Avoid Plemons Ranch...its a sale barn scam

[lisalovesdancinghorses]

BEWARE! Plemons Ranch is a scam. Bill Plemons has a very slick website, lots of sale horses for good prices, (well in hind sight, prices were too good to be true in THIS hot market), he answers email promptly and with courtesy, and good grammar. The red flags are:

1. Insists on 40% of sale price in wire transfer to make an appointment to see the horses. Will also take Apple Pay, and give a 10% discount for paying in Cryptocurrency (!).
2. provides routing number that is not from the bank listed.
3. Monies to be sent to the “accountant” who is different from the seller
4. 60 horses available on the site, none of which are photographed with the same background. Description of horses seems like they are each written by different people.
5. In my effort to make an appointment to visit the horses in person, the question of “where is the ranch located:” is always avoided.
   I offered to bring a cashier’s check with me and hand it over in person, and was told that was not acceptable, and that the appointment was now canceled.
   I must credit a local bank employee whose radar went up when I requested the wire transfer and upon searching the routing number she ran into issues. She recommended the cashier’s check, to be given in person, IF I liked the horse after the appointment. I am typically skeptical when horse buying and rule #1 for me is GO MEET THE HORSE. I don’t buy horses I haven’t met in person.
   A search of Scampulse.com turned up a bunch of recent warnings about this guy, and that some of the photos and videos were ripped off from a reputable sale barn. this is not the first time this person has done this scam.
   Bottom line: Dont buy horses from Bill Plemons. Full stop.

[clanter]

@lisalovesdancinghorses

Plemons Ranch

the self admission statement pretty much sums up the operation, this is directly from their web page:

Most of our customers are not experienced horse people and a lot have never owned a horse before

[endlessclimb]

That was easy:

https://www.plemonsranch.com/page8.html

The real horse:

https://mozaunmckibben.com/horse.asp?Id=863&n=Frosty

[endlessclimb]

I sent an email to McKibben performance horses to let them know their photos/descriptions/etc. are being used to scam people out of money. Hopefully they own the rights to the photos at least and can deliver a take down notification.

That said, those prices. WAY too good to be true in this market, and should have been a giant red flag.

[endlessclimb]

Check out the descriptions between the two…

https://www.plemonsranch.com/page44.html

True Luv’s Colors (Theo) - DreamHorse.com Horse ID: 2212976

[Night_Flight]

The reviews page on his site also has red flags: inconsistent names of horses and people, as well as photos that don’t always match the breed or discipline mentioned in the review.

[JenEM]

@endlessclimb

Check out the descriptions between the two…

https://www.plemonsranch.com/page44.html

Barbaro? Seriously?

That buckskin, on the real sale site, looks like an incredibly nice horse.

[endlessclimb]

No kidding, not Barbaro the no-breed horse, BARBARO THE THOROUGHBRED. What a moron!

[Paint_Party]

@endlessclimb

That said, those prices. WAY too good to be true in this market, and should have been a giant red flag.

No kidding! For scammers, they weren’t doing themselves any favors by attaching silly prices to glamour shots of high-dollar performance horses.

And the varying backgrounds (as mentioned upthread) are also ridiculous. That “ranch” is some kind of sprawling spread: from a lush, semi-tropical setting to the dusty desert of the southwest, complete with cactus.

[Spudsmyguy]

I noticed that not one of the horses was over 9 years old. And that background

[Garythesquirrel]

Hey, you get free shipping if you buy three or more horses. What a deal!

Free shipping when you buy 3+ Horses

[splitrockfarmnc]

Well in that case… take my money! I’m a sucker for free shipping.

[rockonxox]

There is another one using McKibben horses as well. This weekend my SO decided that when I told him horses were too expensive went on a search to see for himself (he is a numbers guy always looking for a deal). He was very proud of himself to find this place loyaltyhorsefarm.com . I told him right off the bat it is a scam. I didn’t even think to reverse image search, but sure enough there are definitely some that pulled results. They even pulled the same descriptions… ridiculous.

[endlessclimb]

Yep, another one! Seen at the bottom of the page… HARSES! Get churr HARSES!

[Night_Flight]

@Paint_Party

For scammers, they weren’t doing themselves any favors by attaching silly prices to glamour shots of high-dollar performance horses.

It might work for the beginner/new to horses clientele who they seem to be aiming for, though. Glamour shots that cater to the image of the type of horse such people might dream of owning, combined with glowing reviews of well-matched, well-behaved horses.

If you were new to the horse world, you might have no idea that the horse in the photo is way outside of your budget, but it could be pretty enough to get yourself invested in wanting that one.

[Scribbler]

I went to the scam alert website linked by the OP and a number of people had indeed fallen for the scam in its various names and lost over $5000.

The thing is, this kind of online scam is likely located outside the US. It doesn’t require any physical location in North America because it is all fake. The language sounds like native speaker English and the scammers are clearly familiar with the American horse market, but I expect they are offshore. This may not be their only scam. Once you build a website like this, you can change the names and locales and it’s easy money to play your victims on email and score the occasional $5000 payout.

Like all scams, it relies on lies, but also plays into the target’s naivety, anxiety, and greed or bargain hunting. It includes adding on fees as the scam progresses, and inducing anxiety or FOMO in the target through psychological manipulation.

I watch online Scammer Payback videos and can see similarities with the cases attributed to Plemons Ranch. Of course there’s no Bob Plemons. There’s somebody with an offshore server using a money mule in the US.

[endlessclimb]

I love the “loyalty farms” one. Yes, you pick/train/breed horses that are soooo loyal.

My horses are loyal - until they see a stack of hay and then all bets are off.

[Tarlo_Farm]

@endlessclimb

Check out the descriptions between the two…

https://www.plemonsranch.com/page44.html

https://www.dreamhorse.com/ad/2212976.html

Except Plemons’ Barbaro “ground ties” hahahahahaha!!!

[endlessclimb]

McKibben responded back: “Yes. I am aware. This person has been doing this now for nearly 3 years. I have been in contact with the FBI and several law enforcement agencies across the country. His website is on the FBI watch list. I have no idea why they can’t shut this down. It’s very disheartening to us and been a frustrating issue to deal with.”

[Scribbler]

If the website server is overseas it can be impossible to shut it down. If the scammer is outside American jurisdiction the individuals cant be touched. Otherwise we wouldn’t have the Indian call center scam plague.