I truly detest frauds.

[Falling]

I have several horses for sale right now- my own and a few on comission. All are really low-end price range horses right now, because honestly, I sold off the ones with the show records well before Christmas this year.

Okay, so I'm in Northern Florida- nice enough area for working/training/selling in. Why the blazes would someone from HOLLAND be attempting to buy one of my horses, and not only that- not even readig the emailed replies of- "I do not sell to overseas buyers and this email has been forwarded to FDLE's scam department." The person repeatedly asked for a final asking price on the horse (after being told it BEFORE he revealed he was out of the States) and kept giving me a story that kept changing. OH! ANd repeatedly referred to the horse as a "dog."

Even if this person was in the States or had solid-gold security and guarantees from God himself- I still wouldn't sell my horse to someone that they had beaten in the intelligence department.

Anyway: fraud alert for online sellers in the Florida/Ocala area.

Jon reeves is the name he used, and the email address was jonreeves@yahoo

Don't accept any offers from this person, and simply call your local Sheriff's department to find out where to forward the email in FDLE's office.

[dqh]

Welcome to the world of the nigerian scammers! I get emails from them constantly when I advertise horses on the net. I even play along with them for some cheap entertainment. I have some of their phony money orders that they send.

They send you the phony money order for more that the asking price on the horse (dog, car whatever is being sold) then tell you to wire the extra money to their shipper via money transfer. You lose the money you wire to them plus the bank expects you to cover the money order yourself as well.

They are very easy to pick out...very bad spelling, no punctuation, always ask the last asking price, hardly ever use the horses name...sometimes it will just be horse in brackets as they have one email they use and just change the horse to either car, quad, dog...etc.

No they are not intelligent at all....but unfortunately many people still fall for this scam. Also, there is nothing the authorities can do as these people are in Nigeria or such.
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originally dandeeqh

The more I know people
The more I love my horses

Brazil's National Horse is now in Canada! http://www.sunsetmarchadors.com

Come and check out our horse forum. New members welcome!
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[Falling]

Yeah, I had to deal with one a few years back who actually sent me a real check from a non-profit organization here in the States. It was a lot of fun helping everyone involved get things sorted out, but it wasted SOOO much of my time! Then again, I've always been incredibly paranoid, so I called the NPO directly, got through to the woman whose name was on the check, and asked her why she was buying an $8,000 horse for an arts institute. It very quickly took a much faster track than if I had been trying to track all the info down alone.

What's sad is that the newest idiot continued emailing even after I told him that I wouldn't send the horse to even a legit overseas buyer, and that I was forwarding all emails to FDLE.

It is difficult for them to prosecute these people, but what they do is keep track of the IP addresses and pass it along to other authorities- these people aren't just working in the States, they work around the globe. Anytime you get stuff like this, contact your local authorities and help them out on the database building front, please.

Side note that I found highly amusing: The Secret Service is responsible for investigating these kinds of international frauds, LOL!

[NZ Appaloosas]

Why wouldn't you sell to a legit overseas buyer? Quite frequently, especially if the breed is relatively "new" to the area, a horse shipped overseas becomes the foundation for the breed over there, and gets treated better than it could have been 'back home', being considered more valuable than it would have been in the US.

Mind you, with the border of Florida closed right now due to that EVH-1 outbreak, I guess your horses aren't even leaving the state, let alone the country.


Diane
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[Sam]

[Falling]

[Joker w]

I have had my share of scammers and frauds too, after a while you can recognize their way of writing and identify them easily enough to.
I simply read enough to figure them out, send them a nasty note and never hear from them again.

[NZ Appaloosas]

On the Fla. situation, this is what I received (I used to live in Fla., plus it has been posted on a number of email lists).

If you receive this and don't have a horse, please print it out and show it
to your neighbors who have horses. Not all horse owners in Jupiter Farms
receive these e-mails. This is super serious. If you are out of FL at this
time you need to know about this in case sick horses should manage to leave
FL. If you were planning to haul horses in or out of FL you need to check
to make sure you will be allowed to do so. These horses came from elsewhere
so you need to know what is happening here and take precautions in your
location before a problem arizes. One sick horse was shipped to CA from the
barn in NY and it died.



Thank you.



