Scammers about trolling BoatsandOutboards

[mbird]

I received an email today from someone supposedly interested in my advert for our boat, Serenity. His name is Brine Collins (yeah, right!) brinecollins@gmail.com .Here's how it went...

Hello seller do you still have it and in good condition,get back to me with the final price?

Hi Brine

We do still have Serenity for sale at the moment, but she will be going to a broker next week. If sold private, out lowest possible selling price is £xx,xxx. She is in excellent condition for her age, with a brand new canopy and carpets/teak flooring. She is a lovely boat that we have only sold as we need more room for my growing sons.

Please feel free to call me if you need any further information.

Regards

Great. am glad to read from you ,will appreciate more pictures... i am a marine engineer, i am at sea right now.I am buying this for my son as a surprise promise Gift so am willing to offer you the amount you required. I can only pay through PayPal at the moment as i don't have access to my bank account online(i don't have internet banking with it), but i have it attached to my PayPal account, and this is why i insisted on using PayPal to pay,all i will need is your PayPal email address to make the payments, and if you don't have a PayPal account yet, you can set one up at www.paypal.com it cant take you less than 3mins to do that, i will be expecting your PayPal email so l can pay . I have a pick up agent that will come for the pick up after payments has been sorted.

l will be waiting for your reply asap

Regards Brine


Dear Brine

Please see attached more photos of Serenity. My Paypal account email is the same as this one I am using.

I’m sorry to sound skeptical, but this sounds a bit too good to be true, which always rings alarm bells with me. To be offered money for a boat that the buyer has not yet seen is a bit unusual. I apologise if this is indeed a genuine offer, but I’m sure you can understand my caution.

Obviously the boat would not be released until payment had cleared from my Paypal account to my personal bank, but that only takes a few days.

Regards


Good Mark,

I appreciate the pictures, I have get the in contact with the pick up agent that will come for the pick up,before we proceed i will like to let you know this , i had this little problem now with the picking up, I got email back from my agent.. which i taught i included that in my previous message. he said, he won't come for the pick up unless i pay him the agent commission fee first in order be able to schedule a pick up time ,and all commission payments made for pick up, from anywhere in the world is sent to their head quarters and the only form of payments they accept is western union money transfer and i tried to do it online but i will need a credit card which i didn't bring along, so i want you to help me with the pick up fees, i will include the £900 they charge me for the pick up and delivery to my son home, to the payments i will send through PayPal. After i have made the payments and it has been confirmed by PayPal, i will need you to help me send the £900 to the pick up agent through western union money transfer.........


Let me hear back from you so that I can proceed with the total payment of £xx,xxx once now

Hope to hear from you soon

Regards Brine


Dear Brine

In my cynicism, I have google searched your email address, and guess what? You appear on the Scambook website having tried this little trick before.

Can I therefore suggest the following:

1. Try to learn proper English, as your grammar and sentence phrasing is clearly not the product of anyone in the UK.
2. Come up with a better name (“Brine” for a marine engineer at sea, are you serious?)
3. Try to find some proper employment with doesn’t result in you scamming people out of their hard earned cash.

I have now forwarded all these emails to the Trading Standards office, who I hope will be able to track you down, though I doubt their powers extend as far a Nigeria, or wherever you are based.

So, please now take your low-life leech-like tendancies elsewhere, and do not contact me again.

Regards

Funnily enough, I never got another reply......

 

[John100156]

Mark,

Well done for alerting people about this scam on this and another forum, it is shameful how these scammers operate, forewarned is forearmed. You did exactly the right thing.

John

 

[Canopy Locked]

+ 1

Responded to the initial enquiry - you never know. When I read the 1st reply it was obviously a scam - thought about a two word reply starting and ending in F, but decided that i was better off simply hitting DEL and ignoring them further.

Rob

 

[Steve Clayton]

shame. You could have taken him and the money; the usual being a recall on the payment and you lose the payment to the agent
There is a way for u to retain the money; only works with paypal.
If it happens again let me know and we can work out a deal

 

[lovezoo]

If its a fraudulent payment, and PayPal have recalled it, they will take you to court to get it back if you try to hang on to it. They won't go after the fraudster, because he is in Nigeria and they don't know who he is, but you are in the UK, they have your name and address and you have agreed to their T&Cs.

 

[Spi D]

When it came down to actually paying he said "the only form of payments they accept is western union money transfer".

That is the preferred way of scammers and other because it is anonymous and cannot be traced.

