See Sailing Hideaway video "Selling Hideaway Oh No!
See our ad on Boat Trader search Com Pac 23 with the above photo
As most of you know, we selling our beloved Com Pac 23,
the SV Hideaway.
We’ve sailed this course six times over four decades. It’s never easy.
It should be a straight forward process:
Remove all the stuff you kept on board because you
might need it someday.
Build a shed to store it all in for use on the next
boat.
Take care of those annoying little projects you’ve been
meaning to do, but haven’t, because you’d rather go sailing.
Fix whatever needs to be fixed. (A day sailor never uses navigation lights,
but a new owner will need them.)
Paint what needs to be painted.
Clean what needs to be cleaned.
Do it again.
Take some photos, make a video, place the
advertisements.
Answer questions, show the boat, and fill out the
paperwork.
Watch the new owner tow her away, wishing you didn’t
sell it.
Enter the Internet!
Wow! Should be much better now!
We had our first response within hours of posting a
listing. They offered to purchase the boat, sight unseen, at the full price.
What a great advertisement writer I must be!
Enter the Scammers:
These are the actual emails we have received and how
we’ve handled them.
I’ve bolded the warning signs.
On Tue, Jul 4, 2023 at 2:38 PM Mary
“I'm really interested in getting the boat for someone
who stays around where you are. I live in Los
Angele, California. We can start by looking at the present state and
condition? I would also like to know your final price? and payment options too.
I will be waiting to hear back from you.” (There are 42 photos in the ad and 200 videos
on our Sailing Hideaway YouTube channel.)
Jul 8, 2023, 5:32 AM
“Am okay with the price for $9500. I will be making
the payment via Cashier Check which will clear in your Bank in a day or two and once you have cash at hand. I will have
a mover come over for the pick up, If you are OK with this, Do reply back with your Full Name, and
Home Address, City, State & post
code. Phone number too”
ME I’m preparing a “BILL OF SALE FOR A VESSEL” that requires
the Name & Address of the Purchaser(s). Please send me the information as
soon as possible. I’ll send the form to you via email as soon as I get
that information.
Once you have signed the Bill of
Sale & we receive the Cashier’s Check we can arrange for date &
time of pick up.
Mary “Received the details for the payment. Pls consider it sold. I
will facilitate the cashiers check
payment to you, So a client of mine will
issue the cashier's check in the name provided and will have it mailed out
to you. However, the pick up &
mover's fee will be included in your payment as I have other 3 properties
to be moved along with what I am buying from you. As soon as your bank clears
the check, you'll make the pick up money
payable to my mover, movers will arrange appropriate time for pick up at
your location. Is that ok?”
ME No. Our transaction is for the boat and
trailer only. I do not want to be your agent to pay the mover. So, have the
cashier's check made out for the agreed price.
I
am attaching the Bill of Sale that needs the Purchaser's
Signature and Address before we can set up a date & time for
pickup. Please return it as soon as possible.
Then we will sign and date it only after
the $9,500.00 is available in our account. Per our bank representative,
that would be approximately 9-10 business days.
Mary Thanks for the information.
ME You did not return the bill of sale with your
contact information. We do
not have a deal. Do not send the check. Goodbye.
Here’s another
JOSH: Are you the owner? What’s the
present condition and the final asking price
ME Yes good9500
Great, all looks
lovely. I can have a check sent out for it from the office soonest as i'm currently out
of town training new company recruits.(Great – more scammers!) i'm having
someone coordinate the picking of my
stuff at storage and can have them send someone to come pick this up on my
behalf. Let me have a name and address for the check, your phone number and the
final price, and please do take down the
ad. The pickup will be scheduled for after you receive your funds
**** Another would “pay”
us $100 to “take down the ad”. Yet
another insisted we take it down.
