How To Avoid Pet Scammers

• Beware of how the company request payments. Do not use MoneyGram and Western Union to send payments. These tend to have weak dispute policies which can block your chances of getting your money back. Use payment methods that have some type of guarantee like credit cards or PayPal. And if you send payment through PayPal or Venmo make sure it is sent as a business transaction and not as a “friends and family” transaction. A Scammer may ask for you to send it as a friends and family transaction so that it is hard for you to dispute if the seller does not stick to the deal.

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• Beware of vague contact information. Usually scammers will not have his/her name or address or phone number anywhere on their website. You will only be able to contact them through email. They are hiding their contact information to prevent access to their identity.

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• Beware If the Pet price is too low. If the price seems to good to be true, it is usually a scam. Compare the price of the kitten to the industry standard. If the kitten is way under priced then the seller will ether ship you a mixed or wrong pet or not even ship one at all! The price serves as an attention grabber.

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• Beware if the seller will not allow you to see the kitten in person or via video chat.  If the seller insist that you must purchase the kitten before you see the kitten it is probably a scam and the seller has copies of a legitimate catteries pictures and not the actual kitten. The seller will take your money and you will never hear from them again.

 

 

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    How To Verify Legitimate Catteries

 

• Check the sellers website for a pet dealers license. Then, check the website of the issuing state to make sure the information is matching.

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• Check the BBB, better business bureau website to see if the seller is registered.  You can also check their reviews and ratings. The BBB has a process to verify a business before they are registered. So they are usually no scammer registered with the BBB. 

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• Check and see if the seller is registered with Google. Beware, the seller may have fake reviews, so try to look at the amount of reviews and the information they are providing. See if any reviews also include pictures of the pet with their new family. 

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•  Check to see if the seller has an account with social medias like Instagram or Facebook? You can also check their pictures and posts and subscribers to get an inside view!

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• Most Important! Ask the seller to see the kitten in person or via video chat. Most scammers pretend to be breeders and don’t actually have possession of the pets that they are fraudulently selling.

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