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(MUSIC INTRO) [00:00:01] Bob: This week on The Perfect Scam. [00:00:03] Chloe Patera: I got a call and it said, "Tampa Bay Humane Society." And they said, "We have an orange

cat here, microchipped by the name Percy. He was hit by a car, and he has terrible damage," I think in my gut I knew something wasn't right, but I was so, there were so many

emotions; you know my mom's in the hospital, the family dog has just passed away, I desperately want Percy to come home. I don't want to think about him in pain. So it's like,

I'll do whatever it is that you want me to do. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:00:43] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam. I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:00:48] Bob: Lost pet,

help find Fido. I'm sure you've seen signs like that taped on telephone poles, plastered all over bulletin boards at coffee shops, maybe even popped into your mailbox.

There's just something about lost pet signs that always makes my heart sink. I immediately picture a family worried sick, a young boy without his bedtime companion, and a frightened

animal shivering and hungry under a bridge ... or worse. If you ever lost a pet, even for just a few minutes, you know the panic that sets in. That's why I thought we just had to do

today's story. It's about a new scam, one that takes full advantage of broken-hearted families who are searching for a lost pet. Reports about the scam are coming in from all

corners of the country just in the past few weeks. That's why we are so grateful Chloe Patera is willing to share her story with us. She lives in Georgia with her husband and her pets,

but she had spent the last couple of months in Florida with her mom who is recovering from a stroke. And in that family chaos, well criminals found a way to pounce. [00:02:01] Bob: You

clearly are a very pet-friendly family. [00:02:04] Chloe Patera: Yes. Yes, huge on pets, animals are basically everything to me. [00:02:11] Bob: Cats and dogs, anything else? [00:02:12]

Chloe Patera: I have a bearded dragon, myself. [00:02:17] Bob: Oh wow. [00:02:17] Chloe Patera: Yep, so I dove into the reptile world a little bit, which is completely different from owning

a cat or dog if, if anyone was curious. [00:02:26] Bob: You don't play fetch with the bearded dragon? [00:02:28] Chloe Patera: No, you don't, actually. But she does love to eat

worms and berries and all that good stuff. [00:02:37] Bob: Maybe not fun for the worms, but fun. [00:02:39] Chloe Patera: Not fun for the worms, no. And it, it is a little gross to watch her

eat them. [00:02:46] Bob: Chloe is all about her pets, and all about her family. So when her mom gets very sick in December, she rushes to be by her side. It is a very scary time.

[00:02:59] Chloe Patera: Yeah, so the day before New Year's Eve, my mom was rushed to the hospital where she was then put on a ventilator. At first the doctors were exactly sure what

had happened. When my dad called me, I got a call around 6 a.m. on New Year's Eve with him saying, "Hey, Mom's in the hospital, she's in the ICU. She's on a

ventilator." And it was in that order. And after every single "Mom is this, Mom is that, Mom is this," I was what? What? What? And it just kept getting worse and worse and

worse. It was like every word out of his mouth was getting more and more terrible. My husband is active-duty military, and we actually live in Georgia, so I immediately, as soon as I could,

I got on the road. I just put my dog in my car, I brought a small little carry-on suitcase worth of clothes, and like my toothbrush. And I think I even forgot the toothpaste, and I just got

her as fast as I could and I got here to Tampa around maybe 9 p.m. that evening. And the first thing I did was put my dog inside, said hi to my dad, and I was like, okay, I'm going to

go to the hospital with Mom. [00:04:22] Bob: Seeing Mom that first time is really hard. [00:04:26] Chloe Patera: If you've never had a loved one on a ventilator, I wouldn't wish it

on anyone. It was terrifying to see. It was so scary, and I thought that I would know exactly what to say, you know, because you're always told that like if, if someone's in a

coma or a medically induced coma, which is technically what she was in on the ventilator, you're told like, oh, they can hear you. And I had told myself the whole way, I was like, okay,

I know exactly what, what to do. I'm going to keep my cool and honestly just walking through the doors of the hospital up to the security desk, I just completely lost it. [00:05:11]

Bob: It takes a little while, but doctors figure out fairly quickly what happened to Mom. [00:05:17] Chloe Patera: But the first thing that I was told from my dad was, after you know,

"Mom's on a ventilator," "Mom had a heart attack." And I was like, oh my God, because my grandfather, her dad, passed of a heart attack. And my uncle, her brother,

just two years ago had a heart attack himself, so I was terrified. I was like, oh my gosh, this awful family curse has come to my mom, but a few hours later we, I guess the doctors did some

more testing, and it turned out she had actually had a stroke because she had blood clots in her lungs. [00:05:51] Bob: Oh wow. [00:05:53] Chloe Patera: Yes. So she, she had had a stroke and

we didn't know how she was going to be affected by that stroke. [00:06:02] Bob: Thankfully, Mom is getting the care she needs, and even on New Year's Eve there are a few signs

that hopefully things will be okay. [00:06:12] Chloe Patera: And so I was able to bring in the New Year with my mom, and what was funny was the nurses all like kind of did their little, you

know on New Year's Eve when you blow the little whistles and stuff, and my mom opened her eyes, and I was like, I was like, "Mom," I was like, "it's 2025!" And

she looked at me and I, and I was like, "Can you squeeze my hand?" And you know she squeezed my hand. I was like, "Can you wiggle your toes?" And she wiggled her toes.

