{"id":16243,"date":"2020-05-28T19:30:59","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T00:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/?p=16243"},"modified":"2020-05-28T17:19:13","modified_gmt":"2020-05-28T22:19:13","slug":"tennessee-department-of-agriculture-alerts-livestock-producers-to-possible-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/2020\/05\/28\/tennessee-department-of-agriculture-alerts-livestock-producers-to-possible-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennessee Department of Agriculture Alerts Livestock Producers to Possible Scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-407377\" title=\"Tennessee Department of Agriculture\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Tennessee-Department-of-Agriculture.jpg\" alt=\"Tennessee Department of Agriculture\" width=\"250\" height=\"101\">Nashville, TN <\/strong>&#8211; The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) is warning livestock producers about a potential scam.<\/p>\n<p>Several Tennessee cattle farmers have recently been contacted by a person or persons indicating they want to buy cattle.<\/p>\n<p><a target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Scam-Alert.jpg\"  class=\"thickbox no_icon\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-301705\" title=\"Scam Alert\" src=\"https:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/02\/Scam-Alert-480x360.jpg\" alt=\"Scam Alert\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\"><\/a><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>The supposed buyer reaches out via text, claiming that a cashier\u2019s check will be sent as payment with money added for shipping, and that the seller should contact the buyer once the payment is received.<\/p>\n<p>If the seller indicates they won\u2019t accept a cashier\u2019s check, the conversation ends.<\/p>\n<p>While a cashier\u2019s check is a standard method of payment and typically safe to deposit, sellers should first contact the financial institution where the check is drawn to ensure its validity. There may be insufficient funds associated with the transaction, or the check itself may be counterfeit. To TDA\u2019s knowledge, no Tennessee producers have fallen victim.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAlthough at this time it appears that no crime has been committed, we want farmers to be cautious,\u201d Agricultural Crime Unit Captain Greg Whitehead said. \u201cThis person appears to be targeting seedstock producers who advertised through reputable agriculture publications. Farmers have avoided being caught up in a possible scam because they\u2019ve alerted each other, their local Extension office, and TDA.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Good practices to prevent being scammed include researching the potential buyer online before agreeing to a transaction and resisting pressure to act immediately on a sale or purchase. Consumers should be wary of offers to pay over the purchase price, even if there seems to be a valid reason. This tactic is common in check cashing scams.<\/p>\n<p>If you suspect a crime has been committed, please contact the Agricultural Crime Unit at 844.AG.CRIME (844.242.7463) or <a title=\"Ag Crime Unit email\" href=\"mailto:agriculture.crime@tn.gov\">agriculture.crime@tn.gov<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nashville, TN &#8211; The Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) is warning livestock producers about a potential scam. Several Tennessee cattle farmers have recently been contacted by a person or persons indicating they want to buy cattle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[181],"tags":[9659,549,284,1714,1651,261,1632],"class_list":["post-16243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-government","tag-livestock","tag-nashville","tag-nashville-tn","tag-scam","tag-tda","tag-tennessee","tag-tennessee-department-of-agriculture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16243"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16244,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16243\/revisions\/16244"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16243"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16243"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16243"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}