Scammers and pet sales
I have noticed on social media and free advertising sites that there has been a massive amount of scam artists selling kittens lately. This is really dis-heartening. It's bad enough when a truly purebred sale goes wrong, but when someone is clearly either selling kittens advertised as one breed they are NOT (The kittens pictured are tabbies NOT Bengals, and not a part of any scam just a cute photo for people to see what pretty non-Bengal tabbies look like), or they are simply professional scammers who take your money and run... luring people in with CUTE kitten pictures, either way it comes down to the fact that there are a LOT of dis-honest people out there who only care about the money and not if they hurt people... or animals... in the process. One of the first I had noticed was a scam on Craig's list where these people were constantly advertising "Bengals" and when you inquire about them they send you what I call the "scammers list"... It is usually a list made up of questions to try to get you feeling like you have to prove yourself to them instead of the other way around, and is ALWAYS written in broken English... I have seen it not only with Cats but with houses for sale or rent and more. The list usually looks something like this...
HI!
Thank you for inquireing about our kats. (Then you get whatever story they are trying to sell you as to why the product is either super cheap or why they can't meet you at said location) Such as: Our Aunt was a cat breeder and has passed away and now we are placing this last litter of kittens to good homes, please tell us;
Where you live?
How many pets you have?
Do you know about these breed?
How did you hear about these breed?
How soon can you give this animal home?
and so on and so on (bad English after bad English)
for approximately ten questions (yes the typos and spelling mistakes are on purpose because you will notice it in the scammers list)
Then as soon as you answer they will tell you all you want to hear...
Thank you so much for your answers... we feel you would be a wonderful home for these animals and would like very much for you to give them a home. As soon as you can we will ship one out to you (the last I saw was from UTAH, but will give you any location away from where you are) Please make payment with shipping costs to....
If it is a real estate scam they will tell you they are the owner and on a Mission with their church to some far off country and as soon as you make the payment they will ship you the key...
If you see this, RUN. The spelling is always bad and the English broken (and if they do use a spell check they are also usually using a translator program that is very poor English and you can tell).
A real Breeder will ask you questions about why you want a cat and your home to make sure they are placing kittens in good homes, however it will be closer to a good conversation or even a phone call rather than "the list" Please be careful with these as they are asking for payments without a cat even being involved and you will loose your money all together.
I personally advertise locally and while I do take deposits on kittens, I always encourage people to come out and see not only the kittens but BOTH parents in person so they know exactly what they are getting.
In the next blog I will discuss those who advertise kittens as being "part bred" when either they have a cat that is part bred but no registration papers OR they may look something SIMILAR to a breed but not even close to related something and the two different types of scams that goes along with that. In the mean time, please be careful.
