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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

General Sailing Forum

Can you say scam?

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Initially Posted - 02/27/2008 : 10:15:04

Got this in my mail this morning regarding my San Juan 21 (read from bottom up)

While I'm virtually positive this is a scam, I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.

This is a cash only transaction, no checks, no cashiers checks, no money orders. Cash.
The boat is in the condition stated in the ad. Generally good for a nearly 30 year old boat.
The asking price is as stated in the ad: $3500.

If you've got $3500 cash, the boat is yours. I'll even tow it to your site within 50 miles of my home if you don't have a tow vehicle.

David
- Hide quoted text -

On Wed, Feb 27, 2008 at 12:45 AM, <hustinmoore_inc@yahoo.com> wrote:

1979 San Juan 21 full keel

Hello and how is every thing i set my eye on your boat and i will like to buy it with quick purchace but before i continue with the transaction i will like to ask you some few question 1.do you accept a certified cashier's check as a medium of payment?.2.what is the working condition of the boat?.3.what is the final asking price of the item?this is all i have to ask you,i will be waiting to hear from you.

Please send your response to my private email address(donaldjdx@yahoo.com)for me to get your message quick.

http://www.sailnet.com/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=1491

David
C-250 Mainsheet Editor

Sirius Lepak
1997 C-250 WK TR #271 --Seattle area Port Captain --

Edited by - on

dlucier
Master Marine Consultant

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Virgin Islands (United Kingdom)
7583 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 10:34:48

Scam...

Location: United Kingdom
Hello and how is evrey thing i set my eye on your item and i will like to buy it with quick purchace but before i continue with the transaction i will like to ask you some few question 1.do you accept a certified cashier's check or money order as a medium of payment?. 2.what is the working condition of the item?. 3.will you sell it to me for buy it now 4.what is the final asking price of the item?this is all i have to ask you,i will be waiting to hear from you" the check that will be sent to you will include the item money plus the shipping money so as soon as you get the check you will cash it and deduct your money then wire the excess fund to the shipping company that will come to pick the item from your house.if you agree get to me with the following 1.your full name and address 2.your phone number 3.can we trust you with the money, pls get back to me on this mail address thanks God bless ... REGARD

Edited by - on

SCnewbie
Navigator

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166 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 10:36:23

Not sure if it is a scam or not. Just curious. Did you list your san juan on the san juan 21 website? I am listing mine there but it isn't in as good shape as yours.

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redviking
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1771 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 10:38:26

get ready for the ole, I'll send you a check for $5000 and you send me 2000 scam...

In person transactions only OR send cash/cert check in US funds written from US Bank...

sten

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delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 10:56:57

Yeah, I'm positive it's a scam. We've got a guy here in our office who's been trying to sell a cast iron stove for a while on CL. He keeps getting offers from people on the other side of the country or world like this one. They're offering to pay with a cashier's check if he'll just ship it to them. Can you imagine what the shipping would be international for a 500# stove?

As far as the SJ goes, I tried listing in on the San Juan site, but they were kind of grumpy about it and I never got around to figuring out what I needed to do next to get it listed. I need to do that though, the boat's been sitting in my backyard for over a year now.

Edited by - on

Nautiduck
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
3704 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 11:00:58

Mr. David. I have come upon a sum of $25,000,000 US dollars that I must get out of Oregon. Please to send me your bank account number and I will transfer the funds to you. Your friend, Nautiduck

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 11:02:03

Are you sure you're not in Nigeria?

Edited by - on

stampeder
Master Marine Consultant

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1608 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 11:24:16

I wouldn't deal with this guy simply because of bad grammar and the absence of punctuation.
And as for that Nauti-Nigerian Oregon offer...I think you can trust that guy, so you better send him your social security number and a VISA card as well.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 11:55:06

Well, I'll be driving right past his house in a few weeks for a wedding, I can just pick up the cash.

Edited by - on

Prospector
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
3159 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 12:08:29

Hmmm. I wonder if my seller thought I was a scammer as well.

Granted I did go to look in person, but from the outset the deal was that we were buying a boat with a Money order/funds transfer via an international bank, and sending a shipper to pick it up. In th eend we did exactly that, but with a certified cheque rather than a money order.

Once we had enough info from the seller to know whether it was a worthwhile boat, we would make the long drive to look at it. Likely a number of sellers thought we were scammers and thats likely why so many ended contact with us after the initial contact.

Edited by - on

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 12:55:55

SCAM - when we sold the C-25 we listed it at about 25 places online. The majority of the places had Scam warnings about exactly this type of scam.

One website actually flagged replies that came through them as possible scams.

I received about 3 to 5 of these a day for the duration of the time it is listed and still get an occasional one (keep a list of where you post the boat and then remove - we didn't)

Usually these guys ask questions like how many hours are on the engine, almost always want the "final asking price" even though it is listed with a price, want to work "quickly" and have no desire to see the boat. I had a 4 page PDF and a guy wanted to know what the "condition" of the boat was.

Edited by - on

delliottg
Former Mainsheet C250 Tech Editor

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USA
4479 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 13:27:17

I guess this site would be useful to establish your bonafides if someone was concerned. Just tell them to go search the site using your logon name to prove you really are interested in the boat, not a scammer.

Edited by - on

Steve Blackburn
Master Marine Consultant

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Canada
1091 Posts

Response Posted - 02/27/2008 : 19:51:36

100% scam. This is exaclty the modus operandi that I read on some other site. They always refer to the boat as "the item" since they reuse the same text on different types of items not just boats. It's called the overpayment scam. As you pgrogess with the discussions the level of english follows suite invertly propotional. You can read more about it [url="http://my.boatus.com/consumer/classifieds.asp"]here[/url].

You can read an email log from some guy who had fun with a scammer [url="http://www.tmcowners.com/teamtalk/showthread.php?t=21637"]here[/url].

Basicaly the scam goes like this:
1. Email contact on interest in "the item".
2. Send false (well made) cashier's cheque, money order or certified cheque to the sucker. Cheque is always at a higher amount than the price of the item.
3. Ask sucker to depost cheque in sucker's bank account and immediatly withdraw the "excess" money and send by Western Union to some registered Western Union number. <u>Here is the catch...the bank will not know the cheque is fraud until 2-3 days, and will withdraw the money as long as you have enough money in your account to cover it (before the deposit of the cheque).</u>
4. Frauder gets his money.
5. Sucker gets a notice from the bank a few days later saying the cheque is no good and paid themselves with the real money in your bank account.

Edited by - on

kevinmac
Admiral

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USA
732 Posts

Response Posted - 02/28/2008 : 18:49:31

This is a well know scam that we have discussed on this site once before at least, but it never hurts to talk about it again.

In another life I bought and sold airplanes, small to medium size. A sad truth nowdays is that cashiers checks are not what they used to be. There is only ONE way to know you have the funds: a wire. (Or cash of course.) This is true nationally in the U.S. or internationally. Most cashiers checks are not even cashiers checks any more, they are bank checks, often not even from the same bank if you look carefully at the check. But never mind, both will bounce. If you try to deposit a "cashiers check" nowdays, most banks will put a five day hold on it. But just because the five day hold is over does not mean you are home free. Cashiers or bank checks can bounce two months or more after they are cashed, and the bank will take recourse from your account if you have enough. If not, and the amount is enough to bother with, they will demand the funds and sue you for the balance.

None of this is true of a wire. If you receive a wire, and you get faxed (or whatever) confirmation from the bank that you have received the wire, you HAVE the money.

This is very lame, it is so much more convenient for a buyer to bring a cashiers check with him and then go home with either the boat or the check. But that is not safe for the seller any longer.

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