So the Hunter I wanted to purchase turned out to be a fraud. Here's my story. I had an add posted on a web site stating that I was looking for a Hunter 260. I recently received a call from and idividual who claimed he had one for sale. He represented a company that sold items for people, a broker of sorts. I asked him to email me the information about the boat and I immediately recognized the wording and the pics from an add I had seen before. I liked it then but it had sold very quickly. The more I spoke to this fellow the more that red flags were raised. He let me speak to the owner of the boat, who was an older lady with a heavy Texas drawl. She claimed that her husband had passed away and she was not a sailor so the boat had to go. She spoke about how much her husband loved and cared for the boat and when I asked her how long he owned the boat for she said "at least 3 -4 years". That didn't seem correct so I went through some old adds that I have saved and I found the add from the same boat. The add stated that it was placed in December of 09 and it sold in Feb of 10. That was less than a year ago so the womans statement about owning for at least 3-4 years just was not correct. I called the broker and this is where it got interesting. He claimed that he put the boat up for sale in Dec of 09 but the owner found out that he was illl and decided to take it off the market and sail it until he could no longer sail it. Well little did he know but the add clearly said 'sold' also it had the name of the gentleman who sold it and it stated where he was from (Alabama). I told him that I was done with him. He then stated that these were different adds, then he said the pictures were different. How could it be different with the identical wording to the other add. It didn't make sense. He continually was asking for a deposit and he would ship the boat to me and then I could pay him the remainder. He kept mentioning that my deposit would be in escrow and guaranteed if the boat wasn't what he claimed it to be. He made many other attempts to pursuade me. Very dissapointing on my end as I really liked the boat and price was right in my ball park. I don't know if I should print his name, but he had a very 'American' sounding name and a vert heavy East Indian (Pakistan?) accent. The add was originally on the Sailing Taxas website and I spoke with them to try to find out the purchaser's name but they did not keep those records back then (BTW, they do now). I would like to let the owner know what this guy is up to. So dissapointed right now, but I'm just going to have to stay patient and keep up the pursuit of the elusive Hunter 260!! :cry:
Be aware of these scam artists. They are out there. We should get these stories out and try to expose them or educate everyone to their tactics so no one loses any money. I must say, my head was telling me to run away but my heart really wanted to make that purchase which really made this difficult. Hope that sharing my experience helps someone.
Shanker
Be aware of these scam artists. They are out there. We should get these stories out and try to expose them or educate everyone to their tactics so no one loses any money. I must say, my head was telling me to run away but my heart really wanted to make that purchase which really made this difficult. Hope that sharing my experience helps someone.
Shanker
. Or You could arrange a meeting(which he'd never show up for) and invite the "squat" team and sgt Stedanko. You got lucky that your emotions didn't quite cloud your common sense, it happens every day. Time to move on and find the boat of your dreams which probably won't be at a price that's too good to be true.