Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Scammers target distraught owner of missing cat

Missing cat Honey
Missing cat, Honey.

The heartbroken owner of a missing cat has been targeted by cruel scammers who pretended the pet had been found.

Tabby cat Honey has been missing from her home in Dalmahoy Drive, Dundee, for almost a month and her owner Vicki Low has been distraught.

Despite searching for 16-month-old Honey there was no sign until Vicki received a call from someone claiming to be from animal charity PDSA, saying her beloved pet had been found.

Overjoyed

Vicki said: “I was absolutely overjoyed and delighted that they had Honey.

“Initially my main thought was thank goodness she is safe.”

Missing cat Honey
Honey.

However, Vicki quickly became suspicious when the man on the phone went on to ask her for money.

Holding fee

She said: “He told me that he needed a “holding fee” over the phone there and then.

“He said he would then provide a reference number for me to give the receptionist when I went to collect Honey.”

Vicki said she was cautious, despite being relieved Honey was safe, and she told the man she would pay the fee on collection.

She said: “He claimed this was not possible and that the fee would increase the longer I left it.

“On hearing this, alarm bells started ringing. I advised him I was concerned this was a scam.

“He advised me to go online to look up the contact details for PDSA so I would see it was the same number.

“Right enough it was the correct number so I provided my card details and was then advised I would be put on hold for a few minutes.”

But Vicki said something continued to niggle at her.

Scam

She said: “While I was on hold, I phoned the PDSA number and discovered indeed it was a scam.

“When the male returned to speak, I told him I knew it was a scam and hung up.”

Vicki said she immediately called her bank and cancelled the payment.

Although the charge was only £2.99, the scammers may have been able to access more funds with Vicki’s bank details.

“I know it wasn’t a lot of money but if they do this with lots of people the money they get will soon add up,” she said.

“I want to warn others about this.

“This is a disgusting thing to do when they are targeting someone who has lost their beloved pet and think they may have been found.”

Prey on worried owners

Vicki said that sadly Honey is still missing and she doesn’t know if she will ever get her home again. Honey is microchipped and spayed.

A spokeswoman for Missing Pets Dundee and Angus said: “There seems to be no end to the lengths these scammers will go to.

“It’s just wrong how they prey on worried owners, to try and get money out of them while they are hurting.

“We are now seeing the same thing when dog lost posters are made up. Not pretending to be a vet practice or business, but saying they have their missing pet or know where they are, trying to claim money for information or claim reward money. It’s just disgusting. ”

‘Saddened’

Fiona McLeod, Senior Vet at Dundee PDSA Pet Hospital, said: “We are incredibly saddened to hear of this incident, of someone trying to cheat money from a distressed pet owner using our charity’s good name.

“We’d like to assure people that we would never ask for payment for holding a stray pet, or for reuniting a pet with their rightful owner.

“We would encourage anyone with any information about this to report it to the police so it can be investigated.”