Pet Amber Alert (Scam or Not?)

Just a quick story about what we have been told is a predatory site. This relates to a customer of ours who recently had a lost pet; a goofy lab. In her quest to get her dog back she pursued all the usual means, called the shelter, posted some flyers locally, called animal control etc. She also used the internet to research lost dogs and that is how she came upon www.petamberalert.com. This site is supposed to notify vets, shelters and people in the area as well as post fliers and ensure the fliers get posted on your behalf. Long story short, little to any of the promised actions happened and she ended up finding the dog herself by placing a free classified ad in the newspaper. She told us that after paying the company (petamberalert.com) a fee of around $100, that she designed a flier online that was then supposed to be distributed to vets and shelters in the area. Unfortunately when she called her vet a couple of days later they had not received any notices or flyers from this company. This prompted her to call other vets in the area, as well as the shelter (all places that pet amber alert had promised to call or notify on her behalf) and surprise, surprise, none of them had been notified. In fact the only thing that she could verify that they did was to post a rather non descript ad on Craigslist, in the lost and found section. She advised us to emphatically let our customers know "NOT TO USE THIS SERVICE AS IT IS NOTHING MORE THAN A BOTTOM FEEDER THAT PREYS ON THE HOPES OF DISTRAUGHT PET OWNERS"  -that is a quote.

She also stated that getting a refund was nothing short of a nightmare, and that like any scam they are quick to take your money but slow to give it back. She stated that after repeated calls to the company trying to obtain a refund she was basically told to pack sand (this a senior on SS so money is tight for her). She was finally able to obtain a partial refund after numerous calls, threatening legal action and to get the BBB involved.

Since she felt so strongly about the issue, it prompted me to investigate a bit further, granted I'm not a PI, but I am pretty smart and have a certain gift when it comes to digging up stuff. So here is what I found..

Here in the state of Florida the company PETAMBERALERT.COM prowls around craigslist posting ads that propose to be one thing but redirect you to their site. examples

Unsuprisingly the link "lostpetflorida.com" takes you to pet amber alert.

It would also outwardly appear (though this may not be the case) that like ambulance chasing lawyers or other unscrupulous individuals that PetAmberAlert.com direct markets grieving pet owners in the hopes of screwing them out of a quick $100 in a time of weakness. This was evidenced by the fact that another individual who had lost a pet and posted themselves to craigslist kept recieving emails from "a concerned citizen" recomending that they try lostpetflorida.com.

I myself noticed something similiar when our dog Hurricane was scared off by my neighbors New Years Eve fireworks. We posted and ad in CL the very evening he vanished and shortly their after began to recieve a series of emails recommending we try a pet recovery site. Luckily I still have a copy of the emails.

1)

Arianna Soto xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com via craigslist.org   9:51 PM (11 hours ago) to kt3wx-35186624. Why did you post so late call the shelters put up signs ask around in the neighborhood check craiglist daily check under petfinderflorida.com Hope you find your dog Dogs should alwyas have name tages on them

Sue Willis xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com via craigslist.org   3:14 PM (2 hours ago) to kt3wx-35186624. Hey did you find your dog yet? If you don't have any luck with craigslist, I know of this really amazing PetFinders site that can help you. I really hope you get lucky and get your dog back.

This is another one I received, and clicking on the hyperlink took me directly to petamberalert.com. Nothing subtle about this one, but again maybe it's just a good samaritan trying to point me in the right direction, though again I doubt it. I theorize based upon having received the above emails that aside from posting ads on CL that PetAmberAlert actively responds to ads about missing pets to promote its own services. While there is nothing technically wrong with that (aggressively seeking out potential customers) and it may prove useful to some individuals if they do all that they say they do. It may also be a prime opportunity for a predatory entity to pounce upon emotionally vulnerable individuals by selling them hope in the form of products it does not deliver. It is also in my opinion (if that is in fact the case) a bit overzealous, insensitive, and as I mentioned above very similar to ambulance chasing lawyers handing out business cards at an auto accident scene; something they are now barred from doing in my state.

Sitting around thinking about all of the above I decided to dig a bit deeper into this issue, and came across a website called Ripoffreport.com, wherein numerous individuals seem to have had a similiar experience with them as my customer did. I'll save going into detail but you can check out the complaints here:

• http://www.ripoffreport.com/neighborhood-services/amber-pet-alert/amber-...
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/petamberalert-com/animal-services/brooklyn-n...
• http://www.ripoffreport.com/internet-fraud/amber-pet-alert/amber-pet-ale...

Another site, trustlink.org gives them one star out of five based on 7 reviews, all of which are negative.

• http://www.trustlink.org/Reviews/AmberPetAlertcom-206067287

Yet another, however, this is a blog and the writer used the service and detailed his experience which he says "left a sour taste" in his mouth.

• http://www.randomgooglings.com/2012/06/27/petamberalert-com-review/

I figured maybe I could go to the Better Business Bureu (BBB) and find some redemption for this company. This however, would not be the case.

• CA BBB – Amber Pet Alert has an F rating
• NY BBB – Amber Pet Alert has an F rating
• NY BBB – Pet Amber Alert has a "No" rating

The site lostpetresearch.com states:

"When you search the internet for Amber Pet Alert companies, one of the top listed companies is the aptly named Pet Amber Alert, which is a company that sends out phone and poster alerts for lost pets.  I used to list them as a resource on my business website, but I have since removed them after hearing numerous complaints (both from my clients and online).  They aren’t a scam but they appear to be a very poorly run business. 

"They used to be called Amber Pet Alert but later changed to Pet Amber Alert probably due to the bad publicity generated around the original name.  It also looks like some other company, Amber Alert for Pets, has since purchased the www.amberpetalert.com domain name so the BBB listing links to the wrong company which is confusing.  However, you can tell the BBB listings are for the same company because the owner is listed as Mark Jakubczak in all cases."

At this point I will leave it up to you to be the judge, but I cannot in good faith provide a recomendation for this company.