The last 112 days has been a roller-coaster of emotion for our family. Having a boarding facility lose our dog Digger while we were on vacation...literally as we were walking into the “Happiest Place on Earth”, Disneyland, has completely turned our lives upside-down. Every day brings new leads and new messages from people sharing pictures of found dogs, hoping it’s Digger. All dead-ends so far, but we keep at it.
Quite literally thousands of new people have come into our lives. Those thousands of people have spanned the entire spectrum...from fantastic people we could never thank enough, to the truly rotten people who prey on the misfortune of others.
The fantastic people are those volunteers who have given ALL of their free-time to Digger & my family. They haven’t slowed down. The people who help search, scanning databases of found dogs, searching shelters and rescues, sharing pictures, and just praying.
The rotten have oozed out of the crevices of hell slowly. They started with those who vilified Digger as the guilty party, ripped my family on social media, and ripped down and removed thousands of dollars worth of signs. Now, a new level of rotten has arrived...the scammers.
This has happened three times already...with yesterday’s being possibly the most ridiculous.
It started with a text that said, “Hello are you there i found your dog where are you located”. I replied asking for a picture. They responded with “Okay i found your Digger on the street”, followed by “So how do you want me to bring it to you?”. I called, and it was a Google Voice account. Once I got through that mess, the person answered, and didn’t speak much English at all. I again asked for a picture. I received nothing. They then texted again saying, “Okay, Yes am going to bring it you but are you registered with the FedEx shipping company?”.
After a playful exchange back-and-forth asking him if he was planning to ship my dog in a box, and refusing to tell me where he was, he sent me a note saying “Okay if you are really interested in your dog quickly get back to me asap so we can proced on it okay”.
I called again, and he put someone on the phone who spoke better English. I put it on speaker phone so my co-workers could hear the exchange. This person asked me for a list of personally identifiable information (address, account #’s, etc.). I replied that I’d be happy to provide that information if he can first provide me with his social security number, his mother’s maiden name, his bank account password, and his cat’s name. He said, without hesitation, that he’d provide that after I gave my info.
Without going into the full transcript, I finally determined that this person is in India. He confirmed that his intention was to get all of my info, and it became very clear that he didn’t have any dog. His story was that he had Digger, and was planning to put him in a box, bring him over to the local FedEx office, and ship him to us. Unreal.
This was the third time we’ve received such a text...and all three had Google Voice accounts, and spoke almost zero English.
When you’ve lost a family member, beware of the scammers...who prey on your desperation to get him back. So, our advice is to be careful...if they won’t share a picture, they aren’t being truthful. Don’t EVER provide any personally identifiable information or account information of any kind.
There are awful people out there. But, there are many more amazing people who keep us focused on finding Digger.
There are awful people out there. But, there are many more amazing people who keep us focused on finding Digger.
