The convenience of finding animals on platforms like Facebook can be a double-edged sword, as it also attracts its fair share of scammers. But fear not, fellow homesteaders and farmers, for this guide will equip you with the knowledge to distinguish genuine farms from those who are out to scam you. In this post, we'll explore some of the most common red flags, both subtle and glaring, that can help you navigate these virtual livestock markets with confidence.
Red Flags in Scammers' Group Profiles
To view someone's group profile, simply click their name from a post or comments within the group. You will then see a summary of their group activity, how long they've been in the group, and some other tidbits of info about them.
They have recently joined the group - Within the last week or two. Scammers do not usually stick around for long before admins block them and they have to create a new profile and rejoin the groups they like to scam in. You can see this on their group profile in the Intro section where it says "group member since" and the date. 
Red Flags in Scammers' Main Profiles
To find a person's main profile, click on their group profile, click the three dots, and click the button that says "View Main Profile".
Their profile was recently created - If their account was pretty recently (within the last 2 months) created, this is a sign that something is amiss. Name on profile doesn’t match name on FB link - If you look at the main profile and go to share their FB profile, there will be a link that contains their name. If this link doesn't match the name on their profile, they are probably using a stolen or hacked FB account and changed the name to fit. Check-ins or page likes at multiple international locations - Not that people can't travel, but sometimes scammers from other countries use their personal accounts to scam people. They have multiple profile pictures of different people - If you click on their profile picture, you can view it up close. You can then swipe to view previous profile pictures. Scammers tend to have several very different people in their profile pictures. They have a very small number of friends - Scammer profiles usually have less than 100 friends, and oftentimes less than 50. Comments their farm page on everything - Scammers comment to direct people to their farm pages. They comment something along the lines of "Contact [him/her/them], [he/she/them] got some available", "pm me if still searching" "they got some available"... Oftentimes they use these emojis 👇👇👇. This is the best and most accurate way to tell if someone is a scammer. Profile pictures are low-quality or grainy - Scammers steal other people's profile pictures to use as their own by screenshotting and reuploading them, which lowers the photo quality. This scammer's profile picture is a grainy meme and her other profile pictures were all different people:
Red Flags on Scammer Farm Pages
The farm page that scammers recommend is an easy way to find potential red flags.
Their farm name and posts are grammatically incorrect - Often they won't use proper capitalization in their names, For example, their name might be "Texas poultry farm" instead of "Texas Poultry Farm". They will also use incorrect grammar in their comments, posts, and messages. Pictures of animals are grainy and/or too professional - Scammers will use stolen photos or stock photos of the animals they are pretending to sell. Descriptions of their photos are scammer copypasta - Pictures on their farm page will usually be captioned with "Got some available" and the same blurb over and over again about how beautiful their animals are. Pictures have inconsistent or completely different backgrounds - Their pictures will almost always have inconsistent backgrounds, colors, and lighting because they are stealing photos from other farms and using them as their own. If you are on your computer, right click on a photo and press "Search This Image With Google Lens" or it can be done on your phone by saving/screenshotting the photo and uploading it to the Google app to do a reverse image lookup. If the photo they're using can easily be found on Google anywhere other than their own farm site, it is likely a scam. Posts/pictures have few or no likes/comments - There will be few to no likes on their photos and hardly any comments. If you see angry reactions on every post, that is a common warning sign from other people that someone is a scammer. They make dozens of posts all on the same day - In their attempts to set up a profile or farm page that looks "real", they'll post a whole bunch at once and hardly post at all outside of that. Farm page contains multiple photos of extremely rare or expensive breeds - African Grey Parrots, Ayam Cemani chickens, Mandarin ducks, and Vorwerk chickens are all part of this. Scammers are banking on the excitement of someone who thinks they're about to buy a rare breed for a steal to blindly run past all the red flags.
Farm page is named "XXXXX for sale near me" or "XXXXX available near me" - It's not actually near you. They do this to try to cast as wide of a net as possible and not limit their pool of people to scam to one specific area.
Pictures show the wrong things in the background - If you're local to Texas, for example, you'll probably be pretty aware of when the grass is dead or flourishing. So if someone is posting photos of flourishing grass in the middle of winter and claiming that they just took those photos, be wary. Bad grammar, improper pronouns, and overusing words inappropriately - English is not the first language of many scammers. They will often mix up pronouns (he/she/they/him/her/them, e.g. "Contact her, they have some available." I've also seen scammers use "please" at the end of every sentence, because they are trying to sound nice and respectful to keep you on board.Red Flags While Messaging Scammers
If you're messaging a potential scammer, there are lots more red flags to look for before handing over money.
They’re adamant on shipping - Scammers do not live in the U.S. and do not have the animals that you are trying to buy from them, so they cannot let you come pick the animals up at their farm because they do not exist. Scammers will also tell you that they ship animals through their "shipping carrier" (more language to watch out for). They refuse or try to get around seeing you in person - Short of anything biosecurity related, if someone will not let you meet them in person and give you their farm address where you can pick up the animals, it is likely a scam. If they do give you your address, it's worth it on a high dollar transaction to either look them up in a breed registry to make sure that the address matches the person, or look up what county the address is in, Google [County Name] CAD, go to the address lookup, and see if that person is an owner of the address in question. If someone does not want to give out their address and wants to arrange a meeting place instead, it's not necessarily a scam, but there is a notable difference in someone that is uncomfortable around strangers and someone who is actively trying to scam. They refuse send videos or photos of individual animals - This is because they do not have the animals you are trying to buy from them and they physically cannot send pictures of individual animals. If a person is a real person who really wants to sell you their animals, they will provide you with the pictures you request. They send the same pictures or more stock pictures when you ask for more photos - This is because they do not have the animals you are trying to buy from them. Utilize reverse Google Image searching above to confirm this if you are in doubt. They ask you to pay via gift cards or money order - This is scammer 101. A legitimate breeder has no need for gift cards.
They ask you where you are located first or refuse to give a location - Scammers do this either so they claim to be located nearby, or so they can claim to have "actually just moved out of the area" or they're "out of town" or "live too far away to meet," depending on how their particular scam works. Deal is too good to be true. If it seems too good, it’s more than likely a scam - Think you're getting a great deal on some rare breeds or a hen/breeder at the peak of their productive use? It's probably a scam. It's not hard to sell rare breeds for full asking price, and scammers can almost guarantee that you're going to send them money immediately if they bait you with a good enough price. For example, if someone is asking $1,000 for a heavily pedigreed goat that I want, I'll probably hold off on providing a deposit and go see the animal in person first, or sit and think on it for a few days. If someone was selling that same goat for $100, I would immediately want to send them a deposit so I can claim the animal and make sure I don't miss out on the deal. Scammers are playing on this fear of missing out to try to get some money from many people as fast as possible - of course they could get $1,000 for this animal (if they actually had it, which they don't) but they could easily get $100 from 10 different people in less than a few minutes for way less work if they just lower the price to be a too-good-to-be-true amount!How many red flags can you spot in this photo?
Be sure to share with friends, and comment to tell us what you think!