How to nail this scammer?

[john70t]

I want an actionable crime to happen and something worthy of police attention.

Long story long:
Drove to another state with mom to help out an uncle in bad physical and mental health. He lives in a quiet religious working class older neighborhood where everyone knows each other.

The uncle's house was trashed with piles of bloody feces every two feet or so which involved renting a carpet cleaner twice (as the first was broken), finding a usable plug (as everything was twp-prong), changing jobs every five minutes (because the kitchen was also torn up), another uncle in a daze who suggested leaving the crap and putting plastic over everything then quickly jetted as fast as he could, lots of sibling screaming and blaming elevating up to fistfight levels. etc. It was a mess.

We arrived with two dogs in the car and I suggested twice to leave them in there.

They were put in the back yard....when her dog escaped through an unknown hole in the fence...while everything else happened.
(This was partially my fault for not watching them.)

We drove all over town, made, copied, and stapled a dozen flyers on only a couple side streets which didn't provide much coverage. It was sheet-ice that day and took all my concentration to keep mom from doing something stupid and breaking something else in haste. We also notified the animal rescue places because the dog is chipped and might show up on the radar someday if a vet scans her.

I ran an ad on Craigslist with a reward after we got home:
-First reply was for signing up for some lost dog website "It worked for me, only fifty USD"
-Second reply ended with no further response.
-The third repeated reply had a photo of a young girl smiling and snuggled up with an almost exact duplicate of my mother's dog. However this dog had a haircut with perm. Dog looks can change dramatically. They were going to keep her until we put up the notices. Whatever. We just wanted the dog back.

I checked the city assessors website and white pages to verify names and addresses.
The second lady didn't exist in that state.
The third name had dozens of unique "Lisa Smiths" living in that town. Too many.

This woman's short answers led me to believe she was being coy and wanted more money, or to keep the dog for her daughter which was understandable from the picture. That little thing is adorable.

Being trustful of people in that small community neighborhood I emailed my full name location and phone number so we could communicate better instead of through Craigslist email. Lisa didn't want to talk directly. Oh, and it seems her texts are from a phone with a NY area code. A reverse-phone lookup website showed a street in the Bronx. The short replies began to get guttural. "How we going to do this?"

I am well past believing "Lisa" is a housewife at this point.
We almost drove another seven hours.
Mom loves this dog dearly and this almost broke her heart.

Now it is at the stage of "Lisa" asking about the reward money.
Next up is probably how to perform a wire transfer.

What's the worst crime "she" could commit?

[sc_rufctr]

Sounds like potential "Mail Fraud" maybe?

At this point I would document everything and pass it onto the authorities but as you know that doesn't mean they'll do anything about it. I'm sorry but I think the dog may be lost for good.

[svandamme]

story long
point hard to find
stop talking to suspect scammer
move on with life


if you are missing your dog
and it's chipped
and you know where it Is, then it's no longer missing, but stolen, at which point it's to a scam but theft.

if you don't know where it is, it's still missing. and that sucks

[Aurel]

You could try reverse Google image search to prove yourself the scammer found the dog image on the internet and does not indeed have your mom’s dog, then focus on other leads to find the dog.
And forget about nailing the low life scammer from the Bronx.

You could also ask for another picture of the dog. If they found it on internet, they likely won’t be able to produce another one.

[fastfredracing]

There is only one way . If they have your doggie, you have to meet in person to collect said doggie. That is when they collect their reward. If they do not agree to this, then cease all conversation and move on .

[DavidI]

John, at this point there is no crime unless you are certain that the dog the woman possesses is truly your mom's. Based upon your narrative, she is scamming you and she does not. If you wire funds, they are gone.

Keep searching and you may be fortunate to find the dog elsewhere, David

[MBAtarga]

Insist on facetiming with the dog and her in person to confirm identity,etc.

[john70t]

All good advice above. Thank you. Those were somewhat my thoughts as well.

An interesting new development:
I've asked for an address and offered cash three times. So thankful and polite.
One word vague responses.
"Lisa" is delaying until my emotional mother takes over.

A former house cleaner for my uncle contacted me out of the blue yesterday. She is a serious long-time dog advocate, ordered twenty new flyers to put up in places that will work, and has contacts in animal control and the police department. which might be the next step. That is a good thing.

The bad thing is she like to talk at people and take over the situation. There was a 45min and a 30min "1-way conversation" yesterday and another 30min this morning. Good advice from a good person who means well but perhaps too many words. It's difficult to find any fault in that though. She is also trying.

The worse thing is both she and my mother are convinced that this scammer is real and want me to continue negotiating to the fullest. Mom is starting to growl at me. That is usually when I become at fault for everything possibly bad happening in this world. I will now be held responsible for the dog not magically appearing. F me for even getting involved but I didn't want her getting hurt further by this piece of garbage. I c/c'ed her copies of all my nice emails and explained again how these scams work. Logic is not her strong suit sometimes.

[/drama story for now]

[Norm K]

There is nothing genuine about "Lisa". If there was, your mother would already have her dog back.

Move on.

_

[Gogar]

Lisa most certainly is not real. Stop. Just stop it.

PS the thing about locating someone by the area code of their cell phone is long, long past.

Good luck and sorry about your troubles!

[john70t]

Did an image search for the dog pic provided. No results.
Google now dominates online maps, reCaptcha, embedded ad script, and functionality of so many websites.

Offered scammer $300 cash in hand to get the dog today with another verification pic. No response from scammer.

Another 20min conversation w/the former house cleaner. Great lady. Too many words. She is now convinced it's bogus.
One more to go.

[Steve Carlton]

Can you right click otherwise search its properties to see when and where it was taken?

[john70t]

I didn't try that. I figured CL and Yahoo mail would have .exif sanitizers.
Worth a shot though. Thx.

[Steve Carlton]

Anybody more capable that can pretend to be your mother?

Was the dog wearing a collar “Lisa” can photograph?

How soon after the dog was lost did “Lisa’s” dog get groomed? If she spent money on that grooming, it doesn’t bode well for its return.

[LWJ]

Did you tell Lisa that you work in Law enforcement? And that you are getting impatient?

Or better yet, imply that you have violent organized crime associates?

[Por_sha911]

I'd be tempted to tell "lisa" you have an uncle Guido in Brooklyn who would like to personally deliver the money and then ask for her address.

[Gogar]

Tel Lisa your dog came back and see what she says about it

[Steve Carlton]

Let's suppose "Lisa" has the dog. Do you think 1) telling her you work in law enforcement, 2) uncle Guido in Brooklyn (not necessarily where she lives) wants to come by, or 3) the dog came back is going to help?

I'm thinking no. What's the goal here? Following half ass internet advice or getting the dog back?

[Por_sha911]

Originally Posted by Steve Carlton

Let's suppose "Lisa" has the dog. Do you think 1) telling her you work in law enforcement, 2) uncle Guido in Brooklyn (not necessarily where she lives) wants to come by, or 3) the dog came back is going to help?

I'm thinking no. What's the goal here? Following half ass internet advice or getting the dog back?

OK, what is your other half ass advice?

Also, you might want to realize that sometimes there is sarcasm at the root of the comments.

[LWJ]

I might be sarcastic.