THERE I was, casually lounging in a heap on the sofa in front of the fire after a long day at the yard, cup of tea and a bit of a social media scroll. My two six-month-old colts love to wreck a feed bucket. I have the usual problem of whether to give them flat rubber buckets that they kick over or the plastic trugs that are apparently infinitely crushable. First world problems, but still, I needed to stock up on more.

Amid my state of relaxation, my eyes lit up when I saw a stack of said plastic trugs for sale on a local equestrian Facebook site. Nice profile of a woman and her child, very low-key “tack room clear-out” post with a handful of used items for sale: the feed buckets, a poo picker, some hay nets and a couple of other bits and pieces. I thought nothing of it, messaged the woman and she got back to me in a very casual friendly manner and, within a few minutes, I’d paid for my buckets and a poo picker and agreed the £8 postage fee. £28 in total, no big outlay, nice lady, postage confirmation received, done and dusted.

Tracking number

A week later, nothing had arrived. I messaged to ask if there was a tracking number, no reply. Didn’t think much of it until a friend at the yard said, “careful you’ve not been scammed.”

At first, I dismissed it, surely no one would scam me for £28, but my friend soon pointed out that there would have been 20 tired equestrians on their sofas just like me – then suddenly £28 becomes £560 – not a bad day’s wage for a few social media messages.

“Check her profile,” my friend said. So I did and, sure enough, the profile picture was now changed to someone riding a grey horse and there were maybe 15 posts with photos of horses and some references to the yard or a show, then the posts stopped – they only went back about three months. The realisation I’d been had was upon me.

The first emotion was embarrassment, then when that faded, it was anger. Not even anger for myself, but for all the other people who were scammed out of their hard-earned money in a tough enough environment of horse care. Then came shock, as I joined a Facebook group to highlight scammers and I could see just how many there are. I could see hundreds of people were being robbed – it was almost on an industrial scale. Small amounts of money across multiple buyers mainly, e.g. a picture of an Equi-Dry coat being sold as an unwanted gift or as “too big” for a daughter – just the sheer number of tags and likes show how many people are looking to grab a bargain, especially in the run up to Christmas.

The festive period is a really hard time for so many people, buying horse-mad children’s gifts is such a stretch for people and the thought of them being robbed like this is abhorrent. Facebook and Marketplace and other social media platforms have quickly become a go-to place to sell or buy used equestrian items in local communities. It’s not just yard items; it’s tack, it’s equine event tickets, it’s horses! I’d be interested to know just how many people on the island of Ireland alone have been scammed, it’s not an easy thing to admit to, I know.

What can I do about the loss of money?

In my case and cases like mine, the sad answer is pretty much nothing, because I sent the funds as “friends and family” on PayPal. If I had paid by credit card, they may have been able to help me recoup some, or all, of my money. They do a lot to protect their customers from fraud. If you are a victim of a scam, you can also notify your bank to alert them of the scam and request a refund via their fraud protection — if such service is available.

Friends and family

Scammers insist on “friends and family” payments (see my real message thread to the left), so that’s a huge red flag if you are buying from a social media ad. PayPal assumes that you’re sending the money to a trusted source, to be fair, as it says, friends or family are someone you “know and trust”. PayPal will not refund if you have sent the money via “friends and family”.

If you used PayPal using “business and services”, they will try to get a refund for you. To report a fraudulent seller to Facebook, go to Marketplace and click on the item listing. Select the seller’s name from the listing page and click “report”. This will allow you to report the seller, based on the type of scam they’ve pulled or tried to pull. Be vigilant, check profiles thoroughly, never send money via “friends and family” on PayPal. Know what red flags to look out for. If you stick with secure payment methods, verify authenticity and turn down suspicious offers or requests, you are much more likely to stay safe this Christmas.

The rest we must leave to karma.