Savannah Scams

Selling a serval as though it was a Savannah. Reasons this would be done include:
• Both buyer and seller know it’s a serval and the serval is just being brought into an area where the serval is not legal so falsified papers are given. This is done with buyer’s knowledge.
• The person selling the serval as though it is an F1 (first generation offspring) because it can be sold at a much higher price that the Savannah commands rather than the much lesser price of a serval. This would be done without the buyer’s knowledge.
Seller is claiming a cat is a Savannah without papers or proof to back it up. For instance someone selling a long-haired, odd-colored cat saying it was his neighbor’s Savannah. (Note: there are Savannahs that are not the normal coloration that are sold as pets to be neutered but parentage and papers should be available.)
High Percentage scam. This is a combination scam where instead of just selling a serval as a Savannah, a serval has been bred to either a Savannah or domestic cat but because the serval is falsely registered as a Savannah, they claim a special high percentage status for the kittens and charge much more for them. Also allows the wrong generation in show halls to compete against correctly registered Savannahs and the scam can perpetuate into future generations.

Selling cats with genetically impossible coloration for their generation as Savannahs. (I.e. marble or snow kittens sold as F1 generation Savannahs are a genetic impossibility.) The marble pattern and the white-pointed coloration are a recessive color which means that both parents have to be able to pass on the gene. Since servals do not carry domestic cat colors it is impossible for one of the direct offspring of a serval to be marked with a domestic pattern or color. Savannahs, at the first generation level can be brown spotted, black spotted, silver spotted, and a smoke spotted pattern. Some F1’s can have white feet or even some sort of red coloration, but it is because the cat the serval was bred to was a non-permissible coloration, not a genetically impossible coloration.
Co-ownership schemes that never allow the purchaser to gain full ownership or that upon examination it is obvious buyer would be paying a lot more than if the cat was purchased outright elsewhere. Many times this is offered to new people who are interested in the breed and want to get the best cat and possibly think they cannot afford it another way. Often, if a deal like this sounds too good to be true it usually is. To err on the side of caution is much better than to be overcharged for a cat that will never actually be put in your name.
Extremely short guarantee period or unreasonable exclusions on guarantees over and above the industry standard.
Franchises to sell hypo-allergenic cats and/or Ashera cats for an astronomical amount of money that are nothing more than an F2 Savannah with a different name and a higher price tag. (See expose that we helped to research that was printed in San Diego paper, shown elsewhere on this website.)