Hoax?? Please help!!

[sham]

I saw a boat on craigslist and inquired about it. Within minutes - the listing was flagged. Now - I received an email which is below - please help!!!

Hello,
You made the right choice! My 2002 Malibu Wakesetter LXI is in great shape,no engine problems,damages or hidden defects and the title is clear. It was always garaged and never kept outside. It has only 300 hours and the price is $4800 with shipping included. We will use eBay`s protection program for our safety and DAS for the shipping (I have a friend there who will manage me a low price shipping and I assumed that it is my duty to pay for shipping it.It will be delivered directly to your address).

The boat was my husband`s as he loved it very much, but he did not enjoy it as he died in a IRAQ 3 month ago. It brings very bad memories to me, I want to get rid of it.

Anyway, I have to let you know that I want a fast deal so if you are really interested in buying it,please reply with the following information's:
-Your full name;
-Your shipping address.
I will forward to ebay this information and they will send you a invoice with all the payment and shipping details.

I will look for your email,so that we can move forward with this deal!
Let me know.
Thanks!
Ashley
FOR PHOTOS CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING LINK: http://s336.photobucket.com/albums/n345/ashgor121/


Please reply with all opinions!!!!!!

 

[Kev144]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

4800 seems real cheap for that year and condition of boat. Looks like a hoax to me. I could be wrong how ever.

 

[sham]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

That's what I thought too- NADA lists approx. $30,000.00!

 

[woodee148]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Sounds a bit too desperate to me. If they need to get rid of it quick and cheap they could call a local used dealer and they would be happy to take it off there hands.

I would not give them any information

 

[brc1981]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Craigslist has an Alert at the top of the Car+Truck pages [ ALERT - offers to ship cars/trucks are fraudulent ]. (http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.html)

Would imagine that its no different with boats. Would run from this one as others have suggested.

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

it is 100% Spam. "I will forward to ebay this information and they will send you a invoice with all the payment and shipping details." ebay does not do business that way.. if it were on ebay, she would have given you a listing # were to bid. do not send them any info.

 

[Bob_VT]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

LOL google ashgor121 and see how many places this boat is listed ....how many states..... all in the past 24 hrs!!! It's bogus.

 

[sham]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Thanks to all of you! I think I'll definitely take your advise. I did reply to her through e-mail and asked where was the boat currently and such - she replied as follows::

The boat is in Miami, FL and I am here as well.Look: I will not receive the money in advance, ebay will hold them for you and after you will receive the boat the will release the money to me. You will need to send me your full name and address and I will forward to ebay and they will send you a invoice regarding the payment instructions. After that you will need to send the money and give to ebay the payment details and as soon as they will check the status of the payment (and if is available) they will instruct me to start the shipping and the boat will be delivered to you and after you will receive it and test it (10 days test period) you will need to confirm to ebay that you received and they will release the money to me. In case you don't like the boat you can send it back and you will be full refunded by ebay.Please email me back and let me know if you agree and if yes send me your full name and address so I can forward to ebay and they will send you the invoice with all the details for the payment.

thanks


NOW WHAT??

 

[tashasdaddy]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

SUPER DOOPER SCAM. you do not pay ebay, you pay pal, the money immediately goes to the seller. this is a very poor scam, as they don't know what they are talking about, or hope you don't know the world of ebay. Pay Pal does not hold funds. ebays does not collect any money except for listing fees.

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

It looks a bit fishy to start with... it's always easy to tell a scam once you see the payment details (like working through an "escrow service" they pick, or similar).

In this case there are a few details that stand out. First, it's a very low price for that boat... too good to be true. As much as we all want to believe there are great deals out there, this one is unbelievable. Literally.

Second, they went to some effort to include a "household name" in the deal, specifically ebay. That's meant to provide some assurance of legitimacy and calm any fears on the part of the mark (that's you). Because ebay wouldn't be involved in a scam, right? But the only assurance you'll ever have that they're actually using ebay somehow would be the ebay logo spammed all over the next email sent to you (by the same person on another account). Plus there's the common sense fact that ebay is an auction house and their rules specifically prohibit deals being made outside their auction process.

