The Cobb Animal Services Department is warning the distraught owners of lost pets not to fall for a phone call from someone posing as shelter staff in helping them recover their animals.
Cobb County government said in a video presentation Wednesday that some pet owners who have posted missing and lost pet notices online are getting called by someone who’s claiming to work for the county shelter.
The caller then says the pet is injured, and demands money from the owner to recover the animal, according to the video (see below), which emphasized that Cobb Animal Services never asks for money over the phone for helping retrieve lost pets.
“First off, it’s a distraction for us, because we’re receiving phone calls from people thinking it’s coming from us,” Cobb Animal Services Director Steve Hammond said in the video. “They’re also skeptical when we do call them if we do find the animal because now they’ve received two calls.
“We’re upset with it because it takes away from the good work our team is doing every day.”
Cobb government spokesman Ross Cavitt said the scammer is able to spoof the number of the Animal Services Department when making the calls.
The caller tells the pet owner to pay via the PayPal and Venmo online payment systems, but Cobb Animal Services doesn’t use them.
“There may be a small fee once the pet’s owner comes to the shelter, but county officers will never ask for payment before that,” the county said in a release Wednesday.
A citizen who posted a message on the county government’s Facebook page said the scam happened to her earlier this week.
“I was asking too many questions that he could not answer. He said just come down to Cobb County Animal Services and even provided the address,” she said.
“When I asked for photo proof that’s when things got even more strange. Fortunately the conversation was recorded and in the possession of the proper staff there. Let’s do what we do and blast this everywhere. I pray they somehow catch evil man!”
Another poster said she almost fell for the scam, but said she was told that “we’ll call you back after the vet has had time to look at the pet.”
While waiting for around 30 minutes, she said, “I had time to realize it was too good to be true. He called back, and after TEN MINUTES he finally got to asking about my credit card, so I hung up on him and called the legit Cobb Animal Services number.”
That number is 770-499-4136.
Cobb Animal Services has an online portal to report missing or lost pets that you can access by clicking here.
You can also click here to check on the missing pets that have been taken to the shelter.
Related:
Get Our Free E-Mail Newsletter!
Every Sunday we round up the week’s top headlines and preview the upcoming week in the East Cobb News Digest. Click here to sign up, and you’re good to go!
