A suspicious situation

britishshorts

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As I cannot find a British Shorthair breeder in my area, I have been forced to resort to finding one online. I have gone through many breeders but I have just recently fallen in love at first site with a kitty. The cat is in my price range and has the cutest looking face I have seen in a while. The trouble is that - being the paranoid person I am - I have done some google research on the breeder of the cat and uncovered some odd things. For one, a few photos of the cats she lists as her sires and dams actually belong to a totally different cattery! I cannot find any evidence that the kitten pictures have been stolen, however, so it makes me wonder if this is just some odd practice she took up as a newbie breeder to try to woo in interest in her cattery. The trouble is, the photos aren't the only thing she has ripped off... I visited the website of the cattery she found her pictures on to discover that she lifted whole blocks of text (her FAQ is word for word from the other cattery, for example). 

Being in love with the cat, I have myself wondering if perhaps this isn't a scam but that there is just some misunderstanding. She says she takes PayPal and Interac which are traceable and so that kind of inspires my confidence that this cattery is legitimate. This is my first time purchasing a cat on my own so I will admit that I am not very knowledgable about this sort of thing.

I thought I'd post this here to see what other, more experienced cat people, think. Should I still purchase the cat? What would you do in my situation?
 

GemsGem

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Right the dam and sires that she owns might not have been bred by her. She probably brought them to breed from. This means they will have the cattery name of person that actually bred them not her own cattery name because she did not breed them.
 

GemsGem

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One piece of advice I will give you is if something does not feel right walk away. You will save yourself a lot of future heart ache. Not matter how cute the kitten is.
Trust your instinct and gut feeling. If something does not feel right, it's probably because its not. Even if your not sure what it is
 
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britishshorts

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I just did a bit more investigating. Their kittens are photographed on the exact same background (a very distinct furry material) that the cattery they are ripping off uses. I think this proves to me that this is a scam. 

Evidence:

View media item 198010
Should I inform the other cattery that someone is trying to scam people using their cats and information?
 
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britishshorts

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Thank you for your reply! I think from now on I'm going to stick to catteries that have good word of mouth.
 

GemsGem

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That does seem odd. It could just be coincidence but hmmm.........HMMMM It does make you wonder doesn't it
 

Willowy

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Purebred puppy and kitten scams are extremely common. A friend of mine nearly got taken on a puppy scam. Personally, I'd be very iffy about buying from any breeder I couldn't visit (besides scams, it could be a kitten mill/broker or other bad situation), unless it was someone I already knew and trusted. But if you find a cattery that has their health testing listed, has championships and everything under their name, it's probably OK.

If you really want to pursue this kitten, ask for pictures/scans of the kitten's and the kitten's parents' registration papers, and for their vet's name and phone number (and Google/reverse directory to confirm it's a real vet's office and not their friend's house!). Some vets won't tell you a lot, but at least to confirm that they in fact do own purebred cats and they're in generally good health. If they won't give you those things I would run.
 

denice

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The pictures were the big tip off for me that something wasn't right.   I know each country is different but at least here in the U.S. the different cattery names on her breeders isn't  unusual.  Actually I think it might be a good thing if she has some different names, it would indicate a wide gene pool.  Here anyway I have seen catteries co-owning some of their breeding cats as well.  Often when that is done they will check with each other when someone has very specific requests for a kitten.
 
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