Scam Warning

[Trevor_swfyc]

Andrew posted on the 7/6 that he had had an offer on his advertised boat from abroad see his post (a new scam). Most at the time warned it sounded like a scam, evidently it is a scam and the warning is now in the boating press.

The scam is you will be offered the full asking price for your boat usually from abroad, a cheque will be sent to you for more than the asking price. They will then request payment for the difference by electronic transfer, after the funds have cleared into your account. Evidently even though the funds will show cleared several days later the bank will contact you with the bad news that the cheque you paid in was a forgery and your money (refund) is unrecoverable.

Sorry to repeat this warning if you are aware of it, but if it saves somebody on this forum from being a victim then its worth it!

Take care.
Trevor

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[traceyandsteve]

Thanks Trevor.

Yeah i was nearly that mug. It went as far as 2 separate meetings - 1 with 2 Italians who came to view the boat - then after lots of phone calls a meeting with "the bosses son", peter, a young mediterranean looking guy, who was slim, mid 20s very well dressed and softly spoken. We met him at the Manderin hotel in london. which is where he gave us the impression he was staying. What made us most suspicious was that he didn't really seem interested in any information about the boat. He just wanted to talk money. He told us that he had some tax liabilities overseas and wanted to buy the boat with cash in Swiss Francs.

We said that as long as our bank was happy to accept the cash, that it wouldn't be a problem but that we would only release the boat once the bank had confirmed that all was ok.

He then went on to ask if we would be prepared to exchange some additional cash for him. He was talkikng about paying over the asking price for the boat, and then giving us an additional sum which we would turn into sterling for him.

At that point we said that we weren't interested. We said that if he wanted to buy the boat in cash, that was fine (subject to the Bank's acceptance) but that we weren't prepared to get into exchanging money for him.

Funnily enough, he then remembered that he had an urgent appointment in Scotland and promptly excused himself. Surprise surprise we haven't heard anything since.

It's made us very wary of anyone who contacts us now!

Steve

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[billy_bros]

Yes my son almost fell for it he advertised a boat and was contacted with the full price buyer supposedly from Australia.
But I was suspitious as the boat was a one design raced mainly in Ireland and some parts of Britain, so what would an Austrailian want with it?

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