Internet Fraud Alerts
Please not that even though this scam first appeared over four years ago, it is as prevalent as ever.
Africa/Europe/Oversee's Scam
(12/30/2002) - About six weeks ago on "60 Minutes" or another news magazine program of the like announced a new kind of internet fraud. It has become common on horse classified ad sites in general and we wanted to make our users aware of it:
A potential buyer, may claim to be in Africa, contacts you to buy a horse, saddle, or tack. They then say a friend in the US owes them money and can this friend send you a cashier's check. Often the cashier's check will be over the price of your horse/saddle/tack. The buyer then asks if you to wire transfer him the remaining funds in Africa. Another friend who is a "reliable shipper" will come and pick up the goods/horses. The problem is the cashier's check is counterfeit. We have also heard of the goods being directly shipped out of the country and the buyer asks for the refund of the shipping charges as a "finders' fee." The fraudulent cashier's check is not usually discovered by the bank till weeks after the goods have been sent. The seller is then left with their personal funds lost to the fraudulent buyer and sometimes their goods lost as well.
We have always recommended the use of escrows services for all buyers and sellers. Websites such as escrow.com provide these services. Paypal.com also provides protection for buyers and sellers, but it is much more limited then escrow.com. For any transaction both parties should draft an agreement regarding payment and refund terms as well as have as much contact information on each other as possible. Just remember if the transaction sounds too good to be true it probably is.
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.
https://rn.ftc.gov/dod/wsolcq$.startup?Z_ORG_CODE=PU01
For Canadian Complaints contact the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/scams/scams.htm
We also recommend notifying the Internet Fraud Complaint Center:
http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp
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BitsAndBridles.com would like to thank Equine.com for providing the above information to us in order to protect horse buyers and sellers on both sites.
To best prevent fraud, please consider using one of these services to buy and sell through:
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