We’ve all heard stories about scammers that try to steal unsuspecting people’s hard-earned money. Well, this story might be a new low, as a pair of pet sitters from South Paris recently had a run-in with a scammer pretending to be a loving pet owner while mailing fraudulent checks for thousands of dollars.

The mother/daughter team says the scammer tugged at their heartstrings and they decided they weren’t going to let him off easy.

“I figured, the more time he spent on me the less time he had to try to scam somebody else,” Debbie Riley, of South Paris, said about the go-round she had with the internet crook.

Riley didn’t fall for it this time, but she’s a veteran of online scams, having lost her Facebook account to an identity hijacker a few years back. 

She did not keep quiet then either, choosing to instead shine as bright a light as she could on it by sharing that saga with the Sun Journal.

Riley and her daughter, Bethany, run a pet-sitting business as a way to pay for college expenses. 

“It’s something for her to earn a little money,” Riley said in a phone interview. “I am her back-up.”

The two have a business account on the private social networking app Nextdoor for pet and house sitting services.

When someone reached out about moving to South Paris and needing someone to look after their dog who would arrive a day before the family, the exchange sounded like a legitimate inquiry. But there were red flags.

The presumed pup owner told Riley he and his wife were moving to a house on Boulder Avenue in South Paris, but didn’t include a house number.

“He told me they had hired transportation for their dog and I was to take the dog to the house and put him in his kennel before they arrived,” Riley recounted. “He wanted me to pick up some food for their dog and a brush. He sent pictures of the dog food bag, and the dog, Bobby, too.”

The June 30 transaction between Riley and the man — supposedly named Steve Larson — for Bobby the dog seemed to be settled. Until Larson came back and asked if she would facilitate the delivery of some kitchen appliances, which would also precede their arrival.

“He said his wife’s boss would be sending a check,” Riley continued. “I should take my first week’s pay out of it and send payment for them to the appliance store.”

Except, to quote Larson, he instructed Riley that the appliance payment should go to the “electronic store” manager. Another red flag.

A day later, Riley received a check for $4,361.80.

Larson said he needed her to confirm receipt of the check, instructing her to deposit it to her bank account electronically and mail out the appliance payment right away. 

“I told him I received it (Friday) but had to wait until Monday to deposit it, and the funds would be available by Thursday,” she said. “He told me to use my bank app to deposit it for instant processing. And to kindly send him the receipt.”

Hackles raised, Riley claimed she couldn’t do mobile banking. And then Larson started getting pushy. By 10 a.m. that Monday, he texted her: had she been to the bank?

Well, Riley had gone to the bank. And was told Larson’s check was no good. It had been written from a closed business account. 

She reported the situation to the Paris Police Department.

Larson continued to bait Riley: “I was calling and texting you yesterday but you ignored me. Why would you do that,” along with other messages telling her she needed to send $2,000 to the store. He said to send the money using Zelle, and then Apple Pay, then PayPal.

Riley ignored him, only to be greeted with a new message: “Good morning, Debbie. This is not fair. You can’t be treating us this way. You’re treating us with utmost disrespect and levity.”

Larson was not ready to give up on his mark. So, Riley strung him along a little longer: lost passwords, unavailable balances, accounting linking troubles. 

He suggested she mail a check to an address in Hayward, California, which Riley easily discovered was the real address for a 68-year-old woman. He told her to overnight the payment there, and to buy a money order at Walmart.

Experts say a sense of urgency, especially when it comes to transferring money, is a red flag and that people should be skeptical of unusual-seeming methods of transferring money, like using gift cards, wire transfers or cryptocurrency.

With every excuse she threw out, Larson had a solution that involved her sending him money. 

When Riley finally stopped responding he switched gears and sent her a new check for $4,361.80. Drawn from a different company, in a different state, with yet another new return address.

A few days later she received a new priority mail package from Larson, this one empty but with a completely different return address.

“This one was from Salem, Ohio,” Riley said. “But it was a blank, empty envelope. And then I thought, geez, well, maybe he’s going to try to send me poison or something. He got pretty mad.”

She dropped the new packages off with the Paris Police Department, who filed a report with the FBI. 

Riley then decided to share her cautionary tale with the Advertiser Democrat.

“They’re targeting people, and if they’re giving people’s actual names and addresses?” she said. “They’ve got to be involved. It’s ridiculous.”

She urged people to be extra cautious about who they trust, especially when it comes to money transactions.

“These people, they have such believable stories to get your trust and then they scam you,” Riley said. “There are a lot of people who do fall for it.”

Have you or a loved one been the victim of an online scam? We want to hear your story. Contact us at [email protected] if you’d like to talk.