I am not implying that cat breeders are scammers. I am saying that there are fictional cat breeders out there who are scammers. The internet is a particularly suitable area of operation in which to scam people. I am referring to online businesses. It seems there are at least two types of scam. I am sure there are more.
Scammers usually attract people’s attention by selling highly desirable cats such as purebred F1-F3 Savannah cats. These are rare, top end, glamour cats for the rich really. Or even high quality cats that are not wild cat hybrids such as Persians. They will probably use a great picture that is perhaps stolen from a genuine breeder’s website.
The Shipping Scam
In this one the seller of the cat sets up the deal with the customer over the internet. Notably the customer does not visit the breeder. The seller and buyer are a considerable distance from each other and the cat has to be shipped by air. This seems to be quite commonplace these days. There are shipping costs which need to be paid upfront. There may be some sort of insurance charges too. There will always be some sort of upfront charges. That is the key to this sort of scam. The tease is that they are advertising a very expensive and desirable purebred cat at a discount price that is in truth impossible but some people are so keen to adopt a fancy purebred cat, particularly the wild cat hybrids, that they chuck their common sense out of the window (if they had any in the first place) and send some money up front. They never get their cat.
Spotting Scammers
This is not a comprehensive list. My impression is that the scam sellers (selling to Americans) pretend to be Americans living and working in America but are actually Asians living in Asia. Their online advert may use poor English which should be a warning. They may copy text from another breeder. This is because the writers of these adverts can’t write English that well and neither do they know much about cats!
So check for either poor English or check if the website selling the cat is a duplicate page from another site. You can use Copyscape to do that. If you go to the Copyscape home page and paste in the web address of the cat breeder’s webpage Copyscape will tell you where the same words are used on other sites.
Another sign, as mentioned, is that the prices are too low. In respect of the Savannah cat, you can check out prices by going to this page of PoC. Not only will the language be poor (if it is not copied from a genuine breeder’s site) the technical terms will be incorrect too. For instance, the seller might put “F3” meaning third filial with “SBT” (Stud Book Tradition which means F5 in cat breeder language). F3 cannot go together with F5 in this sort of sentence: “We have F3 SBT cats for sale”.
You can check out the claim that they are a “registered breeder” by checking with the cat association in question. So if the scam seller says they are TICA registered, you can go to TICA and check. TICA have a webpage of all the registered breeder names. This is a vast list and does not as I understand it mean that all these names refer to real breeders. It is just a list of registered names but useful nonetheless.
I am told that ASNClassifieds is a site where there are lots of scam cat sellers. There must be tons of others.
The Poor Breeder
There are a number of poor quality cat breeders. They run poor operations. They manage their cats poorly and have little concern for the welfare of their cats. They can present to the world, on the internet, a first class operation using fancy language and great pictures of championship winning show cats etc.
Buyers might be tempted to buy online and agree to the purchased cat being shipped by air. They are not scamming in the conventional way by simply taking money up front without any intention of supplying a cat. They will supply a cat but the cat will be poorly bred and inherently sick. The cat may have irresolvable or untreatable cat health problems. The buyer becomes attached to her cat and pays vast sums to a vet to cure the illness. The whole thing is traumatic for the cat and the buyer. The seller is heartless. At a distance it is difficult or near impossible for the buyer to resolve the matter with the seller if the seller wants to be difficult and obstructive.
What To Do
There is only one completely sure way to avoid these situations. If you are buying a cat you have to visit the breeder. See what is happening, ask questions and collect your cat in person and pay the money at the same time. Check out the breeding cats and the conditions they are living under. Get a decent contract too that satisfactorily deals with cat health issues. This may seem troublesome but it is the best way even if you put aside the possibility of being scammed. A visit to the breeder allows the buyer the chance to meet the cats. Cats choose their human companion it is said. And I tend to agree that on past experience. You have to meet your prospective cat companion before adoption I think.
If the buyer is intent on buying online without visiting the breeder he or she should send no more money in advance than she is prepared to lose without feeling upset.
Please search using the search box at the top of the site. You are bound to find what you are looking for.
Beware of Alexsandra Pixie Bobtails. Total scam! https://www.facebook.com/people/Alexsandra-pixie-bob-kittens/100076346520029/
Hi MM, could you tell me about the nature of the scam?
Has anybody heard of amazing Siamese cattery home. Dayton Tx.
I wish I had done a thorough research before trying to buy a kitten online sight-unseen. Apparently I fell prey to the same breeder mentioned above in a post by Britt. The https://playfulragdollshome.com website with Brent Pellow.
I inquired about one of the kittens and he was very responsive through email. I offered to pick up the kitten in person but he refused saying the coronavirus is a concern which doesn’t make that much sense to me because he would still have to meet with the carrier’s agent if he is shipping the kitten. But I suppose everyone was scared about their health right now so I didn’t question him that much. I sent him the money for the kitten and an additional shipping charge through Zelle as he instructed. Then came the email from his carrier/shipping company. It was full of broken English and asked for additional shipping charges citing Animal Welfare Act requirements. He wanted an extra $2,000 to $3,000. And promised that all but $60 would be refunded once the delivery is complete. That was when the alarm bell went off in my head and I found this website. I tried calling the carrier asking for an explanation and they hung up on me.
