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Anyone been a victim of an equipment scam?

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emmett518

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2021
Messages
832
Location
USA
Have purchased several machines out of state. Coordinated with seller to have a local cat dealer come and inspect the item and instruct the mechanic to only give me the report. After any price negotiation I’ve always used a third party escrow agent of my choosing where the money is not released until it is on the shippers lowboy. Sometimes the seller will pay for half the escrow fee and sometimes I have to eat it but Ive always slept well after wiring the money.
I bought my backhoe from an independent dealer in Indiana. Hired the Deere dealer to do an inspection, and check serial number before I paid for it.
 

emmett518

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 24, 2021
Messages
832
Location
USA
My wife and I both work hard for our money as well. We both grew up working hard on dairy farms. Yes I looked at a satellite photo and saw the gas station. I screwed up and I’ll never get the money back. I’m just trying to warn other people so it doesn’t happen to them.
Trump should send a navy seal crew to chase these clowns down, and chop off their hands.
 

Jhnbenton

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2025
Messages
4
Location
Burney calif
i went through and equiptment scam myself , not sure what or if i can do anything about it, but last week i seen add for 2018 john deere 333g skid steere from dg equiptment out of PA, ended up wireing $38,700 to them , and was supose to be on truck and shipped next day,and called them the day it was supose to be shipped and all of sudden there not acepting calls and cant get ahold of them, then i typed in name in search on internet comes up a scam website
 

HarleyHappy

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
3,410
Location
So NH
Occupation
Welder/Mechanic
Not sure if this was in jest but a couple of questions.
Why in the heck would you buy a skid steer from Pennsylvania if you are in California? Was it that good of a deal?
Did it not ring any bells that you had to wire full money up front, without even seeing it.
You couldn’t maybe pay a deposit and have it shipped?
If I were to buy a anything that was over 1k, I would spend the money to go look at it, myself.
But then, I ordered a drive motor from Fridays Parts 2 weeks ago for a little under 1k and was supposed to be delivered today and just got e-mail saying delay and out of stock, and they still got my money.
Guess it can happen, one way or another.
 

LCA078

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 29, 2019
Messages
721
Location
Austin, TX
There is something to be said of buying equipment from Ritchie Bros or other well established auction houses where you at least you know they are reputable enough not to scam folks from the equipment not existing. Sure, all of their equipment is buy-beware but at least you're pretty certain you're going to get what you see in their pics...even if it is junk. I wouldn't trust one-off dealerships or anyone that I personally don't know.
 

BC Placer gold

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 6, 2014
Messages
1,166
Location
Enderby, Bc Canada
We have had several really good buys at Ritchie's (Nisku & Chilliwack). There are a fair amount of fees but if one sticks with a (upper) price it can definitely work out well. Staff, especially in Edmonton were really helpful.

We did have a "loser" last winter when I bought a 2017 F150 eco boost....completly my fault as I didn't inspect in person. In hindsite I could hear the rattling cam phasers on their engine run video!
 

Georgia Iron

Senior Member
Joined
May 6, 2012
Messages
1,319
Location
USA - Georgia
Occupation
Concrete building slab and grading contractor
Well I got scammed on gunbroker. Guy had a nice rifle listed it was expensive. I first emailed and asked for more pictures which he sent. I bid on and bought it. At that point you can get the persons phone number. I called him and said I was not comfortable paying the full amount up front. He said ok he would mail it to my dealer and take 1/2 upfront and then the other 1/2 once the dealer got it

He asked me to send him the money with Zell. I did. He then stated that the gun was seized by the atf and could not send it till I sent full payment. Long story short someone hacked the gunbroker site changed some basic information on an account. Such as the phone number. Then he avoided the address change issue by me using Zell.

If I had used a certified mail mo and the post office it would have been investigated by the postal service. Also gunbroker would have flagged an address change. So it would have raised red flags. Gunbroker was no help. I lost my money because I used zell.
 
