Internet Safety Tips – Beware of ONLINE SCAMMERS & POP-UP CAT BREEDERS!⚠️

Buying a healthy Persian or Himalayan kitten has become almost impossible because of online scammers and pop-up breeders. You need to know and remember that there ARE MORE ONLINE SCAMMERS than ACTUAL CAT BREEDERS!!!!

And never think you are buying a Persian Kitten for $500 – $1200 on the Internet and having it shipped to you! If you believe you have found one that cheap, the only way you hand over the money is if you meet the breeder in person, period! We receive daily phone calls and emails from people whose fake websites and Facebook pages have scammed them. The highest ratio of scammers is on Facebook because it takes little effort to toss together a Facebook account. When we hear a Facebook online scammer has scammed that person or received a kitten that was not the cat in the photo, it’s hard to feel sorry for them because it’s like, “What were you thinking?” You may have been trying to buy a pet on Craigslist.

How can I be sure the person I am talking to is honest and genuine? Below are some tips and tricks to help you find your furry family member.

1.) NEVER buy a cat off of Facebook! The chance of you getting the kitty in the picture is slim. Genuine businesses have websites, not just Facebook accounts. Not to mention most of the people posting “kittens for sale” on Facebook are pop-up cat breeders doing it as a side hustle and know nothing at all about the cats they are breeding (regardless of what they tell you), so don’t expect that pretty little kitty to live much past 3 or 4 years but do plan on spending a small fortune in vet bills keeping he/she semi-healthy. Oh, we have heard horror stories about people buying Facebook cats.

2.) “Breeders/Scammers” can toss together a quick little 5-10 page website with little to no experience, then say, “We have been breeding cats for 20+ years”. How can you tell if they are genuine breeders and or experienced breeders? Could you check the age of the website? Here is the link to a website age checker. Now, perhaps they have been in business many more years than their website age reflects, but it is never a good idea to move forward with a website that is a few years old when the breeder claims to have been in business for decades. That’s just old fashion common sense. Not only do you stand a much better chance of being scammed, but there are so many pop-up breeders (here today, gone tomorrow) selling sick kittens and breeding cats with zero genetic testing your chances of getting a cat that will generate substantial vet bills and most likely not live to see five years old is increased tremendously.

3.) Is the business BBB-accredited? The Better Business Bureau is the world’s oldest and largest resource library. Go to the BBB website and see if that “business/cat breeder” is an accredited business member. If not, I would steer clear of them. They need trustworthy accreditation to back their business or even verify that they are who they say they are. (Yes, we are a BBB-accredited business with an A+ rating and have been in business for 35+ years)

4.) Trust your gut feeling if something feels off to you. Could you stop communicating with the individual right away? Online pet scammers are usually very pushy and would like you to move forward with the purchase as soon as possible. Many of them even offer to bring the pet directly to your home. Why would you want a stranger off the Internet at your house? You’re just asking for trouble.

5.) Never, ever trust paid advertisements! If the cattery were truly long-standing and legitimate, it would pull up naturally in search engines because of its longevity. Paid advertisements are always questionable but especially true when involving animals.