The virus that has killed five horses in Wellington to date is the EHV-1
strain. There is a vaccine for this virus but whether or not to vaccinate
your horse should be discussed with your vet as each horse and their
circumstance is different. This vaccine is only effective if a booster is
given every three months. Stadium Jumping has canceled the horse show for
this weekend and other cancellations may follow. Several barns in Wellington
are under strict quarantine, (state vets on premises with police) while
others are voluntary, but the State of FL Vets are asking everyone to keep
their horse at home for two weeks or until further notice. More information
will be known and announced in 7-14 days. At this time the FL border is
closed to all horses going in or out. Unfortunately many people are trying
to move their horses out of Wellington and it is strongly recommended that
no one take in any new boarders because they may not be honest about where
they are coming from. As the gestation of this virus is 7-21 days if your
barn is under quarantine it means your horse must stay in their stall for 21
days, or 42 days if a horse becomes sick close by. Symptoms are fever,
respiratory congestion (sneezing, coughing) and after a few days
neurological problems. Please call your vet at the FIRST sign of a problem.
Recommended precautions are as follows:

1. Anyone (Vet, Farrier, stall muckers, feed store delivery men,
trainers, riders, friends, etc.) who has been at another horse farm before
arriving at your farm should be asked to wash their hands and wipe their
boots off of all sand and dirt on a doormat then step into a bleach and
water footbath. Make a fresh footbath for each person.
2. Take the temperature of each of your horses morning and night and
record these temps on a chart. This is very important because the temps will
often go up and down a little before it spikes quite high and your horse
becomes visibly sick. Any increase in temperature is suspect. (A horses
normal temp is around 100 degrees. So any temp at or above 101 is above
normal. You should always take your horses temp when you know they are
healthy to get a baseline normal temp for your horse.)
3. Do not allow anyone to touch or work on any horse with a temp at or
above 101 degrees.
4. Have anyone working with your horses wash their hands between each
horse.
5. Keep your horses on your own farm or ride in areas away from other
horses. Do not allow your horse touch noses with any other off-farm horses.
Do not ride near other peoples property. Do not let your horses touch
anything on someone else's property, especially fences, gates, grass, etc.
that another horse might be likely to touch. Do not share water buckets or
let your horse drink out of a common water trough.
6. This virus is also airborne. If an infected horse sneezes it can
reach another horse or person at 35 feet away.
7. Anyone who has had horses in the Wellington area in the last week
please be especially careful. It would be best to separate those horses from
your other horses on your farm if possible.

This is a very serious problem and we cannot take this lightly. Once a horse
reaches the neurological stage of this disease it is fatal. It hits young
horses especially hard. It is VERY contagious. If you have any questions
please call your vet.


You may want to check into this. I was IM'ing with a friend of mine who is still in Fla. and that person knew about it.

It's a shame you won't consider legit overseas buyers--you could be missing a valuable market. I know someone who paid $10K for a gelding because they couldn't find what they wanted 'at home' as a riding animal. As a breeder, I'm obviously only interested in breeding animals <g>, but there are people who are looking for something other than say the ginormous dressage warmblood, and have no problem spending really good money for say a western-trained horse, a type that is really on the lacking side (albeit a growing discipline) in many countries.


Diane
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[Falling]

Thanks for the heads up- it's the first I'd heard of it, and gives me something to look out for besides the usual "who decided to kick down a board today" routine.

If they've closed the FL border to horses they've done a piss-poor job of it- like I said, last weekend (not the one just past, the one before) we got back some horses from a trainer in GA and sent more out. I also know for a fact that several people in the area have been back and forth to the sale barns (please forgive me, I'm shuddering at the thought) up in GA and both sold and bought horses from there.

I went ahead and bleached all the buckets and water troughs today and double-checked the horses we have at other barns (I have two boarded about three doors down, and we have a blind mare next door where they have an empty pasture where she can avoid being bullied) as well as left a note for all the boarders.

Would you mind if I copied that message you left and printed it out to pass around the neighborhood? We have about five stables and probably twenty private owners within a 3-mile radius of our barn and I'd like to give them all a heads up.

[NZ Appaloosas]

Go for it. I've only gotten the heads-up in the past few days, so it could have been something that was done after the weekend?


Diane
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[NZ Appaloosas]

From TheHorse.com


Florida Neurologic Outbreak: Tip of the Iceberg?
by: Erin Ryder, Staff Writer
December 15 2006 Article # 8435

Article Tools



The source of the current outbreak of neurologic illness in Wellington, Fla., has been traced back to a shipment of 15 horses imported from Europe the last week of November. The horses were housed together at a quarantine facility in New York. One of the 15 died after being shipped to California and was diagnosed with equine herpesvirus-1 (EHV-1). Five of the horses shipped to Florida, two of which now have neurologic signs. The whereabouts of the other nine horses are unknown at this time, but they are being tracked down by federal officials.

Three other horses in Florida have died in association with the outbreak.

Starting from the announcement that a high-performance horse show in Wellington was cancelled and one of its stars euthanatized from what appeared to be a contagious virus, the local equestrian community has scrambled to impose voluntary quarantines and deal with mandatory stop-movement orders. Veterinarians also are vaccinating or boostering many horses against equine herpesvirus.

