Emily Walker
One of the most common scams these days is the pet sitting service that posts great looking jobs on other sites like Backpage.
These sites specialize in hiring people who use fake names and email addresses to post listings for pets in various locations.
Once someone clicks on one of these listings, they’ll often end up at a site where they have to provide some personal information (such as their Social Security number) or provide financial information (such as their credit card number).
The scammers will then use that information to steal money from the person’s accounts.
They also sometimes post pictures of stolen pets on their sites in an attempt to get more unsuspecting people to send them money.
This can happen with fake listings for real pets, or they can use pictures of random animals—or even things like a piece of fruit—in an attempt to get more people to pay.
Don’t be fooled by these sites!
Be wary of pet sitting or animal care job offers that seem too good to be true.
These scams are often reported by people who say that they were hired to pet sit a week or so before the residency check is due, but they never hear from the “client” again.
It’s important to never use your personal email address when applying for pet sitting jobs, if possible.
Instead, you can create a new YIM account and tell the employer that you don’t have a personal email address in order to accommodate them (that way the client isn’t able to contact you without giving out their number
They will sometimes try to call back and send messages using different phone numbers after not hearing from the client.
However, these scammers can be pretty persistent.
It’s best to try and avoid conversations with them if you don’t want to fall victim to their scams.
You should also never have to pay money for a pet sitting job; you should be paid at the end of a shift, and most legitimate pet sitting companies won’t ask you to use Western Union or Money Gram.
These sites are used by scammers because they allow people to send and receive money without dealing with banks or credit card companies.
That makes it harder to track and stop their activities.
If you find a pet sitting job that seems too good to be true, don’t respond or apply!
It’s best to just delete the email and move on; odds are it isn’t even real in the first place.
If you think that you have been a victim of a pet sitting scam, report it immediately to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center or contact your local law enforcement agency.