A Calhan-area farmer wired $20,000 for a backhoe that never existed, and the Federal Trade Commission says he is far from alone in a growing wave of fraud aimed at farmers and rural families shopping for heavy equipment online.

Stephen Hunt, who lives southeast of Calhan in El Paso County, was searching for a backhoe to build a log cabin on his 37-acre property when his son found a website that looked legitimate — so legitimate, in fact, that even Hunt's own bank saw no red flags.

"My son was in hospital and to kill some time in the hospital, he was looking for backhoes for me," Hunt told Denver7 Investigates' Jaclyn Allen. "And this site just happened to pop up."

The site displayed photos of heavy equipment and what appeared to be an auction yard, and it seemed connected to a real farm equipment business. Hunt said the scammers altered the business name slightly — "they changed one of their names in the title work" — to pass as the genuine company.

The listed price was $21,000. Hunt negotiated down to $20,000, and the sellers agreed to deliver the machine to his property. They instructed him to wire the funds to a Wells Fargo account in San Francisco.

"When I talked to my bank... he said that everything looks good," Hunt said. "It looks like a legit company, legit site."

The backhoe was supposed to arrive on a Thursday evening. It never came.

"I called Friday morning and they said 'well, there was a little mix-up,'" Hunt said. "I still haven't got the backhoe."

Money moved overseas within hours

Investigators later told Hunt the website was convincing — and that the money vanished almost immediately after he sent it. As soon as the wire reached the Wells Fargo account in San Francisco, the funds were transferred out internationally, according to Hunt's account of what investigators found.

When Hunt and his son drove to Denver to visit the address listed on the website, they found nothing. "It was an empty lot," he said.

The loss has stalled work on his property and left him paying the bank for equipment he never received.

"That's what I was going to use to dig the hole and set the logs and everything to build my house out here on my 37 acres," Hunt said.

Asked how he has coped, Hunt said: "Well, being a Christian, you just learn to deal with it. I just fight my way through it and keep on going."

FTC: wire transfers are the tell

The FTC issued a recent consumer alert warning that scammers are increasingly impersonating legitimate farm equipment businesses through online ads, fake websites and fraudulent listings. The agency said the fraudsters build convincing websites, invoices and purchase agreements, and they push buyers toward wire transfers because "once they've collected the money, it's almost impossible to get it back."

The FTC recommends that equipment buyers:

• Research companies before sending money
• Search online for complaints or scam reports
• Treat sponsored search results and online ads with caution
• Avoid paying by wire transfer, cryptocurrency, gift cards or payment apps

Farmers who suspect they have been targeted can file a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov.

Hunt's family has launched a GoFundMe to recover part of the lost money and continue work on the cabin. His message to other buyers is blunt: "Just be real careful and extremely cautious. The wiring of money, that's a trigger to say that it's a fraud. Don't do it."

With the FTC reporting that impersonation schemes against equipment buyers continue to spread, farmers shopping for machinery online face a simple test before any purchase: if the seller demands a wire transfer, walk away.