Is it any good offering a reward?

[Stillamum3]

My daughter's gorgeous young cat went missing about a month ago. She's publicised it on SM, put up posters around the area, followed up possible sightings, called him at night, with no result. She's now thinking of putting up more posters, this time offering a reward.
Has anyone had experience of this, and was it successful? What should she watch out for, and what should the wording be?

Some insurance companies will pay for a reward. Check the policy.

Toddler It's not paying the reward that bothers us. I was wondering what wording to use to avoid problems or perhaps disputes, and whether anyone had found it worked.

I think there's a risk of attracting scammers who'll ask for payments on pretence of having your cat - possibly even people who will try to blackmail on pretence of having the cat and threatening to harm it. I would be inclined to mount a new campaign without mention of a reward - if someone has taken your cat they are either blissfully unaware he's being looked for, or they know and want to keep him anyway. I do hope you find him.

Thank you Pelleas I had been thinking that genuine "cat people" would help whether there is a reward or not

Yes, I totally agree.

The only thing I did when mine went missing was directly approached groups of teenagers (we have a few!) and said look, this is my cat. You find him, you get X
They were happily searching for him

Did they find him, ClientQ?

Yes, ClientQ that's a good idea, but it's a very rural area, so I don't think there are any groups of teenagers hanging about. She's had a few leads from some very kind people, but unfortunately they haven't led to anything. She's new to the area as well, so the cat can probably not find his way home!

@Pelleas the little brat turned up on his own with a dislocated hip, he had been stuck somewhere! It did help as every time I saw them they would tell me where they had been looking and "still looking for him miss, don't worry"

Oh, the poor chap! I'm glad you found him!

Me too ClientQ

Thank you all for your good advice - I think we'll forget the reward for now.