5,400 “surgery” cost be paid over Zelle, Cash App or Venmo.
The rescue operator was driving at the time and struggled to log in to their Venmo, all the while the scammer “said he cannot hang up or they would have to let Bella go,” the post states. After the rescue operator told the scammer that they needed to reach someone they knew at OCAS, the scammer hung up and rendered the victim “full blown hysterical that Bella wasn’t being cared for,” yet when the shelter was finally reached, a staff member said Bella wasn’t there.
“In a normal day, without me already being worried sick with Bella being lost, I would have known it was a scam and hung up immediately, but with such worry about her I fell for the scam hook, line and sinker. Thankfully I was having issues trying to add my credit card info to Venmo and had not sent any money. Evidentially this is happening with other PawBoost posts and they are calling identifying themselves as several other county shelters too.”
Orange County Animal Services post Nov. 20, 2024 (excerpt)
Contact the shelter via phone or email by clicking here.
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