Seller Beware!

[Athene V30]

I have recently advertised my boat for sale via a web site. On Friday I received an e-mail in not quite perfect english asking for more information which I sent. On Saturday I received the following reply:

How are you doing.Thanks for the fast response.I got your correspondence.Thanks for briefing me better about it's present condition. It sounds nice. Am okay with the boat. Am okay wth the final price of £4000. I would have love to come personally to inspect the boat, but am presently in Holland for a seminar. Am urgently in need of this boat.

As for the payment, I will instruct a colleague of mine to send you a cashier check payable in UK of £7500 to you in payment for some fuel equipments supplied to him .All you just have to do is to deduct the
cost price of your BOAT which is £4000 and send the remaining balance of £3500 to my shipper via western union who will be coming down for the pickup of the bOAT when all transaction has been concluded.

I will like to know if you are okay with this transaction.I will like to have the address to which the cashiercheck payable in uk can be sent to
and your phone number so that we can talk better.Get back to me ASAP.Thanks

All sounds a bit dodgy to me? Has anyone else experienced this?

Regards

Peter

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[Sybarite]

It's a scam. You present the draft to your bank and it may look alright to them and you can get the go ahead to advance the £3500. However the international draft can take some time to clear - -sometimes a couple of weeks - and you can be sure it won't. So your bank debits your account with the advance.

The simple response is that you will only advance the £3500 once the draft has been irrevocably credited to your account as confirmed by your bank. It's not the first time that this has been tried on by a Dutchman.

John

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[Swingkeel]

Yeah..I had one too about a car I was selling. Nigerian bloke running the scam through a Swiss company. It's all a way for you to lose money. Bin it.

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[Guest]

DON'T DON'T get involved with this one others have & been badly burnt lost everything including the boat Read back old forums.
How is good old Brightlingsea? it was our sailing area till about 4 years ago we had our Leisure 23 moored pri to that our 17 this was when Peter Coopland was HM
Best of luck
Toni

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[DavidofMersea]

I read about something similar another site. The only difference was that the cheque took 6 weeks to clear, even though has bank said it was OK a few days later

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[TheBoatman]

Absolutely this is a Scam, but you could still have some fun with the guy!
1. Tell him you won't accept cashiers cheque, but will accept bank to bank transfer and when the money is in your account you will advise the shipper direct that he can come and collect the boat, could he please advise the name, address, telephone, fax number of the shipping agent, and that you will contact the agent to open a line of communications prior to the sale.
2. That you will not accept the responsibilty of paying the shipper he should do that.
3. You could say that for an extra £200 you will make sure that the boat is full of fuel and water.
4. That for UK Customs & Excise Regs you need HIS full address, phone etc, which you will have to get checked and verified before the correct paperwork can be done.

Some how I don't think you will hear from him again<s>

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[colvic]

There is a character replying to adverts onboatsandoutboards doing the same at the moment..and he has already made off with many thousands of pounds. Watch out for Benson@aol.com

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[Athene V30]

Thanks to all for the advice.

I have replied stating I will only proceed with a bankers draft from a UK bank - Barclays / Lloyds etc so doubt I will hear any more!

Until now I was not aware that a cheque could take up to 6 weeks to clear and could easily have been caught out.

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[Twister_Ken]

Even bankers' drafts can be insecure - forged or stolen - so that they are not honoured. Always check with the issuing branch that the draft is genuine and will be honoured.

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