Animal rescue

My dog got lost and I posted a notice on a Facebook page to try to find him. Later, a woman contacted me via Messenger and told me she had found my dog and had handed him over to an alleged animal rescue group. She gave me a phone number so I could get in touch with them. I contacted that number on WhatsApp and they assured me they indeed had my dog. They even sent me photos and copies of their supposed credentials to gain my trust. They also sent me a photo of the dog, which I later realized had been generated or manipulated using artificial intelligence. They asked me for money to deliver the dog to me and assured me they would bring him themselves. Trusting that they really had him, I made the deposit they requested. As soon as they received the money, they deleted the conversations, stopped responding to me, and disappeared. I finally confirmed that they never had my dog and that it was all a scam to get money. It was clearly a scam taking advantage of the distress and worry of a person searching for their lost pet.