Just a heads up to anyone searching for kittens at the moment. We feel pretty stupid but we've just been completely taken in by a scammer on Gumtree and lost £200 deposit. They posted an ad including what are - in hindsight - generic kitten pictures that magically seemed to tick all our boxes.
In our haste to satisfy some very eager and impatient children (these were supposed to be therapy animals, in part), we ploughed ahead, transferred money and then realised the address for pick-up didn't match exactly with a real address. Requests for more pictures went unanswered so we reverse-image searched their pictures; they'd been used before on another ad two years ago. After we confronted them over whatsapp they admitted they were a scammer (!) before deleting the messages and telling us the deposit was non-refundable. Result, devasted family.
What we should have done... First up, do a reverse image search on the pictures, especially if they look too professional or generic (perfect backdrops, pin-sharp quality, etc). Our scammer's phone number (which I'll put here, but which might get removed by mods, 07459 861 243) actually turns up on a number of kitten ads in Google's cache, with locations scattered around the South-East so it seems unlikely to be a legitimate business.
Secondly, be very wary of ads that seem too good to be true. We spoke to this guy and he of course assured us they were the right age, sex, healthy, etc., etc., for what we were looking for. Thirdly, don't pay a deposit via bank transfer. Apparently credit cards offer a guarantee against fraud (we don't have one)? And you can challenge paypal payments as well.
Be careful out there!