has anyone else come accross this money-laundering

[rowan]

My boat is advertised on a web page which attracted interest from someone only known to me as "prettypet8008". He/She refused to give full name or location or to sign their e-mails which immediately got me suspicious. I was offered £9500 over the asking price but had to wire the remainder to his/her shipper. I offered to deliver the boat for a lot less than £9500 and was informed that the "shipper" was shipping more than just the boat. So "prettypet" ends up with 9.5K of clean money and a boat, and I get a dodgy cheque for 21K. He/she became shirty when I tried to get some more info and told me to forget it!
Has anyone else come accross anything like this? It appears to be money-laundering to me. Should I pass it onto the police?

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[Evadne]

Re: has anyone else come accross this money-launde

Pass it on to the police? Yes but don't expect a reply. These scams seem to come up every few weeks and the consensus is that, at best, they'll steal your boat and you'll not receive a penny. However you sell, make sure that the method of payment is genuine (do a search on "scam" or "selling" if you want more history)

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[kimhollamby]

Have heard of it

This seems to be on the increase and we have heard of several reported cases, some involving much larger boats, some craft of around your size (judging by value) although no-one I have heard of swallowed the bait. Stay well away and if so inclined I would report it to the police. It will be a bit pot lock; some forces likely to take more interest than others.

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[robp]

It may be money laundering but it's also highly likely that you wouldn't have got paid for the boat either.

I believe that it's another version of the "419" scam where you are offered the asking price, no questions, or even more in your case. You get interested and it would result in your parting with "expenses" to facilitate the excercise.

I have about 10 responses or more to two cars I advertised on web sites. All offer the asking price and say that their "shipper" will collect the car. Did they ask if you would take a cashiers' or bankers' cheque?

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[rowan]

They at first offered to wire the money via Western Union (suggests american traits?), but I refused to give out bank details. Then I was offered a cheque but my bank manager said it could take up to 10 days before it would clear by the issuing bank.

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[robp]

You've not lost anything by refusing to play ball. Almost certainly avoided disaster.

Many of these are still from Africa but I had one that insisted that a sum of money was held by Nat West London and that they didn't know what to do with it!!

I e-mailed the section of the Fraud Squad that deals with these, asking for advice on one I wasn't sure of. Needless to say I got no reply, so I don't think they will be interested - sadly.

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[AndrewB]

Best complain to their ISP.

A regular scam that's been round for a while now. They offer to pay you with a banker's draft (US: cashier's check), which many people think is guaranteed, but in fact it can get refused some time later if the issueing bank is dodgy, or its a forgery - and then your bank will demand you repay them. Before this happens though you are asked to wire money back to the fraudster, which is irretrievable. They aren't really interested in your yacht, that is unlikely to be collected.

The Specialist Crime OCU Fraud Squad of the Met (e-mail fraud.alert@met.police.uk) seem to be taking the lead in the UK, but because attempts are so common they ask not to be contacted unless you have established genuine bank accounts/addresses/telephone numbers for the fraudsters. Otherwise you should complain to the ISP of the email you received.

 

[Swingkeel]

Yeah..remember...if it smells too easy...it is.

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[Peppermint]

Re: Yeah

When I was selling "Lapwing" early in the year I put it on Classic Boats web site.
I got a strange e-mail from an african guy with the same sort of detail. I think its like these scams were the wife of the ex-president wants your help with the odd 30 million quid transfer and you can have 10% for your trouble.

I've since heard that they do it with cars. Pay forty grand for a twenty grand car the dealer pays them the twenty out the back door as it were and they then ask him to sell the car. They loose and the deal;er makes, about 25% on the deal but thats cheap for clean money.

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[Happy1]

This IS NOT money laundering, this is DECEPTION / THEFT. Money laundering involves the person with the 'dirty' money passing it through sources, which in some cases take a fee of up to 40% in order that it appears at the end to have come from a legitimate source. e.g. Someone has a restaurant, it is not doing very well but they put through say 100 pretend customers a night as spending the dirty money, that money then ends up in the 'business' and comes out the other end clean. Of course clever investigations will show that the 'restaurant' did not buy enough supplies to feed the pretend customers, but on the face of it it looks clean. The Scams that you explain about are plain deception, someone is just out to get money off you as you quite rightly explained.

DO NOT get involved in any of these so called scams, even out of interest, you may find yourself involved in something you wished you never had got into. Remember that a fraudster mainly relies on the pure greed of the victim, the more of a fantasy the proposed scam is, the more people seem to fall for it, mainly because these types involve millions. So you have all been warned, you get nothing for nothing /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

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[Birdseye]

What if they offer cash ie its just someone in the black economy here or elsewhere in the EC. Dont see how you can lose out then.

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[Happy1]

Oh yeh! that one /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif Well some smart people did just that, they took delivery of a trunk full of 'black money'. This money US$ had been hidden underground away from the government in Nigeria, it was excess funds concealed after a very large project, but not only that it was treated with a special chemical that made it black. But the 'Smart people' who were agreeing to launder it for a 30% fee wanted to see it turned back into cash. No problem,some special solution was brought out by the scammers, they washed a few bits of black paper and low and behold it turned in to be $100 bills! BUT they then spilt the rest by mistake, Oh dear! BUT they knew where they could get more but it was $1,000US a bottle and they would need 10 bottles to get all the $1 million dollars washed. NO PROBLEM for the now 'Smart Arses' they handed over $10,000 and took away the trunk of black money on the agreement that when it was all washed and banked they would get 30%, the rest had to be handed back. Well I think you can guess the rest, YES it was all black paper and the special chemical was water. But at least they had $10,000US of black paper and a free old trunk /forums/images/icons/laugh.gif

So continue at your peril, any of you who tinker, I can guarantee it will all end in tears, and yes all down to GREED. So no sympathy from me at all /forums/images/icons/wink.gif

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=purple> "You only see what you recognise, and you only recognise what you know" <font color=purple>

 

[DavidofMersea]

I had a version of this scam - I advertised on a web site, and the owner warned us of this scam before they tried it on me.

I advertised a boat for £1,000. Someone from abroad wrote saying that they would buy my boat. Some chap in England owed him £4,000, and he would get this man to send me the £4,000. I would cash the cheque, which was from an African bank, take out my £1,000 + shipping costs + my expenses, and he would trust me to send him the balance.

The catch comes 3 months later when the African bank bounces the cheque.

The scammer wsas not very good. The letter had obviously been "forwarded" many times, and my boat had become "the bike" by the end of the e-mail

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