{"id":108185,"date":"2026-01-06T22:23:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:23:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108185\/"},"modified":"2026-01-06T22:23:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T22:23:08","slug":"lee-county-warns-of-lost-pet-scam-targeting-stressed-owners-lee-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/108185\/","title":{"rendered":"Lee County warns of lost pet scam targeting stressed owners | Lee County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>LEE COUNTY &#8211; Losing a pet is tough, and scammers are now trying to exploit that stress.<\/p>\n<p>The Lee County Sheriff&#8217;s Office warns that scammers are contacting pet owners, pretending their lost pets have been found. They spoof calls to appear as if they&#8217;re from local animal shelters.<\/p>\n<p>These scammers may demand payments, sometimes claiming the pet needs emergency surgery, and ask for $1,500 through a payment app. Don&#8217;t fall for it. Always verify first.<\/p>\n<p>Lee County offers a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.leegov.com\/animalservices\/lostpet\/portal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Find My Pet portal<\/a> that never requests funds. Use it and follow these steps: call the shelter directly, don&#8217;t share personal or financial information, and never send money.<\/p>\n<p>                        <img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"data:image\/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAQAAAADCAQAAAAe\/WZNAAAAEElEQVR42mM8U88ABowYDABAxQPltt5zqAAAAABJRU5ErkJggg==\" alt=\"Lee County warns of  lost pet scam targeting stressed owners\" class=\"img-responsive lazyload full default\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1080\" data- data-\/><\/p>\n<p>If you encounter this scam, confirm with the shelter and report it to law enforcement. Many counties have similar resources to help you reconnect with your pet.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LEE COUNTY &#8211; Losing a pet is tough, and scammers are now trying to exploit that stress. The&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":108186,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210,1598,356,7692,11176],"class_list":{"0":"post-108185","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cape-coral","8":"tag-cape-coral","9":"tag-cape-coral-headlines","10":"tag-cape-coral-news","11":"tag-law-enforcement","12":"tag-lee-county","13":"tag-lee-county-sheriff","14":"tag-scam"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=108185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/108185\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/108186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=108185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=108185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=108185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}