20 ways to tell that a Maine Coon online seller is a scammer

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In order to avoid being scammed it is recommended that you watch out for the following 20 points when wishing to buy a Maine Coon cat or any other purebred cat online:

20 ways to tell that a Maine Coon online seller is a scammer
20 ways to tell that a Maine Coon online seller is a scammer. MC kittens. Photo: Pinterest.

  1. Text only advertising;
  2. Seller not answering basic level questions regarding pedigree i.e. parentage, including health and general information about caring for a Maine Coon;
  3. Not telling you the name of the cattery and where it is or providing any detailed information about their breeding policies et cetera;
  4. Not willing to show photographs of the cats;
  5. Demanding high value deposits upfront;
  6. Unwilling to offer a video call to allow for a face-to-face conversation and to have sight of the cats;
  7. Sending just one photograph of a kitten and no more;
  8. Refusing to send any more than one photograph of a kitten despite frequent requests to do so;
  9. Providing repetitive and similar photographs or duplicate photographs of a cat or kitten when requesting to see pictures;
  10. Any photograph sent should be checked to see whether there are any giveaway signs on it that it is not genuine such as poor image quality or text which indicates the photo has been photocopied;
  11. Unwilling to provide contact information such as address, phone number and email;
  12. Unwilling to make themselves personally available;
  13. Asking you for more and more money upfront;
  14. Using the words "order now" and "free shipping";
  15. Unable to provide details of their registration with one of the well-known cat associations to which they should be affiliated in order to register their cats which allows them to be described as purebred;
  16. Unable to provide registration documents for the kittens;
  17. Unable to provide any evidence that the cat or kitten is a pedigree cat with registration papers;
  18. Unable to provide vaccination certificates and certificates of spaying and neutering;
  19. No mention of a contract which in my view is essential in order to ensure that the transaction works out properly and that the purchaser has recourse to compensation. Although you can't sue somebody if they disappear into the ether so the above points are also critical.
  20. Conclusion: being generally evasive and asking for high value deposits are the most obvious signs. They want payments upfront at which point their become uncontactable. And that's painful.

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