Increasing numbers of internet advertisers are receiving emails from bogus buyers, attempting to scam sellers

This tactic is a worldwide problem; however it would appear to be on the rise in the equine industry, targeting everything from horses and ponies for sale, to horseboxes, trailers and tack

**EXAMPLE SCAM ALERT**

We've been informed of a new email scam doing the rounds. This time the scam email in commonly coming from ‘Travis Bennett’ & 'Cynthia PT', asking a list of questions & offering to transfer a deposit and payment for shipping. Please ignore this email and if you have time report it to Action Fraud, for more details click HERE 

In another instance the scammer will contact you via email asking if your horse is still for sale, this will be followed by an email containing 23 questions as shown on the picture on the left. Please do not respond to this email. Sorry for any inconvenience caused and rest assured we are doing our best to combat this.

Another scam which is particularly common, is  when theadvertiser is contacted about an item, asking for more images, and then once the images have been received the bogus buyer will agree to send a cheque for the full amount.  At this point the seller is asked to email their full contact details to enable the buyer to send payment. The seller is then contacted again saying that the cost of shipping has accidently been included on the cheque, and could the seller forward the cost of shipment onto a courier, which is also bogus 

These scams can vary, however emails are often written in broken English and written in an over friendly style.  We urge HorseQuest customers to respond to email enquiries with caution. If something sounds too good to be true, it often is!

If you think you’ve been scammed then we strongly recommend that you contact the police