Three Types of Bad Actors Every Buyer Needs to Know

01The Three Types of Bad Actors

Understanding the difference between these three categories helps you know what you are dealing with:

• Scammers — they have no cats at all. They steal photos from legitimate breeders, build fake websites, and disappear after receiving a deposit. Pure financial fraud.
• Kitten mills — large-scale operations that treat cats as livestock. Volume is the goal. Health, temperament, and welfare are afterthoughts.
• Profit breeders — they may look legitimate on the surface with websites, registration numbers, and social media. But their decisions are driven by revenue. Queens are overbred, health testing is skipped, and buyers are left without support once the money changes hands.

02How to Unmask a Scammer

Scammers rely on urgency, emotion, and your inability to verify their claims. Here is how to cut through it:

• Reverse image search every photo — drag the kitten photos into Google Images or TinEye. Stolen photos will appear on other sites.
• Demand a live video call showing the kitten in real time — pre-recorded videos can be stolen. A live call cannot be faked.
• Search the phone number and email address — scammers reuse contact info across multiple fake listings.
• Check the domain registration date — a website registered last month claiming 10 years of breeding is a scam.
• Never pay via wire transfer, Zelle, cryptocurrency, or gift cards — these payment methods offer zero buyer protection.

03How to Unmask a Profit Breeder

Profit breeders are the hardest to spot because they often look completely legitimate — websites, registration, contracts, social media. But their decisions are driven by money, not welfare:

• Queens bred every heat cycle with no recovery time — ask directly how many litters each queen has per year.
• No transparency about health screening — they may claim their cats are healthy but cannot speak clearly about what screening they actually perform.
• Kittens always available with no waitlist — ethical breeders plan carefully and have families waiting. Constant availability means volume breeding.
• No interest in screening you as a buyer — a breeder who asks zero questions about your home or lifestyle is treating kittens as inventory.
• No follow-up or lifetime support after the sale — once the money is received, you are on your own.

04How to Unmask a Kitten Mill

Kitten mills often have the most professional-looking operations — which makes them the most dangerous:

• Multiple breeds always available — ethical breeders specialize. Mills diversify to maximize revenue.
• No waitlist — responsible breeders plan litters carefully and have families waiting. Mills always have inventory.
• Kittens shipped anywhere, no questions asked — mills do not screen buyers because every sale is just a transaction.
• Evasive about the number of breeding cats they have — ask directly. A mill will dodge this question.
• No follow-up after sale — once the money is received, you are on your own.

05Your Best Defense

Slow down. The best protection against all three types of bad actors is refusing to be rushed. Take your time, ask hard questions, verify everything independently, and trust your instincts. If something feels off — it probably is. At Empire Maine Coons, we welcome every question and every verification request. We have nothing to hide.