Same thing happened to me. Were you able to get your money back?
Mainefield Giant Coons is a scam. Beware anyone out there.
Thanks Kim. If you have more details please provide them in a follow up comment. I can then do an article on it.
Thank you for the excellent article! You helped me avoid what seemed to be a scam. I was taken in by adorable Persian kitty photos and also a photo of a lovely older couple, standing at the threshold of a beautiful house, holding a sweet Persian. A few phone calls and rebuked requests for references, I felt quite certain is was a scam. But I wanted to be sure. I took your advice and used the plagiarism tool and it turns out they pulled the photo of the couple from a legitimate breeder in OH (just off the phone with her) and the adorable kitty photos from another site.
Great, well done for checking. Thanks for sharing, Katie.
New scam out of NJ – website is http://www.gracelandsavannahcats.com/
Name is Daniel instead of George, he was super pushy and tried to get me to go to Walmart to send a money order. I asked if he would meet us half way since we are only 5 hours from him, he told me no but I could come pick up the kittens. I then asked for a picture of the two kittens we were interested in together and he told me to find another breeder, this wont work.
Thanks Amber. I’ll probably write about this soon.
How can a breeder sell f1 savannahs for 950$ including shipping the breeder has a page but wants the money via western union and then they ship the next day to your door , I almost went with it , but I decided it. Was a gamble I didn’t want to take , they keep after me almost everyday , i hope that no one falls for this and sends there money to this site I can give their number , they have a 602name called blue moon and their number 202601is202-601-5258
Thanks a lot. Be careful when buying online – it is so easy to be scammed. This one smells scammy.
Welcome To CFA Cattery Reviews
If you have purchased an expensive pedigree cat or kitten from a *CFA/TICA registered pedigreed cat breeder & you are not satisfied with your purchase & the registered cat breeder refuses to want to deal with you. You have emailed them, called them, the breeder will not answer you whatsoever. But they were quick to take your money that is for sure. You have come to the right site.
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Hi there, BEWARE of https://playfulragdollshome.com !!!! I have been investigating BRENT PELLOW . He is a fake scam artist who states on his webpage under each kitten, that they are TICA certified.That they are all 10 weeks old, has no parents on site, has TWELVE kittens from same litter !!! There were many red flags and so I began snooping. You cant find him anywhere. CHECK OUT HIS WEBSITE. I then found out he started this DOMAIN name on FEB 9,2020 yet he has ten week old kittens!! HE HAS NO KITTENS AT ALL. IT IS ALL FAKE!! Spread the word!!
I have been setting him up and he is not that smart. I said I was interested in a kitten named VICTOR. He emailed me 4 diff pics of this kitten and they were two different ones. He does the whole shipping scam and half price specials etc.. I put these pics into an app I have and these same pics come up under several other scam artist websites. It is the exact room, house, hands holding them and so on. I found out that his phone number is a burner phone.
Hi Britt, I was not as smart as were you, and unfortunately fell prey to Brent Pellow. My grown up daughter just started today an ICU job as a new RN. What s time to start! So, trying to distract her and help her to deal with anxiety due to the situation with Covid-19, I searched for a kitten for her. I came across Playful Ragdolls Home website and everything after that played by the same scenario as for everybody else on this page: I paid money and Brent Pellow disappeared for 3 days. Just few minutes ago I suddenly received reply to my last email about whereabouts of the kitten I purchased, and was told that Brent will get in touch with me tomorrow to provide the shipping information. Since I already know, thank to this page, what to expect next, it will be easier for me to deal with the situation. I also wanted people to know that scammers respond through pl******@se*******.com with information and videos, ask to pay through Zelle App, and the emails they use are: pr*************@gm***.com, br***********@gm***.com. Two names appeared on emails: Brent Pellow and Lesonia (Sonia) Reed. The website is still running!!!
Someone I know adopted a child several years ago. This child was taking from the birth parents because they were deemed unfit parents. We wondered what happened, fearing the worse. We were sad to find out that both birth parents have IQ of around 65. They just weren’t capable of parenthood. Sad… but there is more…
We keep an eye on them via the internet and mostly court records. Turns out the birth parents breed dogs of some kind and than sell them as purebreds. They don’t understand that their dogs are not purebred or why they are not purebred… They have been charged numerous times over the sells of fake purebreds, but they just go back and do it again. They may actually get jail-time on top of the heavy fines. Just sad. My brother has an IQ of about 45. We have always taken care of him and always will. It’s just the way the cards were dealt.
With all that said, I was recently looking over some very large Scottish Fold cat pix from a Russian breeder. I wondered how these kittens could be so big for the breed. Than I saw daddy. They called him a Scottish Fold – Straight, but the face and head shape were all wrong. He was a very handsome cat. He may even have some Scottish Fold in him, but he surely has some else in the mix. Sad, they obviously don’t understand he is not a purebred cat.
So add stupidity and misinformed to the list.