People putting the word out about their lost pets are being preyed on and likely cheated out of large sums of money, Minneapolis city officials said Wednesday.

Minneapolis Animal Care and Control (MACC) said scammers are scouring lost-pet posters and websites, then contacting the owners with a story about being an animal control officer who has their missing four-legged companion and then claiming that a large veterinary bill needs to be paid for emergency surgery.

The perpetrators call or text, sometimes “spoofing” a city phone number, according to the agency. They send a link to wire money in an effort to steal thousands of dollars from worried pet owners.

“This scam angers us,” MACC Director Tony Schendel said in a statement. “These scammers are calling people who are in an already vulnerable situation, having lost their pet, and make the experience even worse. We want people to know this is happening so they can report it to us immediately.”

MACC says it has received 30 reports of the scam so far, with likely dozens more that have gone unreported.

Scammers are asking for amounts around $1,500, which Schendel said seems like a realistic veterinary care bill.

“We believe there’s risk for many people to fall for this,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like an outlandish amount.”

Lee Moua said his family’s still-missing three-year-old Shih Tzu, Max, fled from their St. Paul yard amid fireworks on July 3, prompting him to post a lost pet notice on PawBoost.com. Moua said he got a call about a month ago from a man posing as an animal control officer who said Max “had been in an accident and needs surgery.”