Scammers

Scammers are everywhere these days…they seem to increase by the month if not week!

We put our website together in a manner to attempt to increase confidence.

Things we do to try to help build confidence:

• Consistent backgrounds

• Long Video of each posted kitten

• Information page with relevant tips, etc.

• Phone calls – Often this is very reassuring to people and to us as well

If asked we will be happy to take a picture of the kitten you are interested in with your name written beside it.

What we will not do & why:

• Video calls – Past experience with attempting this has caused us to cease doing this. Things like video recording to attempt to use for scamming another person. This is why now we only put our video where our cattery name is present within the recording. There has also been an experience where the person obviously was interested in something other than a kitten. We may have came up with a method of accomplishing this if you would feel more comfortable with this option; please feel free to inquire.

  
  

• Home Visits – Hard to know where to begin here. 40 years ago a home visitor brought ringworm into our cattery. While holding our kittens they mentioned seeing other kittens earlier that had crusty patches. What a nightmare for us when 3 weeks later the very kittens they handled also developed these patches and we found out it was ringworm! It took about 2 years before we stopped ever seeing that pop back up. We now have learned a lot about this malady and never have it here. Also, no offense to anyone who may be reading this but there are a lot of loony people out there! How could we ever truly know who we are inviting into our home? Also, we found out that in order to have home visits a person is supposed to have business insurance to cover any potential mishaps someone could encounter on your property or inside your home. This is an expensive option. And while there are a lot more incidents I could cite here regarding horrible things that have happed to people who have allowed home visits, including robbery and even murder, I hope you get the point we are making.

Did you know scamming can go both ways?

We have had ones even ask for a picture of our kitten with “their” name beside it and never hear from them again. Most likely when this happens the person simply changed their mind or a spouse, etc. did not go along with getting a kitten. However, on 2 different occasions we later learned that a scammer had been the one asking for this saying their name was the name of the person they were trying to scam! So a breeder can even unwittingly help a scammer out while trying to prove they are not a scammer… This same thing can happen with extra video so breeders should also mark those with something identifying.

We’d like to help

With all the above being said we would also like to attempt to help ones who may land on our website whether they decide to purchase from us or not. We hate seeing anyone get scammed and we hear stories every week (sometimes daily) of people either getting scammed or almost being scammed. Some have lost thousands!

Tips

Facebook – Please look for ones on Facebook with some reviews. Watch their personal page and see interactions they have with others over time. Avoid ones with no previous trail of interaction regarding breeding. I myself do not advertise much on Facebook although I have occasionally as I prefer posting my kittens on our website and speaking to people via text message and phone. Do not jump into making a purchase on a whim. Build your confidence before placing a deposit, etc.

Websites – It used to be that if someone had a website you knew they were legitimate. Scammers operated on websites like Hoobly. Now I wouldn’t be surprised if the scammer websites outnumbered the legitimate ones! There are some things to look for to help but if you ever would like an opinion regarding another website I would be happy to take a look at it and let you know if it is a scammer or legitimate.

Things to watch for on websites:

• Kittens with many different background settings – though a legitimate breeder could also do this; it is very common with scammers due to how they steal pictures from other breeders… often times from ones outside the US to attempt to avoid discovery. Also usually just one pose of each kitten, though a few scammers have at times had 2–3 poses of some kittens, or even more. I have not yet seen a scammer website have video of the kittens as well, but I would not doubt they could start as they can steal those from breeders as well.

  
  

• Wording showing English is not their native language. Someone can obviously be a legitimate breeder and have trouble articulating the English language; however this is very often the case with the scammers’ websites. They will also focus on things that seem strange to many of us. Like saying when shipping they place a huge pile of shredded newspaper and a “pigs ear” in the crate for the kitten to chew on. This is not even allowed by airlines on either of these items.

  
  

• Shipping & Delivery Promises – They often offer unreasonable things in view of shipping like direct flights for everyone when in reality few places can be direct unless you live near an airport that is a “hub” for the airline. Flights for pets are often 2 legs, more than that is not allowed by the airlines. They will say they can deliver to your door and while there are some people out there offering this service you should be able to speak to that person and see some presence of them out there such as them advertising on Facebook with some reviews,