Description

I fell for a scam while attempting to grant my cat with a companion. I’m not a typically gullible person, I hate that I fell for this scam. I spent $750 to buy a kitten from a site I had assumed was a legitimate cattery. The site itself made me feel comfortable with my purchase, but also a bit nervous that this option was too good to be true. In this case it was. It is incredibly upsetting that people are now in the business of scamming individuals out of money for a pet companion. After investigating myself with a bunch of reverse google image searches, my heart dropped. Whoever these people are, have a very in-depth scam in the works. They use actual photographs of kittens, cats, testimonials and courier services that they are able to tweak the contact information for. I have personally found the original pictures of a majority of these “kittens available” “our cattery” “our testimonials.” Below is all the information I have gathered myself about this “cattery” as well as the “courier” service they apparently use. I had initially discovered this “cattery” on 04/14/23 while looking for available Siberian Kittens. I have always adopted my cats from shelters, this is the one time I decided I’d buy a kitten. I started my inquiry about a specific Lynx Point Siberian Kitten named Thor. He was adorable, the emails back and forth provided more pictures and even a video about this supposed purchasable kitten. I initially had no reason to question the authenticity of this cattery, they had asked the proper questions about cat ownership. I eagerly responded with my over 20 years of cat ownership experience. This cattery then responded that I had been approved based on my answers to their questions. Again, I was ecstatic. The person that I was in contact with said that Zelle was the way they took their payments. I use Zelle regularly for sending money to friends and family. It wasn’t until I was in the process of sending the money that Zelle wanted to verify who I would be sending the money to. I disregarded the question of whether or not the person I was sending money to was a legitimate company because, again, I was ecstatic to receive this kitten. I hit send without hesitation. I thought I was lucky to find this small cattery that was able to provide this kitten to me. The person I was in contact with then asked how soon I would like to receive the proposed kitten. I set up a Sunday delivery after questioning the health and safety of the kitten during its travels. The individual I was speaking to via email, guaranteed the health and safety of the kitten and assured me the courier service would contact me the following day (Saturday March 15th) I had mentioned to this individual that I do not answer phone calls from numbers I do not know and verified where the number would be originating from. This individual mentioned the courier service would be an Oklahoma area code, no further information. I personally do not know Oklahoma area codes off the top of my head, this is where my questions about the authenticity of this cattery started to take over. From this point on, my enthusiasm about the possibility of receiving a new kitten slowly faded. I have found many pictures from this “cattery” to be linked to various other websites which include other legitimate catteries, pet grooming services and articles about pets. My last communication with this “cattery” was on 03/17/2024 at 5:53 p.m. emailing the initial contact about all of the information I had found to discredit them. To this day 03/21/24, I have yet to receive a response from that contact. On 03/18/24 I received an email from “Coming 2 U Pets Courier Service” initiating the delivery of this kitten. Again, this was the following morning after emailing the initial contact that I had discovered the scam that they were involved in. They had a lengthy email that listed an individual “Linda” who I had never had any contact with. There was never any last name, no physical address other than city and zip code. Looking into this company and the logo that was displayed at the top of the email, I looked up the real company. The email address I received from this “company” was [email protected] The actual email address from this company is [email protected] I have already reached out to this company to let them know someone is using their name, logo and services to fulfill their scam. The phone number they gave me was an Ohio based area code, even though the initial contact confirmed it would be an Oklahoma based area code. Red flags all around. I have also reached out to the catteries that had photos stolen from this site. I know I will never get my money back, I just hope nobody ever falls for this scam. It breaks my heart that this is what people are doing nowadays.