TOLLAND, Conn. -- A Tolland woman said a company promised to help her find her missing cat, but took her money and did nothing.

Margo Clark said she’s an animal lover. When her cat, Silas, went missing in early 2008, she said she did everything she could think of to find him.

“After a couple days, my husband helped me make up posters and canvas the neighborhood,” she said. “I put an ad on Craigslist, I put an ad in the Courant, just trying to find the cat, because he's very special.”

Shortly after Clark posted the ads online, she said, she got a call from a company that told her heartwarming stories of lost pets they'd found.

A company called me and said they offered a service to find lost pets, she said. Because I was desperate to get this cat back, I took part in the service, she said.

The company, called Petfinder's Alert, is based in Nevada. Clark said they told her that for $59.95, they'd call a 20-block radius around her home. She said she figured it was worth a shot.

“They told me that they had a computer program that offers all the numbers to a neighborhood,” Clark said.

She said they promised to leave a description of the cat and a tip line at every home, and even said their computer program would allow them to call people with unlisted numbers.

“You're really eager to get your pet back and you're grieving and I think you're more susceptible to a scam, if that is what it is,” Clark said.

She said she believes it was a scam, because she's been unable to find a single one of her neighbors who got a call.

“Nobody that I talked to had received a call, and it was discouraging,” she said.

The Channel 3 I-Team visited Clark’s neighborhood and was told by several neighbors that they hadn’t received any calls.

“I'm probably just a two-minute drive from here,” said Danielle Chicoine, of Tolland. “You could cut back through the yards to my house, and I never got a call.”

“I live about a half-mile down the road, and I received no phone calls or letters or anything like that,” said fellow resident Caryl Walker.

To make matters worse, when her credit card bill arrived, she said she found that the company that she believes did nothing had charged her $79.99, $20 more than the amount to which she agreed.

“When I called the company to get it corrected, it was very difficult to get ahold of somebody, and they put me off and they were rude and didn't want to help me out,” Clark said.

The I-Team called Petfinder's Alert at its 800 number, but no one answered. Calls for comment also weren’t returned.

The I-Team also found dozens of complaints online from other consumers who said they lost their pets, paid Petfinders Alert and do not believe their neighbors ever got a call.

Clark said she thinks the company was trolling lost pet ads, and she’s worried someone else will fall victim to the company.

“I understand that people want to get their pets back,” she said. “I was in the same boat. You miss them, but I really think this company is taking advantage.”

Clark said she never found Silas, and she can't help but wonder if she would have, had her neighbors been told she was looking.