e-mail scam

[shirleyjones]

Please be aware I have been approached by someone wanting to buy a pony via e-mail. They did not ask any questions about the pony- only the price- which they were willing to pay without seeing him!

Also they would give me extra money to pay for shipping which I should give to the shipping agent once the cheque had cleared- I am almost sure this is a scam, which I was almost drawn into because of their reasurance that I would wait until the cheque had cleared.

I am sure they would have asked for funds at some point down the line, when funds had not actually cleared. I have searched horse scams on the internet and lots of the things the web sites (such as horse and hound)suggest may be included in the enquirery were included in the enquirey I recieved. My ponies are only for sale on the Dales pony web site at the moment, but have been for sale on other sites in the past, so unsure if this person has got my details from Dales pony web site or if they could find details of past adverts from other web sites some how.

Please be aware, I was almost stupid enough to fall for it and gave details of my name and address, which I now feel sick to my stomache about doing, but my husband says there is nothing they can do with that, and the ponies are not kept at that address, so I hope he is right.

[SuzieP]

Thanks for the alert! How awful for you - these con-merchants are so plausible aren't they? Thank goodness you saw through it in time.......

[Debbie]

Grrrrrr!!! Good on you for seeing through this and posting it here as a warning for others.

I have no clue how its done, but apparently on the internet there are 'spybots' that look for whatever terms they're programmed to look for. Then they go out into the internet and find matches. So they may have come across your info that way.

[harveydales]

Thanks for the warning. That's dreadful but I'm sure your OH is right and there is no need for you to worry. Still horrid knowing though........

I've heard of this scam many times now. I was once approached in this way when selling a saddle but luckily I knew it wasn't a genuine buyer. You have to be sooooo careful these days.

[greydales]

This scam has been used for some time on the net, it happened to me years ago when I was selling a saddle. Like Pam I did realise they weren't genuine but they can sound quite plausible; good thing you weren't drawn into it!

I think ultimately they are after your bank details.

[maggie]

I have Dawn and Mattie on the DPS list with an email address and picked this up yesterday

from phelps schreil <[e-mail]> hide details 16 Jun (2 days ago)
to [e-mail]
date 16 Jun 2009 18:52
subject MAIDENDALE CENTURY DAWN
signed-by gmail.com
mailed-by gmail.com
I am mailing regarding the horse you advertise on the site i will liketo know if you still have it for sale and the final price ? i will be the one that will be responsible for the shipping of the horse.........till i reading from you. Thanks

Phelps, Dawn's price is shown on the sales list. Where are you based and where do you propose shipping to please?

Maggie

am in uk and the horse will be ship to North Ireland

I too was convinced that this was a scam and only responded to get some further information. Some horse owners have been conned out of £000's, but the destination has always been out of the UK, this is the first I have seen that claims to be within UK boundaries.

[jap]

There is a warning on the DPS website about this scam from Phelps Schiel, i noticed it this morning.

Anna

[PonyGirl]

Those scams are horrible. Someone tried when I was selling Trooper.

[shirleyjones]

Hi Maggie this is the same person I had my message from- when I searched this name on the internet others including motorhomes had been targeted.

[valerie n scout]

flipping heck, there are some awful people in the world, am so plessed you sussed them xxx