Crime Watch alert: Scam targeting owners of missing pets

| Crime | Pets | West Seattle news

Got a call tonight from Southwest Precinct Community Police Team Officer Kevin McDaniel suggesting an alert about a scam that is particularly cruel in its choice of targets: Owners of missing pets. Some of those who have posted e-mail addresses online have received notes from people claiming they have the missing pet and are demanding ransom. Some are particularly obvious, not just because of the text – they sound like a spam e-mail – but also because if you put an excerpt of the text into Google or another favorite search engine, you’ll turn up other warnings that it’s a scam. If you do think you have gotten a note or call that might be a legitimate claim of pet-napping and/or ransom, of course, McDaniel stresses, call police (the non-emergency number is 206/625-5011).

deb October 14, 2008 (7:59 pm)

Disgusting. There’s a special place in hell reserved for people who take advantage of (and potentially give false hope to) people who are already devastated and distraught over losing a pet. Thank you for the warning though; this is good to know.