... sorry, it makes me emotional just thinking about it because I didn't know if I, if my mom, you know, was going to come out of it. [00:06:51] Bob: Wow. Something about New

Year's Eve woke her up though. [00:06:54] Chloe Patera: Yeah, something about it. [00:06:57] Bob: She wanted to celebrate. [00:06:58] Chloe Patera: Yeah. Definitely. Probably not the

way that she intended to celebrate. [00:07:02] Bob: I'm sure. And you neither. [00:07:05] Bob: But even though they now know what's going on, there is a long road ahead and a lot

of nervous days and nights. [00:07:13] Bob: Is, is this the kind of thing where you were basically, you know, 12 hours a day at, at the hospital? [00:07:16] Chloe Patera: Essentially, yeah.

I would get there like, I would basically, I would wake up, make myself a coffee, and then I would be on my way to the hospital. [00:07:25] Bob: You'd go home and sleep and let out the

dog and then go back, right? [00:07:28] Chloe Patera: Oh yeah, that, that did happen, yeah. [00:07:31] Bob: Yeah, yeah. [00:07:31] Chloe Patera: Letting the dog out happened. [00:07:33] Bob:

Right, well I, I'm a, I'm a dog person, so I, I do know the clock that's always ticking in your mind that's kind of connected to their bladder. [00:07:39] Chloe Patera:

Yeah. [00:07:40] Bob: Right, yeah. So it's... [00:07:41] Chloe Patera: Right, yeah, it's like, oh, I gotta get home. [00:07:43] Bob: There's so much to worry about. [00:07:46]

Bob: But in the days and weeks that follow, Mom is able to come off the ventilator and her condition slowly improves, but a combination of the stroke and the heavy drugs that she was under

leaves her sometimes confused. As part of her recovery, Chloe spends time going through old photographs with Mom. [00:08:03] Chloe Patera: I kept showing her these pictures day after day,

and eventually she was like, "Oh yeah, that's so and so, that's so and so." She was able to tell me my then siblings' names, his parent's names. You know she

was able to remember all this stuff, but it was scary when, you know, I'm showing her a picture of my uncle, her brother, and she's like, you know like, I, I don't remember

that person. You know. [00:08:27] Bob: But all of this is really intense, right? For you. [00:08:30] Chloe Patera: It was intense is an understatement. I don't even have the words to

describe the emotions that I went through. It was so intense. For six weeks she was in the hospital, and every day of those six weeks had, I'm telling you, I felt every single emotion

that a human can feel in those six weeks. Every single day. [00:08:58] Bob: Every single emotion. Every single day. It's exhausting. And in the middle of all that, about three weeks

after the ordeal began, one night after a long day at the hospital Chloe and her dad go home to take care of the dogs. And... [00:09:16] Chloe Patera: Percy had accidentally slipped outside

when we were letting the dogs out to go, you know, potty for their last time, and we were like, oh no, and we were like, Percy! And it was like, oh, okay, well you know, he'll be back

in the morning. And ... [00:09:32] Bob: Percy is Mom's orange tabby cat. He's been in the family since he was a kitten, and in fact, on the calendar that month is note for a

two-week celebration of his gotcha day. It's a charming story really. [00:09:46] Chloe Patera: Yeah, so my dad is a carpenter, and a pregnant cat kind of befriended him and his

coworkers at their workshop, and they would feed her and everything, and one day she started bringing her, after she gave birth, she started bringing her babies around. And um, you know the

babies started to get bigger and everything, and my dad took a picture, sent it to my mom and sent it to me, and I said, "Oh my gosh, they're so cute." I said, "Look,

there's an orange one. Mom's always wanted an orange cat." And Mom, and my mom was like, "Yeah, I have always wanted an orange cat." And you know, my dad, the next

day he went with a cat carrier and he, he asked his boss, he was like, "Hey, is it cool if I take one of these kittens?" And his boss was like, "Sure." And so my dad

brought him home and I was FaceTimed because I don't live at home anymore, and this adorable little kitten is on the screen and my mom is elated. I mean she's so happy. And she is

like, "He's just the cutest little thing. He has so much attitude, he's so spunky." [00:10:59] Bob: Percy is goofy and really affectionate. [00:11:03] Chloe Patera: You

know like and he like rolled into the house like he had lived there forever. Like no regard for her other cat who had been there already for like two years, 'cause our idea was like,

oh, well Charlie would love to have a friend, you know, her other cat. And like zero regard for him. He was just like this is my house now. And he was just always so, he's just such a

fun cat, you know. And he was the definition of like an orange cat. [00:11:37] Bob: What does that mean? [00:11:38] Chloe Patera: It just, like they say like orange cats, they, they have

like one brain cell, and they're like searching for the brain cell. And sometimes the brain cell accidentally goes to the other cat. And so like he was just so silly, he was so loving,

he was just an awesome, awesome cat, and it loved to cuddle with my mom, loved, you know, once he grew on my mom's other cat, Charlie, they loved to cuddle together. He loved my

parents' dog, it just, it's such a loving cat. Such a sweet and loving cat. [00:12:18] Bob: A sweet and loving cat who has a pretty great life. [00:12:24] Chloe Patera: Right,

yeah. So my parents, they have about two acres of land, and my mom always said, "It's a kitty wonderland and it's cruel to keep them away from playing with the butterflies and

the lizards," and all of that stuff, you know because, and just sunbathing on the porch, you know. And he never went far, you know, he wasn't a cat that went you know...

