Don’t be fooled by this type of e-mail offer:

“…payment will be a (certified check / Money order) ….

“…I have a personal shipper agent that takes good care of my consignments and ship them to there variuos destination …So my shipper agent will be at your place to pick up the “rams $200″soon as the payment is recieved by you.

“The money order will be in your name to make it easier for you to cash and as soon as you recieve the money order i will like you to cash them then deduct the money for the “rams $200″ and send the remaining balance to my shipper agent so he can contact you immediately for the pick up arrangement at your place….

“Hope to hear from you immediately.

“Leto Morgan”

Spotting Sheep Swindlers

“Well what’s wrong with that?” you say.  Plenty!

The offer had lots of language mistakes and little interest in the sheep’s details.  But many legitimate buyers are very bad typists and they’re sometimes not very literate.  How can you tell which is which?  (BTW, The full e-mail appears in the September/October 2008 issue of sheep!-page 20).

The swindler promised a certified check or money order exceeding the asking price, in order to cover shipping charges.

“Well,” you wisely think, “I’ll only send funds to the carrier after this check clears; it won’t cost me anything.”

Then you get the check, it clears, you send payment to the shipping agent, and 2 months later the truck still hasn’t come.

You’ve turned away other buyers because those sheep are “already sold.”  It gets worse:  You learn your account has been debited for a bogus certified check and you can’t find out who cashed your shipping check.

• LESSON:  Don’t deal with buyers more interested in getting the sheep than details about the sheep.

If you contemplate internet sheep profits, why not learn more about livestock scammers?  Some scammers use much better English.  In the September/October, 2008 issue of sheep! you can even read how one sheep grower scammed the scammers!

Click Here to order the September/October 2008 issue of sheep!.