# Other Pets > Horses >  This is so frustrating

## SnowShredder

Everybody knows about scammers, or so I thought.
My gf sent me an email today asking what I thought about this horse (she's been looking to buy one to keep in a nearby stable). She forwards me the email and some pictures. I'll attach below.




> thanks for your mail.
>  my  mare is 8yrs old and 16.2hh tall.she has all her medical record
> positive and all papers.
> i have loved pets all my life and has ridden horse for more than
> 30years now and i love this my little mare so much because i have
> spent more time training her and she is more of a child to me.i am a
> pet lover i have her because she gives me joy and happiness i
> will like to give her out only to families that will show her love and
> care.she is well vaccinated and  trained.i will like to give her out
> ...




Now to me, this is extremely suspicious. English is obviously not his first language. And who gives away a horse that normally costs $5000? It completely reminds me of the nigerian dog scams. I'm guessing this guy would want you to pay to ship the horse. 
So I go to investigate and plug the photos into google image search. At least 60 separate ads pop up, some saying the horse is from Holland, or Australia, or Ireland. Some say it's a mare and some say it's a gelding. Sometimes it's free and sometimes it's $800-$3000. Exact photos for each ad.
I took screen shots of all the ads and sent it back to her. Took at least 20 minutes to convince her it's a scam. To me this is so obviously, painfully clear, a scam. What makes me mad is there are people out there looking to take advantage of unsuspecting and hopeful people.

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## DooLittle

That's funny.  Just this morning a gal I work with showed me an email she had gotten in response to her inquiry about a puppy.  It was written much the same way and sounded very sketchy.  And all of a sudden seller is in different state, and for $350 (for puppy and shipping) it would be delivered to her front door and she gives money the delivery person.  Um, yeah...

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## Daybreaker

I want to say that's a scam unfortunately.

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## Chkadii

That ad is ridiculous. Asking for an adoption/sale fee IS how people protect horses they can't keep. Free horses end up getting sold by the pound for their meat; asking for more than that ensures the flippers can't make a profit that way. Also, I didn't spend much time looking at the pictures (I got too angry about the scam), but isn't that a Friesian? That's not exactly a backyard horse breed. A quarter horse or cross I could understand, but this breed isn't common enough that people wouldn't be able to sell it for decent money. I'm always skeptical of too good of a deal and sob story driven provenances. A good product (appliance, horse, snake) should be able to be sold on its own merit, not value assigned to it through emotional manipulation. 

I'm sorry your girlfriend has to deal with this sort of thing. I can't imagine how many people think they're about to get their dream horse and end up heartbroken and without some money that could've gone to a real horse. Meanwhile, there are good horses that end up as dog food because of the seller's misguided intentions (free to a good home!) or lack of visibility because people get caught up by the scams. 😣  It's so frustrating!

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## SnowShredder

> That ad is ridiculous. Asking for an adoption/sale fee IS how people protect horses they can't keep. Free horses end up getting sold by the pound for their meat; asking for more than that ensures the flippers can't make a profit that way. Also, I didn't spend much time looking at the pictures (I got too angry about the scam), but isn't that a Friesian? That's not exactly a backyard horse breed. A quarter horse or cross I could understand, but this breed isn't common enough that people wouldn't be able to sell it for decent money. I'm always skeptical of too good of a deal and sob story driven provenances. A good product (appliance, horse, snake) should be able to be sold on its own merit, not value assigned to it through emotional manipulation. 
> 
> I'm sorry your girlfriend has to deal with this sort of thing. I can't imagine how many people think they're about to get their dream horse and end up heartbroken and without some money that could've gone to a real horse. Meanwhile, there are good horses that end up as dog food because of the seller's misguided intentions (free to a good home!) or lack of visibility because people get caught up by the scams.   It's so frustrating!


Yes it is a Friesian.
My girlfriend isn't very internet savvy and had never even heard of the dog scams, and to her this ad was a dream come true (her dream horse). She didn't recognize the broken english was a bad sign, and that they are in a different state. After laying out the facts she became upset with me but I think that stems from the fact that she got her hopes up.
These scammers aren't very smart though, they always use well known photos, I've seen some even with copyrights on them! I think they have you fill out an "application" because it will a lot of people feel that the ad is legit, that the person genuinely cares about the well being of their animal. But that's all fake.
Some of the ads with this picture listed it as an Arabian or even a Quarter horse. Horse reeds are as distinct as any other type of animal breeds/morphs.

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## wolfy-hound

Obvious scam. She should have picked up on the "work will not want me to ride horse to work" part.

It's so close to the typical puppy scams(that have branched out to other animals and even things) tobe painfully obvious to anyone who's been around the net.

If she's super new to the internet, I can see not being familiar with the classic setup, but the wording alone should tip off anyone familiar with horses to.

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## Konotashi

My mom's friend (a BYB of golden retrievers) fell victim to a scam similar to this. 

An out of state 'buyer' responded to one of her many ads, offering to pay more than double the asking price for a puppy, stating that they would send someone out to pick up the puppy for them and to ship it to them. 

My mom kept telling her it's a scam - she refused to believe her. I mean, come on. This person was offering DOUBLE for a puppy! How could someone pass up that offer!? 
Well, of course, it was a scam. Someone did come to the house, took the puppy, gave her a fake cashiers check for the amount specified (the doubled amount). She went to try and cash it, and the bank couldn't do anything because of course, it was fake. It was only at that point (after the puppy was already gone) she realized that my mom was right, and it was, in fact, a scam. 

It's sad that people will take advantage of others like that....

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## Badgemash

> And who gives away a horse that normally costs $5000?


 That's 2 different horses in the pics (possibly 3), and they'd both be closer to $25,000 than $5,000 (especially the one on the right, nice build for dressage). Definitely,absolutely, no question, 100% scam.

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## SnowShredder

I can't help but be honest, a lot of the times to my own disadvantage. I can't believe people can be like this! Trying to scam people out of hard earned money. It's sickening

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