[00:12:47] Bob: Hunting. [00:12:47] Chloe Patera: Yeah, no, he didn't hunt or anything. He, he wasn't one of those cats that would like bring back a bird or anything. You know he,

he just liked to hang out outside and just play with her other cat. Like she said that she would often see them just like chasing each other and just hanging out in a tree. You know and he,

he just liked being outside. And but the thing is that we've, you know, we've always had animals, and at nighttime we do our best to always get them inside. And that's how

it's always, always, always been, because you know at night there are, you know, predators that come out and stuff like that, so it's best, it's the responsible thing to do to

bring your animals in at night, you know to keep them safe. [00:13:34] Bob: But on this night with so much going on, including the extra pet in the house, well Percy slips out at night and

doesn't come home. It isn't the first time this happened. Percy had spent a night or two in the backyard here or there, and there is so much else going on in the family's

minds. [00:13:52] Chloe Patera: At first, I was, I, I wasn't concerned at all at first. I was just like, oh, you know, I saw him last night, he just, he's just outside. No big

deal. He'll be back. And my dad was like, "Oh, I'm concerned about him." I was like I get that, I was like, I was like, "Let's you know not tell Mom for right

now" and everything. And he was like, "Yeah, okay, that's a good idea." [00:14:16] Bob: So they visit Mom the next day and keep Percy's disappearance to themselves.

But when they come home from the hospital that night and there's still no sign of Percy, well, there is real cause for concern. [00:14:28] Chloe Patera: You know we're yelling his

name; we're walking around the house. My husband had come down to visit to see my mom at this point. He's walking around the house yelling for Percy, you know we're going out

with flashlights at night and at home in Georgia, my husband and I foster cats, and we asked the woman who we foster through, who was like head of the cat portion of the rescue, what is the

best way to handle this? And she was like, "Oh, well you know, the litter box outside, put a little box outside, brings them back home. Uh, shine your flashlights up into a tree, and

their eyes will illuminate." You know, so we're doing everything in our power. And it just didn't, didn't happen. [00:15:12] Bob: It just didn't happen. Percy is

really missing. [00:15:20] Bob: And, and I'm sure your mom not being home was probably part of what was going on, right? Percy might have went looking for her. [00:15:25] Chloe Patera:

Right. Yeah, so at that point we had told her. We told her at once it got to be I think like three or four days without Percy. I think, because you know, we didn't want to lie to her.

[00:15:38] Bob: Of course, yeah, yeah. [00:15:39] Chloe Patera: Yeah, but you know, one or two days wasn't a big, like it was a big deal, but it wasn't serious enough to concern my

sick mother in the hospital, you know. So once it hit day three or four, we were like, "Hey, we can't find Percy." And I think she even said, "Oh, you know, he's

probably just out playing. And he's probably confused because you know, Chloe's here with her dog and I'm not there, so you know, he's probably just really confused and

he's probably just waiting for things to go back to normal." And that sounded completely logical to me, it sounded logical to my dad, you know, it made sense. [00:16:19] Bob:

Percy's home life had been really disrupted. Adding to the family misery if their 16-year-old black Labrador, Merlin, well he had been pretty sick and now he passes away, so Chloe tries

to enlist Mom in the hunt for Percy. [00:16:36] Chloe Patera: We were like, you know, when Mom comes home, maybe Percy will hear her voice and be like, oh, Mom's home, and you know

come back, because that was very much so her cat. But, you know, time just kept going on and I have, I would have my mom on speakerphone and I would have her call for, for Percy, and she

would call for him and I was hoping, I was like oh, maybe he'll show up, maybe he'll show up. Nothing. Something didn't feel right, you know, so I said to my mom, I was like,

"What are we going to do if Percy doesn't come back?" And she was like, "I don't know." She was like, "We just have to keep faith and pray that he comes

home." And I was like, "Yeah, I know. I pray every night that he comes home." [00:17:23] Bob: They just have to pray Percy comes home. Then one night, it feels like those

prayers have been answered. [00:17:32] Chloe Patera: Yeah. So it was about, it was about 7:30 or 8 o'clock at night. And I got a call and it said, "Tampa Bay Humane Society."

So I answered the phone, and then a man said to me, "Hi, we're looking for either Grace Hefez or Chloe Hefez." And I was like, whoa, I was like that's my maiden name. I

was like, I don't get called by my maiden name, you know, unless it's my one bank account that I left in my maiden name. And I was like, "Yes," I was like, "Hi, how

can I help you?" They were like, "Hi, we tried reaching Grace Hefez, but we didn't have luck." I was like, "Yeah, my Mom was in, that's my mom. She's in

the hospital, um, so that would explain," I was like, "Can I help you?" And they said, "Well, are you Chloe Hefez?" I said, "Yes," I said, "What can I

do, do for you?" And they said, "We have an orange cat here, microchipped by the name Percy, and he has been just surrendered to us by police, by local law enforcement, and he was

hit by a car, and he has terrible damage," sorry.... oh... [00:18:43] Bob: That's fine. I'm sure this is painful to go through. [00:18:45] Chloe Patera: Sorry, yeah. I know.

