Dog Ransom

Being an optimist, I tend to believe that everything will be OK, that people are basically good, and that the Golden Rule is a pretty decent starting place for getting along in life. Some people think this is a naive approach to the world, but hey, it's worked for me so far. I'm old enough to fully understand that bad things do happen to good people. I don't think I'll ever be old enough to understand why some people go out of their way to make things bad for others.

You remember the case of the missing dog. Two weeks ago, Macsy disappeared. Twenty four hours later, he turned up at a family member's home. Go figure. It was a happy ending, I took down the "missing dog" flyers, and canceled the ad I had posted on one of the internet sites.

Because I've been busy, I haven't been doing a good job of keeping up with my personal email. So I was surprised, and pretty disgusted when I found this message sitting in my inbox:

From: Mike Thomas mike_found202@yahoo.com
To: (me)
Subject: your dog is with me......
Date: Wednesday, April 16, 2008 5:35:30 AM

I won't lie to you i stole this dog....and the reason why i stole is that ..i need help my mum is in Nigeria dieing of cancer ..and i decided to steal it and i know i will found the owner contact addres ..so before i release it ..you are going to pay sum of $600...i swear this dog is with me

My first thought was, Jeez, what a dumbass. If you're going to attempt extortion at least have the courtesy to spell check! (OK, spelling is a pet peeve with me.) That thought was quickly replaced by, This guy is a scum sucking jerk! Then, it occurred to me that Nigeria is getting a bad rap in all this send money for my dying relative spam. I know a lot of people from Nigeria, and not one of them has ever asked me for a cent for medical care for a family member. But that's another issue.

One thing that I detest more than a con man is a stupid con man. Having a professional con man for a relative, I know the difference. "Mike Thomas" is a stupid con man. Even if Macs were still missing, I wouldn't have given this message any credence. It's filled with holes, aside from the dying mother in Nigeria. (I won't list them here, because I don't want to help him improve his efforts, but I'll be happy to go on and on about them at lunch.)

My concern is that some desperate and grief stricken individual might actually send money to this liar, or one of his ilk. Missing dog scams are apparently not uncommon. Dog Detective lists several. Unfortunately, there is little that can be done aside from using common sense and avoiding posting your email address online. If you have a friend with a missing pet, caution them to use care in posting ads, and to beware of responses like this one.

Meantime, I will hope that Mike Thomas and his friends have big chunks bitten out of their asses by angry packs of French poodles.

Now THAT'S optimistic!