Putting a motor boat up for sale, avoid being conned

motor boat

motor boat for sale

No matter what method is used to put up a motor boat for sale, be it through the Internet or in local magazines, some people are out to scam the seller. As long as their methods are known a seller of boats can make sure to stay out of their game.

The advance fee routine on Motor Boats for sale

This type of scam is also known as the “Overpayment Scam” and it works like this:

The con artist, will contact the seller about the motor boat he or she put up for sale, expressing an interest in buying it. A cheque will be sent for an amount much higher than the asking price for the ship for sale. This cheque would be accompanied by a letter requesting to send back the difference and some bogus story about why it was necessary to send more money than is required. Something like an error of the accountant, usually does the trick.

Of course the seller will wait for the cheque to clear, but usually this type of con artist will use stolen cheques, which the bank will credit, only to reclaim it weeks later when the forgery of theft is discovered by the bank. Now the seller of the power boat is liable to repay the bank and in case the boat has already changed owner, the boat seller will have lost out twice.

What can be done, when fallen victim to this, on a boat sale

There is not much that can be done against this type of scam, after the seller of the vessel has been had by the con artist. Usually the fraudster will live in another country, where local police have no jurisdiction. The chances to ever seeing the sold boat or the money again are close to zero.
Most of these type of scams seem to originate from Nigeria, where fraud is a large industry. Therefore it is wise to ignore any messages originating from that Country or at least should be treated with caution. Also keep in mind that a con artist could be lying about their location. These type of fraudsters often even go as far as masking their IP address of their computer to hide the country they are really in.

What boating auctions do to protect the sellers from fraud

Most online boat auctions take these types of fraud very seriously and implemented all kinds of means to detect it before it even reaches the owner of the vessel for sale. Many checks are applied to screen for potential fraud, but there is no such thing as a hundred percent bulletproof system, so staying alert is strongly advised when putting a motor boat for sale at any auction on and offline.

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