To the fandom,

Disclaimer: I do not work for and am not a part of FurFlight. I am only a victim of FurFlight.

If you entrusted FurFlight with your money and your tickets, you need to know that you’re likely going to need new travel plans. I’d like to share some important details regarding my recent difficulties with FurFlight and its operating company Canis Vulpes.

In late September of 2018, I had been discussing with Mike Folf some concerns regarding an upcoming payment deadline with Alaska Air. It was represented that he was having a hard time figuring out a way to transfer the money to Alaska Air.

On October 2nd 2018, I was contacted by Mike Folf (the owner of Canis Vulpes) and was told,

“I tried to process FurFlight payments through the CanisVulpes account today and learned the hard way my business account has a daily limit of $10K. All payments need to be done in full by tomorrow so I'm figuring out how to do all this.

I can transfer the funds to the appropriate person in order to do this. Yes, I realize how Sketchy this sounds. Yes, I know I'm stupid for not noticing this issue until now.”

I asked if he had the cash required to cover the payments, he said he did, claiming,

“I could, theoretically, fly to Seattle and dump physical cash onto the Angle Lake HQ.”

I wanted to ensure that the event was successful and that everyone would still make their flights. In doing so I made the mistake of trusting him; I processed $35,631 in airline tickets on two credit cards to cover all of the flights from SEA (Seattle) and SFO (San Francisco) to ORD (Chicago - O’Hare). This payment was made directly with Alaska Air and Mike supplied account information needed so I could process payments to cover the transactions.

On October 9th, using the CanisVulpes business account information provided by Mike Folf, I initiated through my bank two ACH transfers to reimburse the two credit cards used, (one ACH for each credit card used) as Mike Folf had previously directed. It was at this point he fell silent, He did not respond to any messages between the 9th of October and the 21st of October

On October 20th, I realized the payments were returned (rejected) by his bank, and I was also being charged a $27 return check fee.

On October 21st he responded and admitted,

“All I care about is ensuring the flight goes as planned and the public is reassured that we got them covered. I saw this coming in July and tried what I can to remedy, but I am afraid to reach out or call failure with hundreds riding on our backs.“

I requested additional information on the state of FurFlight’s finances to determine whether or not this situation could be salvaged. He sent me additional documentation, which revealed as best I could determine upon casual inspection:



There was no budget to speak of



There was no accounting of how money was spent



The organization took in well in excess of the $35,631 that I paid out for tickets, but there was only around $1,400 remaining (mostly from 2019 sales)



There was no cost accounting per flight, so every flight sold for MFF was likely a money loser out of the box (including a $59 per person ‘amenity package’)



The pricing for the 2019 flights presumes at least 1/4 of flyers will be paying nothing or below cost



That every flight planned for 2019 is a money loser



That money taken in for 2019 will be spent to plug the hole in 2018 flights.



After realizing the extent of this situation over the weekend, I realized that this is not sustainable. I began reaching out to other furs over the weekend to determine the best order of operations to proceed to start unwinding this transaction on the very next business day, which was Monday, October 22.

Currently, I’m out over $35,000. If I’m very lucky, I’ll come out whole. I have disputed the charges and made both the airline and card issuers aware of the details of the fraud. As a result, they may have begun to act to cancel the transaction and the tickets for the 2018 MFF FurFlight date. As this case includes such a large amount of money, on the advice of a lawyer, the police and FBI both were also contacted and informed.

I am making this public statement to make those affected aware as soon as possible. For those who purchased FurFlight 2019 tickets, I highly recommend you reach out to your credit card issuer and request a refund (or use travel insurance if your card has it), as the company that sold you flights is insolvent.

For those who purchased MFF 2018 Flights from FurFlight, funds for those flights have now been frozen. For those who bought tickets, those flights are most likely not going to happen. I’d encourage you to keep watching to see what happens with Canis Vulpes, to be prepared to contact your card issuer, and to be ready to make alternative travel plans for next month on short notice.

Please keep in mind that MFF is NOT the same organization as FurFlight, and that none of this should reflect poorly on MFF or their staff.

It is with great regret that I have to be the bearer of this bad news but as stated above, I felt it important that people have enough notice that they can work to change their plans.



-- Aloha