By Jessica Domel
Multimedia Editor

Be careful who you sell to. The Texas Department of Agriculture (TDA) is warning Texas about a scam that could cost them money and possibly supplies.

Johnson and Karnes county residents reported to TDA that someone attempted to scam them using the guise of a hay sale.

The suspect(s) would contact someone with hay to sell and offer to send a check for more than the amount of the hay.

He/she would ask the seller to cash the check and take the extra money and wire it somewhere else.

The scammer told the hay sellers the extra money was needed to cover taxes or shipping costs associated with the hay sale.

Unfortunately, it is not.

After the hay seller wires the extra money from the check to the designated account, the victim learns the check from the buyer is worthless.

Since the supposed excess amount has already been wired, the money is lost.

Similar scams have been reported across the nation for years.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) reports fake check and money order scams can take many different forms, but the underlying con is the same. Someone offers to overpay you for a product or service, asking you to give them the overage and then leaves you in the dark.

To spot a scam like this, the BBB urges people to be suspicious of overpayments.

Even if a bank teller or employee tells you a check has cleared, days or weeks from the initial deposit date, they may find the document is false. And the depositor is on the hook for any funds withdrawn from the check.

Also, don’t send money to people you don’t know.

If something seems fishy about a purchase, alert local police or a sheriff’s department.

Reports can also be made to the BBB at BBB.org.

The BBB also offers a scam tracker to allow people to investigate illegal schemes or fraud. It can be found here: https://www.bbb.org/scamtracker/us.

TDA offers a hay hotline to Texans looking to buy or sell hay in their area. It can be found here: https://www.texasagriculture.gov/Home/ProductionAgriculture/HayHotline.