Beware of Scams When Selling Your Horse

If you haven't already invested in that Nigerian scheme guaranteed to make you lots of money, you might want to be aware of the various scams afoot where somehow, instead of selling your horse, you end up getting scammed out of your money.

I got a breathless offer by e-mail from a potential buyer who really wanted Buddy and needed to buy him right away. Unlike the other breathless offers, which were mostly from teenaged girls without a shift key on their computers, this one was from a guy named John who supposedly lived in New York and had it all worked out.

There were so many red flags in this message that I don't know how he would ever fool anyone, but apparently there are people out there being fooled.

My vet said that she had a client who had fallen for just such a scheme. Her client wanted to sell her horse, here was a buyer with money, and, all starry eyed, they went through with all the arrangements. When the vet showed up to give all the horses their spring shots, the client said not to do one horse -- he had been sold. Later the vet had to go back and give this horse shots because the truck did not come to pick him up, as promised. I don't know more than that.

But I do know that John from New York was all set to scam me. In his first e-mail, he said that he wanted to buy Buddy to use for his polo, rodeo and breeding operations and would send me the money through PayPal and then his shipper would come get Buddy.

Since I'd gotten a number of sort of stupid inquiries, I thought that this one might just be the stupidest and wasn't aware right away that it was a scam. I wrote back that Buddy would not be suitable for polo or rodeo, and that as a gelding, didn't have much to contribute to a breeding operation.

I thought that was the end of it. But John wrote back right away. Buddy would have a wonderful life with lots of room in what I think was meant to mean pastures but was some odd word my husband said was a term for soccer fields. The "animal doctor" comes to the farm daily (must not be a safe or healthy place if it requires daily visits from the "animal doctor"). There was some hooey about trainers and competition and breeding. John was effusive, but John didn't know squat about horses. 

Still, he was ready to send me the money and if only I would provide some personal information his shipper would be contacting me. I reported him as a scammer to the online sales site.

Let all sellers beware. 

Comments

[greyhorsematters]

It's too bad that so many people are unaware of these scammers and schemers. Glad you didn't fall for it. I always think there must be a better way to make a living than scamming people.

[A Bay Horse]

Good advice.
My guess is "John" is really from outside of the country. Perhaps using some translation software or a russian->english dictionary to help him with words; thus the "animal doctor" etc.

[Strawberry Lane]

What a world we live in ... can't trust anyone. "John" gave more than a few tip offs, most of all his enthusiasm.

And you were just too funny with Buddy not having "much to contribute to a breeding operation".

Unfortunate that some people do get scammed.