Scammers are nothing new. They have probably existed as long as people have. And you only have to look so far as the newspapers to see them in the 1800s in the U.S. In our GRIP course, “Not Just Farmers,” I will be talking about “Farming Outside the Law.”

One topic I’ll be covering are vigilante groups who were not happy with the speed that law-makers moved. If they saw an injustice, they just took it upon themselves to right the wrongs. A premise I can get behind in general, but you know these groups always take things too far. One group’s goal was to intimidate sheepmen from grazing on public lands. There was a belief that sheep were inferior to cattle (longer story that I have time to go into here) and therefore groups formed to run off the sheepherders. Well, intimidation turned to violence and killing of sheep.

Another topic I’ll be touching on are the scammers, conmen, swindlers, and thieves that used an agricultural front to make their fortune. Many news articles can be found warning communities of a conman working in an area. For example…

Swindlers and people taking the law into their own hands… it’s a tale as old as time. And we’ll be talking more about it in our course. I hope you can join us!