Ontario Provincial Police are warning the public about a scam targeting the owners of lost pets. On Sunday, Aug. 31, Wellington County residents Alexa Romat and Joshua Langdon posted photos online in an effort to find their missing cat, Sushi. “He managed to get out because the doors got left open,” Langdon explained to CTV News in an interview Wednesday. “We’ve seen him a couple times here and there, but we’ve always come up short.” According to OPP, Romat later received an email demanding a $250 “reward” for the cat’s return, along with a digitally altered image of the same photo used in the missing post. “It kind of looked like him, but at the same time, not really,” Langdon said. Despite their uncertainty, the couple was convinced Sushi had been found. “We just kept going back and forth, messaging,” Langdon recalled. “He was really adamant on wanting a reward,” he continued. “He was essentially just putting up the cat for ransom, that if we didn’t give him money and send him an e-transfer, then we wouldn’t be able to get our cat back.” Langdon and Romat then called the police to get a second opinion. “Upon closer inspection of the photo, it actually appeared that it was digitally altered, and it was totally fake,” OPP Const. Matthew Burton told CTV News. “They just took the cat’s head and placed it on another cat,” explained Langdon. Coincidentally, while the couple were reporting the incident to a police officer, they spotted Sushi in the distance. “He showed up right by the gate,” Langdon said. “We stopped everything trying to go get him, but right when he saw us, he just bolted the other way.” Romat said she also received other scam messages since making the original post. “Out in Grimsby, they said they saw somebody kick him at a gas station and they wanted us to go meet them at the gas station,” she recalled. “You’re just preying on people’s downfalls. It’s not right.” A similar incident was also reported to Guelph Police on Sunday. They said a woman posted about her missing dog on social media. She was then contacted by someone who claimed to have found her husky-shepherd mix. The scammer wanted $100 for the dog’s return, which the woman paid by e-transfer. They then arranged to meet at a local business and, when the woman showed up, the scammer demanded she purchase a $100 iTunes gift. Police do not believe the person ever had the dog and was “simply preying on the victim’s emotional state.” Romat and Langdon continue their search for Sushi and offered some advice to anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation. “If they’re making you try and show up in weird spaces, and demanding money and stuff like that, there’s a very good chance that that’s not real,” Langdon said. “If somebody has found your cat or your pet, most likely they’re not going to try to get money out of you,” added Romat. “They’re going to return your pet.” OPP also urge caution when answering unsolicited messages requesting money or personal information. Common red flags include spelling errors, contact during unusual hours, messages that create a false sense of urgency or suspicious links. All fraud incidents, whether successful or not, should be reported to local police and the Canadian Anti-Fraud Centre.
