ATTENTION SELLERS: Fraud Alert
(this is from dreamhorse)


The following scams have come to our attention today, December 19. 2002. Please be very careful in these situations: "I have had my horse posted on Dream Horse for a while now and recently a response from a man in Nigeria saying he wanted to buy my horse right away. He did not want a video or any further information, which I thought was really odd. He then sent me a check for $15,000 when my horse was only for sale for $6,000. He asked that i take the cost of the horse out and send him the remainder of the money right away. I contacted the local police dept. because I thought this was very strange, they said it was probably a scam and to contact the FBI which I did. It turns out that it is a scam in which the man sends the check, you cash it and make a money transfer back to him to send the remainder of the money and then when the check goes through it is no good, leaving you out of thousands of dollars. They told me this has been a big problem lately and to not send any money back to the man. I have sent them all the information about the case. I am hoping that you will post a warning on your website to make people aware of what is going on.
Thank you very much." - Rachel Burrington

Another Example: "Hi--Just wanted to give everyone a "heads up" about the possibility of this happening to you. Around the first week of December I recieved an e-mail from a "supposed Veterinarian" in West Africa--interested in my homozygous Tobiano stallion. He wanted to see pictures, know about his soundness, and what health/vaccination he'd had. I sent him to my web page for pics and gave him answers to all his requested information. By days end--he told me that I would recieve a "Certified Cashiers Check" in the mail within a week, from a client of his here in the US. That the check would surpass the price of the horse, but I should cash the check and wire the remainder to him. So it came via Fed-Ex on Monday of this week about 10am, my son signed for it and when I got home from work I opened the "mail envelope" and inspected the check. I took it to the bank by 9:30am on Tuesday--and just for the sake of it (and also because I had a friend warn me about internet scams from Africa recently)I told them to inspect and verify the check well first, before they cashed it. Sure enough, it was a counterfit Certified Cashiers Check. So even what looks like a duck and quacks like a duck---can be a fake!! I'll be demanding cash/money order/or Western Union wired funds from now on. I'm just glad I didn't release the horse or papers--on a piece of paper not worth my time!!
Take Care & Happy Holidays, Mary Henry PS--U might want to pass this on !!"