There’s a new pet extortion scam creeping into Alberta that’s pulling on the heart strings of pet owners looking for their lost pets.
To bolster their ‘so-called’ legitimacy, scammers are also using AI to create photos that appear to be the lost pet as proof they have found the animal.
According to Wes Lafortune from the Better Business Bureau Serving Alberta and East Kootenay, this scam is a terrible thing. “Scammers are basically despicable people. They’ll do anything to get money and personal information from people. This is basically to get money, but it highlights the emotional duress they’re willing to put people through.”
The scam happens when somebody loses their pet, and they’re contacted by somebody saying they have found their pet, Lafortune explains. “But they need to pay a fee.”
“You care about your animal and you’re willing to pay that fee, but of course, it’s a scam. They don’t have your pet, they take your money, and that’s the end of that,” says Lafortune.
The scam has been happening in different parts of the country and the United States.
“The bigger story is the use of AI. These scammers will sometimes create pictures that look like your animal when they contact you and say, ‘here it is, we’ve got it.’ They’re using AI, sometimes from posts online people have put up of their lost pet. Sometimes, they’ve just generated a photo,” notes Lafortune.
“AI scams are becoming more prevalent with images of people posing as spokespeople for various businesses or various investment schemes. This has happened to people like politicians, news people who have high profiles – so it’s quite prevalent. It’s something people need to be aware of,” Lafortune adds. “What you see might not be real. It might not be what you get. The images could be fake. A very healthy sense of skepticism is urged here.”
People don’t generally want a reward and will return your pet if it’s been found, Lafortune says. “That’s the first red flag. Another thing is – meet the person. Say, ‘OK, I’m happy to give you a reward, but I need to meet you in-person first and get my animal.’”
“If it’s a scammer, that’ll never happen because it’s a scam.”
The troubling thing is a scam like this is petty fraud.
“This is for a few hundred dollars. That is what is so absurd about this. It’s small-time fraud that these criminals put people through this terrible thing for a few couple hundred dollars or $50 even.”
It really highlights the terrible, mental toll scammers are willing to put people through. “This becomes a real issue,” says Lafortune.
In this circumstance, it’s not necessarily a lot of money, but it’s still very emotional for people if they think they’ve lost a pet and are being scammed, adds Lafortune. “BBB urges people to be aware of the current scams.”
Check out Scam Tracker online at bbb.org, which has details about all the current scams happening in North America.
“There’s a lot of them.”
