HorseWanted.com

[Guest]

Below is the announcement sent out to users of HorseWanted.com Please post your own experiences here to help warn others and to post tips on how to catch / stop these criminals.

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Please read this entire e-mail it could save you
from getting scammed!

I am sending you all a copy of an e-mail conversation between myself
and a concerned
member of the HorseWanted.com Community.

She recently had a prospective buyer for a horse
that claimed to be from overseas - "West Africa"

The buyer expressed interest in paying her for her horse by check, and
having her wire the change back to him.

I Also had a similar experience with a horse I have for sale. The
prospective buyer wanted to send me money for the entire asking price
of a horse + "shipping" and wanted me to wire the shipping money to an
anonomous shipper.

PLEASE DO NOT FALL FOR THIS SCAM!!!
I am not sure if he is trying to get people to wire him money by
giving you a bad check, or if he is trying to get your bank account
number. Either way, he is not to be trusted.

If you know anyone that is selling horses online, please let them know
about this scam as it is probably happening to a lot of people.

John Kaufman
http://HorseWanted.com

--------------------------------------

Thanks Shirley,

I had one of these a couple of weeks back from a guy claiming to be
from west africa.
I have had horses go overseas before, so I wasn't too concerned
upfront, but I ended up
getting suspicious when he didn't ask any pertinent questions for
shipping a horse across an
ocean such as conditions of health, vaccinations etc... he also
wouldn't give me the number
of his shipper. I have been interested in seeing if anyone else has
heard from this guy.

He wanted to send me a cashiers check and have me wire money to a
shipper. He got
mad when I said I'd wait until the cashiers check cleared the bank and
I'd pay the shipper
when he arrived to pick up the horse.

He claimed to be "Tom Macdonald" and had a free lycos.com e-mail
address.

I'll send an alert to all horsewanted.com e-mail addresses.
John Kaufman
http://HorseWanted.com


Shirley Clifton wrote:


Dear Mr. Kaufman,
I wanted to bring it to your attention that I have received several
emails from Nigeria, West Africa most likely from the same person
under different email addresses. This person is impressing interest
in my horses, but it is all a scam. Trying to convince me to
cash his large check and send money back for this or that reason to
him and my bank has informed me there is presently a large
number of this type of scam going on as we speak with people across
the country. I don't know how you could warn your clients,
but it would be a good thing to be wary of doing business abroad. I
have since printed these and gave them to the bank so they
can be investigated and possibly the source can be identified.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Shirley Clifton

[John Kaufman]

Here is an example of the type of e-mail I recently recieved from "Larry Macdonald"

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks for the mail,getting back to you was a bit late because of church
programmes.Anyway,how was your day?Mine was splendid!having read your mail,i contacted my uncle
in the state who told me its takes just 24hrs for a cashier's check to clear the bank in the
US.so,he'll issue a check in your full name while you send the detail information as i
mentioned in my last mail.Meanwhile,my uncle is owing me some money I've just instructed him to
include $2,500 on the payment,so,you should be expecting check of $6,000 while you wire back
the balance to my shipper's via money gram union as soon as the check gets to you.I hope i can
count on you for the balance,while my shipper will come to pick the horse without giving you
any stress.I hope to hear from you while you send me the detail information on how the check
will get to you.

Regards

Larry.



--

On Tue, 22 Oct 2002 14:57:54
jpk wrote:
>Thanks for your interest in Tasha.
>Her price is $3,500 USD
>I have no Idea how much shipping would cost on top of
>that but it would probably be at least $2,000.
>
>If I can answer any more questions let me know.
>Thanks,
>John Kaufman
>
>
>Larry Macdonarld <larrymac6@lycos.com> wrote :
>
>> Hi,
>> i am an horse rider in west-africa.i will like to know how much you are
>> willing to sell this horse Tasha,I'm highly intrested in buying it.I would like
>> to know your last offer on this horse and what is present condition.
>> Regards
>> Larry.

--------------------------------------------------------------------

[John Kaufman]

Below is a copy of the e-mail I sent to "Larry Macdonald" alerting him to the fact that HorseWanted.com advertisers will not be falling for his tricks.

---------------------------------------------------------
We have received several complaints about you trying to scam people at
http://HorseWanted.com

I have sent e-mail to every member of HorseWanted.com and started a
forum to help people
battle criminals like you. I have received several mails back from
people that are currently
working with authorities to help them track you down and prosecute you
to the fullest extent
of the law.

