EN 
LV This year, the State Police has received several reports from residents who, wanting to purchase agricultural machinery, have become victims of fraud. Potential buyers were offered to purchase non-existent agricultural machinery, thus defrauding them of advance payments of several thousand euros. The State Police once again reminds farmers to carefully evaluate advertisements placed on portals, as well as not to purchase a product that has not been seen in real life before.
! Thousands of euros scammed while offering to buy equipment
Between January 2018 and May 20, the Criminal Investigation Department of the State Police received information about at least 12 cases of this type of fraud, where farmers buy tractor equipment on advertising portals but do not receive the goods.
This year, three such cases have been registered in Kurzeme, three in Vidzeme, four in Latgale and two in Zemgale, causing farmers damage amounting to tens of thousands of euros. Since such frauds occur and may possibly recur, the State Police urges farmers to be cautious and, before making a payment, to verify the existence of the offered product.
The State Police emphasizes that this type of fraud is directly related to the purchase of agricultural machinery - fraudsters post photos of the relevant agricultural machinery and its technical description on advertising portals, offering to purchase it at a more favorable price, which is often lower than the market price.
When attracting potential buyers, fraudsters communicate with them by phone or email during the transaction. Mutual communication continues until the fraudsters send the potential customer a prepared invoice for the down payment in order to organize the further sale of the product.
Once the person has made the relevant payment, the communication ends and there is no further contact with the fraudster or the purchased item.
It has also been observed that such advertisements are also placed by fraudsters who pretend to be employees of already existing and well-known companies, as well as use similar email addresses of dealers of specific companies. In order not to fall for these advertisements, potential buyers need to carefully check how the company name and employee's email address are spelled.
Most often, similar names are created by simply changing a letter or varying the punctuation in the email address, thus deceiving and defrauding the buyer of money for non-existent tractor equipment.
Given the recent cases of fraud, the State Police urges residents to be cautious and not to purchase an item that they have not seen before. They should also not make an advance payment transfer before being certain that the item is in the seller's possession and can be sold.
Source: portal tvnet.lv