WARNING: Fraudulent Horse Classified Ads

[tveley]

I posted an ad on Yard & Groom yesterday for a position open at my farm. I have had tremendous luck getting quality people from this site. Later in the day when I logged onto the site and was on the Y&G home screen, much to my surprise on the right side of the page under the “Latest Horse Classifieds” section, I saw brand new listings for six of my young horses that I have currently listed for sale on another site. Neither I, nor any of my staff, have ever listed any of my horses for sale on Y&G.

These same horses are currently listed (by us) on Warmbloods-For-Sale.com and the copy for the Y&G ads, including pedigrees and video links, were taken directly from those ads. They could not take the photo files off my ads, so there were no photos attached to the hijacked ads, even though Y&G allows up to 10 color photos per ad to be uploaded without charge.

I had one of my employees respond to one of the Y&G horse ads using her personal email account asking for more information, just to see what happened. Of course I never received anything in my email. I next had the same employee respond to the employment ad listing. I got an immediate message in my email inbox.

I then called Y&G and reported the fraudulent ads which have now been removed. They were very helpful and after checking the account linked to the ads they said someone had registered for a seller account using my correct name and address, phone number, link to my website etc. (which they likely got off my website), but used another email address to be used for all inquiries and responses from interested buyers.

I am certain I am not the only person and Y&G is not the only site that this has happened to, so you might be wise to check other sites occasionally if you have ads posted for selling your horses or other expensive equipment. I know I will!

[Laurierace]

Maybe I am being dumb here but I don’t get how this would help a scammer. They obviously don’t have the horses themselves to sell. Bait and switch? Thanks for the heads up anyway.

[tveley]

Apparently the scammers pretend to be the owners and answer the responses to the ads. After they get someone interested and ready to buy, they ask for a large deposit to “hold” the horse or full payment from the interested buyer, sent to a bank account someplace (probably at a “great” price, likely much less than the advertised price), with a promise to arrange shipment of the horse. After the payment is received the scammer disappears.

The horse’s true owner is totally not aware of any of this, so obviously the owner is not going to ship a horse to someone they do not know anything about, nor will they ever see a dime of the proceeds from the fraudulent “sale”. When the horse does not magically appear for the “buyer” as promised, the scammed person will naturally want to know what happened. Since the scammer is long gone and will not be returning calls or emails, the “buyer” will have to try other means of contact.

All the other contact information in the ads is legitimate and goes back to the true owner, so the scammed person contacts the true owner to complain. Neither true owner or “buyer” discovers what has happened until too late. The scammer is the only one to win. The “buyer” is out the money and the owner is made to look bad.

[TrinitySporthorses]

Yikes :eek:
Thanks for the warning.

[OverandOnward]

Using photographs of attractive items that the “seller” doesn’t own in a sales ad is happening in any number of internet sites. This is one of the reasons that buyer protection is so important on ebay and other sites with unknown sellers - a way to get your money back if it is a scam. Not just horses, it can be anything at all - clothing; furniture; collectables; etc.

If no buyer protection is available, and you don’t know the seller, find a way to verify that they actually have the item. Some prospective buyers have asked sellers to take a photograph of the buyer’s username on a card held in front of the item (and of course you must be adept at identifying photoshop’ed photos.) Might be other, better ideas. Doesn’t matter if it is a reputable seller - as in this case, the name may be hijacked by a scammer.

The scammer is counting on certain things: they are unknown, so doing something about it afterwards is almost impossible; the item is geographically too far for in-person examination before the sale; buyers will move too fast and without proper verification when they have the fever to buy something nice at an excellent price.

Please note: to make these scams successful requires the buyer to fail to exercise thorough caution. Buyers don’t know … or they throw caution to the winds when they want something badly and don’t think they will see it at such a low price again.

[tveley]

I am really lucky I happened to log on when I did. Y&G only shows the most recent 5 or 6 ads on the home page, you actually have to click on another link to see the complete list of all the recently placed ads. Had I waited a day or so, I probably would not have noticed my horses listed on Y&G since I am not shopping for any horses and would never have clicked on the link to see the expanded list of horses for sale.

Hopefully my fortunate timing to quickly discover the fraud and this warning will save many people time, money and heartache. I have some REALLY nice horses for sale and the response to my legitimate ads have been great. I have no doubt that if I was a scammer and I agreed to drop my asking prices by 1/3 to 1/2, I could sell these horses in a heartbeat…again and again and again!

OverandOnward gave some good advice. I will add to it. If in doubt visit the posted website if an advertisement lists one and check to see if the email address being used to communicate with the “seller” matches the contact information on the website. Call the number listed on the website. Ask for specific type photos or something else which will assure you that the “seller” actually has the horse in question. Make sure the markings on the horse on the website matches the horse in the specific photos you requested.

If the horse is a branded warmblood or is tattooed, perhaps you can request a photocopy of a page from the horses passport or other registration documents which show the brand or tattoo that is supposed to be on the horse along with a photo of the actual brand or tattoo. Brands often have numbers that correspond to the last digits in the registration number.

Be careful! Scammers and Scumbags are all over the internet, ready and eager to take advantage of people. Do not allow them to make you their next victim.

[OverandOnward]

I visit another site that has a section where people post warnings when they’ve been scammed. In almost every case, the buyer did not perform basic verification checks. Had they done so they would have quickly discovered the “seller” did not possess the item, had no authorization to sell it, and the real owner did not know their photos were being used. The buyer’s reason for not checking? “It was at such a great price, I didn’t want to lose it!”

[FairWeather]

We used to have this happen a LOT–both with people who were selling different horses (but using our pictures as their own), people who would try to buy our horses to quickly flip them to an unsuspecting person (and pass them off as their own) or flat out scammers who would pull the “cashiers check” scam. Hence why CANTER pictures have a big ole Copyright across them now.

[lolita1]

thanxs

[mikali]

Add me to the club of owners finding out that their horses photos/videos are being used by someone else (info taken from sporthorse-data.com).
In my case, the guilty party is Tanya Cole/Shining Star Arabian farm & TB Rescue.
So far, I’ve tracked her posting on two different sites:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-o2809804018
http://www.horseclicks.com/horses/v8nrs4/

[bloomingtonfarm]

[QUOTE=mikali;5979583]
Add me to the club of owners finding out that their horses photos/videos are being used by someone else (info taken from sporthorse-data.com).
In my case, the guilty party is Tanya Cole/Shining Star Arabian farm & TB Rescue.
So far, I’ve tracked her posting on two different sites:
http://www.equinenow.com/horse-ad-o2809804018
http://www.horseclicks.com/horses/v8nrs4/[/QUOTE]

OMG Alison! This is your stallion? What are you going to do???

ADD: I just saw that you took action: SOLD and her email address is XXX

I guess she will just move her scam somewhere else. Scary

[Fourbeats]

The grammar in that ad leads me to believe the person’s real name is probably not Tanya Cole and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was really coming from overseas somewhere. It’s written exactly like a lot of those “poor widow can’t access hubby’s millions and needs your help” type of ads.

Shameful what lengths people go to steal from others.

[Melyni]

a little scepticism would go a long way

and in general anything that looks too good to be true generally is…

A nice warmblood gelding that jumps well for $2,500. That would ring my alarm bells for sure.

Trust in the Lord, but verify all Internet ads!
MW

[nightsong]

And beware the ads that ask you to forward them cash for “shipping.” COMMON scam.