Almost Fooled!
I'm keenly aware of scams and scammers and I didn't think I could fall for one. But recently I was scammed. Actually I figured out what was going on before I was scammed, but for a little while, I was fooled.
Before I get to the animal rescue scam, here's the short version of my scam experience.
I received an email message from a woman who said she would like to donate to Animal-Kind International and she would be sending a $2000 check the following week. When the check arrived, it was for $4200. (I bet some of you have already figured this out.)
In a previous message, she said that she and her husband are deaf, and they would be using a financial "correspondent" to send the funds. So when she told me that the financial correspondent misunderstood the amount they wanted to donate, that made sense (Why? I don't know now, but it did then.)
When she asked me to refund $2200 by a wire transfer to the financial correspondent, a light bulb went on and I knew I was being scammed.
Of course I didn't wire $2200. I told her I couldn't return the funds until they cleared my account.
And that's when the panic on their end began. She told me they were going on vacation and needed the money right away. The financial correspondent got in touch and said she can see that $4200 cleared their account so it must be in my account. Yeah, right. I ignored these messages and began to file complaints.
I called the bank of the person who was supposed to receive the wire refund--I had her name and account number; I contacted the US Postal Service (mail fraud, the check was sent through the US mail); I called fraud reporting offices in my state and in South Carolina, where the check (which was fake) and the business (which also must have been fake) was supposedly located; and I filed a complaint online with the FBI scam/fraud office. Nothing happened and it seems no one has paid attention.
The Animal Rescue Scam
What does that scam and the animal rescue scam have in common? The scammers approach you through a mutual interest (in this case, animals), gain your friendship and your trust.
They follow you or invite you to follow their page (with a fake name of a shelter or rescue) on social media. They post pictures of themselves, usually holding a dog or feeding puppies, and they begin asking for money for food, for their shelter, for a lifesaving surgery.
I first came across the animal welfare scam about five years ago. Since then, I've received over 1000 messages about the scams or directly from the scammers (asking me for money). Most contacts have been from people who ask me if a certain rescuer is legitimate; sometimes they've already sent money; most were planning to send money, but got in touch with me first (and they may have still sent money); sometimes they ask AKI to support the scammer.
There may be just as many animal rescue scammers from other countries, but the ones I know about are from Uganda. All of them.
I've collected the names of 100s of social media profiles. Strangely, 98% are young men, 18-28 years old. Of the ones who mention a location in Uganda, most are from Mityana district. Which seems very strange because Mityana is not a bastion of animal kindness. Nor are there 100s of young men running around Mityana selflessly helping dogs (but if you look at Instagram, you would think there are).
It's become useless to collect social media handles/names; as soon as you identify one as a scam, they change their name. And there are millions of possible names. (Karen's Animal Rescue Uganda, Karen's Sanctuary, Kindness Shelter Uganda and on and on).
Avoid Getting Scammed
Between Animal-Kind International and the Uganda Society for the Protection & Care of Animals, we've identified a few things that indicate *SCAM*
On social media platforms, their friends and followers are all or mostly other animal lovers and they have no friends or followers in Uganda. (You have to wonder how they found all these animal lovers. They "mine" them from other animal lovers' social media pages.)
Their social media posts show photos of injured, skinny, or sick dogs (rarely cats, but the number of fake cat rescuers is growing), they add text bubbles to their photos, always imploring readers to send money. (After a while, all the social media pages of the scammers begin to look the same. And they just don't look like the pages of legitimate organizations or rescuers.)
No respondents to their social media posts know the scammers in person, they only know them from social media. (Contrast this with Uganda SPCA's Facebook page, which has posts from many people who have brought dogs and cats to their shelter, adopted animals, volunteered there, i.e., eyewitnesses to the USPCA's rescue work.)
Most claim to be located in Mityana: an immediate red flag.
Even if they claim to be an NGO or CBO (community-based organization), their donation information will be in some other, unrelated name.
If you get in touch with the scammer (or worse yet, donate), they may ask you to set up a GoFundMe fundraiser (The scammer will appear legitimate if you are the organizer. Don't do it!)
They like to wear orange or yellow florescent vests with their fake rescue name on the back (although the vests must be in short supply now because I've noticed many scammers no longer wear the vest.)