So the man on the other end of the phone told me, "Hi, we have a cat, an orange cat, uh, by the name of..." Sorry, this is hard. So the man on the other end of the line says,

"Local law enforcement has just brought an orange cat in that's registered under the name Percy to you guys, and he has been hit by a car and he's sustained injuries that are

potentially life threatening to his lower back as well as his legs." And first thing I do is one, I scream out to my dad who has gone to the other end of the house. I'm like,

"They have Percy!" And my dad comes running out and he's like, "What, what, what?" And I’m pretty sure the man was talking as I'm like screaming,

"They've got Percy, they've got Percy." [00:19:40] Bob: They've got Percy. Those prayers have been answered, but the news isn't all joy. [00:19:47] Chloe

Patera: I remember I just, I, I threw my phone to my dad. I said, "I'm calling Mom." And I took his phone and I called Mom, I was like, "Mom, they have Percy, he's

been hit by a car, but they say he's going to be okay; he just needs surgery." And then my dad comes in, and he's like, "Chloe, they're asking for $2000." And I

was like, "Well, you know, we have to pay it." I was like, "There's no other, you know your baby is hurt." This animal is part of your family. You do for them what

you would do for a human, you know? [00:20:17] Bob: Yeah, yeah. [00:20:19] Bob: Percy needs surgery, and the vet needs $2000 immediately. That's a lot of money, but Mom is going to be

so happy to have Percy back. [00:20:31] Chloe Patera: And so immediate--, we switched phones. So my dad is talking to my mom now, and I'm talking to the man on the phone. And you know

I, I had an emergency with one of my cats at one point, and we were able to pay, 'cause it, it, that emergency that I had with my own cat was close to $2000, and the way we made it work

was through something called Scratch Pay. So I said, you know assuming because pretty much every veterinarian in the country works with either Care Credit or Scratch Pay. So I said to the

man on the phone, I said, "Okay," I was like, "Yeah, yeah, um, well we want him to get better. We want things to be okay." We were, and I said, "But $2000, you know,

is a lot of money." I think they originally wanted like $2500. I was like, "But it's, you know, it's not an issue. We will get the money to you." I said, "Can

we please work something out via Scratch Pay or Care Credit?" And they were like, "I'm so sorry, we don't work with third party payment plans." And I was like, in my

brain I think I was like, oh that's a little weird, but at the same time I was like, oh, but it's the Humane Society, so maybe they just do things a little differently because

it's not a traditional veterinarian's office. And they said, "But you know, if you can pay us right now, we will go ahead and take some sort of percentage off." I

can't even remember what the percentage was. And it'll bring your total to $2100 and like 16 cents, I think. And I looked at my dad, my dad looked at me, and we're like, you

know, Percy, he's hurt, you know we don't want to think about him being hurt. We want him to be okay, and so we said okay. We said, "Okay, how do we get the money to

you?" And they said, "Okay," they said, "Well we can do uh PayPal." That kind of made sense in a way. It, it did kind of make sense because you know businesses use

PayPal to do things online, so that, that made sense. So like in my head I was like, okay, that checks out. I was like, okay, that sounds great. And so then it comes to sending the money

over. They say, "It has to be sent friends and family." And alarm bells kind of start going off in my brain, but there's so much emotion that it almost drowned out those alarm

bells. And it, it just, it, like I think in my gut I knew something wasn't right, but I was so, there were so many emotions; you know my mom's in the hospital, the family dog has

just passed away, I desperately want Percy to come home, you know, I don't want to think about him in pain, so it's like, I'll do whatever it is that you want me to do. And if

that means that I have to send it Friends and Family instead of the PayPal Goods and Services, then I'm going to do it. And we sent it. [00:23:29] Bob: So they sent the money and the

man on the other end of the line assures Chloe that Percy will be in surgery shortly. [00:23:35] Chloe Patera: He was like, "Let me keep you on the line so that I can just make sure

that things go through." And I can hear this man typing. He's typing, so it all is so legit. And he said, "Okay," he said, "now while the payment is

processing," he said, "I can see that it's processing," he said, "I just want to fill you in on what's going to happen." He said, "I'm going to

place you on a brief hold and I'm going to let our veterinarian know that you have paid and they're going to start the surgery immediately." And I was legitimately put on hold

by this man. And he took the time to put me on hold for a minimum of five minutes. And that was him "telling the veterinarian that it was a go for surgery because we had sent our

payment." He comes back on the phone and says, "Okay, I've let the doctor know that your payment has been sent, and they're starting surgery now." He said,

"He's going to put under anesthesia and they're going to, they're going to go ahead and fix him. He could potentially be paralyzed from this, but they're going to do

everything in their power to make sure that he's okay." And so okay. And so we're still talking to him and he says, "Now I just need to get a few more things put

together." He said, "Can I please have your email?" I said, "Absolutely." I gave him my email. He said, "Now the surgery is going to take upwards of three

hours. I know it's late. Is it okay for us to give you a call when the surgery is done?" And simultaneously, my dad and I both say, "Yes." Because I have the man on

speakerphone. And he says, "Okay," he says, "I just want you to know that it could be like 1 or 2 in the morning that you get the call." And we were like,

"That's fine. We don't mind." He's, and so the person, the man on the other line says, "Okay, perfect." He said, "Now Chloe, I'm going to send

you a receipt to your email. It's going to take me about 30 minutes to generate the receipt and it will tell you everything that's being done with his surgery." And I said,

"Great." I said, "No problem at all." And so he says to us, he says, "Well thank you," he says, um, "and we'll do everything in our power, you know,

to help Percy, and we'll see you tomorrow when you come and pick him up." And I said, "Okay, thank you so much." [00:25:58] Bob: After that flurry of activity, and just

think about what this family has been through for the past few weeks, well finally there's a moment to take a breath. [00:26:07] Chloe Patera: And so I sit down on the couch, and I kind

of, I breathe a sigh of relief, but as I breathe the sigh of relief, my dad and I kind of exchange looks at each other like, I don't know if this is right. And so I'm trying to

stay positive. My dad is saying something doesn't smell right about this. And I'm like, let's just be positive, maybe they have to do things a little differently because

it's after hours and stuff, and it's like okay, you know, we'll do that. And so I'm still keeping faith that I'm going to get this email detailing what is going on

in, in Percy's surgery and our receipt and everything, and so that half hour passes and I'm like, "Hey, Dad, I haven't gotten, you know, that email yet." And

he's like, "Okay." And then an hour passes and still no email. Two hours pass, no email, no phone call. [00:27:08] Bob: Two hours, three hours, morning comes; no email, no

phone call, no news about Percy. And now they're getting really scared. And on the other side of town, Regan Blessinger is just getting to work. She's the Marketing and Content

