Thought of posting this in general parrot info or something but I’m not sure if it qualifies. Ok the story: I was looking at breeders, adoptions and birds for sale in general and stumbled upon a website caled birdbreeders.com or something like that, anyway, it was basically you click the species, age you want and gender you want and they claim to ship them to you. Few things I noticed off the bat: they have very cheep prices for golden conures and blue crowns (probably other ones too but I didn’t look to deep into it), they don’t have payments like MasterCard or PayPal… instead they have something called Zelle? Zealle? Something like that. They are from the USA, Florida but apparently ship to my country, Australia, which, in case you don’t know it’s illegal to ship or import birds to Australia because of our tight invasive laws, my local vet did confirm this. So I googled to see whether they were legit, and i found a website called scampulse with a bunch of reviews of the place and how it was a scam. So yeah, luckily didn’t pay anything, (I wasn’t getting a bird just looking but if I was I still wouldn’t have payed because it was a pretty clear scam), but I did see someone else in my country had bought a bird and I feel pretty bad for them 
somethings I plan do when getting a bird (you can take some advice and leave it as you choose):
-Try looking at adoptions first off, if not a breeder you know or have used before
-Make sure its near me so I can meet it, make sure it’s real before paying anything. Try not to hold them because those often cannot be refunded
-Ask questions you already know about the bird (my dad taught me that you ask questions you know the answer to to someone you don’t know, to see if they lie or not (maybe like: a species specific question, or if they are desexed, if they say yes to that it’s very likely to be a lie), if they lie then they are most likely not trust worthy), then if they aren’t lying, start asking questions you don’t know the answer to, things like: is the bird dna sexed? is it male or female? What have you fed it? (I suggest looking for reputable handraising formulas like neocare, and not seeds as they don’t carry the proper amount of nutritional requirements a baby needs) is it handraised? If not what did you feed the parents? Did or do you plan to clip it’s wings? (I suggest not getting a birds wings clipped as it doesnt stop them from flying, just makes it harder. if it does stop them from flying they most likely have been cut too far)
-Ask to see the condition of the parents, babies and even other birds, some breeders may not be upfront or honest about conditions of the mum & dad, or some might and it might be a very bad living condition that they don’t know is bad
somethings I plan do when getting a bird (you can take some advice and leave it as you choose):
-Try looking at adoptions first off, if not a breeder you know or have used before
-Make sure its near me so I can meet it, make sure it’s real before paying anything. Try not to hold them because those often cannot be refunded
-Ask questions you already know about the bird (my dad taught me that you ask questions you know the answer to to someone you don’t know, to see if they lie or not (maybe like: a species specific question, or if they are desexed, if they say yes to that it’s very likely to be a lie), if they lie then they are most likely not trust worthy), then if they aren’t lying, start asking questions you don’t know the answer to, things like: is the bird dna sexed? is it male or female? What have you fed it? (I suggest looking for reputable handraising formulas like neocare, and not seeds as they don’t carry the proper amount of nutritional requirements a baby needs) is it handraised? If not what did you feed the parents? Did or do you plan to clip it’s wings? (I suggest not getting a birds wings clipped as it doesnt stop them from flying, just makes it harder. if it does stop them from flying they most likely have been cut too far)
-Ask to see the condition of the parents, babies and even other birds, some breeders may not be upfront or honest about conditions of the mum & dad, or some might and it might be a very bad living condition that they don’t know is bad
