11 Feb 2022
Owner paid £1,200 to fraudsters – claiming to be RSPCA inspectors and working with a practice – who offered to return her missing cat.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Image: © Rokas / Adobe Stock
Vets have been put on high alert after scammers posing as RSPCA officers defrauded a pet owner by offering to return her missing animal for a fee.
A Peterborough practice has issued warnings after the scammers, claiming to be RSPCA inspectors working with the practice, defrauded the owner of more than £1,200.
Taking to Facebook, Werrington Vets warned its customers of the “horrible scam” and assured them they would never ask for money when returning an animal to its rightful owner.
A spokesperson for Werrington Vets said: “There is a horrible scam going around and we have spoken to someone directly affected.”
Practice manager Rachael Geraghty detailed how a woman whose cat had been missing for nearly a week had been selected by the scammers who targeted her twice in the same evening, fleecing her of more than £1,200.
Ms Geraghty, recounting how staff discovered they had been used in the scam, said: “Once the client was told we did not in fact have her cat, she told us ‘oh no, I think I’ve been scammed’.”
She added: “She told us the RSPCA had called to let her know her cat was here at Werrington Vets and if she could just pay an admin fee she could then be reunited with the pet.
“She paid the admin fee over the phone. She then hung up the phone and got another phone call, supposedly from her bank, to say they had noticed there was unusual activity and they needed to take more details to secure the account. She then found out it wasn’t her bank. It was part of the same scam. They got her twice within a matter of minutes.”
Fortunately, the client has been reunited with her cat and was offered an appointment to look over the cat’s health, but the incident has left staff at the practice concerned.
Ms Geraghty added: “It makes us think, ‘do people trust us?’. The relationship we have with clients is one of our core values, built on trust, and if people think we are going to take money to reunite them with their pets then it just seems awful.
“Those people are already in a vulnerable situation, I can completely understand why that person handed over money. She told us when she got that call she was filled with hope, only then to find it was all a scam. It’s heartbreaking.”
Campaign group, Stolen and Missing Pets Alliance, has said scamming families with missing pets for money has become increasingly common during the past couple of years.
Now, free missing pet service DogLost is encouraging anyone who may have experienced one of these calls to share any numbers or contact details with them, as they work to build a database of likely scammers to share with police.
Local coordinator for DogLost Helen Jermy said that these scam calls have been happening nationwide and has evolved over time.
Ms Jermy said: “These scammers have been calling all over, it’s not just a local problem. Some of the calls have gotten pretty nasty. They will ask for as much as £1,000, and if you don’t pay they tell you they’ll kill your dog. It’s that nasty. If you lose your pet you become very vulnerable and you would believe more or less anything to get your dog home. We have been working with the police on this, but I don’t know if anyone has been charged yet.
“But, if an owner is targeted they should always report it to the police, and if there are any phone numbers or details we would like to have them as well for our records, and we can share them with police.”
Ms Jermy also detailed how scammers had impersonated members of her own staff to get in contact with concerned owners, in one instance impersonating Helen herself.
She added: “We are providing a free service to very, very vulnerable people. Someone even once called up one of our clients pretending to be me, to get the further details of a found dog.”