Manager for the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. And only a few weeks earlier her office had received a really odd phone call from a different Tampa area resident who was also searching for a

lost pet. [00:27:39] Regan Blessinger: Someone called our shelter manager and was like oh freaking out, like you have my dog, and we looked it up and there was no history of that dog ever

being at the Humane Society of Tampa Bay. So there are some other shelters in the area, so we were like maybe those other shelters have them. And they were really, really upset, and through

digging and then talking to those other shelters, we realized that this just was a ruse, that nobody had this animal. [00:28:12] Bob: That person desperately searching for their lost dog had

received a call from someone claiming to be from the Tampa Humane Society claiming to have found the dog and claiming the dog needed expensive surgery. Instead of paying, the person had

called the Humane Society directly. [00:28:31] Bob: So this person who called, first of all, they're upset because they're missing their animal, right? [00:28:34] Regan Blessinger:

Oh, yeah, of course this like a very vulnerable position, so you're missing your animal, you get a call from a shelter from a number; it has the name. You see that, and then they kind

of hold your pet hostage. There's a lot to it and you can imagine like the emotions going through thinking that, oh my gosh, you have my pet, and then oh, but I have to pay a bunch of

money and so that was our first clue into something was happening. [00:29:01] Bob: Within a few days Regan notices that shelters around the country are getting calls like this from desperate

pet owners who say someone tried to get them to send thousands of dollars for surgery on their missing pet who had been found. But it's a scam. And warnings go up all around the

country. [00:29:20] Regan Blessinger: So we start to see other shelters post things saying that there's a scam going on. And the furthest shelter I know of is San Diego Humane Society.

They also had this same thing happen. And it, it kind of the same script. Of course, this was like two months ago, so we didn't exactly know what the script was now. Now we do, and I

mean as far as I know, every shelter in the Tampa Bay area has gone through this, and then shelters in almost every other state have gone through this exact same thing. [00:29:53] Bob:

That's wild. [00:29:55] Regan Blessinger: Yeah, and they were all putting out different statements saying, you know, "We would never do this." But it's constant. The last

one I saw was I think on Monday from a shelter in like Wisconsin. So I mean it's still happening. [00:30:09] Bob: Then the calls start coming into the Tampa shelter with more

frequency. [00:30:14] Regan Blessinger: People would call us back and say, "I'm," either, "I'm ready to pay" or "You have my pet and what do I need to do

again? Can you walk me through it?" And we started to see the pattern of we had never called these people, and we did not have the pet that they unfortunately lost. So we put out a

statement saying, "Please do not pay any money over the phone. We would never call and say like your pet has been hit by a car. You need to pay us $2000 so that we can help them,

that's just not what we do." And honestly, most shelters, I don't know of a shelter in the United States that does do it like that, so we put out something saying,

"Please don't do it," and then the responses were, flooded in saying, "Oh, that happened to me." [00:31:02] Bob: And then the Tampa shelter gets a call about Percy.

[00:31:07] Regan Blessinger: Chloe called after our, after she had paid. So I think it was about next day she called our shelter director and essentially was like, "I think I got

scammed." And then she walked her through it. So she was dog sitting for her mom, and they got out and she, as you should, 'cause we found out how they are finding this

information, but she posted about her lost pet, and she got the call in the middle of the night which, or I think it was like 10 o'clock, but still, too late for what we would do. And

it was a situation of, "They were hit by a car. You need to pay right away." And so she was already feeling vulnerable. It's her mom's pet like there's so much going

on. So she pays. So then nothing happens after she pays. So she calls the next day and explains the whole situation, and is like, "I got a call from your shelter," like,

"Someone at your shelter did this." And luckily, we track all of our phone calls, so we were able to verify that it was nobody here, and then we went through the hard work of

figuring out how spoofing equipment works and you know talked to our phone companies um, if there was anything that we could do. And then just kind of walked her through and tried to explain

as best we knew, about what happened. [00:32:30] Bob: and after Chloe talked to the Humane Society, she knows for sure two things; her $2100 has been stolen, but even worse, Percy is still

missing. [00:32:42] Bob: And, I mean, try to explain to somebody how awful that felt. [00:32:45] Chloe Patera: Oh my gosh, I, there, it's like a sinking feeling. Like it was horrible.

Like not only do these people in one sense get your hopes up like hey your, your cat is okay that you've been desperately searching for. He's injured but we can help him. And then

you have, the feeling was just horrible because my hopes were up and then they were just shattered, and it was like, wow, Percy either is going to come home to us at some point, but

we're going to be out of this $2000, or these people just completely took advantage of a horrible, horrible, horrible situation and made it 10 times worse, which I didn't even know

was possible. [00:33:31] Bob: And here, I mean all these bad terrible things are happening to you, and this is a, potentially as, you know, one piece of good news that gets put in front of

you and then ripped away. [00:33:39] Chloe Patera: Exactly. That's exactly how it was. It was that one good thing that had happened. My mom's been in the hospital over a month. The

family dog has died. Now we're being told Percy's been found but he's injured. Fine, let's pay them, let's get him well. Whatever he needs, we'll do. And then

it's ripped away, and it's just; sorry, you've been scammed and there's nothing that we can do to get your money back. We obviously can't magically make your cat

appear. And it was horrible. And at that point no one knew that my mom was in the hospital except for, obviously, family and my three best friends were the only ones who knew that she was in

the hospital. So it just, it was just, it was like a hurricane is the best way that I can describe it. It was horrible. It, it was just like a, a, it was like a hurricane that just

didn't stop. And it just kept going and going and going. [00:34:40] Bob: Like a hurricane that just keeps going and going. One thing we know about scams, when you hear a surge of

reports about a new scenario, even if initially the victims don't come forward, that scam is working for the criminals. Otherwise they wouldn't keep trying it. For the Tampa Humane

