The US Federal Trade Commission has warned farmers about fraudsters who pose as farm equipment businesses, take payment for machines and never deliver them, Farms.com reports. "Scammers posing as farm equipment businesses are selling (fake) farm equipment to farmers, who end up empty-handed," the agency said in a consumer alert on 15 September.

The cases follow a pattern. A buyer asks about a machine, the seller sends a purchase agreement and invoice, asks for a wire transfer and sets a delivery date, and then the delivery never arrives while the seller makes excuses or stops answering.

Steve Hunt of El Paso County, Colorado, told Fox 21 News he found exactly the John Deere 310 backhoe he wanted for about $20,000 through a business called Platte Machinery Group; the machine due on a Thursday in March never came. On 18 September a person from North Charleston, South Carolina, reported losing $44,000 to Bedford Farm Equipment through the Better Business Bureau's Scam Tracker, and in July someone from Round Rock, Texas, lost $24,000 to DFF Equipment after receiving fake freight load details.

Police have caught some of the operators. Early in September Bogdan Alexandru Gherghevici was arrested and faces federal wire fraud charges for defrauding Georgia farmers and others through a fake farm equipment business; he and a co-conspirator allegedly took more than $600,000.

The fake sites may be easy to build. Farms.com said it asked ChatGPT to create a farm equipment sales site with invented listings, such as a 450 hp "HarvestPro 8800" combine, and the tool produced one in under a minute. Buyers are advised to check a seller before wiring money for any machine bought online. The report was written by Diego Flammini.

Photo: Amy Mingo / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0)

Source: Farms.com