Fraud Awareness Tips
Common-Sense Advice for Buying Horses, Tack, Equipment, etc.
Buying a horse you find online is a lot like buying a horse through a classified ad in the newspaper. In either case, use your best judgment.
Know the horse’s (tack or equipment’s) market value
Be suspicious of a horse or item is priced significantly below market value.
If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!
Obtain a medical history and/or registration papers report
A medical history report can provide useful information, such as who cares for the horse and whether the horse has been unhealthy requiring professional medical attention. You’ll also find out through registration papers whether the horse has been in a stable place or does it continue to be bought and sold on a regular basis, which could be a sign that the horse has something wrong with it.
Vet Check the Horse
Schedule an appointment with a professional licensed veterinarian. If the horse is not in your area, schedule the vet check using a veterinarian that has never seen or treated the horse in the past for an unbiased examination. An early vet check can help you identify problems, however, keep in mind that a vet check isn’t a warranty and won’t guarantee a horse is free from all illnesses and aliments or that the veterinarian has identified ALL existing problems. The thoroughness of the check comes down to your wants and needs coupled with the professional advice of the licensed veterinarian doing the examination.
Confirm contact information
Before you send payment, verify the seller’s street address and phone number- an email address is not enough. ZIP codes, area codes and addresses should match up. Be wary if the seller is located overseas.
Use email wisely
Avoid sending sensitive personal or financial information (such as your social security number, credit card number or checking account number) to a seller via email. Remember that email communications are not secure and can be easily forwarded to others.
Get a detailed receipt
Ask the seller for a receipt that states any unique terms set upon you both or that states that the horse is being sold “as is”.
Get registration papers to the horse
Make sure you know what’s required in your horse breed’s association to transfer registration for the horse you’re buying. PLEASE NOTE: if registration papers are not current this could mean many possible things: 1) horse is stolen and not legally the sellers 2) In order to make the registration paper current there may be some extremely high fees to get the horse registered in your name 3) may be some extra work for you to get it current.
Common-Sense Advice for Selling Horses, Tack, Equipment, etc.
Selling a horse you find online is a lot like selling a horse through a classified ad in the newspaper. In either case, use your best judgment.
Confirm contact information
Be particularly wary of buyers willing to purchase your horse without seeing it in person, especially buyers located overseas. Always verify the buyer’s street address and phone number. Perhaps even ask to see their facility where they’d be taking your horse that you’re selling them.
Secure payment first
Do not transfer the Registration until you have a payment (verified by a bank) in hand at the agreed upon price.
Verify that a certified check is genuine
Before you deposit a certified check, verify authenticity with the issuing bank-not just your bank. Make sure the account contains sufficient funds and the issuing bank guarantees payment on the check. It may take a week or more for the check to clear. It hasn’t cleared just because your bank has accepted it and credited your account!
Tip: Perhaps you should not let your horse off your property until funds are accepted and credited to your account in full.
Beware of overpayment or other complicated payment schemes
Don’t agree to any plan where the buyer asks to send a check for more than the sale price and requests that the seller refund the difference. And be suspicious of any buyer who proposes making payment through a friend or agent of the buyer.
We don’t require payment to enter a sweepstakes.
We may offer promotional contests from time to time, but we’ll never require payment to enter a sweepstakes or to claim a prize.
If you receive an email that claims we’re holding a promotional contest or sweepstakes:
Check our website or call 1-714-943-7146 (Mon.-Fri. 9 a.m.-9 p.m., Sat. 10 a.m.-4 p.m. MTN Time) for accurate information. If you don’t get confirmation from us that we’re holding a contest, don’t participate.
Don’t click any links embedded in email messages. A link may look correct, but the code behind it could take you to a different website. Copy and paste a link into your browser’s address bar.
If you think you’ve received a fraudulent email involving a promotional contest, report the email to us and to law enforcement.
Sellers and Buyers Beware!
Please note that if you are selling a horse do not deal with any potential buyer inquiries from a third party regarding the purchase of a horse from a potential buyer in Nigeria, Africa, France, Germany, London, Hong Kong, and any others. They will attempt to arrange the purchase of the horse with a cashier’s check paying the price of the horse and shipping. Once the horse has been shipped, they sometimes ask you to refund the shipping charges as part of a finder’s fee arrangement. They commonly also send you a check larger than the purchase price and ask for a refund of the difference.
What ends up happening is the CASHIER’S CHECK IS COUNTERFEIT and you end up with NO HORSE and NO MONEY!
This fraudulent scam takes various forms too, including purchasing frozen semen, tack, equipment, using fake wire transfers, even scammers posing as SELLERS on our sites, etc. Typically these scam emails have some similarities including misspellings, poor English grammar, are inquiring from or for foreign countries, and making offers for a client or other third party.
Internet Fraud Resources
Visit the sites below to learn more about Internet fraud.
Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC)
Internet Fraud Preventive Measures
Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
Practical Tips to Help You Be on Guard Against Internet Fraud
Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC)
Fake Seals and Phony Numbers: How Fraudsters Try to Look Legit
Tags: avoid email scams, Fraud Awareness Tips, tips for buying and selling horses on the internet