Get a load of this scam!

[John]

I recently posted my 23' kells sailboat for sail on a free classified web site based here on Cape Cod, MA. A few days ago, I rec. an offer for the full asking price of $2000 for the boat. Here is a the catch....The buyer informs me that he lives in Nigeria (yep, you read it right Nigeria). He claims that someone here in the US owes him $6000. He wanted me to take a check for $6000 from the 3rd party, cash it, keep $2000 for the sale of my boat and westen union him the balance back to Nigeria to have the boat shipped. I thought about it for a few days and could't understand why someone would ever want to do this other than "launder" $. I walked away from the deal. Anyone else ever encounter this? My brother how is a bank exec. for a US bank that deals with interests in S. America says that I would have got my $2000, but the boat would never have been picked up for shipping.

 

[John Dawson]

nigeria deals

being in a small business, I have gotten various unbelievable proposals from Nigeria for the last decade; they usually involve some scheme where you open an account to help them transfer funds because...blah, blah. Don't bother telling our officials about them, they are sick of hearing about them.

 

[David]

Nigerian Scams

I get them at least once a week and have for years. AS John says, most are for money they have tied up and want you to help them get it released. Most are for millions so you should feel slighted for only $2000. They are all scams. Even if youdid get your money it would almost certainly be part of a nother scam and the money would be dirty. It is not worth the risk.Nigeria is the world leader in scam artists and you should just throw out any offers from them. I do business a bit in Nigeria and one has to be very careful about whom you deal with.David

 

[Miles]

Here's a summary of the scam...

See link below. It's been going around for a long time but the boat thing is new as far as I know. Kinda creepy that the scam "artist" is going over your for sale ad...

 

[Peggie Hall/HeadMistress]

Your brother was only half right

They never would have picked up the boat, but you wouldn't have gotten any money either.This isn't a new scam...in fact, they tried on LaDonna just a short time ago. She didn't fall for it, but a lot of people do. Here's how it works: They search "by owner" ads for high ticket items--boats, airplanes, RVs etc...and send the seller a variation on the letter you got, offering to buy it sight-unseen for the full asking price if you'll just forward the difference in the amount they send you to a third party. The certified check looks real enough to fool any bank, but it's bogus--the bank it's drawn on doesn't even exist. Since it's always an offshore bank, it takes a while to find that out...and by the time it bounces, you've already sent the difference to the third party. Of course, the so-called "buyer" has evaporated...he never had any intention of buying your boat. So you not only don't get any money, you're out the amount you sent..'cuz your bank will NOT cover it. So if you'd bitten, you wouldn't have sold your boat, and you'd have been taken for $4,000.

 

[Paul Akers]

Happened two weeks ago

The same thing happened in RI two weeks ago. A warning came out in the paper. The person was conned and lost her money. She had even deposited the check at the bank and they took it. A few days later, after she sent the money to the "scammer", she was notified that the check was counterfeit and that she was responsible for it. Poof! - the money was gone!

 

[john]

Thanks to all for your input and CAUTION TO ALL

boaters...I could have easily fallen for the scam if I were desperate to sell my kells 23.