Scammers use AI-generated images of lost dogs to target pet owners
AI-generated images, which are increasingly realistic and easy to produce, are a major asset for online scammers looking to deceive their unsuspecting victims. While in the past AI-generated scams have attempted to dupe people with fake celebrities or potential love interests, attackers increasingly have a new target: distraught pet owners looking for their lost companions.
Over the past few months, numerous reports have surfaced following a similar pattern. A pet runs away or disappears, prompting its owner to frantically post photos online or on flyers asking for help to bring it home. Shortly after, the owner receives an image of what appears to be their pet, injured and awaiting surgery at a veterinary hospital. The sender then asks for money, claiming that this money is necessary to perform the operation and save the animal’s life. But here’s the catch. The animal was never injured or on an operating table. The photos sent to owners were completely fabricated, generated by AI using the real images of the extinct animal for reference.
Dennis Morida, a dog owner in Florida, witnessed the scam. Earlier this year, her young German Shepherd, Hazel, slipped through a hole in the garden fence and escaped. Morida quickly posted photos of Hazel on social media and neighborhood apps to ask for help. Hours after his assignment, he reportedly received a phone call from someone claiming to be a St. Petersburg police sergeant. The voice on the phone claimed that Hazel had been hit by a car and was currently at a local veterinarian awaiting surgery. To support this claim, the caller sent an image of what appeared to be Hazel preparing for surgery. It looks remarkably realistic.
Florida Couple Nearly Scammed After Missing Puppy
The alleged officer then asked Morida to immediately send $1,900 via mobile payment platform Zelle to cover operating costs. Morida complied, but his bank reported the transaction as suspicious. Ultimately, he sent a lower amount and the caller told him he could pick up his dog the next day at Pinellas County Animal Services.
“It seemed so real and so legitimate at the time,” Morida told local newspaper Tampa Bay 28. “We would do anything to get the puppy back, to get Hazel back.”
Morida finally found his puppy, but not quite the way he expected. Before he could get to the vet, he looked outside and was shocked to see Hazel sitting in the yard, completely unharmed. Although relieved, the family began to connect the dots and realized they had been the target of a scam.
A similar case occurred in California in December 2025. A local veterinary office reportedly received a call from an elderly man who claimed that someone had contacted him to tell him that his service dog, Chewie, had had surgery there. Chewie had gone missing several months earlier and his owner had shared images of the dog online in hopes of finding him. Chewie’s owner told the veterinarian that the unknown caller sent him a photo of what appeared to be Chewie recovering from surgery and asked him to send money to get his dog back.
Such situations are apparently not occasional. The Animal Compassion Team, a nonprofit organization based in Fresno, California, told local media outlet KGET that it receives about 20 calls a day reporting similar incidents.
Tomas Sinicki, scam protection expert and managing director of identity theft protection company NordProtect, tells Popular science that this growing trend represents the latest evolution in a worrying pattern of scams facilitated by easy-to-use AI image generators. Pet owners in particular are prime targets.
“This pet scam is an example of personalized social engineering: a troubling evolution of the generic phishing schemes we have learned to distrust,” says Sinicki. “It’s horrible because it exploits emotional vulnerability, targeting people in times of distress as they search for a glimmer of hope.”
Sinicki adds that AI-generated images and voice clips are often considered enough “proof” to overcome a target’s skepticism.
Insult for already taxed and animal shelters
In a slightly different case, scammers would also use AI tools to generate fake images of dogs from real shelter animals, making it appear as if they are about to be euthanized. Monica Wylie, director of San Jose Animal Care and Services in California, recently told Fox KTVU that her organization received hundreds of phone calls from concerned people begging them not to kill an animal after seeing an AI-generated photo posted online.
In some cases, the images depict the animals with large, exaggerated tears, similar to those of humans. The posts sometimes also ask for monetary donations to supposedly keep the animals alive. However, Wylie notes that the animals behind these calls were never actually candidates for euthanasia.
We were bombarded with call after call,” Wylie told Fox KTVU. This misinformation is harmful. This does a disservice to the public and the community that hosts them.
Related: [No, North Carolina’s wild horses were not wrapped in insulation]
Some of those calls go back to a still-active Facebook group called Saving Shelter Dogs from Euthanasia. The page, which has more than 126,000 followers, was posted multiple times a day for months, with many images appearing to show telltale signs of the AI generation. Overall, the posts appear to be a mix of both authentic and AI-generated content, further blurring the line between what’s real. Although the page appears to primarily direct users to shelters, it also offers a $1 per month subscription option.
Popular science contacted Meta (Facebook’s parent company) to ask about the apparent AI images on the page, but did not hear back. It’s possible that some posts may violate the social media giant’s own rules. Meta AI’s terms of service have a section that explicitly prohibits its users from using AI in a way that could “deceive or mislead others”, for the purposes of fraud or misinformation. Meta did not respond to our request for comment, but the page in question became inaccessible following our investigation.
“Social engineering-related attack scenarios, including deepfake scams like this one, are becoming more common lately,” Sinicki said. “AI is doing for cybercrime what the assembly line did for manufacturing: enabling criminals to mass-produce highly sophisticated, personalized attacks at a scale and speed never before seen. »
How pet owners can protect themselves against scammers
However, there are some steps pet owners can take to protect themselves from scams. Sinicki advises people to be skeptical of messages received from unknown numbers, especially when they create a sense of urgency around prompt payment or immediate action. He also advises breathing and checking information through a separate channel. In this case, that would mean finding the official website of a shelter or veterinarian and calling the phone number listed directly. Finally, and most pressing given the issue at hand, Sinicki advises people to be increasingly skeptical of images or other “evidence” sent by unknown contacts.
“In our new reality, you can no longer trust your eyes or your ears,” he says. “Treat any photo, video or audio clip contained in an unsolicited message as potentially fake. »
The best new PopSci 2025 releases
