Infographic on scammer extorting money from owner of lost dog

The Times newspaper has a full report on what is a worrying development in the UK and perhaps in other countries. Although it must be said, in my opinion, Britain has become “Scammers’ Treasure Island”. Scammers, fraudsters and extorters of all persuasions are running amok in the UK, doing whatever they want because the police are impotent to stop it. Either they are impotent or they are incapable through ineptitude or laziness. Either way, a lot of vulnerable people are being scammed and extorted out of many thousands of pounds while suffering acute emotional distress because of threats and the loss of their dog or cat.

The infographic give you a feel for what happens in a telephone conversation between the fraudster and the pet owner. The fraudsters are looking for appeals to the public for help to find a lost dog or cat by a pet owner. The fraudsters and scammers pick up these appeals and telephone the dog owner to say that they have their dog but then they turn against them and say they require £1000 before they’ll hand over the dog. And perhaps they might ask for the £1000 in two tranches, the first tranche to be payable immediately and the second when the dog has been collected from a veterinarian as suggested by this particular scammer.

Lost pet scammers infographic
Lost pet scammers infographic prepared by MikeB. It can be used by anyone under a Creative Commons: ATTRIBUTION-NODERIVS CC BY-ND license.

The scam is having a profound effect on dog ownership and ‘DogLost’, the UK’s largest lost and found dog service. They’ve had to remove phone numbers of owners from their website when they appealed for help in finding their dog because the details attract the scammers who then extort the money as described.

And because they’ve had to remove the phone numbers and other contact details, they’ve had to do it all manually working up to 20 hours a day to pass on sightings and information to the owners.

And what is concerning is that the reported cases of fraud and extortion might be the tip of the iceberg. This is what Jayne Hayes, the organisation’s founder, believes. She believes that they could be hundreds of more victims.

She says that:

“We’ve had our volunteers literally on suicide watch with older people who have been threatened. We’ve even had one old man who has left his house because he is too afraid to go back.”

A DogLost volunteer described feeling uneasy about ending a recent telephone conversation with a vulnerable woman living in Kent who had been scammed. She said:

“She paid money to him a long while ago and he started ringing her again. She was saying, ‘I sold my house to find my dog and he pretty much took my last few pennies.”

The woman is now living in a caravan and sees no point in going on meaning that she feels suicidal.

It appears that there is a group of scammers and fraudsters operating in unison because it is estimated that 95% of all scams and frauds of this nature are made by the same group.

Below are some more articles scams:

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