LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – It’s a bizarre tale that has a happy ending.
A local woman says she almost forked over money to someone who claimed to have her missing cat despite not offering a reward. Only to have another person return her cat safe and sound. Now, the FBI is involved.
Take it from Veronica Moreno, who suspected something was up after the person at the other end of the line seemed.
“They were taking our weakness, you know, to their advantage,” Moreno said. “And it’s like, what kind of person does that?”
According to Moreno, someone trying to pocket her money after coming across Moreno’s posts on Nextdoor and Pawboost about her missing cat.
“She was like well what about the reward, you know? Without the $80, I can’t come meet you,” Moreno said.
To be clear, Moreno knows $80 is a small price to pay to get your pet back. But Moreno says the random woman sending messages about her cat demanded to be paid $80 before Moreno got to see the cat in person, then even more money once it was handed over.
“She goes yeah, like I’m not going to give you the cat back until you give me money,” Moreno said.
The mysterious woman said she needed to be paid through Apple Pay or via text, something the Better Business Bureau says is usually a scam.
“I took it as you know, you’re taking my kid! you’re taking part of our family,” Moreno said.
But Moreno wasn’t 100% sure the cat in the one picture she was sent was hers. It just seemed to be a random orange tabby cat.
Moreno says the problem with that is orange tabby’s tend to look alike.
But so did the woman’s name and email to several people online claiming they’d been scammed by the same account.
FOX5 reached out to the alleged scammer, and she left us on “Read.” But Moreno has something to say to her.
“You will get what’s coming to you because it always comes back,” Moreno said.
Frustrated and about to give up her search, Moreno says another woman reached out saying she had her cat shortly after the whole ordeal.
The new person was willing to share photos and FaceTime right away and returned the cat for free.
Moreno says that reunion was priceless.
“Look at him! He’s been sleeping, resting, getting all the wet food and cat food that he could possibly get,” Moreno said.
Metro police told Moreno to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center with the FBI, which she did.
To prevent anything like this from happening again, Moreno says she has an appointment for her cat to get microchipped in January.
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