Please do not try your scam with anyone else advertising in our
classifieds.
John Kaufman
http://HorseWanted.com
---------------------------------------------------

[Guest]

I saw on the news the other day that a couple were tring to sell their car, and I think the guy who lived overseas and wanted to buy it is the same guy who is doing this horse and tack buying scam. The check they recived did not clear the bank. The bank said it was a fake and told them it was very wise that they waited for the check to clear. So, I don't think he is after just horses and tack. I think he is after anyone selling anything. PLEASE watch who replies to your ads!!!!

Leslie

[quarterhorse525]

When this person e-mailed me about a horse I had for sale. This person scared me. He said he was going to send money for my horse. He said his brother was going to come see the horse.

[suzanne]

That idiot emailed me from west Africa about a horse trailer I have for
sale. Wanting me to wire $3,000 to him. I told him he was an idiot, and not
to email me again!

[Matt Winters]

I have a similar run in with a guy claimign to be from West Africa wanting
to buy my truck for 3500 and wanted me to send him a check for 3500 plus my
truck and His name waws Williams Joe with an email address at yahoo car
traders in the United Kingdom.

Matt Winters

[Guest]

I have had 2 different emailers wanting high dollar tack going to Africa. The most insistent person is "Jones" Felix email carmine2402240@yahoo.com the other is Kelly Rice email realkelly2000@yahoo.com My suggestion is Watch it! Robin

[Judy Shehan]

This has also occured with people selling their cars in the papers or
on-line. Same M.O.

Judy Shehan

[Gina]

I recently was "working" out a deal with the same individual from West
Africa. I knew off the bat it was a scam. My husband and I opened a
P.O. box and notified the USPS of what was going on. We were hoping to
catch the guy. The USPS wouldn't do anything until this guy actually
used the postal service to commit fraud. Unfortunately when we told him
we wouldn't give him our home address, for security reasons, but he
could send to the P.O. box he stopped contacting us.

[deano2u]

I received emails from two individuals wanting to buy my horse trailer and have it shipped over to Africa. One person stated that he was a zoo keeper in West Africa. They wanted my home address to send a check to and then wanted me to mail back $2,000 in cash through Western Union to the shipper.
One is Jones Felix (carmine240240@yahoo.com) and the main one is
Walter James (walterman@outblaze.net) Walter is the one who wanted to send me $4500 and then wanted me to mail back $2000 for shipping.
Both stated they were from West Africa and were real interested in my horse trailer.
Seller BEWARE !!

[lyn_j]

I sold a horse to a lady in south africa last year., she paid me with her credit card. after he arrived there she sent me a glowing e mail. three months later she did charge backs for all the money nad it drained my business account. she still has him, had done three charge backs for varrying reasons from she didnt receive any goods from my business, then she wansnt the responsible person and she never gave permission to charge her card and then finally he was an inferior product. in all of that i kept all the e mails and also the web addrss where she showed him to a national champion title there in feb this year. she continues to do the charge backs, i have closed all my accounts and now the credit card company wants to sue me for the amount she is charging back,. this sale of a 2500 horse has cost me over 5000 and the lawyers there said in order to get it i have to go there and file and bring my evidance but i am blind and not able to travel. her name is rene vareges and she is from south africa.
lyn jacobs bjacobs16@hotmail.com

[T Daves]

I have been reading these posts and it just sickens me the people out there who are willing to hurt who ever they can! The evil that is out there!
I will be sending this e mail out to all the people I have in my address book, which covers over 300 people, so hopefully this will help a lot more people!
I have a web site that I sell my probiotic on, and have had people try to do this such thing thru IT!!!!!!!!!!!!
T Daves americasprobiotic.com

[bkloeckler]

Sure glad all these horse people send out a red flag when this kind of stuff goes on! I have been contacted by "kelly rice" <kellyrice2000@yahoo.com> The story on my trailer for sale was identical to the posts, will send check, then me pay the "shipper". It is sad that people abuse other people in this way! Think I will forward all these notes to this person and let them see we will stick together to notify people of these scams!

[t daves]

Wow! I have sent the e mail I received from my friend out, and have already had a lot of feedback and it has only been an hour! I have a feeling this forum will fill up fast due to this! Thank you to the owner of horsewanted for putting this in here!