Any mentioning of Western Union in any connection should sound alarm bells and make warning lights flash intensively!

 

[lovezoo]

When it came down to actually paying he said "the only form of payments they accept is western union money transfer".

That is the preferred way of scammers and other because it is anonymous and cannot be traced.

Any mentioning of Western Union should sound alarm bells and make warning lights faslh intensively!

No, the scammer wanted to pay by paypal (probably using a hacked account or a stolen credit card), with £900 then transferred by the victim to the fraudster by Western Union.

When the genunine PayPal account holder (or credit card holder) realises that there has been an unauthorised payment on their account, PayPal takes the money back, but the victim has already paid out via Western Union.

 

[Steve Clayton]

If its a fraudulent payment, and PayPal have recalled it, they will take you to court to get it back if you try to hang on to it. They won't go after the fraudster, because he is in Nigeria and they don't know who he is, but you are in the UK, they have your name and address and you have agreed to their T&Cs.

There is a perfectly legit way of hanging onto the money.

"PayPal takes the money back,".... or take the hit themselves

 

[lovezoo]

There is a perfectly legit way of hanging onto the money.

"PayPal takes the money back,".... or take the hit themselves

I will be in touch next time I am scammed on ebay.

 

[ontheplane]

Very important - read regarding paypal

Hiya,

Right, I had this selling a car recently, I knew it was a scam but played along hoping that I could get some info (phone no etc) to trace the perp.... (never did).

This is how they tend to work.

1) You agree to take PayPal thinking it's safe
2) You receive an e-mail claiming funds are sat "holding" in Paypal and will be released to you once the transaction is complete. This e-mail appears to come from Paypal, but it is fake and does not.
3) There are no funds.
4) The perp then wants his "shipping agent" to collect the item - they have "overpaid" you by £800 as they are "away" and can't get to their bank to pay the shipper direct.
5) They want you to pay the shipper (for which read them) £800 - which is why they overpaid you - and then the funds will automatically be released by Paypal.


Yah right!

So - what should ring alarm bells?

1) Poor english - obviously not proof of a scammer in itself and good english doesn't mean it's safe - but it should put you on your guard.
2) E-mails that purport to come from somewhere (your bank, paypal etc) - ALWAYS log on to the alleged site yourself from your own link - NEVER click the link in the e-mail - sometimes this link is purely to get your username and password for something like Paypal anyhow - these fake sites look awfully convincing.
3) ANY mention ANYWHERE of anything to do with Western Union.
4) Anyone willing to buy a relatively high ticket item without seeing it first!
5) Anyone willing to pay full asking - if you get one of these e-mails and they ask for your best price just reply and say you think it's worth what you are asking, but what sort of figure were they thinking of - if the reply comes back "oh yes thats fine I'll send the money" - ITS A SCAM!

Please, don't get suckered in - I once saved a poor old dear from paying one of these low-life scum £8000 because she came into my shop and asked me to photocopy a Western Union transfer form before she posted the original off to the scammer. I looked at it and it was one of those "You've won £3,343,254 in a lottery you didn't know you'd entered" things - fortunately, she hadn't given the scammer the id number of the payment, and I think she got her money back.

These people are low life scum.... There is a way to get them back, I've never done it but take a look at http://www.419eater.com/index.php - people fighting back.

 

[ontheplane]

Also should point out that if you take PayPal, you can have the money taken back even if the payer is legitimate, but unhappy following payment. They can put the whole lot in dispute and claim it wasn't what they thought it was or faulty or whatever.

Bank Drafts - these are NOT guaranteed!!!! - A genuine bank draft, issued by a UK bank, issued in accordance with it's procedures SHOULD be guaranteed, however there are a LOT of fakes about.

I worked in a bank years ago - the blanks for the drafts were kept in the deputy managers drawer and they were handwritten and signed by 2 officials..... If I'd been dishonest I could have nicked one out of the back of the book, written it out for £35,000 and done two signatures - who would have known??? In those days a bank draft was gospel and almost anyone would release almost anything if paid by one.

It's not money until it's in your bank, and in the case of paper money (drafts, cheques etc) CLEARED - which with my bank now takes 7 (yes that's right 7!!!!) WORKING days - so pay it in on the Monday and the other bank can return it unpaid right up to close of business the FOLLOWING Wednesday Do not release the goods on the following Monday or you might have a nasty shock.

Other scams - we had a customer who turned up out the blue to buy a car - said he wanted it and wanted to take it away there and then.

