Scam Warning

Almost since the Internet was invented, scammers have figured out ways to bilk honest people out of their hard-earned money. Nigerian 419 scams — a Nigerian prince needs you to help him smuggle $20 million out of the country and, in return for the favor, he’ll give you a 30% cut — still end up in our inboxes several times a week, even though anyone with email should know by now that if an offer seems too good to be true, it is. 

Some scammers are more tricky. They prowl online classifieds — such our very own Classy Classifieds — looking for their next victims. "I just received an ‘offer’ on my boat from a guy named Matthew Cole," writes Wayne Hallenbeck, who has his Ranger 26-2 for sale. "I Googled his email address and found several references to fraud with warnings not to reply to him. I’ve stopped communicating with him, but I thought your readers should know."

The trouble is that emails from scammers can seem perfectly normal, at first glance. "Hi, I’m interested in your boat. Is it still for sale?" You respond that it is, then the conversation progresses to something such as, "Thanks for your reply back, i will be very happy to buy the boat from you, i have gone through the features and I really liked it, if there is any other maintenance to be done the shipper who are coming for the pickup can sort that out before they deliver it to my son, i want to buy it for my son as a surprise birthday gift for him and i will be paying for the boat in full via cashier check so kindly email me back with your full name, address and contact phone number (home/office/mobile) for an effective communication so that i can send you the payment as soon as possible."

Note that these scam offers are, more often than not, riddled with typos, poor grammar and strange sentence structure, such as the one above. They also want personal info from you. If you agree to sell the boat to them, you might receive an email with a link to Paypal. This is almost certainly not a real link to Paypal, but a fake link that may only look real. Or you may be offered a cashier’s check for an amount larger than the listed price. Or they ask for your bank info so they can transfer the funds to you. Often times the ‘buyer’ is out of town or has some other reason he can’t meet you in person. They will also almost never want to speak with you on the phone.

That’s not to say situations don’t arise where an out-of-town buyer genuinely wants to buy your boat sight-unseen. Just perform your due diligence and don’t ever click links within emails. Always log into banking sites, such as Paypal, by manually navigating to the site. If you get even a whiff of something fishy, quit all communication with the person. Oh, and if you’re in the market for a Ranger 26-2, take a look at Wayne’s ad and shoot him a quick email . . . scammers need not reply!