Scams go BOTH ways....

[Dona]

I have always known about the scams where you have a horse for sale & a "buyer" tries to scam you by sending more money than you are asking for, then wanting you to send the overage to a phoney transport company...yada, yada. You know the deal.

But, I have just encountered a scam on the other side of the coin. Been trying to find a full-sized horse trailer to buy, and saw a few nice ones on Craigslist, which seemed to be at "steal" prices for like new condition trailers. I e-mailed the sellers & got responses from not one...but two with the same scenario. "Had to move to the UK for business & couldn't take trailer with them. So they arranged for an "Escrow" company to sell it for them. How it works is...you pay the money to the "Escrow" company who holds it until you are satisfied with the trailer. (you are supposed to have 3 days to make your decision after you get it) They even arrange for the transportation of getting it to you if you can't pick it up. Once you are satisfied the trailer is what you want...you notify the Escrow company to send the money to the seller. Sounds fine...right? Well, I had never heard of Escrow companies before, so, after I got the first e-mail & was a bit suspicious...I Googled it. I got a lot of information on the "legit" Escrow.com company. It's a lot like PayPal. The more I read...the better I felt about the whole thing. But then...I found information that warned people about "phoney" escrow sites that pretend to be the legit ones. They have bilked thousands of people out of money by having them send payment to their phoney escrow site, then you never hear from them again! And then....I got the response about the 2nd trailer I had inquired about, with almost the same exact story. Had to move to the UK couldn't take trailer with them. They really needed to get it sold & that is why the price was so low. Yeah.....right!

Anyway....wanted to send out an alert in case there are others out there who may not be aware...like me. If I hadn't continued searching for information on Escrow.com & found the warning sites (which were way down the page) I may have "took the bait" on what looked like a deal too good to be true.

You gotta be careful out there people!

 

[garyo]

That rings a bell. I also inquired about two different trailers on craigslist and got similar responses. Except in this case her husband had died, she had to get a job as a dealer on a cruise ship, so she was never at home to use the trailer,etc. etc.

Same deal, send money to escrow company. You can never be too careful.

Gary

 

[Minimor]

I've heard of those fake escrow companies before--don't remember where, but I knew they existed. Because of that I don't see myself ever buying under those terms.

I think the best advice is still the old "if it seems too good to be true then it probably is"!

 

[Katiean]

I would never buy a trailer without going to see it anyway.

 

[CyndiD]

A friend of mine just bought a nice used 2 horse trailer and found it listed in Country Living...she drove down to see it and bought it on the spot. It was a used dealership and I will ask her the name, maybe its something you can drive down and check out...

On the other hand..I have not heard anything GOOD about ads on Craigslist so I never go there. Sad world we live in where the biggest predators are our OWN kind...

 

[Aristocratic Minis]

There are a number of scams like this on Craigslist. I've heard of some involving tractors. Same thing: had to move; tractor's in storage; here's shipping information.

There are also scams involving buying golf carts, gators and boats.

I did a search once on a Gator being listed. It was listed in about 6 different states. Same price, but with slightly different details. All had sob stories. If it is too good to be true, it's a scam.

 

[wingnut]

There are a number of scams like this on Craigslist. I've heard of some involving tractors. Same thing: had to move; tractor's in storage; here's shipping information.

There are also scams involving buying golf carts, gators and boats.

I did a search once on a Gator being listed. It was listed in about 6 different states. Same price, but with slightly different details. All had sob stories. If it is too good to be true, it's a scam.

My husband ran into one of these fake ads for a Gator. It was supposedly a guy going to Iraq who needed to sell it and was using an escrow. Thankfully, we sniffed that one out to be a con before we went very far.

We've been very lucky with most of our Craigslist purchases. It takes time and patience and a lot of caution but it can be done. We found our trailer on Craigslist.

 

[mizbeth]

Yes, Craigs list warns of auto transport companies being frauds. This falls under that category. I also looked at trailer on CL and found one, but was located in the north somewhere, the guy was military stationed here and ready to go to Iraq. NICE trailer too, too cheap.................looked brand new, never used. I did not pursue it as bells were ringing for me too.

Good luck, you will find some theives on CL for sure, but also a lot of nice people trying to sell their "stuff".

 

[MOJO]

There are other frauds being perpetrated on CL. I regularly look and sometimes post on the farm & garden section. Imagine my surprise when I looked at the Fayetteville,NC site and find my colt I do have for sale and my stallion being represented as their herd sire and offered for sale for $1500.00 by a woman in Selma, NC. I live near Lynchburg, VA.

The idiot listed her phone number, needless to say she got a rather nasty phone call. It was a woman I had bought a horse from last year, she had contacted me about the colt, doubled his price on her ad, asked about borrowing my stallion (NO WAY). I did toy with breeding her mares so that is how she got his picture, so then she thought that was free also. OMG what is wrong with people these days. I was so angry I told her she couldn't get a truck load of his manure for the price she posted and had to threaten to see a lawyer before she removed the pictures.

 

[ruffian]

Yep a friend of mine found a GN LQ 3HS trailer on E-bay for $5,000. I TOLD him it was tooo cheap!! But he emailed and got a story about distress, and they had take the trailer to ARIZONA and would send it anywhere in the country for FREE!!! SUUURE they will! The ad looked like a real ebay ad, until we tried to find it on ebay just by searching. The darn scanners are getting pretty clever!

However, I have had excellent luck with Craigs list, as long as you aren't trying to get a deal that's too good to be true!