'Very cruel.' Lost pet owners targeted by scammers posing as Seattle Animal Shelter

Owners of lost pets in the Seattle area are being targeted by scammers, city officials say. The fraudsters are posing as employees of the Seattle Animal Shelter and other animal welfare groups, asking for payment for emergency medical services they claim pets need.

But that’s not how it works, said Melissa Mixon, a spokesperson for the city of Seattle. The Seattle Animal Shelter, which is run by the city, doesn’t require people to pay for their pet’s medical care in advance.

“We take the care of our animals very seriously and would not ask a distressed pet owner for a deposit for their sick or injured pet,” Mixon said.

City officials say they got two calls on Monday from residents warning them about the scammers. Mixon said that other local shelters are also being impersonated.

One of those calls to the city was from Susan Burgess. Her 15-pound tabby cat, Linus, had been missing for two weeks in Seattle's Ballard neighborhood when Burgess was targeted by a scammer on Monday.

The caller ID read “Private Number.” The person on the other line said they’d read Linus’s microchip and needed to confirm Burgess’s name — but they should have known her name from the microchip file, she said. When the caller asked Burgess to pay for an emergency surgery for Linus, she realized it was a scam.

“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. But I'm pretty sure that you don't, and what you're doing is very cruel,” Burgess said to the scammer before they hung up.

Burgess has been public about Linus’s disappearance, posting in social media groups, hanging flyers, and starting a blog in an effort to bring him home. But that visibility is also how scammers identify their targets, Mixon said.

The Washington State Attorney General’s Office has some tips for identifying such a scam and what to do if you think you're being targeted:

• Don’t trust caller ID; call the business or government agency back to verify that they have your pet.
• Do not pay any money or give out banking information.
• Resist pressure to act quickly or make a decision before talking to family or friends.