‘Moose’ the horse doesn’t exist: protecting yourself from horse-sale scams on Facebook
“I’m sorry if I’ve got this wrong but… isn’t this you?” - the message pops up on my phone from Instagram DMs. My stomach lurches and I open my phone. Waiting for me is a message from someone and a screenshot from a Facebook Group named ‘Horses for Rehoming’. In it, is a post with images of me and Harley… only… they are being used to sell a horse called ‘Moose’:
Screenshot from Facebook
I’m horrified. It’s happened again. This is the second time in as many months that someone has taken images of myself and Harley and used them in a scam ‘for sale’ post - usually in large Facebook groups - this one has over 97K followers and the previous group had thousands of followers. The first time it happened, I immediately joined the group and commented on the post, stating that it was a scam and they were my photos - I also asked my followers to help me do the same:
Unfortunately, these scammers are clever - they often filter out words in comments such as ‘scam’ and ‘stolen’ so that any comment using those words is immediately hidden. On posting in both of these instances, I was immediately blocked by the admins.
So, how can you protect yourself against scams if you are looking for a new horse?
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to see a post is a scam from the comments because of the reasons above, but there are a few things you can do to protect yourself against horse-sale scams.
Google’s Reverse Image Search
Use Google's reverse image search - here’s instructions on how to use that tool. See the image’s original source - does it match up with what you were expecting, or has the image(s) been stolen? Bear in mind that images may have been posted by the previous owner of the horse and used in the advert, but this should be easy to ascertain and at least help you tell the difference between that and a fake testimonial. At the very least, the horse should have the same name!
Check the poster’s profile
Check the pictures being shared and the profile of the person who posted them - do the 'humans' match up? (Sometimes scammers are clever and will use additional photos of the person in the stolen images, so look out for that too) - how many other photos do they have? few? or lots? Having only one or two photos can be an indication that the profile is spam.
When was the account set up? Recently set up accounts should send alarm bells
Do they have any other friends on their facebook? How many? Few friends can be (though not always) an indication of spam.
See if you have any mutual connections with the 'seller' - the horse world is a small place
Buying horses is hard enough, don't make it easier for the scammers.
