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Seller report · Farm & Ag Equipment

Is Heartland Ag Liquidators a scam?

heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com

Verdict

Yes — this is a scam.

Buyers paid, no machine was delivered, and the payment trail is documented. Treat every contact point as hostile.

Buyers paid
$412,000
Buyers on record
6
Domain age
8 months
Company
Heartland Ag Liquidators
Website
heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com
Address
Lists a 14-acre equipment yard on a county highway outside Council Bluffs, Iowa
Phone
(515) 555-0183 (VoIP, forwards to voicemail only)
Confirmed ScamOpened May 22, 2026Updated 16 days ago

Heartland Ag Liquidators advertises late-model John Deere and Case IH tractors and combines at roughly half of market, presenting itself as an estate and retirement auction clearing house in western Iowa. Every machine photograph on the site was taken from live listings on established equipment marketplaces. Six buyers wired a combined $412,000 to personal-name bank accounts against promised delivery windows of three to five days. No machine has ever been delivered, and the yard address is a fenced gravel lot with no inventory on it.

Sample recordAn illustrative report used while the live intake feed is being connected. The domain belongs to the reserved example.com documentation namespace and does not name a real business.

Machines advertised

Asking prices against real market value for the same year, hours, and specification

MachineAskingMarketUnder

2019 John Deere 6155R, 2,410 hours, IVT, 746 loader

Photos taken from Identical photo set appears on a Nebraska dealer listing at $146,900

$74,500$148,00050%

2017 Case IH 8240 combine, 1,180 separator hours, 2010 header

Photos taken from Photographs traced to a completed 2025 auction lot in Manitoba

$118,000$232,00049%

2020 John Deere 560M round baler, net wrap, approx. 9,000 bales

Photos taken from Stock manufacturer imagery with a dealer watermark cloned out

$21,500$39,50046%

A machine priced this far under the market is not a bargain, an estate sale, or a liquidation. It is the mechanism that gets a deposit sent before anyone drives out to look.

Red flags

Objective, checkable findings behind this verdict

  • Every machine is priced 45 to 52 per cent under comparable listings with the same hours and configuration
  • Domain registered January 2026 behind WHOIS privacy, while the site claims the business was founded in 1978
  • Payment is only accepted by wire or Zelle to a personal name that does not match the advertised business
  • The yard address is a padlocked gravel lot with no equipment, office, or signage on it
  • Requests a 'transport bond' after the purchase price has already been paid in full
  • Will not provide a serial or PIN before payment, and refuses dated walk-around video
  • Introduces its own escrow and transport company, which shares a server with the seller's own site
  • The claimed Iowa dealer licence number does not appear in the state register

How the deal ran

What happened, in order

  1. Jan 19, 2026

    Domain registered

    Privacy-shielded registration, CDN-fronted from the first day.

  2. Feb 14, 2026

    Inventory published

    Thirty-one machines listed, all with photographs traceable to other sellers' live listings.

  3. Mar 8, 2026

    Marketplace advertising begins

    Listings appear across five Midwest states from a seller account created weeks earlier.

  4. Apr 2, 2026

    First reported payment

    $74,500 wired for a 2019 John Deere 6155R against a promised four-day delivery.

  5. Apr 9, 2026

    Delivery window missed

    Buyer told the transport carrier had a DOT hold and a $4,200 bond was required to release it.

  6. May 22, 2026

    First report filed

    Filed with wire confirmations, the full email chain, and the reverse image results.

  7. Jul 16, 2026

    Yard address visited

    A reporting buyer found a padlocked gravel lot with no machinery and no office.

  8. Aug 21, 2026

    Second domain identified

    A near-identical site reusing the same inventory photographs and bank details went live.

  9. Sep 11, 2026

    Still live

    Site reachable, inventory updated, and the contact form still accepting enquiries.

Buyers who paid

First-hand accounts from people who sent money. Names are shortened at the reporter's request.

Marcus

Kansas

$74,500

Found the listing on Facebook Marketplace while looking for a replacement row-crop tractor before spring planting. The price was about half of what two dealers had quoted, explained as a retirement dispersal the family wanted settled quickly. The seller sent photographs, a scanned inspection report on auction-company letterhead, and a bill of sale with a dealer licence number on it. Marcus asked to come and see the tractor and was told the yard was closed to visitors during the auction wind-down but that delivery included a three-day inspection window with a full refund. He wired $74,500 on a Thursday. The following week he was told the carrier needed a $4,200 DOT transport bond. He paid that too. Then a $2,800 agricultural transit insurance certificate. After that the phone number stopped connecting.

Machine
2019 John Deere 6155R
Paid by
Domestic wire transfer
Date paid
Apr 2, 2026

R.T.

