ninth Oct 2025
Studying Time: 3 minutes
Our MoneyMagpie staff is a bunch a animal lovers, with plenty of cats and canine between us. So, we take pet care very significantly – together with ensuring different pet house owners are conscious of the newest scams that focus on our pets (and wallets).
The Rip-off E-mail
One in every of our staff just lately acquired a convincing-looking rip-off electronic mail about their pet’s microchip.
All cats and canine have to be microchipped by regulation. Most at the moment are finished when they’re born, however older pets may have to make sure they’ve one finished to keep away from fines.
You register your microchip particulars with a service – there are a couple of dozen major ones – in case your animal will get misplaced. Your vet can suggest a service should you don’t have one already. It prices round £20-£40 to register your pet.
The rip-off electronic mail says this:
Your Pet’s Microchip is About to Expire
Hey (Your Full Title)!
It is a pleasant reminder despatched to you byTrack A Pet®.
Our data point out that your microchip enrollment for (Pet title), hasexpired.
(Your pet’s) microchip quantity (xxxxx the precise microchip variety of your pet) will quickly show “unregistered animal” on our searchable community.
We’ve these particulars: (MM be aware: These are listed and will likely be appropriate or your previous particulars)
- Microchip quantity
- Pet species
- Pet gender
- Pet title
- Your title
- Registered electronic mail handle
- Your cellphone
- Your handle
To be able to nonetheless be contacted at (your quantity) or to replace your emergency pet keeper contact data for (your pet), please go to the hyperlink beneath.
One very last thing.
You will want (your pet’s) microchip quantity: (their correct quantity) to resume your pet’s microchip enrollment. You possibly can copy and paste your pet’s microchip quantity for accuracy.
This electronic mail will come from a service that calls itself one thing like PetTracing, TrackAPet, PetFinder or related. The identical firm makes use of all kinds of similar-sounding electronic mail addresses and false firm names.
This appears like a really convincing electronic mail. Don’t get caught out!
How one can Spot the Rip-off
There are a number of telltale indicators that it is a rip-off – however it’s an excellent one, so look intently.
- It comes from a service that isn’t the one your pet is registered with
- It contains previous information corresponding to a earlier handle
- Your electronic mail service has flagged it as spam
- The e-mail handle ends in .ai
- The corporate has unfavourable critiques on Trustpilot
- You can’t Google the corporate to search out its web site independently
This electronic mail is so convincing as a result of it contains a lot official details about you and your pet.
Nevertheless, this isn’t due to a knowledge breach. The corporate behind these emails has registered itself as a non-public pet tracing service, which entitles it to entry to the shared database of pet tracing providers.
This implies they will then ship emails to individuals within the hope they fall for the truth that the chip is expiring (they don’t expire), and that they’ll get them to enroll to a one-off or annual cost. Individuals care about their pets and need to ensure they’re protected, so it’s straightforward to focus on weak individuals who don’t need their pet to be unreturned whether it is misplaced – and that’s what these scammers are banking on.
What to Do
In the event you get an electronic mail about your pet’s microchip expiring, ignore it. Pet microchip registrations don’t expire.
If you need peace of thoughts, or you might have signed as much as a pet tracing service that has extra annual charges for extras past misplaced pet tracing, go to the web site of the corporate your pet is registered with. Name them on the cellphone to examine that they haven’t despatched you any emails, and ensure they’ve your up-to-date data.
Report the e-mail to your electronic mail supplier as phishing.
Go away a evaluation on TrustPilot to make sure different individuals don’t get caught out, too.