Scott Swerdlin, DVM, MRCVS, a veterinarian with the Palm Beach Equine Clinic in Wellington, said today (Dec. 15) that most horse owners are vaccinating their horses and keeping equine movement to a minimum. Swerdlin estimates that 4,000 horses have been vaccinated in the past 48 hours.

The three horses were confirmed dead due to a viral disease strongly suspected to be neurologic EHV-1. Test results to confirm the disease on the dead animals, as well as those exhibiting neurologic signs, are expected either tonight (Dec. 15) or tomorrow.

Researchers with the University of Kentucky are currently performing both PCR and virus isolation tests on whole blood and nasal swab samples, according to Mike Short, DVM, equine programs manager for Florida's Division of Animal Industry.

"We've not seen any clinical signs outside of two areas here in Wellington, and we're managing both of those, working with the practices and veterinarians," Short said. "We've certainly got our fingers crossed that we've got it under control, but time will tell." (EHV typically has an incubation period of two to 10 days.)

"We're requesting that all horsemen in the Wellington take temperatures of their horses twice a day, and if horses are displaying a temperature of over 102, to contact their veterinarians," Swerdlin said.

"State of Florida Department of Agriculture is being very aggressive and is staying on top of everything," Swerdlin added. "All the vets are being very aggressive, and the horse owners have been very cooperative and very understanding."

The possibility of an outbreak came to many horse owners' attention when it was announced that Cosequin's CEO, a Grand Prix show jumper ridden by Debbie Stephens, had died on Sunday (Dec. 10) due to an unknown, apparently contagious illness.

According to Swerdlin, the five horses that originated in Europe and ended up in Florida are in isolation and being evaluated. Two have shown neurologic signs and are currently being treated. One of these horses (the suspected index case--the case from which all other Florida cases trace back) was stabled next to Stephens' horse on Dec. 7.

Short will be addressing area veterinarians this evening, and a USDA veterinarian will be hosting a forum on EHV at the Palm Beach Polo Equestrian Club this Saturday (Dec. 16) for area equestrians, veterinarians, and members of the general public.

Because EHV-1 can spread through direct contact or through the air, the disease is a concern where groups of horses congregate. The clinical signs of EHV-1 include fever and nasal discharge, and more rarely, neurologic signs (including an inability to control the hind limbs and tail) and abortions. Scientists definitively diagnose EHV-1 infections on virus culture from blood or nasal secretions, PCR (polymerase chain reaction test, a DNA test of blood or nasal secretions), or serology (blood antibody titers).



Diane
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[baileyandjay]

i ran across this site a little while ago, unfortunatly scams are here to stay but 1 lady fought back, in a quite hilarious manner. http://bustedupcowgirl.com/scampage.html
funny enough in one scam she dealt with they repeatedly called her horse a '"car" and we all know how inportant it is for our horses front stifles to be clean, and how tragic when one of their 3 hocks goes bad. check it out i really got a kick out of it.

[Falling]

I've just spent the last hour howling over the scampage link.

Diane, it's quite possible, and I went ahead and not only printed out a ton of copies but posted ne in the local feed store and sent a few more out to other people in the horse industry round here. So far so good- and oddly enough, I got the copy to my boss just in time, she had just gotten off the phone with a woman wanting to move up five horses from "S. Florida." She called her back and told her that she wouldn't be able to take the horses for 2 weeks- and got cussed out and screamed at. "My horses are perfectly healthy and sound!" was the basic gist of it, but she refused to say where she was coming from exactly and give us a contact number to her current barn.

So, we're on lockdown. Nothing in, nothing out (which means you can ignore my sale ad until the 15th of January) and we faxed copies to all the barn vets and cancelled farriers and vets until after the 15th. It puts my gelding and a couple of the boarders on a 14 week trim, but luckily Luke doesn't have fast-growing feet and the other two just got done before they came home. The trail-riding suspension is the worst though- everyone was looking forward to a group ride the weekend after Christmas, with a buffet lunch after.

Oh well- c'est la vie. Thanks again for all the info.

[NZ Appaloosas]

Well cool beans. I'd be more than a little suspect of someone refusing to say exactly where they are coming from (well, at least the nearest 'known' town--I know Fla. has some really tiny burbs--or did 5 years ago when I last lived there! LOL) AND refusing to give a contact number.

I feel for that woman--I'm sure she just wants to get her horses out of a hot zone, but unfortunately by doing that, she is actually risking spreading the problem. /sigh/


Diane
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"Nothing can be sliced so thin that it doesn't have two sides" Anon.

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