Criminals scamming pet owners with fake microchip warnings

Online fraudsters are using pet details sourced from social media to extort money and personal data from unsuspecting owners.

Dog and cat lovers across Scotland are being targeted by emails telling them the microchip for their pet has run out and must be renewed, trading standards officials have warned.

When owners then verify personal information and confirm their details they are then asked to click on a link and make a payment of £29.

While the emails and website look convincing, watchdogs have warned this is a scam with the consequence that owners are then at risk of a government fine.

“Micro­chips do not expire and as well as being ripped off, pet own­ers could then risk a gov­ern­ment fine of up to £500 if their animal is not registered with an approved micro­chip data­base,” Kath­er­ine Hart, lead officer for the Chartered Trad­ing Stand­ards Insti­tute in Scot­land (CTSI), said.

New animal owners are at particular risk of the con because of their tendency to share details of their new kitten or puppy on social media. Scammers then mention in the email the pet’s name and breed to make their pretence of being a legitimate microchip company more convincing.

As well as pet own­ers los­ing cash to a fake ser­vice, the scam­mers are also fish­ing for per­sonal details that they can pass on to other criminals, Hart warned.

“Inform­a­tion is valu­able cur­rency to scam­mers and if people give this out then they risk being defrauded fur­ther down the line,” she said.

“Pet own­ers also need to be care­ful about what inform­a­tion they share online about their pets such as age, name and con­tact details.”

Hart added: “Par­tic­u­larly when people get a puppy or a kit­ten, in their excite­ment they share pic­tures and other details on social media, but this is exactly the sort of inform­a­tion that crim­in­als are look­ing for and that they will try to exploit.”

Micro­chips are small devices with a unique iden­ti­fic­a­tion num­ber that links a pet to its owner and can help reunite them. They are largely used for dogs, cats and rab­bits, rather than smaller pets.

When res­cue organ­isa­tions, vet prac­tices and local author­ity animal war­dens find miss­ing or stolen pets, they will scan for micro­chips — but they will only check com­pli­ant data­base oper­at­ors that are approved by the Depart­ment for Envir­on­ment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

• ‘Lost dog’ scammers threaten to kill pets if owners don’t pay

Hart said the CTSI was recently con­tac­ted by a dog owner in Angus who had received an email claim­ing that the micro­chip for his pet had expired and it needed to be renewed.

After signing up for the bogus company, he was then asked to make a recurring payment for a service that is not recognised by vets and rescue agencies.

The Asso­ci­ation of Micro­chip Data­base Oper­at­ors said a regis­tra­tion does not expire unless “instruc­ted by the cus­tomer that they want to move to another data­base or the pet dies … The micro­chip does not stop work­ing”.