Suspicious minds

the black fox

the black fox

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Jeff
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Am I right to think this could be a scam ,looking in on a local faceberk page a couple of nights ago a lady around the corner reported she was heartbroken as her pet cat had been shot with a air rifle , she said she took it to the vets and the pellets had punctured both lungs ,the children were heartbroken etc ,
Fast forward to last night another post appeared stating the vets had saved the cat but the ladies insurance only covered her up to £2000 but the bill was £5000+ so she had started up a fund me page ( bit like a start up ) and thanking someone for there donation .
Now am I right to be suspicious of this ,I.e pets,children,emotions ,animal lovers etc no veterinary practise has been named to be able to check on this story ,it's also very near xmas .i have also seen similar done on a hobby forum where someone raised money to take a son who had cancer to America for treatment ,trouble is the child didn't exist ,it became a police matter. .
Now do I raise my suspicions on faceberk as it may be a true story or do I just let people possibly get ripped off and keep quiet .
 
Difficult to tell if it is a scam, but I would be suspicious too.

Anything in the local paper about a shooting of a cat?

I wouldn't raise your concerns on Facebook because, as you say, it could be true, and even if it is not from what I hear about Facebook you could come in for a lot of flak from others who also do not know the facts. I'd just let other people decide what they do.

Dave
 
You could ask which vet needs paying and say that you'd rather pay them direct instead of letting the collection agency/fund me take a cut.
 
I'm sure you mean well, but I wouldn't get involved and I certainly wouldn't make unsupported allegations against this person. Nod's suggestion is good. It's an 'innocent' question covered by your offer to help, so no-one can really take umbrage...
 
living in a small town and being well known due to my old job makes me err on the side of caution ,although someone else has already asked if they would like to pay there vet bills to ,so others might be wondering .good suggestion nod but i don't really want to get to involved ,one of the neighbours works at a local vets so i might make discreet enquiries that way.
nothing in local papers though ?
 
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Why does it matter? People aren't being forced to donate anything. It also might be true. ;)
 
£5k sounds like a lot to me for a local vets bill. Our cat got run over by a car, had to have reconstructive surgery on two legs including metal plates etc. Cost £1200. If its true sounds like the cat had a lung transplant!
 
BBR said:
£5k sounds like a lot to me for a local vets bill. Our cat got run over by a car, had to have reconstructive surgery on two legs including metal plates etc. Cost £1200. If its true sounds like the cat had a lung transplant!
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Ever seen a poor vet?
 
I suppose you do know that you can't go on together?
 
BBR said:
£5k sounds like a lot to me for a local vets bill. Our cat got run over by a car, had to have reconstructive surgery on two legs including metal plates etc. Cost £1200. If its true sounds like the cat had a lung transplant!
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I'd say 1200 is cheap.

Our insurance forked out over £700 for one of our cats bladder issue (lots of anti-biotics, blood and urine tests, ultrasound and xrays under sedation etc).
 
Depends on the vet, a city vet will charge a lot more than a country vet and I suppose a big city vet could charge a whole lot more.
 
seems to be true ,made the front page of a local paper .time will tell

Update it seems the cat died today ,end of thread
 
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boogie man said:
Why does it matter? People aren't being forced to donate anything. It also might be true. ;)
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Because if it's a scam the law is being broken, in its basic format it's fraud, but probably could also be charges along the lines obtaining money through deception...

Looking at it from a wider perspective it could be argued that it's costing genuine causes money as these people donating can only donate a specific sum as dictated by their income

It's a sad fact of life in these times that we generally do get suspicious of such calls for help but it's indicative of how open such requests are to being used for fraudulent means
 
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