Farmers have fallen victim to online machinery scammers who cloned the identity of a UK company and set up a website, based in Moscow, called County Plant Equipment Sales.

The website advertises machinery, including JCBs and tractors, and offers delivery to Irish farmers for £520 (€600) excluding VAT.

Separately, the Irish Farmers Journal has learned that another online machinery scam is also operating in France, with one Irish farmer losing €30,000 to the con artists.

“I would say there’s an awful lot of farmers getting stung for €4,000 to €5,000 and they are too ashamed to admit they got sucked into it,” said John Marren, a beef and sheep farmer from Sligo.

Marren avoided paying a deposit for a tractor when he realised the deal was too good to be true.

Emails between farmers and the UK scam company, seen by the Irish Farmers Journal, show a clear modus operandi.

The JCB is currently held in our warehouse near Plymouth and we have no personnel available there to arrange a viewing/inspection of the vehicle

Farmers are told a number of people are looking at the same machine and urged to transfer a deposit to a bank account to secure the machine.

When farmers offer to travel to the UK to view the machine before purchase, they are put off by the scam company.

“The JCB is currently held in our warehouse near Plymouth and we have no personnel available there to arrange a viewing/inspection of the vehicle (shortage of workers),” one email to a farmer in Galway reads.

“We have two more persons interested in buying this JCB so please let me know as soon as possible if you will buy it.”

The email provides a company number that can be checked on the UK Companies House register.

The majority of those conned are from Ireland, with some from other European countries such as Poland and Romania

The company listed on Companies House is a subsidiary of a legitimate UK-based parent company called County Finance Group Ltd in Leicestershire. It has reported the identity theft to police and Action Fraud UK.

A director of County Finance Group told the Irish Farmers Journal that its subsidiary, County Plant and Equipment Sales, has not been active for 10 years.

She said their company had been contacted by farmer victims of the scam. The majority of those conned are from Ireland, with some from other European countries such as Poland and Romania.

A farmer in the west of Ireland was conned out of €30,000 by a machinery con artist based in France.

After several emails and a number of phone calls, he transferred €30,000 to a bank account for two tractors – a Valtra and a John Deere.

“I didn’t go to see the tractors. They put me under pressure to put down a deposit. I dragged out paying them for a week and they sent me an email saying that the tractors will be sold to someone else if I didn’t pay for them. The man on the phone was so believable.

“I had a haulier lined up to bring them back from Cherbourg. They were to arrive there on a Wednesday, but never arrived. I rang the man and asked where they were. He said ‘sorry my friend the haulage company got delayed, they arrive on Friday’.

"It was then I checked the registration plates and they weren’t real. I called the number back and it didn’t exist. He had his money and I had nothing. I’m down €30,000. I’ve made a massive mistake.”