Maybe it’s the state of the economy, with buyers on the lookout for ways to cut corners and cheaters trying to avoid honest work by coming up with more and more schemes to fleece the unsuspecting.

Or maybe it’s the Internet, where distance and anonymity breed a peculiar mixture of trust and vulnerability.

Or maybe we’re just more gullible than we used to be, or at least more willing to talk about being scammed.

Whatever the reason, and it’s probably a combination of the above, complaints about dishonest or unethical behavior in the horse business seem to be on the rise. And it’s not just the well-publicized cases like the Jess Jackson dual agency lawsuits or the Tom Selleck verdict