South Dakota

$118,000

Wired the purchase price to an account in a personal name after being told the business account was frozen during an ownership transfer. When the balance was requested, it was split into Zelle transfers of $4,900 each because, as the seller put it, the wire desk was closed. The beneficiary name never matched the business on the invoice at any point.

Machine
2017 Case IH 8240 combine
Paid by
Wire transfer, then Zelle
Date paid
May 11, 2026

Bill

Minnesota

$96,000

Mailed a cashier's check to an address that turned out to be a mail-forwarding box in a strip mall. The check was deposited the same day it arrived. Bill's bank told him that because he had signed and sent the instrument voluntarily, there was no recall mechanism available to him.

Machine
2018 John Deere S770 combine
Paid by
Cashier's check, mailed
Date paid
Jun 30, 2026

J.V.

Missouri

$21,500

Paid in four Zelle transfers over two days after being told the daily limit made a single payment impossible. Was given a tracking link to a transport company site that showed the baler in transit for eleven days before the page stopped resolving.

Machine
2020 John Deere 560M baler
Paid by
Zelle
Date paid
Jul 24, 2026

What we checked

Each check, and what it returned

  • Domain registration

    whois

    Registered 19 January 2026 through a privacy-shielding registrar. The site's own About page claims continuous family operation since 1978.

  • Reverse image search

    inventory

    Twenty-eight of the thirty-one machine photo sets resolve to live or completed listings held by other sellers, several with visible watermarks cloned out at the same crop coordinates.

  • Premises check

    premises

    The advertised 14-acre yard is a padlocked gravel lot with no signage, office, or machinery. The parcel leaseholder confirmed no tenant of that name.

  • Dealer licence

    other

    The Iowa dealer licence number printed on invoices returns no result in the state register. The federal EIN traces to a dissolved Ohio landscaping company.

  • Payment beneficiaries

    payment

    Four of six reported payments went to a personal-name account at a Missouri regional bank. Two went to an online-only account under a trading name that is not registered in any state.

  • Escrow company

    content

    'Midwest Ag Transit & Escrow' resolves to the same origin server as the seller's own site and was registered nine days before the first buyer was referred to it.

  • Infrastructure overlap

    hosting

    Shares a TLS certificate and analytics identifier with two further equipment sales domains reported to us in the same quarter.

Everything this seller used

Names, numbers, and accounts on record. Search any of them before you deal with a new site.

Website

  • heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com

Trading name

  • Heartland Ag Liquidators

Other names used

  • Heartland Agricultural Liquidation LLC
  • Heartland Farm Equipment Clearing
  • HAL Equipment Sales

Salespeople & handles

  • 'Dale Wexler', sales manager (name appears on no state or federal record)
  • @heartlandag_sales (marketplace seller account, created February 2026)

Phone numbers

  • (515) 555-0183 (VoIP, forwards to voicemail only)
  • (712) 555-0146 (text only, no answer)

Email addresses

  • sales@heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com
  • d.wexler.sales@mail-alias.example.com

Yard addresses claimed

  • Lists a 14-acre equipment yard on a county highway outside Council Bluffs, Iowa

Escrow & transport firms

  • 'Midwest Ag Transit & Escrow' — a two-page site registered nine days after the first buyer was introduced to it

Licences & numbers claimed

  • Claims Iowa dealer licence 'IA-DL-44219' — the state register returns no such number
  • Prints a federal EIN on invoices that belongs to a dissolved landscaping company in Ohio
  • Displays a National Auctioneers Association badge; the association has no record of the business

Where it was advertised

  • Facebook Marketplace listings across five Midwest states
  • Paid search ads on used tractor model queries
  • Cold email to buyers who posted wanted ads on farm forums

Payment routes demanded

  • Domestic wire transfer to a personal-name account
  • Zelle, split across several transfers under $5,000
  • Cashier's check mailed to a mail-forwarding address

Bank beneficiaries (masked)

  • D. Wexler (personal account, not a business account) · Regional bank, Missouri · ••••4471 · US
  • Heartland Clearing Services · Online-only bank, Delaware · ••••8830 · US

Crypto wallets

None on record

Real dealers copied

  • Inventory photographs lifted from a genuine Nebraska dealership's current listings, watermark cropped out
  • The 'About our family' page is copied word for word from a real 60-year-old Illinois dealership
  • Inspection report PDFs reuse a national auction company's template and letterhead

Related domains

  • heartland-ag-clearing.example.com
  • midwest-ag-transit-escrow.example.com
  • prairie-iron-dispersal.example.com

Bank and card numbers are published in masked form only. Full details are retained for law enforcement requests and are not disclosed publicly.

