We have a horse in the barn for lease with an option to buy and his owner ran a two-line ad in a local horse publication. This morning we received an email that read exactly as follows:



"My Name is Sgt Derek Tang of the Persian Gulf, with members of the Hawai'i Air National Guard's 154th Security Forces Squadron. In respect of your advert,I am planning a surprise wedding gift package for my Godson and his newly wedded wife while currently on an active duty. Please update me if the horse is still available to purchase in your very last asking price. l would be looking forward to read from you soon."



The wording is a tip-off that this note is suspect, plus who would buy a horse sight unseen based on a 2-line ad, not to mention that the ad for the horse didn't mention a price; it just said we had a nice horse for lease with an option to buy.



A quick "Google" turned up the same name and a similar offer on a website warning about vacation scams. And there's a photo of a Sgt. Derek Tang on a website called the Honolulu advertiser.com who is serving our country in the Persian Gulf. Sounds like this poor guy's name got stolen off a website by scammers.



Websites warning about horse-buying scams describe this scenario: A "buyer" sends a phony cashier's check for more than the asking amount, then asks the seller to return the "overage." By the time the bank discovers that the cashier's check is phony, the seller's money is gone.



Sellers beware.