By DESIRAI SCHILD
Freelance Writer
A new Internet scam is targeting livestock owners.
"We hear from a lot of potential victims of this type of thing in Idaho," said Bob Harrell, a Secret Service agent in Boise. "Idaho is traditionally a charitable and giving state, so people here get targeted a lot. It's not just horses. It's anything they can use to try to get money out of someone."
In this scheme, the culprits contact people who have advertised horses for sale on the Internet. Two neighbors, selling different breeds of horses, were targeted in Weston, Idaho, recently.
"I got an e-mail about a filly I had advertised on the Internet," Shelly Spradlin said. "The guy claimed to be a horse buyer, but he didn't seem interested in the horse. He didn't ask the questions a real horse buyer would ask."
Instead, the man told Spradlin he would send a $6,500 check for the purchase of her $2,000 filly. He asked her to deposit the check and
pay the shipper the extra $4,500. "I wanted to know where the horse was going that it would cost $4,500 for transport," Spradlin said. "When I questioned him, the buyer raised the amount to $6,800. That's when I contacted the Secret Service. They told me it was a common scam and to get out right away."
Spradlin also got requests for payment from the alleged shipper. His writing style compared exactly to that of the alleged buyer.
"I can't believe people get away with this," she said. "But, it sounds like they get away with it all the time. I'm sure glad I wasn't another victim."
Royce Hutchinson, Weston, was alerted to a fraud when he ran in to Shelly Spradlin's husband, Bill, and heard about the scheme.
"I'd been corresponding with a woman who said she was from Maryland, but was at a conference in Holland," Hutchinson said. "She wanted to buy my BLM mustang I'd advertised on the Internet. She said she'd send a check for the cost and would trust me to send the ex
tra money to her financial secretary. I wrote back and told her to send me the money for the horse in a certified U.S. Postal Service check and never heard from her again."
Hutchinson contacted the FBI and found out this is a typical ploy to part honest folks from their money.
"The checks are no good, but it takes 10 days or so to find that out," Harrell said. "A lot of folks have sent the additional money off by that time and the people running the scam have packed up and moved on. The U.S. attorney gets daily complaints and we get them quite regularly."
Harrell said many of the schemes are routed through Nigeria because that government does not cooperate in prosecution of such crimes.
"It's not just horses," Harrell said. "It's any item someone tries to sell over the Internet. Buyers really do need to beware and to never send money in such a situation."
Anyone in doubt about such a transaction can contact Harrell at (208) 334-1402.
From a Capitol Press Article dated Mar 5, 2004
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