I spotted a cat in my neighborhood that I thought might be a lost pet, so I was looking through CL’s lost and found to see if there was a post with a match. While I was looking, I came across these ads:
Same (non-local) phone number, same name, but it’s not the same cat in any of the ads. There is a reward offered in every case, and since there’s money involved I thought there might be a scam of some sort. I just can’t figure out what it is. Any ideas?
If it isn’t a scam, this person really shouldn’t adopt any more pets.
Maybe you find the missing cat, contact them and give it back, and they “reward you” with a cashier’s check written for over the amount, from which they request a small refund. Check turns out to be bad, of course, and you’re on the hook for the missing money and the bank fees.
Your basic check scam, but it requires obtaining and releasing a bunch of cats into the neighborhood first. Probably trained cats, if I know criminals.
Well, goodness. If I found the animal and brought it back and said, “No reward necessary, thanks!” I’d stroll away thinking I’d done a good deed and they’d probably be flipping me off behind my back and loading the kitten into the car so they could “lose” it again.
I just thought of something, though. You would have to meet “Kelly” in person to make the return. Wouldn’t that be a big drawback for a con artist?
Are there a lot of scams on Craigslist concerning animals like this? I generally stay away from Craigslist like it is a rabid monkey, but a search led me to it when searching for a cat. I stumbled on one that is local to me.
Aside from taking someone with me to make sure I don’t end up in a hole rubbing lotion on my skin, I wonder if there is anything else I could be missing. The reasoning for getting rid of the cats was a little off (it was altered slightly when I got to emailing with her) but I suspected the reason was that she just didn’t have the time or money for them anymore and didn’t want to say it.
Just whup him, like the real Susie Derkins did to that weird neighbor kid.
Anyway, here’s my guess: somebody collects ads that offer rewards- they then contact the cat owner and say that they are skilling in “teh interweb” and offer to put up ads on Craisglist. If the cat is returned the 'web expert" gets a share of the reward. Actually, it sounds like a nice little service, no harm, may do some good, could make some stay at home person a few bucks.
Nope, if you look at the ads, it’s pretty clear that there are no actual lost cats. It’s reposted periodically some details changed - date of loss, colour, etc - but other things remaining the same. (Such as name, personality, etc.)
The phone number is for a Hyatt in Chicago.
I don’t think it’s a scam in the traditional sense - I don’t think the ads are really meant to be read by human beings.
It looks like an attempt at search engine optimization on behalf of the Animal Care Center. It’s not just Craigslist, you see these ads all across several indexed free classified ad services. The only aim is to have Google’s bots see many instances of “chip” “Panama City Beach Animal Care Center” and “Bay Point Florida”, in order to improve the ranking of their website for people searching for “tracking chip” from that region.
I’m sure that you’re probably right, but another thought occurred to me. I know that Craigslist, relatively recently, decided to curtail their adult services. Could “lost cat” be code for something else? I’m not sure exactly how that would work – obviously, you’d need to get the word out to your potential customers that lost cat = sex, but not spread the word so far as to make it public knowledge.
