| SCAM CONTACT EMAILS
A fraudulent email was recently sent to our horse
advertisers from an Australian IP address, using our contact forms.
Its nature is very typical of scam emails, so take a good look at it
so that you will recognize the style and characteristics:
To reply send an email to james.w0411@gmail.com
James Warren's IP Address is 192.168.0.81.
Here is the inquiry from James Warren:
Hello, I am James Warren, a business man from Canada. I am indeed
interested in your Horse posted for sale. I want to buy the horse as
a surprise birthday gift for my 23 year old daughter. I will like to
know if the horse is still available for sale and will also like to
know your final asking price for the horse. I have a shipper who
will come over there to pick the horse as soon as we have agreed on
a price and the payment is completely received by you. Well, I want
to know if you have the health certificate of the horse. Please let
me know your last offering price of the horse, reason you are
selling it and a recent photo of it(If available) so we can proceed
from there. The horse will be very well taken care of by my daughter
and I. My daughter knows how to train and take care of a horse, so
you need not to worry at all. I promise and assure you that the
horse will be going to a good home. I am looking forward to hearing
from you soon. Regards, James
The big tipoff here is how very eager
this "person" is to buy your horse!
If you receive an inquiry like this, DO NOT
REPLY TO IT. I have the contact form set up to protect your
privacy--your email address is NOT revealed to people who contact
you. The only way they get your address is if you email them back.
So, when it is a scam message, if you do not reply, the scammer will
not get your email address. Do not reply to scam emails, no matter
how indignant and outraged you may feel.
The way this particular scam usually works is
that after you have agreed to sell your horse to the scammer, he
will send you a check for more than the amount of the purchase. The
idea is that you will refund to him the excess amount, which he will
keep after the check he sent to you bounces!
I have placed CAPTCHA code on the contact form
for the ads to help prevent spambots, but cracking CAPTCHA codes has
become an industry in its own right, and having them on a form does
not replace good, common sense! A few years ago, there
was a website by a horse owner who had made a hobby of pulling scams
on the scammers. The original website is no longer available, but
thanks to the Internet Archive "Way Back Machine," copies still
exist! YAY! For your reading enjoyment:
Busted Up Cowgirl Scams the Scammers. |