Society, Chloe's story confirms the worst. [00:35:03] Bob: I'm also guessing the feeling at your shelter was like, oh God, you know, we knew this was a problem, but now it's

far more serious, a real person got hurt here. [00:35:13] Regan Blessinger: Yes. It's far more serious and there's nothing that we can do except educate people. Like we,

unfortunately, can't, because of the software that exists, we can't do anything about them taking our phone number. So the most we can do is try to get the word out and tell people

about the scam so that if they do get this phone call, they are already prepared. [00:35:39] Bob: Okay, so what did, what did you do, did you contact local media? And what did you do in the

wake of this incident? [00:35:45] Regan Blessinger: Yeah, so we put out a statement just explaining again that this is not us. This is how they are doing it. It is going to look and

probably sound very similar to the way that we are, but what we do when a pet is found and I, we listed it out. So we will call if the pet has a microchip, but we're not going to,

it's not going to feel like your pet's being held hostage. We're not going to demand money so that we can help them. It's only going to be during business hours, so if

it's out of business hours that's not them. We don't do anything over PayPal or Venmo or anything like that, so if they ask for any sort of cash app, something that's not

us. Tricks to what to do, so we were telling people to hang up if you think, like maybe it's possible but you're not sure, hang up and then call right back. Because it is our

phone number, it'll come to that actual shelter. So you can ask, "I just got a phone call, is this my animal?" Like do you have them? And then we can, you know, help from

there. And then we ask for people to just let us know when this is happening, not necessarily that we would be able to do anything, but we wanted to make sure that more people don't

pay. And then we did alert the media and talked to the media about just trying to get the word out so this doesn't happen to more people. [00:37:08] Bob: We talk often about how

criminals put pressure on victims in trying to get their emotions heightened because that makes them vulnerable. Clearly people looking for lost pets are vulnerable. But there's another

element to this story which makes it so dangerous. Generally we advise people to limit the information they share about themselves; any public nugget can help a criminal weave a persuasive

story. But in the case of a lost pet, people are encouraged to share as much as possible, as widely as possible; on telephone poles, on Facebook groups, on message boards, and to share as

much information as possible like, well Fido had a brown marking on his back left foot. And of course to share a lot of contact information. That kind of detail is incredibly useful to

criminals. [00:37:56] Regan Blessinger: When a animal goes missing, the suggestion is to go onto different websites like Petco Love Lost, and put in a ton of information. So you put in your

pet, what they look like, if they have a microchip, put in their microchip number. You put in the address, where the pet went missing, how they went missing. You give them, you give so many

details up because assuming that they're aren't bad people in the world, someone is going to see that and it's going to say, my dog was, came out on the, Armenia at this time

and it's my mom's and it goes by this name, but it might go by this name. You have a better shot of finding your pet. So all of that is publicized because you want most people to

see it. So we have Facebook groups that post lost pets like that. We have Petco Love Lost, there's Bringing Love Home, I mean there are a ton of websites that you just provide so much

information to you to find your pet. And so it's not surprising that they would have that information because this is where they are putting it out there. [00:39:03] Bob: Chloe figures

the criminals found her that way. [00:39:06] Bob: I mean I just always assumed that they saw your post on an online forum and, and called in response to that. Is that, is that your

assumption too? [00:39:14] Chloe Patera: That was my assumption also, yes, because I had posted publicly on Hillsboro County Lost and Found Pets Page, and on there I submitted that Percy had

gone missing, 'cause that's how you do it. You send them a message. Say, hey, this is my animal, they're missing, this is the location they went missing. The last time we saw

them, give the information and then they make a post and then they tag you in it. [00:39:42] Bob: One part of this story that is gnawing at me, the criminal used Chloe's maiden name

during that first phone call. Chloe thought it was possible her parents used that name when they listed her as an emergency contact in Percy's records. So it's easy to imagine

criminals who are banging away at pet scams have access to some kind of database listing pets, their owners, and their emergency contacts, for example. Now I'm just speculating, but I

think it's important to know that a criminal calling might appear to know a lot about you, special information you think only a veterinarian might have. But we all know such information

sometimes gets in the hands of criminals. [00:40:20] Bob: I'm so sorry this happened to you. I mean we; we talk scams every week on this podcast, but this, there's something about

this story that's such a punch in the face, God. [00:40:28] Chloe Patera: It's something about, I truly think that scams like this hit harder because it's about, it's

all about scamming someone out of money to help an animal, and an animal is so innocent. It's like, what did this animal do to you? And this animal does nothing but bring happiness and

love to a family, so it just hurts so much more. [00:40:53] Bob: And to just take advantage of your natural urge to do whatever you could to help this animal. That's just so awful,

yeah. [00:40:59] Chloe Patera: Exactly. Like I mean it's no secret. I know some people aren't animal people, and that's okay, you know, everyone has their preferences, and

just for my family and I, and my husband and myself, we are huge animal people, and we would do and do anything we can. I mean they picked the perfect person for the perfect scam. [00:41:25]