They speak from the same "playbook": they are out of money for food; a dog (or cat) is injured or sick and they've only raised $20 and need $300; they need to repair the shelter, which was damaged by people who hate that they help animals. (Check out the USPCA's Facebook page where they show not only what they NEED, but what they DO and what they've ACCOMPLISHED.)
The thing is, these dogs are not at a shelter, most are at the scammer's home, kept the way many dogs in Uganda are kept, in unsanitary conditions, not spayed or neutered, without adequate food, allowed to reproduce (That's why there's a Uganda SPCA, they try to address these issues). And now they have a new reason to keep dogs in miserable conditions--it's a great money maker.
And when you donate, it encourages them to continue to keep dogs (and cats) in these conditions.
This article has some useful information about how the scammers operate (some less useful--like mentioning a few names, which they say are the "most common" when there are 1000s of names, none more common than any other):
The article's information on safeguarding yourself is also not so useful. For example, they say, "Verify Legitimacy: Before donating to any dog shelter, conduct thorough research to ensure its legitimacy. Check if they are registered with reputable animal welfare organizations or government entities dedicated to animal care."
Yes, Uganda SPCA and Bam Animal Clinics-Uganda are our Partner Organizations (they're not "registered with us). Not being a partner of a "reputable animal welfare organization" doesn't mean anything, and I don't know of an actual registry. Also, I don't know of a register kept by "government entities dedicated to animal care" in Uganda--there's no such thing.
Their recommendations for reporting aren't very useful either (see below).
But the article does show that this fraud is widespread and a BIG PROBLEM!
The animal rescue scam: what is really going on?
I've heard from several people who have donated to the scammers that once they send a donation, they are asked over and over for more money. Money to help the animals, money for their mother in the hospital, for their sister's school fees, money to pay their medical bill.
If you check online, you may even find similar scams for orphanages in Uganda, building schools in Uganda, medical and schools fees for Ugandans. (And there's probably similar ones that mention other countries too.) The only difference is that the animal rescue scam targets animal lovers.
Here's a video from someone who could be any of us! It gives you an idea of what to expect if you donate to an animal rescue scam (it's short and work watching):
On another hand, I've gotten an interesting range of reactions when I tell someone that their new found virtual friend is a scammer.
Many people are grateful to be warned.
Some ignore me, I never hear from them again.
The most interesting response has been anger--with me.
People become so convinced that they've befriended a compassionate human, someone with so little, yet dedicating his life to helping animals. They just refuse to believe their friend could be a heartless fake, a social media IMPOSTER.
Just like I wanted to believe my $2000 donor was real, they want to believe.
Final Thoughts & Reporting
From talking to many people, from knowing the Uganda animal rescue community, and from reading many of these scam posts over the last five years, this is what I think is going on:
I think that most of the dogs shown on the animal rescue scam social media pages are owned by these young men, who are enlisted by "bosses" to photograph themselves with their pets. Then, the photos and text are posted online under many different accounts. Some of these bosses may be part of a gang, some of the young guys you see in the profiles may be part of the gang too.
I think it's similar to a recent case about a sextortion ring, reported in a newspaper article:
"The removed accounts included a “coordinated network” of about 2,500 accounts linked to a group of about 20 people who were running them, Meta said." The article stated that Meta removed the accounts.
But that hasn't been the case when people report the animal rescue scam social media accounts to Meta.
However, still, I recommend that people keep reporting them: to TikTok, Linkedin, Instagram, and Facebook, GoFundMe, and any other platform you see them on.
I also recommend reporting to the Uganda Veterinary Association, https://ugandavetassociation.org/
On that site, you can find a list of DVOs (District Veterinary Officers). If you know which district your scammer is in, report him to the DVO.
A couple of years ago, some arrests were made, the police investigated, the Mityana DVO was involved. But this scam became so big, and so difficult to trace, and so dangerous, it's been difficult to get updates.
EXCEPT at the end of May, I was told by an anonymous source, "Good News. Government will be involved to help in all fake animals rescue shelter in Uganda. According to the report I have received this morning."
Many people ask if Uganda SPCA can remove the dogs. We used to think that would be possible until it got too dangerous: as above, these scams are run by gangs and they can be violent (I was with the previous USPCA Shelter Manager when he received death threats from some of them.)
The situation is way beyond something that we and the Uganda SPCA can deal with. These scammers not only scam you, they scam the USPCA, Bam Animal Clinics and all other legitimate rescuers in Uganda and beyond.
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