Horse Scam Alert! Attention Sellers
Counterfeit Cashiers Checks
A very serious matter has come to our attention and we feel it is our duty to inform our users regarding any type of large-scale fraudulent activity that may be taking place related to the horse industry. We strongly believe in educating everyone to create an environment that is beneficial to both the buyer and the seller.
People selling horses are receiving buyer inquiries from a third party regarding the purchase of a horse from a potential buyer in Nigeria, Africa, London, Hong Kong, and others. This inquiry commonly attempts to arrange the purchase of the horse with a cashiers check covering the price of the horse and shipping. They may also send you a check larger than the purchase price and ask for a refund of the difference.
Unfortunately, the CASHIER'S CHECK IS COUNTERFEIT. This fact is not uncovered until the horse and/or your own money (the difference in the check they send to their victims and the lower sales price of the horse) have been forwarded to the scam artists.
This scam may take various forms including purchasing frozen semen, tack, equipment, using WIRE TRANSFERS, etc. but all of the emails we have seen have various similarities including misspellings, bad English, foreign countries, and making offers for a client or other third party.
EXAMPLE OF SCAM EMAIL:
FIRST CONTACT:-- joe_more20002000@yahoo.com December 2004
Hello seller, Am hoffman by name, interested in purchase of
your (horse) my mode of payment will be by a certified cashier check so
i will like to know the last asking price and the present picture including
the last asking price for it. I will need to have me your phone number
where i can reach you. Hoping to read from you soonest. Thanks
REPLY TO BUYER:
The bottom dollar price is $800, I paid $1200 & have bill of sale.
I don't have a picture today, I can take one in the morning and email it
to you tomorrow....
SECOND CONTACT:
Thanks for the quick comply regarding the sale of the ( bottom),
so am okay with the last price which is $1200 and the condition of the(
bottom). Don't worry about the shipment of the (bottom )have arrange
with a shipping company that will come for the pickup of the (bottom)
from you location. I want you to send the pics of the( bottom ),I want
you to render this help as far as the sale of the (bottom) ,I have a
client who is owing me the amount of$5000 and he will send the check
out to you as the mode of payment , once you have the check of $5000
deduct the funds for the( bottom) and forward the balance of the funds
through western union money transfer to the shipping company that will
come for the pickup and this is the shipper mail worldwideshippingagent_n@outgun.com
I want you to provide me with the information below:
FULL NAME THAT WILL BE ON THE CHECK................
ADDRESS......................
CITY.............
STATE............
ZIP CODE..................
CELL PHONE NUMBER...........
Expecting your urgent response ASAP
MORE EXAMPLES...
www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scam.htm
To protect yourselves and others against this type of activity, it is
important to try and obtain as much information about the buyer as possible.
If you suspect the buyer may be involved in this or similar scams, please
forward any information you can obtain to the following organizations:
For U.S. complaints use the Federal Trade Commission Consumer Complaint Form.
You may also forward suspected scam email directly to: uce@ftc.gov
Internet Fraud Complaint Center http://www.ic3.gov/
Fraud Tips from the IFCC http://www.ic3.gov/preventiontips.aspx#item-9
For Canadian Complaints contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/
If you have received a scammer-response through a NorthTexasEquine ad response, please submit a fraud response to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center.
We have noticed that most of these scams are coming from free web-based email accounts. You can usually report this scam to the email provider by send a copy of the scam email to abuse@[EMAIL-DOMAIN-NAME].com for the email address that is being used by the scammer and the provider may close the account. It may help to visit the website of the email provider by going to www.[EMAIL-DOMAIN-NAME].com where you can look up their abuse policies.
To help you in recognizing these types of scams, we have provided below a list of indicators. They are only guidelines, and as always, should be tempered with common sense.
Big Promises
- Claims such as offering more money than the asking price without an initial conversation regarding the horse are almost always a sure sign of a scam.
- Be careful of any individual who wants to send you more than your asking price.
- Cashiers Cheque (note spelling) for MORE than Your Asking Price. They will send you a (COUNTERFEIT) cashiers check or certified check (usually spelled cheque) and ask you to send the difference to them or their shipper by wire transfer or Western Union.
High Pressure Tactics
- Be wary of individuals asking you to speed up the transaction beyond your comfort range. Again, a legitimate deal probably isn't going to move as fast as your money.
- Don't let yourself be pressured -- think things through.
Requests for Financial Information
- Don't give out any bank information without establishing a comfort level with the buyer or seller.
- Always get something in writing. You should never complete a transaction without first writing down the terms of the deal and have each party sign it. If you can't afford a lawyer to draft up a contract, you still should write down the terms of the deal in plain English and get it signed.
- Any buyer or seller that is hesitant or resists is usually a sure sign of a potential problem.
Remember the old saying
"If it sounds to good to be true, it probably is".
NorthTexasEquine.com would like to thank Equine.com for providing parts of the above information to us in order to protect horse buyers and sellers on both sites.