RAYMOND
Thanks for the quick
response about the tent am buying
from you,
any way the price is OK by me but i will like
you to know that payment
will be made by check. If this mode of
payment is OK by you.Kindly
send your information which you will like to
receive the payment from
the post man, so that i can instruct my
secretary to issue it
immediately
Name to be on check.....
Address where check will be received by
you:.......
Phone Number's such as Mobile, Land line and
Office number:....
Asking Price.........
Never mind about the pick up, it will be after you must have cleared
the payment from your Bank Account. Await
your Quick Response so that
i can arrange for the payment immediately.
Thanks and Get back
ME I didn’t bother to respond, but really, what tent? The email is a template.
MY PERSONAL FAVORITE: CHAD
Great!!! please
consider it sold i am willing to pay your asking price because i need to buy it
for my Dad asap, i have read through the advert ! and i'm totally satisfied
with it, I'm presently out of town but I will ask my secretary to mail out a certified bank check to you if that's
okay and I will arrange for my mover to
pick it up once the check clears in your bank account.
Full Name:
Address:(NO P.O BOX because fedex don't
deliver to PO BOX)
City: State: Zip:
Your cell Phone Number:
Last Asking Price:
Boat name & model for Ref purpose
Thanks and I hope we
handle this in good faith while waiting to hearing from you
ME: You “hope” That you handle it in good faith?
Have you noticed that
at the end of your email responses there are suggested replies?
The ones for Chad
were: “Nice try.” “No, sorry” and “I sold it”. Even the algorithm
picked up the scammer!
ME:
Chad - Nice try -- The answer is
NO. We DO NOT have a deal.
Do us all a favor: Tell the others in your office to
quit responding to my ads.
---------------------------------------------
Looking for the Scam
Maybe, since we’ve bought and sold boats before, we are
better informed of the process, or, maybe, we just got lucky with our skepticism.
Like most things in life, a good outcome is dependent
upon doing things the right the first time.
We first realized a problem when the buyer did not seem
to be interested in the required documents.
Without a Bill of Sale, the boat and trailer cannot be licensed or
resold.
Even the most
expensive cameras cannot see as well as the human eye. We thought it odd that a
buyer would not want to inspect the boat in person or send trusted friend. The scammers
appeared to be out of state. We were
concerned that once received, the boat would not be what the buyer expected.
Concerns About the Mover.
I required a
Bill of Lading from one scammer and fortunately never heard back. A Bill of Lading requires the mover to sign a
statement that all was well with the boat when picked up. The liability for
damages in shipment would be on the mover. Agreeing to pay the mover out of the funds received
would have made us partner to the scam and provided our bank information.
Common Ground-
Each scammer used the same basic format. Buying the
boat for someone else – Grand ole Dad was most popular. None actually wrote the check. All used a “Mover”
rather than a boat shipping company. None wanted to see the boat. One scammer, Raymond, doesn’t know a tent from
a sailboat. Another didn’t know the spelling of the town she lived in. All were
traveling and have secretaries, or a client in one case (!) to write the check. All had checks that includes funds for the seller
to pay the mover. (Lights and sirens there!) None of them would provide new owner names and
contact information for the bill of sale. Not one of them paid attention in English
class. I’m not great a math – but this just
doesn’t add up!
WHATS NEXT?
We know that a Cashier’s or Bank check is not a guarantee
of secure payment. All of the scammers
expect the payment to be processed in a couple of days. Our bank would only allow a few hundred
dollars to be paid before the check cleared the out of state buyer’s bank, some
10 business days later.
Care to guess when the “mover” would “accidently” come
to pick up? The seller could be
pressured to write a personal check before the buyer’s check fully
cleared. What are the odds, do you
suppose, that the cashier’s check is good? The cost to ship a sailboat and trailer will
be based on how gullible the scammer thinks you are, but certainly thousands of
dollars.
Remember, once you turn your boat over to the mover
you will never see it or the mover again. You’ll be out the full sales price plus the
freight and your bank will probably want its advanced money back.
Stay safe!
SMALL BOATS ROCK!
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