The Federal Trade Commission has recently received reports of online scams targeting farmers looking for farm equipment. The scammers pretend to be individuals or businesses with farm equipment for sale. The online ads, however, are fake, and the farmers who purchase the equipment wind up empty-handed and out thousands of dollars.
How the scam plays out
A farmer looking for farm equipment sees an advertisement on social media with a good price from what looks like a legitimate business. Or the farmer searches online and finds an ad from a known business, possibly one the farmer has dealt with before. The farmer contacts the seller, who sends a purchase agreement and invoice to the farmer. The seller asks for payment (either a deposit or full payment) to be made by wire transfer or payment app and schedules a delivery date. Unfortunately, the farmer never receives the equipment. The seller, actually the scammer, either no longer answers messages or gives some excuse (like a problem with the delivery truck). The farmer's money is gone, and there is no farm equipment.
How to avoid these and other impersonation scams
- Investigate any ad before you buy. Social media companies might not vet all ads, so search online for the company or business name along with the words "scam" or "complaint."
- Remember: paid ads often appear first in search results. To make their scams appear legitimate, scammers sometimes place paid ads, which usually appear first in search engines. The scammers impersonate real businesses but use their own contact information instead of the real company's info. Scroll past the paid ads at the top of the search results and instead use the unpaid search results farther down the list. And confirm you have the correct website and contact information.
- Be wary of anyone who insists that you can only pay by a certain method. Scammers often insist that you pay using wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency, or payment app. These methods are hard-to-trace. Once scammers get their money via one of these methods, it is nearly impossible for you to get it back.
For more information on spotting and avoiding scams, check out the article Slam The Scam 2026.