Microchips are key to reuniting lost pets with their families, but they only work if they’re correctly enrolled with a microchip registry. Unfortunately, over 40 percent of all microchips are unregistered because of faulty enrollment. A big reason for this is scams involving microchip registries.

Legitimate microchip registration is never free, so don’t fall for free online registration. These so-called services are scams to harvest and sell your data or target you with junk emails. They can even enable pet theft. The best way to avoid this is to enroll your pet’s microchip with the company that distributed the chip.

Another scam asks to you to pay for re-registration before your pet’s service expires. Microchip registrations for pets never expire, so don’t fall for this one either.