Sunshine Chinchillas

Does it sound too good to be true? 

• If the animal(s) are priced extremely low or high but boast about being high quality without providing credentials, this is a red flag.​

Are they pushy, aggressive, or demand payment immediately?​

• Scammers want your money and they want it quickly. If you get a bad feeling or feel pressured, go with your gut. For our adoptions, we tend to screen people through our questionnaire, then provide information on the next steps which does include a deposit. However, we never push or demand someone pay and purchase an animal.​

Do they ask for full payment?​

• Most breeders ask for a deposit, sometimes a set percentage or unique to the animal or situation, while others may do a verbal hold until adoption. At Sunshine Chinchillas, we ask for small deposit with the remainder due in cash on adoption day. We never accept full payment prior to an adopter seeing the animal(s) in person.​

Is there information that isn't relevant to chinchillas?

• Many scam pages state the purchase price includes rabies vaccination, microchipping, deworming, and/or spaying/neutering. Chinchillas do not require vaccines or deworming, are rarely spayed/neutered due to risks, and never microchipped as they do not roam outside. 

Are their photos easily found when googling "chinchilla", or have you seen them posted somewhere else?

• Scammers very frequently steal photos anywhere from the internet; usually from popular or easy to find chinchilla influencers, or breeders/rescues.

Do their photos have a watermark?​

• We always watermark our photos with just our name, Sunshine Chinchillas, in visible white text. Although its easy to edit these and remove the watermark, most scammers don't take the time to do so. If you see a watermark, check to see if it matches the page name.

Are the provided photos inconsistent?

• Scammers use photos from multiple places, often with different backgrounds, quality, and animals. Does the page post the same animal over and over with a different description? Is the background or quality different in each advertisement? Are some photos watermarked but others are not? Most breeders/rescues have unique ways of taking photos of their available chinchillas; an example, we try to always have bright, clear photos or videos that are sometimes taken on tile, in front of a light colored wall (videos we post of TikTok/Instagram), or on a shelf. There are exceptions to this, but generally that is how we take our photos and videos.​

Are there a lot of typos, numerous hashtags, or a long list of keywords?​

• Using a large amount of hashtags or keywords up the scammers chance of their posts being seen by adopters googling or searching these terms. Oftentimes, there are typos and poor grammar to go along with this. ​

How old is the page or group?​

• These scam groups are frequently taken down or abandoned once they are reported. If the group or page was created within the past few months or days, this can be a red flag if paired with the above examples. ​

Does the group post multiple times a day within a short period of time?

• Remember, these scammers are looking to make a quick dollar. They will churn out as many post/ads as they can to catch someone's attention.​

Check the comments, are there other people calling the posts a scam or fake?

• When we can catch it, we try to ​report or comment on pages impersonating us. Other breeders/rescues will do this as well if they can. There also may be other individuals letting others know that its a fake or that they were scammed by the page.

Does it look like it was written by a chatbot or the photos look AI generated?

• AI is becoming harder and harder to discern from real content. If something looks off or not real, it could be fake.​