Beware of lost-pet scams

In Yucatan, the Prosecutor’s Office has detected several attempted telephone frauds towards owners of lost animals….

MERIDA – Revealing personal data when publicizing a lost pet could unleash telephone scams and affect the pocketbooks of owners, said the State Attorney General’s Office (FGE), through the Specialized Unit in the Fight against Kidnapping (UECS), in Yucatán.

Through a complaint received at the Public Ministry, the agency noticed that the owner of a lost Border Collie received a call from the number 9993601494, by a presumed “employee of the municipal kennel”, who assured that the animal was already adopted.

The worker provided to the real owner the data of the persons who allegedly took his dog, as well as telephone numbers 9993611461 and 8114879601. From this last number the institution has confirmed that calls were made from Tamaulipas.

When the affected person contacted the presumed new owners, the phone was answered by a woman claiming to have the dog in Veracruz and asking for an amount of money in cash to return the dog to Merida.

The criminals were able to detail the characteristics of the dog by displaying these in the search messages, as described by the victim in their social network publications.

The scam artists provided the owner with account number 4766840064587095 from Banamex and asked him to deposit a specific amount of money to cover the costs of transport to Yucatan.

Therefore, the institution urged that lost-animal owners not make any payment and verify the information; this can be done by requesting a recent image of the pet and thus prevent being a victim of deception.

They also recommended that the delivery of the animal be made in a public place and always accompanied by one or more people in order to avoid being victims of other possible illicit acts.

In the event that people fail to prove that they actually have the animal, they are asked to hang up immediately and make the corresponding report to this Office of the Attorney General at the 911 or 089 emergency number.

Source: www.sipse.com/milenio_novedades

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