EquiSpirit Horse Trailers Issues Warning on Internet Scam

Tom Scheve, CEO of EquiInternational Inc./EquiSpirit Trailers, comments on Nigerian Internet fraud and its new spin with horse trailer sales. The increasing growth of equestrian websites offering free classified ads has provided a catalyst for the Nigerian scam artists to test their new scheme. Horse trailers are targeted because they are high-ticket items.

Southern Pines, NC (PRWEB) June 28, 2007 -- Horse trailers have become the latest target for Nigerian Internet scam artists. In the past they flooded US email accounts with opportunities to make large money transfers in exchange for fees. Their fraudlent techniques have taken on a new spin with horse trailer sales. The increasing growth of equestrian websites offering free classified ads has provided an effective catalyst for the Nigerian scammers to test their new scheme. Horse trailers are targeted because they are high-ticket items.

According to Tom Scheve, CEO of EquiInternational Inc./EquiSpirit Trailers, "We discovered it through first hand experience. A California horse owner, who happened to also be an investigator, called our office to warn us. She found a brand new 2007 EquiSpirit two horse model on a site advertising free horse ads. The new model was offered at more than ½ off the price. The buyer hoped there was some good reason for the low price, but there wasn't. When the seller became evasive about showing her the trailer, and wanted a substantial deposit up front, she became suspicious and called us. Since we sell EquiSpirit horse trailers direct and have a limited number of dealers, we can keep close track of our trailers and customers. We quickly discerned that the pictures on the ad were lifted from our web sight, and that the seller did not exist in our files."

This is how the scam works: First, information and pictures of a particular horse trailer are "lifted" from a trailer dealer website. Next, a classified type ad is created and placed on as many free-advertising websites as they can find. Once contact is made by an unsuspecting customer, a substantial deposit or even the entire amount is asked for in advance.

"I think that most horse owners will be sharp enough to detect that something's wrong," according to Mr. Scheve. "The people working this fraud are not horse owners, so email responses to trailer questions are usually odd or evasive, sentence structure and grammar are strange, and in our case, the price was too low to be believable. But I suspect that the 'pitch' will improve if the results show promise, so buyers need to be cautious."

The email was tracked to Lagos, Nigeria, which was routed by Satellite through the Netherlands. The investigator has contacted the FBI. We contacted the site listing the fraudulent horse trailers ads. They neither responded, nor removed the ad. We noticed several other questionable ads for other new horse trailers, with prices two-thirds below the MSRP.

The bottom line, if the price of the trailer seems too good to be true, it probably is a scam.

Tom Scheve, and his wife Neva own EquiSpirit Horse Trailers. In addition, they are recognized authories in horse trailering, and are authors of several books on the topic. Mr. Scheve can be reached at 910-692-1771.

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