Andrew Knight and family lose more than $13,000 after falling victim to online tractor scam

A Victorian family is warning others to be vigilant after losing more than $13,000 in an online tractor scam.

Australian tractor and machinery buyers are being warned to be extra vigilant online after a Victorian family was scammed out of thousands of dollars.

Melbourne-based Andy Knight said he recently paid more than $13,000 for a second-hand tractor through a legitimate-looking website — All States Machinery — only for the money to vanish and the machine to never arrive.

Mr Knight said the tractor was advertised as a 2008 New Holland TC45, and came ahead of his family’s planned move to Bundaberg in Queensland where he hoped to carry out earthworks at their new home.
He said he had spent weeks researching machinery online before paying the money.

During the sales process he had numerous interactions with the fake company, which was posing as a broker selling used equipment on behalf of farmers.

Mr Knight said he organised the payment, transferred the money to a bank account but then didn’t hear anything back from the company. The All States Machinery website then was taken down.

Mr Knight said his banking institution was unable to retrieve the funds, which amounted to $12,000 for the tractor and $1400 for shipping.

“I was shocked and disheartened it was a scam,” he said.

Andy Knight with his children Steele, Fox and Lennox.

“All of our interactions were very accurate with quotes and each email was detailed.

“There were no warning bells. They had knowledge about the tractors in detail, not just the one I was inquiring about.”

Farm machinery was hot property last year, with tractor sales exceeding 17,000 units and combine harvester sales breaking the 1000-unit mark.

Mr Knight wants the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, via Scamwatch, and banks to do more to stop online farm machinery scams.

“How many tractors scams like this are happening?” he said.

“We need a registry and directory for websites that have been used for scams.”

Mr Knight said the All States Machinery website was live again recently, but had rebranded to Amyvale Equipment, supposedly based in South Australia.

“Our authorities are too reactionary and they need to be more proactive. We need to do more to stop the scams happening in the first place,” he said.

According to an ACCC spokesman, Scamwatch received 375 reports of online scams relating to tractors or other types of agricultural machinery between January 1 last year and March 30 this year with more than $1.85 million in reported losses.

The spokesman said when purchasers are making payments they should only pay for items using a secure payment service.

“Look for a URL starting with ‘https’ and a closed padlock symbol, or a payment provider such as PayPal,” they said.

In total, the ACCC reported that Australians lost more than $200m to scammers last year.