LAKELAND, Fla. — Saving four-legged lives costs money, and Jennifer Rader’s Lakeland-based rescue, Saving Paws Rescue of Florida, saves about 200 of those lives a year.
So, it needs a lot of money to carry out that life-saving mission.
“That’s an understatement,” Rader said. “These buildings are pretty much built with my — or bought with my retirement money.”
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Every dollar donated to this rescue matters, too.
“We could not do this without donations,” Rader said.
That’s why Rader is currently shocked and angered.
Recently, a rescue volunteer discovered someone was impersonating Saving Paws Rescue on Venmo, an app for sending and receiving money.
A scammer created a Venmo account that looks almost identical to the rescue’s Venmo page, hoping to trick and steal from would-be donors.
The decoy account uses the nonprofit’s logo and name. The only difference is an underscore added to the end of the username.
“Just looking at the minor modification that they made, I wouldn’t have even picked up on it,” she said of the decoy account.
Saving Paws Rescue isn’t the only rescue hit with Venmo fraud. At least two others in Polk County are also targeted: Polk County Bully Project in Lakeland and Crossed Paws Pet Rescue in Winter Haven.
A quick Google search reveals the scam is being seen across the county in places like Hoover, AL; Polson, MT; Grapeville, PA; and Kenmore, NY.
According to Angie Lorio, co-founder of the Polk County Bully Project, a partner rescue in New Hampshire is also targeted.
“They seem to be targeting rescues and shelters right now across the country,” Rader said.
Luckily, Rader was able to warn her regular donors, but now, she’s trying to warn others — including other animal rescues — so they can be aware and alert of the potentially costly scam.
“We work hard for every dollar, and so just even taking $100 from us would hurt,” Rader said. “To take money from a rescue and a shelter is a pretty lowlife person in my opinion.”
ABC Action News reached out to Venmo’s parent company, PayPal, to see what rescues can do, if anything, to remove the decoy accounts. So far, PayPal has not responded to the inquiry.
The legitimate Venmo usernames of the impacted Polk County rescues are as follows:
- Saving Paws Rescue of Florida: @savingpawsrescueflorida
- Polk County Bully Project: @Polkcountybullyproject
- Crossed Paws Pet Rescue: @Crossedpaws2018
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