A few months ago, macadamia farmer Ken Brown spotted an ad for a second-hand tractor that seemed too good to be true.
The sellers were asking for $22,000, "which was cheap for a Massey Ferguson tractor", he says.
Wary, he called them up and asked where the tractor was located.
"He said 'Alice Springs, right in the centre of Australia, no one is going to travel that far to look at a tractor' — that is what made me suspicious," Mr Brown says.
If Mr Brown wanted to inspect the tractor first-hand, it would have been a long drive from his property near Lismore, NSW.
"They just picked Alice Springs because it's an inaccessible place to get to," he says.
But even if he happened to be in the area, Mr Brown was told inspections weren't possible. Here's a snippet from the email he received:
"Due to the nature of these sales, on-site inspection is not possible. Our asset providers (banks and leasing firms) are unable to welcome visitors for the obvious reason that they are not a shop for second-hand machinery nor do they want to become a public fair. Hence why we are in charge to facilitate the sale, transaction, and shipping of these units."
Mr Brown was told the business was a "neutral facilitator between the seller and the buyer" and its stock was owned by banks and leasing companies trying to recoup losses from businesses and individuals.
They told him they had a so-called "buyer protection program" which would allow him to trial the equipment for 15 days — but he had to pay money into third-party account first.
The sale terms stipulated that the tractor wouldn't be prepared for shipment until after Mr Brown provided proof of payment, while claiming in capital letters "WE DO NOT TOUCH YOUR MONEY".
The contact sent him a document with a "test, return and refund" guarantee, an Australian Business Number (ABN) and an Australian Securities and Investments Commission logo.
After adding up all the warning signs and talking it over with a mate, Mr Brown replied to the email saying he thought this was all a scam.
He says he didn't get a response, but it appeared the website was taken down — it's unclear if they took it down themselves or if the site was shut down.
Northern Territory Consumer Affairs Deputy Commissioner Rebecca Davey says Mr Brown's story is fairly typical.
The organisation's Facebook page is a long stream of screenshots of fake tractor and caravan retail websites that have been taken down.
Earlier this year, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) warned tractor scams were on the rise.
Between January 1 and August 31, the ACCC had received reports of more than $1 million in losses to similar scams.
How do scam sites get taken down?
Ms Davey says it's a long, protracted process to have a website pulled down.
That's because a lot of scammers will use overseas hosts for their websites – which means it's out of the organisation's jurisdiction.
"We'll contact them and ask them to shut them down and provide evidence of why we think it's a fraud," she says.
"Most are quite happy to comply with our request and happy to shut them down.
"We can report it to ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and they can sometimes get them taken down."
They also report the sites to the NT police's cyber crime unit.
But all this can take time and the longer the website is visible, the greater the chance that more people could be scammed.
And shutting down one website doesn't necessarily stop the scammers.
Ms Davey says scammers will often resurrect the same website on a different hosting service or use a slightly different URL.
Often, they'll keep just drop or add one letter.
"They're very quick at doing that too, that's the problem.
"We can get them shut down if we're successful, but they'll pop up again."
Scammers using legit business names
Another problem is that scammers will often impersonate a legitimate business.
They might display an ABN, an 11-digit number unique to a business, which is searchable on the Australian Business Register.
But that ABN won't be theirs — it'll belong to another business.
So a victim might see that ABN on a fake tractor website, look it up and see the number is linked to a legitimate registered business, giving them a false sense of security.
Ms Davey says it's hard to say for sure how scammers are targeting businesses to misuse their information, but some businesses were easier targets than others.
"If a business might be bit old school and doesn't have a website and doesn't have a social media account, it's a lot easier to impersonate them online.
"We're only guessing though, what we do know is they're quite sophisticated."
She says this means there are two victims — the customers being tricked into handing over money, and the business being imitated.
"It's a real concern for business if there are scammers out there impersonating them and selling their goods to people that will never arrive.
"That can impact their reputation."
While it's an impost for small to medium-sized businesses, she says it's a good a idea to regularly do internet searches for their name and ABN and see if anything comes up that looks suspicious.
How can consumers protect themselves?
Ms Davey says people should be very wary of prices that are much lower than other businesses.
She recommends asking for a live video call of the sales yard when a supplier is too far to travel to for an inspection.
"That's when the scammers will usually come up with really great stories about why they can't do that," she says.
"A legitimate business with a sales yard with products to sell would have no problem with that."
Mr Brown says image details threw up some red flags for him — so look out for inconsistencies in the photos of products and their descriptions.
He says he saw a photo of one tractor that was supposedly in Queensland, but there was snow on the mountains in the background.
"Some of the big cars and utes in the background, they're the big American F100 utes — they're careful not to show number plates."
Ms Davey says to look up the business address on Street View on Google Maps to see if the building matches what you'd expect the business to look like.
She says it was also a good idea to call neighbouring businesses you see on the map and ask them about the business you're wary of.
And it doesn't hurt to do an internet search of the business name along with the word "scam" or "fake" to see what comes up.
Remember that customer reviews aren't always genuine — sometimes scammers will create separate accounts to generate a false five-star rating.
Ms Davey says that, while some businesses will operate by asking for a bank transfer, paying with a credit card might offer more protection if it turns out you are dealing with scammers.
"Always try to use a secure method by PayPal or credit card.
"You might be able to get a charge back."
But it's not just money scammers are targeting — ACCC Deputy Chair Mick Keogh warns people against giving out too much personal information.
"Legitimate sellers will only ever ask for enough information to deliver what you've ordered, so it is important not to give too much personal information over the phone or online as you may fall victim to identity theft," Mr Keogh says.
Scammers are getting more advanced
"The scammers have come along ways in the past few years," Ms Davey says.
"The onus really falls back on us to be really careful."
Mr Brown says he's still disturbed by the close call.
He says the experience made him limit his search to a drivable distance, so he could physically see what he was buying.
How do you report a scammer?
People are encouraged to report scams to the ACCC's Scamwatch, regardless of whether they've lost money or not.
You can report cybercrimes to police through the Australian Cyber Security Centre's online reporting portal.
If you're concerned you're a victim of identity theft, you can contact IDCARE, a not-for-profit charity that describes itself as Australia's national identity and cyber support service.
The ACCC also recommends Lifeline for crisis support to help with emotional distress about scams and Beyond Blue for support for anxiety and depression.
