The Animal Welfare Department (AWD) is warning Albuquerque residents and other animal shelters about telephone scams. Scammers are preying on the vulnerability and hope of pet owners, by exploiting their emotional turmoil for financial gain. The scams are take two different tactics: 

• Thieves target people who lost pets and ask the owner for payment over the phone to get their lost pet back
• Owners are told by the caller that their pet needs emergency surgery and demand immediate payment in order to do the surgery. 

If you are contacted by someone claiming to be from AWD and asking for money in relation to your missing pet, exercise extreme caution, even if the call appears to come from a legitimate phone number. Note that AWD does call pet owners to inform them that their pet is at the shelter and will instruct the owner to go to the shelter to reclaim their pet. If the pet is already spayed or neutered, he or she will be returned to the owner free of charge. If the pet is not spayed or neutered, the owner will be told the amount of the reclaim fee and to go to the shelter to pay the fee. However, AWD does not ask for payment ahead of time to reclaim your pet, and would not ask for gift cards, Cash-App or electronic payment. Please report the scams to the Attorney General’s Office Toll Free 1-844-255-9210 and Report scams to the Federal Trade Commission online at: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/.