Buying a Horse

Scams & Fraud

There is always risk involved whenever you buy or sell something. Unfortunately the internet carries its share of risk because there are always scam artists looking for ways to take advantage of people. Buying and selling successfully online requires the use of common sense and good judgment.

Remember the old saying, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Here are a few tips toward protecting yourself when advertising or buying online:

  1. Know your buyer. Ask a lot of questions about how they plan to use the horse, where they will house it, how it will be fed, etc. If the buyer is fraudulent they probably won’t be able to answer these questions and will suddenly disappear.
  2. Get a lot of information about the buyer and verify it. Ask for their email address, home address, phone number, etc. If you are dealing with a buyer’s agent be sure they are willing to identify the buyer they represent.
  3. Do Not give out your personal information until you know who you are dealing with. Be very cautious if someone wants your bank account information so they can “wire you payment.” Only provide your address when you feel someone is legitimate and wishes to see the horse.
  4. Be wary of individuals asking you to speed up the transaction beyond your comfort range and don’t give in to high pressure tactics. Buying or selling a horse should be a well thought out decision on both sides.
  5. Don’t trust “Low Ball” offers that are only good “if you sell today because our truck is in the area.” You may be anxious to sell your horse but you surely don’t want it going to the killers.
  6. Get it in writing. You should never complete a transaction without first writing down the terms of the deal and have each party sign it. If you can't afford a lawyer to draft a contract you still should write down the terms of the deal in plain English and get it signed. Be sure the information about the buyer/seller matches what they have told you previously. Insist on a valid street address, not a P.O. Box. Insist that the person signing the contract is the actual buyer, not a phony agent
  7. Be very careful about what type of payment you accept before you release the horse or sign a bill of sale or brand transfer. Work with your bank to verify funds if you take a personal check and hold the horse’s paperwork while the check clears
  8. Be very cautious about accepting a cashier’s check or certified funds. There have been cases where the check is bogus and even the bank can’t tell. If the bank can’t trace the origin of the check they will recover the funds from your bank account and the buyer has vanished with your horse.
  9. If anyone who does not plan to come to see the horse offers to pay with a cashiers check, just ask them to wire you the CASH through Western Union instead. If they try to entice you by offering to send money for the shipper plus some extra for your trouble ask them to pay the shipper directly.
  10. Claims such as offering more money than the asking price without an initial conversation regarding the horse are almost always a sure sign of a scam. Be careful of any individual who wants to send you more money than you are asking for and be especially careful when dealing with buyers from overseas. It’s unfortunate but it seems most scams originate outside the country from places such as Africa, the Middle East or South America.

The best defense against fraud is for buyers and sellers to be aware. If there is any question about a transaction or someone you are dealing with the Internet Fraud Complaint Center, in cooperation with the FBI, can be contacted at URL:

http://www1.ifccfbi.gov/index.asp

Here is one of their recent alerts :

Horse Buying Scam Alert

”People selling horses on-line are receiving buyer inquiries from a third party regarding the purchase of a horse for a potential buyer in Nigeria or Africa. This inquiry commonly attempts to arrange the purchase of the horse with a cashiers check covering the price of the horse and shipping. After the horse has been shipped, they commonly ask you to refund the shipping charges as part of a “finders’ fee” arrangement. Unfortunately, the cashier’s check that is sent is counterfeit. This fact is not uncovered until the horse and the finder’s fee have been forwarded to the scam artists. To protect yourselves and others against this type of activity, it is important to try and obtain as much information about the buyer as possible. If you suspect the buyer may be involved in this or similar scams, please forward any information you can obtain to the Internet Fraud Complaint Center.

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At AdPony.com we made it easy to locate horses for sale online and have provided information about horse scams and frauds to watch for when buying or selling horses. View horses for sale online by breed and location or sell your horse with our online horse classifieds.