Bob: They picked the perfect person for the perfect scam. Whoever they are. [00:41:31] Bob: Man do you have soft... like who would do this? My God, this is so terrible. [00:41:36] Regan

Blessinger: It just, uh genuinely bad people. I cannot imagine, losing your pet is already so stressful, and so you're not, you're already like in a heightened state, and then it,

it's just like playing on the emotions of hopefully getting your pet back. And then making you jump through all of these hoops and making it seem like your pet is near death, which adds

a whole 'nother layer. [00:42:00] Bob: And telling a person we found your pet, and you haven't, oh my God. [00:42:04] Regan Blessinger: Yeah, oh, it's awful. And then the pet

is still missing. After all of this ordeal, you still don't have your animal. [00:42:12] Bob: I'm really glad we're doing this story, because it's obviously to me

it's, it's happening right now. [00:42:16] Regan Blessinger: It is. [00:42:16] Bob: So we need, we need to tell people. [00:42:18] Regan Blessinger: Yes, yeah. Truly, as of Monday

was the last time I saw a shelter post, you know that warning if you get a call from us but it sounds weird, it's not us. So I mean it's still actively happening. [00:42:32] Bob:

So what does Chloe want people to learn from her story? [00:42:37] Chloe Patera: That the Humane Society, at least the Humane Society of Tampa Bay will never, ever, ever call you after hours

and demand payment over the phone for an injured animal. And I think that more than likely relates to pretty much any humane society across the country, more than likely applies to any

veterinarian's office across the country, any pet resource center across the country. These people, they're not there to make money, they're there to help animals and this was

very money motivated. [00:43:19] Bob: Clearly, yeah. [00:43:21] Chloe Patera: Yeah. [00:43:21] Bob: Man. I, I do wonder, I mean I, it's just the state that your family was in when this

call came. One of the themes of The Perfect Scam is that you, granted you haven't been a victim of a scam, it just means it hasn't been your turn yet. There's so many of

these, and, and it's all about timing, right? [00:43:39] Chloe Patera: Right. [00:43:40] Bob: And so maybe on a, on a more normal day this wouldn't have worked, but it worked. You

were in such a vulnerable place, right? [00:43:45] Chloe Patera: Oh, exactly, yeah. This was a man with a normal American accent on the phone who sounded official. He was confident in what

he said, and he, he knew how to play on someone's emotions without even knowing that my mom had almost just died. [00:44:12] Bob: Right. [00:44:12] Chloe Patera: You know. And I think

had this happened and my mom was at home and everything was normal, the second that they said, "Oh you have to send it PayPal Friends and Family," instead of the Goods and

Services, I think the alarm bells would have been very loud and I wouldn't have sent it. [00:44:35] Bob: Yeah, but it's all about circumstance, so... [00:44:37] Chloe Patera: It

is. [00:44:39] Bob: Chloe never found Percy; we are sorry to tell you. The family has since adopted a new cat named Oliver, and we are happy to share Mom is home and Oliver is there helping

with the recovery. [00:44:53] Bob: How is your mom doing now? [00:44:55] Chloe Patera: She's doing better. Thank you for asking. Yeah, we did have a couple stays, revisits to the

hospital that, you know, resulted in about a week-long stay a couple of times, but she's doing a lot better now, and we are just getting into our routine of a new normal. [00:45:15]

Bob: And how, how's the new cat working out? [00:45:18] Chloe Patera: He's crazy. (laugh) He really loves being in a house that's two stories because he gets all of his

zoomies out going up and down the stairs like 30 times within like 30 seconds, and it's like, how are you not tired? [00:45:33] Bob: Does Oliver, you know, cuddle with your mom the way

Percy did? [00:45:37] Chloe Patera: Unfortunately, he's not a cuddler. He is, he's very go-go-go but my mom's other cat, Charlie, is very cuddly and loves to come and cuddle

with her. And my dog is here, and she loves to cuddle with my mom. So she's got a lot of cuddles going, but she definitely misses Percy, and we do talk about him almost daily and what

an awesome cat he is. And was. [00:46:03] Bob: Regan really wants to stress that no humane society would call and demand money that way. [00:46:11] Regan Blessinger: So we want people,

it's hard because when you do lose your pet, you still should, even with all of the scams and it's still happening, not to us, but just to other people, you still should go through

those processes. You should go to Petco Love Lost; you should do all of those things. Post on your Facebook, give all of that information because that is the best opportunity for you to

find your pet. So it's hard, because it's, that's still a part of something that we really need people to do. But if you get a phone call like that, if it sounds even 1%

sketchy or weird, hang up and call the shelter. I think that that is the easiest, most effective way to go about it, and then you can talk to someone here and get their correct information.

That really is just the biggest piece of advice is don't be quick, but kind of slow down, and then then truly trust your gut. If it sounds odd, it probably is odd. And there are things

that people can do on the front end of potentially not losing their pet. That, I think, is the bigger importance. Of course pets are always going to get out. They're little rascals, but

