Do you know how hard it is to sell a boat in February? So, if someone offered your full asking price, without ever seeing the craft, and offered to send you a cashier's check for the boat, plus shipping costs, wouldn't you jump at it?
If so, you'd become a scam victim.
After listing my motor skiff and trailer on BoatTrader.com for $8,900, I got three quick nibbles, all suspect. One interested party had an email address ending in .ca, as in Canada. I live in Virginia. That's a long way to come to buy a small boat.
A fellow named "Chris" contacted me and asked a lot of questions, like he was really interested in the boat. I was suspicious but answered his questions. "Chris" turned out to be an amazingly easy sell, for he promptly responded with this email:
Mark,
My client has agreed on the price and will send payment. i will make arrangement for a pickup agent. My client will send you a cashier check of $17,900. When you receive the check, deduct $8,900 for the Boat, the difference of $9,000 should be sent via Money gram transfer to the agent who will under take pickup, shipment and other expenses. I hope it is in good condition? Please confirm this and provide the following details
PAYMENT INFORMATION:
1. LEGAL NAME IN FULL.......
2. ADDRESS..............
3. PHONE...............
Regards
Chris
This might look OK to someone in another line of work, but I've written dozens of stories for ConsumerAffairs.com about scams and even produced a DVD on how to spot scams. "Chris," most definitely, is a scammer.
The objective of his scheme is to persuade me to wire transfer $9,000 of my own money to his account. Once I wired the money, I would not be able to stop payment or otherwise retrieve my money.
"Chris" hoped to convince me to do this by pretending to buy my boat. The fact that he needed it to be transferred gave him an excuse to send me more money than I was asking for the boat.
It would be the same as if he asked me to give him change for a counterfeit $100 bill. The money I would give him would be real. The money he would give me would not.
So, "Chris" hopes that I will rise to the bait and agree to his generous terms. He would then send me a very real-looking, but very counterfeit cashiers check. My bank would accept it for deposit and even credit my account.
But a week or two later my bank would discover that the check from "Chris" was a fake. That $17,900 would disappear from my account. The $9,000 that I had wired to "Chris'" account would be long gone.
Because boats are generally big-ticket items, consumers using online sites to buy or sell them are attractive targets. The BoatTrader.com Web site has a Security Center to deal with fraud, but warnings are not prominently displayed on the Web site. In fact, to get to the Security Center, one must first click on "seller's tips." The fifth and last "tip" cautions users about fraud.
"Be prudent in dealing with buyers. Buyers and Sellers should be prudent and careful in any exchange of money, contracts, legal documents, and written or verbal communications. For information about avoiding potential buyer scams, please visit our Security Center."
As a good consumer, I will report this fraud attempt to BoatTrader.com's Security Center.
Then, I think I'll send "Chris" a link to this story.
