Farmers have been warned of a fake farm machinery website claiming to be based in Ireland and trading in farm equipment. Source: FarmIreland
The company which lists an address in Limerick has already ripped off a Lithuanian farmer for as much as €19,000 when she tried to purchase a tractor off the website.
The woman said she had bought a tractor on Done Deal from a company in Ireland and processed €19,000 to TSB account in Oldbawn in Tallaght.
Liveline revealed the name of the company to be Sam Cross Farming Limited highlighting that there is a legitimate company in Limerick called Sam Cross which it said “has nothing to do with this”.
It was further revealed that the photos on the website are from a totally legitimate sales company in the UK called Farol Transport Guy Champion, Sales and Marketing Director with Farol Transport rang in to say that he became aware of the website a day or two after it went live when one of his export customers informed him.
“Straight away I was gobsmacked. It shows our buildings, our machines and our staff.
“Someone must have a degree in Photoshop because some of the pictures have Irish plates on our machines. They have been very clever,” he said.
Mr Champion said he had not heard of anyone yet who has been scammed but said there are quite a lot of scams for agricultural machinery and this is one of the most ‘sophisticated ones’ he had seen for a while.
“The website is being hosted in Russia. I rang them straight away and asked them about it. You could tell that they don’t have Irish accidents.
“I asked the guy who answered how long it would be before he would take the site down because they’re a fraud.
“They said they don’t believe they are. I said you are and the police are involved,” Mr Champion said.
He went on to say that he was going to keep ringing the number to annoy them but they have now blocked his number.
“I could tell straight away that he is Eastern European. The price of some of the machinery is half the price of what it should be,” he warned.