I think that there's some beginning stuff like, you know, just always having your animal on a leash, or making sure that they are microchipped, or, you know, there's other things

to do beforehand that might then prevent your pet going missing altogether. [00:47:40] Bob: And as long as we have Regan here, well I wanted to give her a chance to make her pitch for

adopting pets. [00:47:47] Regan Blessinger: Yeah, well especially in the United States, I think this is most places, but we are overrun with homeless animals from cats and dogs, exotic

animals. A lot are purchased by breeders and then discarded for whatever reason. A lot of things that we see, especially now, for a point for example is the French Bulldogs, they grow in

popularity so people go to breeder, specifically backyard breeders are the biggest issue because they see that everyone wants this animal, so they try to mass-produce an animal which you

shouldn't ever do, but and they are turning out litters upon litters upon litters, selling them for just a little bit cheaper, and they have a plethora of health issues. They are a lot

more expensive to care for. Sometimes they have behavioral issues. So then people discard them. So either they bring them to a shelter or they let them loose, and that is when shelters come

into place, and hopefully they bring them to the shelter and not just let them loose, but it's our job to make sure that the animal is healthy, and help them get to that, and then

actually finding forever homes, because otherwise, I mean it's, it's kind of like a vicious cycle of homeless animal, thrown out, people continue to buy, so a huge part of what we

need is for people to adopt. So getting the word out that adoption is so important, not only are you saving a life, but you are making room for another stray animal within our shelter. So we

kill for space shelter, so if we do not have the kennel space, like we cannot take in the animals because we don't kill them for, or euthanize them to make kennel space, so I mean,

just adoptions and the medical work that goes into saving all of these animals is so important, and not something that is always readily available. [00:49:52] Bob: How are things uh in the

sort of post-COVID wave of, of pet adoptions? 'Cause I know I saw a whole bunch of stories about people when they had to return to work, you know being in different circumstance and

returning their dog. So are, are we still in the middle of that? [00:50:05] Regan Blessinger: Yes, but I don't know necessarily if it's COVID-related now, but economy-related. So

when the economy is uncertain and maybe not doing great, people cannot afford to pay for their animals. Animal care is expensive. Food is expensive. Vet care is super expensive, so we at

HSTB try to give resources for people to keep their pets at home, but sometimes that's just not possible. They get evicted; they have to live in their car. We see that almost every

single day of someone coming in saying, "I am living in my car. I'm homeless now. It's between me feeding my dog or my child." So they have to surrender them. And we are

seeing an increase in that, and have been for a while. But there is a misconception about the animals that are in shelters. I think that there is a lot of people who believe that shelters

are throwaway dogs, that all of the animals here have some sort of issue be it health or mental um, or behavioral. That is not the case. Of course there are always going to be dogs that need

extra, or animals that are going to need extra medical care, that are going to need extra behavior advice, but we get so many puppies, and we get so many purebred puppies. That's

another misconception. People think, oh, just it's full of mutts. That’s not the case. We, just today, I know have purebred French Bulldog, and a purebred Husky puppy who's only

two months old. Both are up for adoption. And that's not rare. We get litters, whole litters of purebred puppies from someone who accidentally had a litter, or couldn't honestly

thought that they would maybe get into the breeder world and it didn't work out, so they surrender them, or they bought the puppy, but they didn't realize how expensive it was. So

it happens often that we have purebred animals. So I think if someone really, really wants that German Shepherd puppy, just wait a little bit, and just be a little patient and pay attention

to your local shelter and chances are, they will get it. We, I, I can't even like overstate how often we have purebred animals in the shelter, especially... [00:52:18] Bob: That's

just crazy. [00:52:19] Regan Blessinger: Yeah, I mean we, there was um, one woman who purchased a French Bulldog from a puppy store, which luckily in Hillsboro County puppy stores have been

banned, but there is one a county over. And she spent over $10,000 on this puppy, had her for about two weeks and then surrendered her to us. [00:52:43] Bob: Wow. [00:52:44] Regan

Blessinger: Yeah. [00:52:45] Bob: Wow. [00:52:46] Regan Blessinger: Hm-hmm. So, and that's not, I mean we know that how much she had cost. We don't always know that part, but

that's not uncommon for people to... [00:52:57] Bob: That's just crazy. [00:52:57] Regan Blessinger: Yeah. [00:52:59] Bob: My last dog I, I got um, was a Golden Retriever who was

9, 10 months old when I got him. The folks there tell me they get, you know Goldens and Labs at that age all the time because they're, the behavior they have that's super cute when

they're 8 weeks old is super annoying when they're 10 months old. [00:53:13] Regan Blessinger: Oh, totally. We see that so much. Um, shelters are like full of um, Huskies and

German Shepherds. It's a lot of that of, they are so, so cute when they're younger, and then they get to be 10 months to a year and they're large, and they still have that

puppy behavior, but they're also onery and it just becomes too much. [00:53:32] Bob: The teenage years, I always warn people about this. [00:53:34] Regan Blessinger: Yeah. I mean it is,

right, it is tough having a teenage dog. It's not for the weak, but... [00:53:39] Bob: But worth it. [00:53:40] Regan Blessinger: Totally worth it, yeah. [00:53:42] Bob: Totally worth

it, I'm here to say. And also, I'm here to say, whenever you get an unexpected phone call, even if it's a call you have been dreaming of getting, a call saying your lost pet

is found, always hang up and call the organization back on a number you know is real. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:54:03] Bob: For The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC SEGUE) [00:54:12] Bob:

If you have been targeted by a scam or fraud, you are not alone. Call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360. Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free

support and guidance on what to do next. Our email address at The Perfect Scam is: [email protected], and we want to hear from you. If you've been the victim of a scam or

you know someone who has, and you'd like us to tell their story, write to us. That address again is: [email protected]. Thank you to our team of scambusters; Associate

Producer, Annalea Embree; Researcher, Becky Dodson; Executive Producer, Julie Getz; and our Audio Engineer and Sound Designer, Julio Gonzalez. Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify,

or wherever you listen to podcasts. For AARP's The Perfect Scam, I'm Bob Sullivan. (MUSIC OUTRO) _END OF TRANSCRIPT_