How To Spot A Scam

They have kittens/puppies available right away. Often with the click of a button you can “purchase” a kitten/puppy.

IT WILL NEVER BE AND SHOULD NEVER BE THIS EASY. This is a major red flag.

Why this is a bad sign:

1) Reputable breeders screen their new adopters. They find out what type of kitten they want, what lifestyle they have and try to place an appropriate kitten with an appropriate personality with that new family. It is not first come first serve, but what is best for that kitten and that family. A new pet is NOT a grocery item to pull off the shelf and no responsible breeder will ever treat them as such.

2) Anyone selling anything in this way is selling it as a commodity. That’s fine for toiletries, groceries and even clothes. But not for living beings that require years of commitment. It shows already what they care about – not you, not the fake kittens they are “selling”, but the almighty dollar.

Below is an example of a typical template of a scam website offering available kittens. Which red flags mentioned here do you see?

Or how about this one? See them advertising a full grown calico Devon Rex cat as a 12 week old male? Torties can only be female (well over 99%) except in exceedingly RARE genetic instances.

When talking about the breed they make descriptions that in part or in full make no sense. Like describing a Devon as having beautiful rosettes on their coat(the only breed of cat that has rosettes is the Bengal). I've also seen examples like calling them a short legged breed and then in the next paragraph, a long legged breed. Or even more obvious is talking about their long double coat that sheds twice a year(this is a coat description for dogs).

When talking about registries(a governing body of purebred animals and pedigrees), they have been seen use made-up registries, or even say they are registered with the USDA(who doesn’t register cats or dogs or catteries or kennels at all), or even use the wrong type of animal registries(eg: using AKC(American Kennel club - Which deals exclusively with DOGS) as their registry for purebred CATS!

These are OFTEN copy and paste websites. That means that when the scammer sets up a new site for a new breed of cat or dog they change the pictures and a few of the words but ultimately leave the majority of it the same. This means often forgetting to change certain wording, and results in errors like those listed above.

For instance, it appears this site example had copied and pasted from one trying to scam people with Munchkins. Can you see what stands out about their breed description?

Unfortunately most of these scams are not from native English speaking countries. Obviously, other countries certainly can and do have reputable breeders too - you don’t need to speak English to be a reputable breeder. However, almost 100 percent of the time in scam websites or in scam advertisements (Hoobly, Craigslist, Kijiji etc) you will see very poor/weird grammar on these sites as if they have been filtered through google translate. As translators have improved, this is still a common trait amongst scammers, particularly in direct communication (like messages where they don't have time to translate), but is not as frequent as it was before. You can also look for strange pieces of information that don't seem to add up. Take a look at this photo for instance. Saying they have had 5 years of service, with more than 200 "customers". Let's do the math.... that's 40 kittens a year. Devons have an average of 3-4 kittens per litter, which means at least 10 litters a year. Does that seem reasonable? Even if it weren't a clear scam, that is wildly unethical breeding.

Another example of strange information: When the website has many other pictures of random other breeds of cats.... this one below had Maine Coons, Domestic Shorthairs (like below) and British Shorthair on a "Devon Rex" page. Another sign of a copy and paste website complete with stolen pictures for the other breeds they do this with.

There are almost never pictures of parent cats or pedigrees on the website. Not even their registered names.

Sometimes they will send pictures of an adult Devon that they have sourced off the internet somewhere. Sometimes, you can use a reverse image search engine like www.tineye.com , to see if it can find the origin of the picture . You can do this with kitten photos too. Sometimes it it will have a result, but sometimes not, because if you simply take a photo off of Instagram, or crop and edit one that was stolen, it cannot find that.

If you ask to see pedigrees, they typically end the conversation. ANY breeder not willing to discuss your potential new family members pedigree, is a huge red flag, as they are hiding something for some reason. Perhaps it is that they are a scam(no cats, not kittens at all), perhaps it is because they don’t have papers and aren’t actually registered, perhaps there is a name on those papers that isn’t their own(stolen), perhaps the parents listed have known genetic defects with lots of sick kittens and a history of problems. Regardless of the reason, if you ask, you should receive this information.

Use google or large and well established(many thousands of members) breed specific Facebook groups. Many of these posters have keen eyes and can spot both a scam or a bad breeder quickly as well.

Groups like "Nice Crazy Devon People", "Love Devon Rex", or "Purebred Cat Snobs" are all good choices to check with. Avoid groups with generic names like "Devon Rex kittens for Sale Canada/USA" that can be havens for scammers.

These types of "phone/text" apps are great for hiding international calls regardless of where they are from. Often the area code if there is one, does not match where the website lists them as being located.

If they try to get you to pay through Moneygram, or Zule, or as friends and family on Paypal. None of these are traceable or secured and you will have no recourse to recoup your money.

DO NOT SEND MONEY THROUGH THESE SERVICES TO PEOPLE YOU DON'T PERSONALLY KNOW. I cannot stress this enough. Whatever method they are suggesting, search it online to find out what happens in the event someone takes the money fraudulently. Unfortunately almost 100 percent of the time, there is no available recourse through these companies. Some even have specific prohibitions about using their platform to pay for live animals.

Prices such as $300, $800 even $1000 dollars, and SURPRISE they might be having a sale even off of that! Remember the old adage "if it seems too good to be true, it often is.".

Scam or not, anyone who is having a “sale” on a cat or kitten is trading in a commodity. For money only. That is their goal. Period.

On Facebook and on online ads (like Kijiji, Craigslist or Hoobly) when conversing with a scammer, they will give some variation of a strange story, maybe they are a missionary and can’t care for their new pet, maybe their grandmother died or is in hospice and asked them to re-home their picture perfect purebred with loving people and *gasp* you only have to pay for shipping. What luck! Most of us have heard the term, if it sounds too good to be true, it often is. This applies here. It is a hallmark of a scammer.

This is again usually accompanied by poor/strange grammar choices as well.

No reputable breeder of any breed of animal does this. It is a sure fire way to spot a scam.

Not all scammers will do this, but some do, and if they do, there is no more doubt about it. They are not a legitimate breeder.