Scam Alert Horse buyers beware, when it sounds too good to be true…
“Jack, black Friesian, $5,000 bucks.” What a deal, eh? Well, even though I’m not in the market for a new horse, after much cajoling from my daughter and her friend, I decided to contact myhorses.ca and ask if we could go see Jack. Where’s the harm? If he was great, I’m sure someone I know might be interested. A day after I sent the message through the website, the email came in. I noticed right away that the name on the ad was different from the email name and they weren’t in Toronto, but in Seattle (Okay, people go on trips). But these things didn’t really bother me as they had all the information about Jack in the email. They asked how much I knew about horses and the breed. So I gave them a little bio. (I thought, wow, they really care about Jack.) Next email came in (fast) and I read it with disbelief and excitement.
Hello Susan thanks for the quick response Well i will really love you to get this horse for your Daughter because i believe he will do well in your house .he behaves normally when being trailered cos he is used to that and also he has had the English and western saddles on..we have had him since he was a colt.his temperament is graded at 3 .Also he has been ridden for 5 years and a half and he is also brook to riding.We are presently in Seattle for our missionary crusade and due to our very tight work schedule,we will not have much time to care for the horse.so we decided to put him up for adoption to any caring home willing to take very good care of him.we are not actually selling him but searching for caring family that will assure us of taking good care of him like we have always done before.we are willing to arrange for him to be delivered to you today where you will pay just for the delivery fee of $800 directly to the horse transportation Agency for him to be delivered to you.so if this is ok by you please get back to me with
your full names complete home address contact number
i will need these to register the horse to be delivered to you .and we can start up arrangements for it to leave for your destination today Lisa
Attached were some lovely pictures (more on that later). I read it over a dozen times. Ya, bad grammar, that could be a sign of a scam, but what if this was real? A ‘free horse’! YAY! While excitedly discussing with my daughter I commented, “It seems too good to be true…” ding ding ding! Bells went off. This had to be a scam. I googled horse scams and suddenly came up with dozens and dozens of hits. This horse was non-existent and being ‘sold’ all over the world - New Zealand, the U.K., all over the States – under different names, different reasons to ‘re-home’ the horse, and with different sellers’ names and locations. Then I saw this ad: http://www.theequinest.com/friesian-in-texas/
The pictures looked familiar. Yep, some matched the ones they sent me. I decided to ‘play’ a bit with the scammers. I acted interested and told them I could send a trailer myself but needed to see ‘Jack’ first and to have my vet okay him.
This was their response(and last email to me):
that will not be possible because we are at our mission for the crusade and we are very tight up with the activities and also we are not allowed to see anyone even our family.
I contacted myhorses.ca and the RCMP. The RCMP got hold of me immediately and had me fill out a complaint form. Apparently, this is part of the Cameroon Pet Scam. These criminals are based in Cameroon, Africa, and target animal lovers usually listing expensive breeds for low prices to attract interested victims. Then they tell some tall tale (tail?) about how they can no longer care for a dog, cat, or horse and they want them to go to a loving home. You just pay the transportation company directly. And yes, the company must have pre-payment sent to Africa, of course.
Moral to this story is to be very careful with every ad you read or place (they like to contact those who have genuine ads online, too). Please also take a look at this link that gives some background on several scams being perpetrated on horse lovers: http://www.equine.com/scam-alert.aspx If you cannot see the animal in person, DO NOT part with a dime. Oh, and just for fun? This is their email signature line: "he who gives more receives more, generosity is not a crime but a gift."
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