THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 19, 1995 TAG: 9506170043
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Column
SOURCE: Larry Maddry
LENGTH: Medium: 64 lines
IT WAS BAD ENOUGH when Susan Amster lost her 5-month old kitty. Now she has lost $150 in a cat scam. And she still doesn't have the kitty.
Amster - a working woman in McLean, Va. - placed an ad for her gray, striped kitten named Pearl in The Washington Post after it wandered away.
A week later, on June 3, she received a phone call from a man who said he was a truck driver. He told her he'd almost hit the kitty with his truck. And stopped to pick it off the road. He said his name was James Miller.
``He said he had been riding around with the kitty in his truck,'' she recalled. ``He said he was in Richmond. He told me his boss was upset with him for driving with a cat in the cab. He said he needed to get the cat to me right away.''
Amster told the man she'd drive to Richmond and pick up the cat.
The man said that wouldn't work because he was waiting for a call from his boss who would tell him where he wanted the truck driven next.
``Well then, how do I get the cat from you?'' she asked,
The caller told her he would check with his boss about the situation and phone her the next morning.
The next morning the man told her his boss would allow him to drive to McLean and deliver the kitty in the truck. But he told her the round trip would cost $150, for fuel expenses.
The caller asked her to go to Western Union and send a money order made out to his boss, Ronald Evans, in New Orleans.
And that's what she did.
The money was picked up at the distant Western Union office. When she returned home from the trip to a local Western Union office, the phone rang.
``It was the same voice I'd been hearing,'' she said. ``The man said his boss had verified he'd received the money. He said he was leaving Richmond right away and headed for Northern Virginia.''
He told Amster he would get in touch when he was near her house, and they could arrange a meeting place.
She hasn't heard from the man again or seen her kitty.
``It was a horrible thing for him to do,'' Amster said. ``And, I had to pay for all of the phone calls, too. He called collect each time.''
Jean Stritt, a spokeswoman for Western Union, said Amster appeared to be the victim of a scam that has a pay-off at Western Union offices around the world.
Stritt said Western Union receives 80 to 100 reports of fraud each month among its 22 million yearly transactions.
She said scams involving pets are fairly common. Customers who call in wire orders to Western Union using their credit cards hear a recording that warns them against wiring money in cases involving ``lost pets'' or ``prize awards,'' she said.
But since Amster placed the order in person, she didn't receive a warning. She isn't angry with Western Union. ``I'm angry with the man who called,'' she said. ``It tears me up that he's getting away with this.''
She said she has notified the Fairfax County Police and the FBI but doesn't believe she will get her money back or see her kitty again.
``I hope other people won't become victims of a pet scam. That's why I'm talking to you,'' she said when we talked by phone. by CNB