High demand, scarce supplies and rising prices for hay and other feeds due to this summer’s drought on the Prairies have made a market for online scammers, RCMP warn.
The urgency driving such transactions may cause ranchers, farmers and farm workers to make purchases “without taking time to properly verify or research production sources,” Alberta RCMP’s financial crimes team said in a release Thursday.
So far this year across Alberta’s Mountie-policed jurisdictions, various actors have scammed victims out of about $64,000, RCMP said, and “with many cases potentially not being reported, this figure could be higher.”
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Recently, the Mounties said, fraudsters have been setting up listings for hay on social media and buy-and-sell platforms — and are “requesting immediate payment before buyers have the opportunity to research the producer, see the product, or receive delivery.”
Evansburg and Grande Prairie RCMP this summer each received similar reports of transactions on the Facebook Marketplace platform, in which “a quantity of money” was sent via e-transfer but no hay was delivered and the funds were lost.
In reported cases, lost individual deposits ranged from a minimum of $1,000 to over $5,000.
RCMP in Saskatchewan issued a warning earlier this summer about similar scams, in which several farmers sent funds in advance for hay that never materialized.
It’s worth noting, RCMP said Thursday, that the potential buyers who were able to avoid being scammed are those who “refused to give deposits in advance, insisted upon speaking on the phone, and had paid cash upon delivery of goods.”
Among the “key indicators” of a potential hay scam on an online platform, RCMP said:
- sellers will typically only communicate through text messaging and avoid phone conversations;
- while sellers can be located anywhere in the world, they get the attention of buyers by showing a specific or specialized knowledge of hay products;
- the stated price will be “attractively low” and “consistent with the previous year’s market price;” and
- the seller will often insist on a deposit of about 50 per cent, but once that deposit is received, excuses about delayed delivery may follow, “and then communication stops.”
On a more positive note, the need for hay in drought-damaged regions of the West also led to the launch this summer of several initiatives to ship donated hay from Eastern Canada.
The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s Hay West 2021 program on Tuesday picked up a $25,000 contribution from Farm Credit Canada to help cover shipping costs for westbound feed. FCC also said it will put up another $25,000 in matching funds if the CFA is able to secure another $25,000 contribution.
Information about Hay West 2021 for farmers looking to supply or purchase hay is available online. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network
For more content related to drought management visit The Dry Times, where you can find a collection of stories from our family of publications as well as links to external resources to support your decisions through these difficult times.