Is Heartland Ag Liquidators legit? Questions buyers ask

Answered from this record, in the words people type before they pay

Is Heartland Ag Liquidators a scam or a legitimate dealer?

Yes — this is a scam. Heartland Ag Liquidators, trading at heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com, is recorded by Equipment Scam Report as confirmed scam. Buyers paid, no machine was delivered, and the payment trail is documented. Treat every contact point as hostile. Heartland Ag Liquidators advertises late-model John Deere and Case IH tractors and combines at roughly half of market, presenting itself as an estate and retirement auction clearing house in western Iowa. Every machine photograph on the site was taken from live listings on established equipment marketplaces. Six buyers wired a combined $412,000 to personal-name bank accounts against promised delivery windows of three to five days. No machine has ever been delivered, and the yard address is a fenced gravel lot with no inventory on it. This report was first published May 22, 2026 and last updated Sep 2, 2026.

How much money have buyers lost to Heartland Ag Liquidators?

$412,000 across 6 buyers who supplied payment evidence. The real figure is higher. Deposits on machinery are large enough to hurt and small enough that most people write them off rather than report them.

When was heartland-ag-liquidators.example.com registered?

The domain was registered Jan 19, 2026 through Privacy-shielded registrar, making it about 8 months old. A real farm equipment dealer carrying the inventory this site advertises has a trading history, a licence, and a domain far older than that. Registration date alone is usually the fastest single check you can run.

What other websites are linked to Heartland Ag Liquidators?

Related domains on record: heartland-ag-clearing.example.com, midwest-ag-transit-escrow.example.com, prairie-iron-dispersal.example.com. The same photographs, price lists, and bank details reappear on a new domain within weeks, so check any new site against the identifiers in this report before you deal with it.

Does Heartland Ag Liquidators have a real yard?

The addresses given to buyers were Lists a 14-acre equipment yard on a county highway outside Council Bluffs, Iowa. A reporting buyer drove to the yard address in July 2026. It is a fenced gravel lot with a padlocked gate, no signage, no office, and no machinery on it. The parcel is leased for seasonal grain trailer parking and the leaseholder had never heard of the business.

Is the escrow company Heartland Ag Liquidators uses real?

Buyers were routed to 'Midwest Ag Transit & Escrow' — a two-page site registered nine days after the first buyer was introduced to it. None of these were introduced by the buyer, and that is the point: an escrow, transport, or inspection company chosen by the seller belongs to the seller. A genuine escrow agent is licensed in its state, listed in that state's register, and is one you found and appointed yourself.

How did Heartland Ag Liquidators ask buyers to pay?

Payment routes on record: Domestic wire transfer to a personal-name account, Zelle, split across several transfers under $5,000, Cashier's check mailed to a mail-forwarding address. Beneficiaries reported (masked): D. Wexler (personal account, not a business account) at Regional bank, Missouri; Heartland Clearing Services at Online-only bank, Delaware. A beneficiary name that does not match the dealership on the invoice is one of the strongest single indicators of fraud in this trade.

Can I get my money back after paying Heartland Ag Liquidators?

It depends almost entirely on speed and route. A wire can sometimes be recalled if you telephone your bank the same day. Zelle, Cash App, and cryptocurrency have no reversal mechanism at all. A card or PayPal goods-and-services payment can be disputed. Call the bank first, file with IC3 and your state attorney general second, and refuse every recovery agent who contacts you afterwards — charging an upfront fee to recover money from a scam is itself a documented scam that targets people already on victim lists.

If you already sent money

The payment route first, the paperwork second

  1. Call your bank now and ask for a wire recall. Do it by phone, not through the app. A wire can sometimes be pulled back the same day and almost never after that.
  2. Send nothing more. Transport bonds, insurance deposits, inspection fees, and customs charges are the same scheme continuing, not a way to release the machine.
  3. Save everything before it disappears. Screenshot the listing, the site, the invoice, and the full message history, and keep the wire receipt.
  4. File with IC3 and your state attorney general, then refuse every recovery agent who contacts you afterwards. They found you because you were reported.
Full recovery guide

Same playbook

Other farm equipment sellers on record

Operators selling tractors, combines, and implements run the same sequence with a different name on the invoice.

Ridgeway Tractor Exchange

ridgeway-tractor-exchange.example.com

High Risk

Ridgeway Tractor Exchange lists compact and utility tractors at 30 to 35 per cent below market and describes itself as a broker matching private sellers with buyers. It has no verifiable business registration, will not disclose the location of any machine before a deposit, and directs payment to a personal account. Two buyers report deposits totalling $17,400 that produced neither a tractor nor a refund. Verification is continuing; there is no safe way to transact in the meantime.

Farm & Ag Equipment
Paid
$17.4K
Buyers
2
Domain age
5 months
Updated
12 days ago