Too good to be true

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Couple of questions involved in this really, and please do be aware I am a sensible normal person who won't be doing anything daft.....promise lol!

Anyway, I found an advert on another horsey site for an amazing Hanoverian for sale for £2500 (wonder if they have missed off a 0) So I have emailed the seller, and it turns out they are in Spain, so is horse!

Question 1 - Has anyone on here ever bought a horse from abroad that they didn't see in the flesh or ride first? If so how did it work, getting horses, paying etc and did it work out for you or not?

Question 2 - I have had replies from the seller and been sent a video of said horse and all I can say is 'Holy cow' this is one hot horse lol! I am personally thinking it is a scam as horse looks more likely worth over £20K. Latest reply to seller is: I am still interested, so can I come to Spain 1 weekend to see and try him!

Awaiting answer. :-D

 

[cobgoblin]

I wouldn't be surprised if it had suddenly ' been sold' !

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Further update:

I cannot go to Spain to see said horse as her husband sold their horse farm due to divorce so she is the process of moving....so sad!
However, the price is just for delivery, horse is actually FREE!!!!!!
She has asked for my address details so she can contact the international shipping company to get a price and then let me know. She will arrange all delivery etc?

Thoughts? What can someone do with your address? :-?

 

[alainax]

Sounds 100% Scam.

I've been looking for a lorry recently, 90% of the ones I can contacted have been blatant scammers. Seems to be prolific currently.

 

[charliecrisps]

They was doing this a lot with cars over the internet - do not part with ANY money. The horse must be somewhere right... so whats the harm in a viewing?? Def a scam

 

[charliecrisps]

Id also arrange my own transport company if thats the case also. Another scam. They even send you a fake transport collection information and say you are paying the transport company direct if i remember rightly thus making you believe youre dealing with a company....

 

[Greylegs]

The answer to the question "Is this too good to be true?" is usually YES i'm afraid. This scam (or variations) has been around for ages. Please do not give this person any of your personal details and certainly no money. They get the money off you and then disappear!!

 

[JJS]

This screams scam to me!

 

[misskk88]

It is too good to be true.... I smell a big fat rat.

Read through plenty of old threads on here regarding scams, in fact even google it- it is a very old one for sellers to 'arrange delivery' and you pay for that. Only for seller, horse, and everything else to disappear. Do not part with ANY money.

If the horse has a name- perhaps pop it into google, or even search for other hanoverians for sale, I bet you will find the video somewhere else on a real advert. I say this because there was a similar thread on here, and with a bit of investigating the real advert, location and price were found- I think the horse turned out to be in America and not the UK, but could be wrong!

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Hi Charliecrisps, ok that is interesting. I have actually replied asking what company they would be using so I can google it!

Greylegs, I totally agree, hence my post. Don't worry I won't be doing anything stupid!

To add, I have also asked if there is any other way that they can proove to me this is legit as it seems way to good to be true.

Will let you know.

 

[Cortez]

It doesn't cost £2,500 to send a horse from Spain to the UK.

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Thanks Cortez, hadn't quite got round to googling that yet!

Miskk888 - Hope that's right as you are on other page now. I have tried that and find adverts for horses similar but that don't look exactly the same. Am I allowed to post the advert on here?

 

[kc100]

Definite scam - you'd pay the money in advance for this so called 'shipping company' (FYI they'll just google one and tell you a name of a legit company, so you'll believe it, but they'll never contact that company). And surprise surprise horse wont show up, you'll never be able to get in touch with them again and goodbye £2.5k.

If this horse really is 'free' then tell them you'll arrange your own transport - see what the response is to that. Bet all of a sudden they will change their mind.....

I bet the horse you have seen on the video they dont even own either, will just be a video they've found elsewhere and pretending they now own it.

Not sure on rules for posting adverts but I think you should be ok....its only when you are the owner of the advert then you'd have a problem I think as thats 'advertising' within the forum, but as its someone else's advert I cant see a problem. Just be careful though, you never know the person who is 'selling' this horse could be on this forum too!

PM me with the advert if you want, that might be easier and I'm happy to take a look....but I've never heard of a free, incredibly well bred great moving dressage horse that costs £2.5k to transport from Spain to the UK. If anything arrived off a transporter from these people I'd put money on it being a donkey...

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Have pm'd you KC100.

Trying to figure out how to attach the video, not sure I can?

 

[Pippity]

To track down the 'real' horse, right-click on one of the photos and choose something like 'Copy image location', depending on your browser. Then go to images.google.com, click on the little camera in the search bar, and paste the image location. It'll almost certainly bring up an original advert - probably with the price in the expected £20,000 range.

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Pippity - Genius!

Found a few different adverts, some said mare, others gelding. One from 2012 for the Netherlands? Again cheap price.

 

[Kylara]

Another good one is tineye. It's a reverse image search engine good luck, but it does sound like a scam

 

[smellsofhorse]

Someone I know bought a horse from Spain, but I was a through a dealer than helped import them.
They flew out and saw horses first.
They paid quite a lot but transporting was also expensive too!

Be careful, it could be a scam, sounds likely it is, so just be sensible and take good advice.

 

[kc100]

Have pm'd you KC100.

Trying to figure out how to attach the video, not sure I can?

Have replied - as per my PM, upon seeing the ad (and the many hundreds more of this ad that are online, in this country and on various sites around the world) it is 100% a scam. Russian email address, each advert says the horse is in a different location, then the line that the price will increase with training yet the horse is 8, that it is based with an eventer yet will be perfect for dressage.....wrong wrong wrong.

Funny how these people think they will get away with it, but at least you came on here and asked around, some poor fool will get sucked in and will own some very pricey thin air...

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Thanks for all your comments guys. I was pretty sure it was a scam anyway, just nice to know I'm not looking the gift horse in the mouth!

I am still getting emails from her. The company they would send him by is apparently Expresslofta (googled that, can't find anyhitng under that name!) Also contacted a registered company that do transport horses and they said it would cost £650 plus VAT! Quite a price difference there.

Again thanks for all the feedback and advice. I will not be spending £2500 on an imaginary horse, no matter how pretty he is.

 

[SadKen]

Could you possibly email them and tell them that you have plenty of money to pay the transport costs and will even pay them a bonus - but you just need them to send £1000 via Western Union as you have to pay your lawyers to release money from your inheritance?

BAM! The scammers become the scammees.

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Ha ha ha SadKen very good!

I have already suggested that I arrange transport through my own choice of company and if the correct horse arrives pay them a good will gesture of £1000.

If I get a reply to that, I will suggest it lol. ;-)

 

[Honey08]

Can you report them to the site they are advertising on? Perhaps save someone else getting scammed..

 

[Stormhillpilgrim]

Honey08 - Am actually in the process of doing that. However, seems they have advertised on lots of website, so could take a while. :-/