Scammers are everywhere and come in all shapes and sizes. Most recently, there's a large influx of online pet scammers and Ragdoll kitten scammers. Many people reach out to us for a kitten after getting scammed, or nearly scammed, elsewhere.
There are two types of scammers that we're covering in this post: the pet scammers with no cats/pets and the pet scammers who are backyard breeders. Read on to learn how to avoid scams below.
Ragdoll Scammers Who Have No Ragdolls at All
These faux-breeders steal online photos (and sometimes videos) of other people's Ragdolls, create websites which post the stolen photos, and offer them up to the general public to purchase.
Tips to Avoid Online Ragdoll Scammers
If you can "add a kitten to a cart," it is very unlikely that the kitten exists. Do not add a Ragdoll kitten to your cart and check-out. You will never see that money again, unfortunately. We do not know any reputable breeders that sell kittens this way.
Ragdoll kittens are not cheap, if the kitten's price is much lower than any other breeder in your neighborhood or state, be very wary.
Avoid clicking on Ragdoll websites from Google Ads. Unfortunately, many online scammers are grabbing people's attention by misusing Google Ads. Don't click and don't purchase a kitten through them.
Scour the website photos. Do all of the photos look just a little off or like every kitten in the "litter" for sale is a different size and photographed in a very different looking environment? These are probably stolen photos from various Ragdoll breeder's Instagrams or websites. Or if they are really lazy, maybe they stole the photos directly off of Google images.
People have stolen our photos before, this is why we put our Ragdoll Princess watermark on all photos that we post on both our website and our Ragdoll Cat Breeder Instagram.
Look for their cattery name up in TICA (see links for that below), if you can't find it, it probably doesn't exist.
Ask to talk to the breeder on the phone, text, or video call. If they won't communicate outside email, stop communicating with them as quickly as you can.
Review their social media account to validate that the kittens and cats posted on their website exist in a more casual environment. Look at their stories and read their comments.
Look for watermarks on their images. Ensure their watermarks match their cattery name.
Ragdoll Scammers Who Are Selling Ragdoll Look-a-Likes
It's pretty simple. Anyone who is selling " Ragdoll kittens" who does not have pedigreed, registered breeding rights to the dam and sire of their litter, are not selling Ragdoll kittens at all. If you're not buying a true Ragdoll kitten, there is no reason to pay the premium price for one. You might as well pick up the sweetest and most cuddly kitten at your local shelter...which will be much more cost effective and saves an innocent life. There are two ways to think about this:
The "breeder" purchased two pet kittens (or more) that has characteristics or looks similar to Ragdolls on Craigslist or a similar site and decided to breed them and claim their litters are Ragdolls.
The "breeder" who purchased two pet quality kittens (or more) from a legitimate, registered breeder with a spay/neuter contract in place stating this is a pet kitten for pet use only, and that they would spay/neuter the kitten in order to receive their TICA paperwork.
Tips to Avoid Ragdoll Look-a-Likes
Search for breeders through cat association websites such as The International Cat Association (TICA) or Cat Fanciers Association (CFA). Here's where you can search Ragdoll breeders on TICA's website which is the association that Ragdoll Princess is affiliated with. You may also search TICA's database for cattery names.
If you can't find the breeder on TICA or CFA, ask the breeder you're working with to show you their cattery registration paperwork and individual registration of the sire and dam of the litter you're interested in buying.
Note: If the paperwork they show you for the sire and/or dam says "NOT FOR SHOW, NOT FOR BREEDING" run, don't walk out of there. They are essentially breeding pet-quality kittens that may have major faults in addition to stealing breeding rights by breeding the pet kittens that they purchased.
Ragdoll Princess spays and neuters our kittens in advance of their take home day. Not only does this ensure kittens we produce are not adding to the overpopulation of homeless kittens and cats, but it also stops backyard breeders in their tracks. This ensures our pets will not be associated with pet scamming operations.
Early spay and neuters are completely safe and benefit our customers by not having to take care of it themselves after take-home. We've found kittens spayed and neutered early recover much faster and are more comfortable than older kittens and adults.
What can you do if you've already been scammed? We would recommend reporting it to your local police as soon as you realize it's happened and report it to the FTC. Here is where you can report it on the FTC's website. Stay safe out there, pet lovers.
Please note: This post was written by Ragdoll Princess. Do not steal or copy our content or photos per copy infringement laws. Thank you!
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