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Jhnbenton

New Member
Joined
Mar 2, 2025
Messages
4
Location
Burney calif
Not sure if this was in jest but a couple of questions.
Why in the heck would you buy a skid steer from Pennsylvania if you are in California? Was it that good of a deal?
Did it not ring any bells that you had to wire full money up front, without even seeing it.
You couldn’t maybe pay a deposit and have it shipped?
If I were to buy a anything that was over 1k, I would spend the money to go look at it, myself.
But then, I ordered a drive motor from Fridays Parts 2 weeks ago for a little under 1k and was supposed to be delivered today and just got e-mail saying delay and out of stock, and they still got my money.
Guess it can happen, one way or another.
Yea stupid on my part , been looking for john deere 333g fow awhike now with good price that i could afford and seen one that had under 1000 hrs on it for $36000 then another $2,700 for shipping . And i cant find john deere with that low of hrs for under $60,000 . But i had to learn the hard way if that good of deal probaly would have already been taken
 

Shimmy1

Senior Member
Joined
Aug 14, 2014
Messages
5,558
Location
North Dakota
There is something to be said of buying equipment from Ritchie Bros or other well established auction houses where you at least you know they are reputable enough not to scam folks from the equipment not existing. Sure, all of their equipment is buy-beware but at least you're pretty certain you're going to get what you see in their pics...even if it is junk. I wouldn't trust one-off dealerships or anyone that I personally don't know.

With the popularity of online auctions, and the smallness of the world due to the internet, I will not waste one second of my time anymore on auction purchases. You have almost zero chance anymore of getting a good enough buy to have room for minor repairs, much less substantial ones. The last purchase I made on an auction required me to spend almost $30k in repairs to a scraper. Yes, sure, I have a new one now, but I lost 2 weeks that fall getting it acceptable to go to the field.

Anyone anymore that gets scammed out of money purchasing a machine they didn't physically inspect and pay for in person deserves it IMO.
 

HarleyHappy

Senior Member
Joined
Sep 30, 2020
Messages
3,410
Location
So NH
Occupation
Welder/Mechanic
Sorry, while I understand that comment, that you deserve what you get, or get what you deserve but I think since Able ended up with Eve, men have always looked for a better deal, or maybe the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Lol
I agree, since the advent of the internet, no longer do I need to subscribe to multiple platforms for gun values and keep them in my head, I can just look it up on my phone or computer.
There was a time, I was a walking encyclopedia for gun values and even had serial numbers by block for certain items I was interested in.
That still doesn’t stop me from still looking for deals.
I will say they are harder and fewer than before but it still doesn’t stop me from looking and hoping.
While I can cast stones and ask some hard questions, I still grasp the concept and belief that there are deals out there.
So some adds and stuff trip my question meter, there are some that I probably never see.
The obvious stuff, is well, quite obvious but if it’s just a really good deal and it’s something I want or need, I will look at it, or at least inquire.
I almost tried to buy a backhoe that was listed in the town next door for 35k that should have been 50k.
I spent 3 hours driving around the town trying to get a look at it.
Then the guy called me back and explained, he had cancer and was in a hospital in Idaho and he lived in the town next to me.
If I paid for half the backhoe, it would give him enough money to go out there and get a Hotshot to haul it back, as it was at his daughter’s place.
If I paid laughed at him, wished him well and chalked it up to a lesson learned.
There are a lot of ****** people out there, that are perfectly comfortable putting more work into scamming people, than actually working.
Moral of the story.
Never quit looking for great deal, just investigate as best as you can and hold your cards close to your vest.
Ha, I should write country songs. lol
 

highwayghost

Senior Member
Joined
Nov 1, 2019
Messages
385
Location
Pittsburgh, PA
Occupation
Emissions Analyst, Retired
I had a similar experience. The backhoe was in another state. Seller wanted me to wire money and he has his own shipper. When I told him that I needed to see it first and I would drive out, bring a truck and pay him on the spot. There were no more replies. I would rather waste a little time and money driving to check first instead of loosing big time $$
 

Mobiltech

Senior Member
Joined
Jan 14, 2014
Messages
2,052
Location
Sask.
Occupation
Self employed Heavy duty mechanic
I had a similar experience with a buddy of mine who found an atv online that was a 15 hour drive away but was a great deal. He called me up and said I’m going to send them the money and they will ship it here. I said wait a minute sounds like a scam. He got a bit defensive and repeated it’s a really good deal. I don’t want to miss it. I said ok easy test for a scam is to message him and say you have someone who lives nearby and they will come look at it. He sent the message and right away the seller said oh the machine won’t be here we are moving to another province and it is in transit. At this point I said its Definitely a scam ,he says but it’s a really good deal. I said ok then message them back and say you happen to have someone at the new location to look at it. He did that and they quit responding. I said well now do you see it’s a scam!
 
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