He said he'd "Ping" us the money, and after Asking for our bank details he got onto his iPad. After about 3 minutes, he had a "business call". He then finished and "showed us the transaction has gone through" on his internet banking. We logged on and indeed in our bank £5500 had appeared - result.....

Fortunately we were just observant enough to see that next to the credit it said "CC" not "TFR" - so we phoned our bank - turns out there was not an electronic credit - the guy had phoned a mate who'd taken a useless cheque into a local branch of our bank, and paid it in with a handwritten counter-slip. It looked like a direct credit, and if you'd just checked a balance quickly it would have looked ok - but of course it wasn't. In this case we managed to keep the guy talking whilst the boys in blue arrived but if you ever accept a direct funds transfer, make sure you check PROPERLY how the money has arrived or you could very easily be scammed like this.

I'd only take Cash, or a proper CHAPS payment for anything like a boat or car and when I buy I always take cash or if buying from a larger dealer use a debit card.

 

[Spi D]

If you own an iPhone or iPad you can take money from anybody if they bring their major credit card.

Fee is EUR 0.15 + 2.75% of the amount

http://izettle.com/

 

[enterprise]

Also should point out that if you take PayPal, you can have the money taken back even if the payer is legitimate, but unhappy following payment. They can put the whole lot in dispute and claim it wasn't what they thought it was or faulty or whatever.

Bank Drafts - these are NOT guaranteed!!!! - A genuine bank draft, issued by a UK bank, issued in accordance with it's procedures SHOULD be guaranteed, however there are a LOT of fakes about.

I worked in a bank years ago - the blanks for the drafts were kept in the deputy managers drawer and they were handwritten and signed by 2 officials..... If I'd been dishonest I could have nicked one out of the back of the book, written it out for £35,000 and done two signatures - who would have known??? In those days a bank draft was gospel and almost anyone would release almost anything if paid by one.

It's not money until it's in your bank, and in the case of paper money (drafts, cheques etc) CLEARED - which with my bank now takes 7 (yes that's right 7!!!!) WORKING days - so pay it in on the Monday and the other bank can return it unpaid right up to close of business the FOLLOWING Wednesday Do not release the goods on the following Monday or you might have a nasty shock.

Other scams - we had a customer who turned up out the blue to buy a car - said he wanted it and wanted to take it away there and then.

He said he'd "Ping" us the money, and after Asking for our bank details he got onto his iPad. After about 3 minutes, he had a "business call". He then finished and "showed us the transaction has gone through" on his internet banking. We logged on and indeed in our bank £5500 had appeared - result.....

Fortunately we were just observant enough to see that next to the credit it said "CC" not "TFR" - so we phoned our bank - turns out there was not an electronic credit - the guy had phoned a mate who'd taken a useless cheque into a local branch of our bank, and paid it in with a handwritten counter-slip. It looked like a direct credit, and if you'd just checked a balance quickly it would have looked ok - but of course it wasn't. In this case we managed to keep the guy talking whilst the boys in blue arrived but if you ever accept a direct funds transfer, make sure you check PROPERLY how the money has arrived or you could very easily be scammed like this.

I'd only take Cash, or a proper CHAPS payment for anything like a boat or car and when I buy I always take cash or if buying from a larger dealer use a debit card.

Wow thats a close one, have to admit to not checking properly, thanks for the heads up, have had this very senario many times in the past, thankfully with genuine customers.

 

[jonic]

Also should point out that if you take PayPal, you can have the money taken back even if the payer is legitimate, but unhappy following payment. They can put the whole lot in dispute and claim it wasn't what they thought it was or faulty or whatever.

Bank Drafts - these are NOT guaranteed!!!! - A genuine bank draft, issued by a UK bank, issued in accordance with it's procedures SHOULD be guaranteed, however there are a LOT of fakes about.

I worked in a bank years ago - the blanks for the drafts were kept in the deputy managers drawer and they were handwritten and signed by 2 officials..... If I'd been dishonest I could have nicked one out of the back of the book, written it out for £35,000 and done two signatures - who would have known??? In those days a bank draft was gospel and almost anyone would release almost anything if paid by one.

It's not money until it's in your bank, and in the case of paper money (drafts, cheques etc) CLEARED - which with my bank now takes 7 (yes that's right 7!!!!) WORKING days - so pay it in on the Monday and the other bank can return it unpaid right up to close of business the FOLLOWING Wednesday Do not release the goods on the following Monday or you might have a nasty shock.

Other scams - we had a customer who turned up out the blue to buy a car - said he wanted it and wanted to take it away there and then.

