Ag scams net $1.5m in 2021

Australian famers and agricultural businesses sustained around $1.5 million in losses thanks to scams in 2021, with unscrupulous online classifieds for tractors and other assorted agricultural machinery topping the list of rackets.

The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission’s latest report, Targeting Scams, reveals that Australians lost over $2 billion to scams last year, with online scams increasingly the focus for fraudsters looking to make some fast money.

In the agricultural sector, fake online ads for tractors and other equipment resulted in losses of over $1.4 million, with 313 individual scams reported. Online classifieds scams accounted for losses of over $686,000, while online shopping scams totalled over $676,000.

“The most common agriculture scam reported was fake online sales for heavy machinery/tractors,” the report states.

“This was a trend that became prominent during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

“There were also significant losses to agriculture businesses from false billing scams. Scammers issued counterfeit invoices under real business names to farmers who purchased agricultural inputs, such as fertiliser.

“In one case, a small business owner lost over $200,000 by transferring money to a scammer’s bank account listed on a false invoice.

“Scammers also sought to obtain personal information, such as driver licences, passports, Medicare details and addresses from agriculture businesses and farmers.”

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A further 31 livestock scams were also reported, totalling $31,000 in losses, with the fraudster typically requesting a deposit for the animals ahead of delivery. Once the deposit is received, all communication from the ‘seller’ ceases, with the buyer being ‘blocked’ from the seller or the seller deleting their social media account.

In both the classified and livestock scams, fraudsters use online platforms to attract and gain the trust of potential buyers, before defrauding them of potentially large individual sums of money.

The ACCC says that the tractor and machinery classified scams take a familiar form.

“These scams targeted people looking to purchase both new and second-hand machinery,” the report found.

“The new tractor scams involved setting up fake tractor websites offering a range of agricultural machinery. To make these websites look more legitimate, scammers will use the name of another legitimate business, use the ABN of another business, and include a physical business address which is a vacant block, or belongs to another business.

“Scammers would also give the purchaser a 15-day trial period for the machinery before going through with the sale. The scammers would say the money is to be deposited to an escrow service while the trial period is running. However, the escrow business is part of the scam and is not legitimate.

“The agriculture machinery scams also appear on legitimate platforms such as Gumtree and Facebook Marketplace. These ads often request that all communication be made over email to get people off the platform where the scam could be detected.”

Click here to view the ACCC’s Targeting Scams report.

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