Internet Horse
Sales Alert
Advanced
Fee Frauds - African Scam Information,
Nigerian Scam and more
"Selling your
horse on the internet has opened a new market for scammers. If it sounds to good to be
true, it probably is."
We Fight the Nigerian Scam with Education The Nigerian
Scam, often referred to as the Advanced Fee Fraud, or
419 Fraud (refers to the relevant section of the Criminal Code of
Nigeria) is a multi billion dollar scam. It seems to have originated
in the early 80's. We feel it
is our obligation to inform horse owners regarding fraudulent activity that may be taking place
in our industry. We strongly believe education makes us better
prepared to ward off theft of any sort. Are horse owners
scammed? You bet!
Spread the word: Keep our industry bona fide by thinning out
fraudulent buyers and sellers. Please help Stolen Horse
International, Inc. by doing what you
can too. Pass this to your friends!
People selling horses are receiving buyer inquiries from a
third party regarding the purchase of a horse from a prospective buyer in
another country. It could be Africa, England, Italy or
France. Take your pick of any country other than the
US.
This
inquiry unusually tries 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 usually ask you to return the shipping charges as
part of a "finders' fee" arrangement. The fact
that the cashier's check is fake, is not revealed until the horse
and the finder's fee have been sent to the scam artist. One way
to spot these scams is that they usually have some long story to
gain your attention and empathy. Expenses are not a problem
even though the perspective buy lives outside the United
States presently. The perspective buyer always proposes to
buy site unseen. Even if the the check arrives with a US postal
mark, as one did to a Greensboro man recently, don't think it is
US based. In one situation the post mark read Hickory,
NC. Once the research was completed there was no one at the
return address. The certified check the seller
received in the mail was a very good fake. He turned it over
to the FBI who said there was very little they could do. The
United States does not have jurisdiction in other countries. The
example above is one of the varieties we have seen of these
scams. Please do your homework. Other helpful websites
are listed below. Protect
Yourself: It is crucial to try and acquire information about the
buyer. Please forward any information to if you believe the
buyer may be involved in a scam to:
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
Report Nigerian Fraud
Scams - Contacts for US Treasury Department and
Field Offices of Secret Service.
Thank you,
Stolen Horse International, Inc.
If you know of any other scams please tell us about it.
Email stolenhorse@netposse.com
More Interesting
Websites Scamming the Scammers: http://www.bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html
(I love this horses owners will to not give up after being
contacted so many times by scammers) Nigerian Scam Defined - http://home.rica.net/alphae/419coal/ Fraud
Alerts - http://www.fraudalert.com/ United
States Secret Service - PUBLIC AWARENESS ADVISORY REGARDING "4-1-9" OR "ADVANCE FEE FRAUD" SCHEMES
http://www.secretservice.gov/alert419.shtml Nigerian
Fraud Email Gallery - http://www.potifos.com/fraud/ Nigerian
Scams - http://www.crimes-of-persuasion.com/Crimes/Business/nigerian.htm Advanced
Fee Fraud - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance_fee_fraud
|