He said he'd "Ping" us the money, and after Asking for our bank details he got onto his iPad. After about 3 minutes, he had a "business call". He then finished and "showed us the transaction has gone through" on his internet banking. We logged on and indeed in our bank £5500 had appeared - result.....

Fortunately we were just observant enough to see that next to the credit it said "CC" not "TFR" - so we phoned our bank - turns out there was not an electronic credit - the guy had phoned a mate who'd taken a useless cheque into a local branch of our bank, and paid it in with a handwritten counter-slip. It looked like a direct credit, and if you'd just checked a balance quickly it would have looked ok - but of course it wasn't. In this case we managed to keep the guy talking whilst the boys in blue arrived but if you ever accept a direct funds transfer, make sure you check PROPERLY how the money has arrived or you could very easily be scammed like this.

I'd only take Cash, or a proper CHAPS payment for anything like a boat or car and when I buy I always take cash or if buying from a larger dealer use a debit card.

Thanks for that. Very useful to know.

 

[John100156]

Leave an old sock by the phone, when they call tell them you're very, very, interested but can they please hold, place the receiver in a sock and be content the're now paying for the call and you're wasting their time and money!

Alternatively, here's the best solution: Procure a high premium rate contract phone number where callers are charged extortionate rates when they phone you, tell them you're very interested but can they please call you back on this number, have sock handy....

I wonder if we can divert all scam email enquiries via that route, phone this number to get my bank details... oh dear I may run out of socks...

Like they will not already know from the age of 3 every premium rate phone number from Lagos to Timbuktu, if they learn correct grammer we are all in trouble....

 

[Lindy]

brinecollins@gmail.com

brinecollins@gmail.com

This guy has contacted me too, yesterday, asking to buy our boat unseen and that he would make a Paypal transfer. I suggested that he made a cash payment on collection instead.............oddly, I never heard back from him!!

 

[Scubadoo]

Also should point out that if you take PayPal, you can have the money taken back even if the payer is legitimate, but unhappy following payment. They can put the whole lot in dispute and claim it wasn't what they thought it was or faulty or whatever.

Bank Drafts - these are NOT guaranteed!!!! - A genuine bank draft, issued by a UK bank, issued in accordance with it's procedures SHOULD be guaranteed, however there are a LOT of fakes about.

I worked in a bank years ago - the blanks for the drafts were kept in the deputy managers drawer and they were handwritten and signed by 2 officials..... If I'd been dishonest I could have nicked one out of the back of the book, written it out for £35,000 and done two signatures - who would have known??? In those days a bank draft was gospel and almost anyone would release almost anything if paid by one.

It's not money until it's in your bank, and in the case of paper money (drafts, cheques etc) CLEARED - which with my bank now takes 7 (yes that's right 7!!!!) WORKING days - so pay it in on the Monday and the other bank can return it unpaid right up to close of business the FOLLOWING Wednesday Do not release the goods on the following Monday or you might have a nasty shock.

Other scams - we had a customer who turned up out the blue to buy a car - said he wanted it and wanted to take it away there and then.

He said he'd "Ping" us the money, and after Asking for our bank details he got onto his iPad. After about 3 minutes, he had a "business call". He then finished and "showed us the transaction has gone through" on his internet banking. We logged on and indeed in our bank £5500 had appeared - result.....

Fortunately we were just observant enough to see that next to the credit it said "CC" not "TFR" - so we phoned our bank - turns out there was not an electronic credit - the guy had phoned a mate who'd taken a useless cheque into a local branch of our bank, and paid it in with a handwritten counter-slip. It looked like a direct credit, and if you'd just checked a balance quickly it would have looked ok - but of course it wasn't. In this case we managed to keep the guy talking whilst the boys in blue arrived but if you ever accept a direct funds transfer, make sure you check PROPERLY how the money has arrived or you could very easily be scammed like this.

I'd only take Cash, or a proper CHAPS payment for anything like a boat or car and when I buy I always take cash or if buying from a larger dealer use a debit card.

Thanks for taking the time to warn others, your comments noted.

 

[Richardsix]

Well, the man is still active, got my little speedboat for sale, same website had the following email from...... brinecollins@gmail.com
Hello seller do you still have it and in good condition,get back to me with the final price?


I have just ignored it, tempted though to follow up and string him along.

 

[PaulGooch]

Why not sting him along. Let him make his dodgy Paypal payment, then sit on it until Paypal take it back. Be wasting his time and it might exhaust one or two of his dodgy payment methods.