Scammers are zeroing in on Knoxville families at their most vulnerable, mimicking animal shelter and police phone numbers and claiming a missing pet has been found and urgently needs treatment, according to Young-Williams Animal Center.
The con works like this: someone who has posted about a lost dog or cat gets a call that appears to come from Young-Williams or the Knoxville Police Department. On the line is a caller insisting the animal is in crisis and needs immediate, expensive care. The pitch leans hard on panic, with threats that the pet could be harmed if money is not sent right away. Young-Williams says it is working with Knoxville police to investigate the reports.
In a Facebook post, Young-Williams Animal Center said scammers have demanded roughly $3,500, pushing people to pay by credit card, digital wallet or gift card. The shelter urges residents not to share credit card numbers or two-factor authentication codes, and not to click suspicious links. Instead, the advice is simple: hang up immediately.
Young-Williams is asking anyone who gets one of these calls to verify the story through trusted, official channels before doing anything else.
How the scam works
Scammers are reportedly scanning lost-pet posts and community pages for easy targets, then spinning a high-pressure story designed to trigger an emotional, split-second payment. They often spoof local shelter or police numbers so the call looks legitimate on caller ID, then push victims to pay via gift cards, payment apps or other hard-to-trace methods.
Federal authorities and local reporters have chronicled this tactic and warned pet owners to be wary of any unsolicited demand for money tied to a missing animal, according to Valley News Live.
How to verify and stay safe
If a stranger calls claiming to have your pet and starts talking money, the shelter’s guidance is to end the conversation and double-check the claim using phone numbers you look up yourself, not what appears on caller ID.
To confirm whether a call is real, contact Young-Williams using the number listed on its website (for general shelter help, the post notes 865-433-9922) or call the Knoxville Police Department’s non-emergency line at 865-215-4010. For official contact details, see Young-Williams and the Knoxville Police Department.
Report it
Anyone who felt pressured to send money, or believes they were scammed, is encouraged to contact Knoxville police and save everything linked to the call: texts, emails, screenshots and phone records.
Victims and targets can also file a complaint with federal authorities through the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center and report the incident to the Better Business Bureau’s Scam Tracker so investigators can look for patterns. Those reports help law enforcement trace spoofed numbers and may prevent other pet owners from getting hit, according to FBI IC3 and the Better Business Bureau.
Young-Williams stresses that it will not call demanding payment for an animal’s release and is asking anyone with information about these scam calls to reach out to the shelter or Knoxville police. Neighbors who spot suspicious messages or posts about “found” pets are urged to flag them and stick to verified shelter and law-enforcement channels instead of sending money from afar.
