By Sandra Guile
Better Business Bureau
If you’re a pet sitter and receive a request to watch a potential client’s pet, make sure you know who you’re dealing with. Fraudsters love to scour online ads and in the newspaper for opportunities to make a few bucks.
Help Wanted
The scam works like this: the pet sitter receives an urgent request by email or text to watch a beloved pet. The message includes basic information like the length of time they’re needed, the type of pet they’ll care for, any specific instructions about the sitting schedule and maybe some photos of the pet and the owner. Everything is designed to look legitimate to entice pet sitters into accepting the job.
Suspicious Turn of Events
If the job is accepted, the pet sitter provides their contact information and soon after, a check arrives in the mail for much more than what was originally negotiated for the job. Instructions are given to deposit the check, withdraw any cash needed for their services and any incidental expenses, and wire the excess to the owner.
By now, the whole transaction sounds suspicious. If the pet sitter tries to get in touch with the client, the only way to communicate with them is by email or text. This is one of the hallmarks of a check overpayment scheme and if the pet sitter decides to deposit the check anyway, they’re responsible for the overdraft charges and any consequent fees from the bank after it’s determined that the check is fake.
Watch Out
Before accepting any pet sitting job, it’s best to screen potential clients, ask questions, and press for an in-person meeting with the pet and the owner. By doing so, any would-be scammers will more than likely decide to go somewhere else. If you’ve been a victim of this scheme, report it to authorities immediately and then report it to BBB’s Scam Tracker.
Sandra Guile is the Community Outreach Specialist for BBB. She promotes BBB’s message of marketplace ethics through public speaking engagements, presentations, media relations, press releases, web content, and other written materials. Contact Sandra at (513) 639-9126 or sguile@cincinnati.bbb.org. Your BBB is located at 1 East 4th Street
