Proving that psychic shenanigans are not bound by any border, multiple people in China say they were duped by unscrupulous online 'animal communicators' who claimed they could contact a departed pet for a price, but then failed to deliver on their promises. According to a local media report, the issue has become a hot topic of conversation on Chinese social media after a woman shared her unfortunate experience with one such self-proclaimed mystic. Identified as Anran, she explained that the trouble began last October when her beloved beagle, Qiqi, passed away. After expressing her sorrow in a series of social media posts, the heartbroken woman was contacted by a mysterious person with an unusual offer.

The stranger, who identified themselves as a psychic named Ling, assured her that she had no reason to be sad, since the souls of animals "are immortal and can be reincarnated." As 'luck' would have it, the mystic informed her, "I have built a chat group for people who lost their ‘fur babies’ and we encourage and comfort each other." Upon joining the online social circle, which boasted over 400 members, Anran was quickly offered the opportunity to reconnect with Qiqi, provided she was willing to pay for the psychic communication. Specifically, the dog's owner forked over around $20 for Ling to ask the animal's spirit five questions and an additional $120 for what was billed as a "reincarnation package."

The latter 'service' promised that Anran would be visited by Qiqi in a dream wherein her precious pooch would reveal the circumstances of its reincarnation so that the two could be reunited. When the dog failed to appear after several weeks, the victim was told she was too emotional about her beagle's passing and needed to strengthen her belief in the 'process.' After Qiqi continued to be absent from her dreams, Anran's concerns were met with her being cast out of the group and blocked by the mystic. Adding insult to injury, when she took a closer look at the five answers that purportedly came from her dog, she discovered that the responses had actually been gleaned from her previous social media posts.

Anran's decision to share her story led to a second individual coming forward with a similar account of being in an online pet reincarnation group, in which he knew of at least 20 people who were duped by the same false promises. As one might imagine, their words of warning to other grieving pet owners sparked considerable discussion on Chinese social media. Some people decried the particularly cruel nature of the scheme, but others were less sympathetic, with one person expressing astonishment that "there are really some people who believe in pet reincarnation!"