AI scammers target pet owners with fake pics and demands for ransom or their fur baby dies
It’s a real cat-scam.Scammers are holding people’s pets ransom — without even touching a hair on their heads.There’s been a rise in swindlers using AI-altered photos of people’s missing dogs and cats to demand exorbitant sums and threatening to put down their precious pets if they don’t pay.In April, Florida man Bill Cosens nearly fell prey after his beagle mix, Archer, escaped from his backyard, Fox News reported.
He posted about his MIA mutt on social media, after which he received a phone call from a woman claiming that his dog had been hit by a car and required $2,800 for an operation.The huxter even sent detailed AI-generated pics of Archer on the operating table, which they’d MacGyvered using photos Cosens had uploaded.Thankfully, he caught wise to the plot after realizing the address for the alleged veterinary clinic was incorrect.“It starts becoming pretty obvious that we’re being scammed,” said Cosens, who was reunited with his pup after a neighbor tracked him down.Often, the scammers will pose as law enforcement or pet shelter personnel.
In a similar incident in May, a California dog owner who lost her pet received a doctored photo of her canine and a message claiming that the animal required emergency surgery at a San Jose animal shelter, AOL reported.They said they needed money to continue treatment or the pooch would be “euthanized,” per a message by the City of San Jose Animal Care & Services.When the owner contacted the San Jose facility, they confirmed that her pride and joy was not there.“Scammers are using public lost pet posts and AI-generated content to create false urgency and pressure people into paying money,” shelter reps wrote.This faux fur friend hoax is the latest in a long line of sophisticated and ever-evolving AI scams, which have involved everything from kidnapping schemes using AI voice clones to romance scammers masquerading as Brad Pitt.
In 2025, AI-assisted scams were linked to over $893 million ...