Wiring Funds to Purchase a Horse? Beware of Hackers and Thieves!
By Rebecca Rigdon-Blake with Liz Cornell Rebecca Rigdon-Blake, an FEI dressage trainer and competitor in southern Cali-
fornia, recently had a frightening experience in the final hours of closing on the purchase of two Warmbloods in Europe. Here she shares her nightmare in her own words so that other equestrians won’t experience the same type of cyber-theft and deceit.
Happy, Successful Trip In January I took a horse shopping trip to a friend’s stable in Amsterdam that seemed to go along without a hitch. I brought a client along who was also in the market for a horse and we looked at more than 60 horses, found two we absolutely fell in love with and came home 72 hours later on cloud nine. Once the decision was made to purchase the
two horses, I spoke to our good friend, a reputable agent many Americans know, Egbert Kraak of Craecken Stables several times by telephone. Like any other standard purchase, we discussed the vetting results and he emailed me the purchase and sales contract. When it came time to get the bank account information for wiring funds, he told me on the telephone that his wife Julie was emailing me the
bank details even as we continued to discuss the vettings in more detail. Within the next ten minutes, I received the expected email from Julie—or so I thought. The first paragraph in the email detailed both horses’
vetting results. Next were the bank’s wiring instructions and other details that all appeared legitimate. As agreed in our sales contracts, my client and I each made our way to our banks and proceeded with our wire transfers. Five business days went by and Egbert had not received the funds, so we sent him a copy of both of our wire transfer receipts with all of our information by email. On day seven we received an email from Egbert’s wife that the money was finally received and we could all “rest well” that the funds had arrived.
The Nightmare Discovery However, on day eight I received
a call from Egbert, who explained he could not send the horses on their sched-
uled flights because he had not yet received the funds. “What are you talking about?” I exclaimed. “Your wife sent me an email yesterday telling me that the funds had come through!” His response sent shivers up my spine: “She never sent you that email.” Within a matter of minutes, we discovered that someone had hacked into his wife Julie’s email and was corresponding
Rebecca Rigdon-Blake stands with the two new Warmbloods that arrived safely from Holland. Rebecca was one of the lucky ones who recouped her money when wired to an email hacker’s foreign bank account when purchasing them.
Warmbloods Today 25
Courtesy Rebecca Rigdon-Blake
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