Third, they provide a sympathetic reason for you to move along without thinking about the deal too much... "my husband died in Iraq, and it's too painful to keep". Most people in our country support our troops however we feel about the war, and on top of that you might cause emotional pain to the seller by asking normal skeptical questions, so this part of the letter is meant to shut off some of your normal "buyer beware" pragmatism about the deal without you noticing.

Try mentally re-writing the letter without the emotional manipulation, and you get basically:

"For sale: 2002 Malibu Wakesetter LXI, $4800, pre-payment required and I'll ship the boat to you.. I have a friend at the shipping company who'll give me a good price. Boat was always garaged and is in perfect shape"

Then you look up the NADA price and wonder why someone's selling a $30k boat for $4800.. and why they want pre-payment.... and alarms start going off.

Erik

 

[RollingWanderer]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Sorry there S.Ham, but what you're looking at is a sham. hahaha...come on now I couldn't pass up that pun

Definately a hoax, as Tashasdaddy has noted...ebay doesn't serve as any sort of escrow service.

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

First off craigslist is not E-Bay.

Second off, here it is: http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/2002...007QQitemZ170242128241QQrdZ1QQsspagenameZWDVW

and it is not $4800.-, it has a starting bid of $20,000.-

Report it to E-Bay or the seller if you want, but I definitely would ignore the mails.

Geez!

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

SUPER DOOPER SCAM. you do not pay ebay, you pay pal, the money immediately goes to the seller. this is a very poor scam, as they don't know what they are talking about, or hope you don't know the world of ebay. Pay Pal does not hold funds. ebays does not collect any money except for listing fees.

Paypal also "reserves the right" to make arbitrary decisions about who's right and wrong in a transaction. There is no appeal process and no recourse.

I recently sold a $500 item and shipped it out. It arrived damaged by the shipper. The buyer didn't want to keep it, and didn't wait for the insurance to go through, so they opened a paypal complaint. Paypal reversed the transaction without my authorization, the item was shipped back to me (broken) and paypal charged my paypal account for the refund to the buyer. Since I didn't have cash in the account for that they overdrafted my account and started sending me threatening emails, and I've started getting collection letters. Meanwhile I'm left with a broken item that I can't get fixed because it's been shipped again by a different carrier.

I don't recommend anyone deal with paypal at all, and be very careful with ebay too (they're the same company now).

Erik

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Hutchinson, Kansas.

Mami, Florida.

Right next door to each other. Hum ...

Could be a honest mistake, or?

Buyer responsible for vehicle pick-up or shipping. Hum ...

 

[rudedude]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Its a scam , dont send them anything. I deal on ebay alot and they do not do any money deals unless its from ebay. Trash is right pay-pal is almost instant with the payment so knowing this if you send the money you will not recive the boat and will not recover your money as they will shut down and there is no way of finding the seller.


Man this kind of thing gets me hot , useing the death of someone as a way to scam people.

I wouldnt call it a hoax but rather a plane outright scam.

If you do send them money boy do I have a deal for you, I will sell you south texas for 2,000.00 and ship it free. LOL

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

The boat is in Miami, FL and I am here as well.Look: I will not receive the money in advance, ebay will hold them for you and after you will receive the boat the will release the money to me. You will need to send me your full name and address and I will forward to ebay and they will send you a invoice regarding the payment instructions. After that you will need to send the money and give to ebay the payment details and as soon as they will check the status of the payment (and if is available) they will instruct me to start the shipping and the boat will be delivered to you and after you will receive it and test it (10 days test period) you will need to confirm to ebay that you received and they will release the money to me. In case you don't like the boat you can send it back and you will be full refunded by ebay.Please email me back and let me know if you agree and if yes send me your full name and address so I can forward to ebay and they will send you the invoice with all the details for the payment.

thanks


This email says "miami, FLA" and the auction says "Hutchinson, KS". Also, ebay doesn't do escrow. But, putting that aside, here's how this works for the scammer:

1) The scammer sends you an offer, you bite
2) You send info to the scammer, who then forges an email from "ebay" with payment info for their "escrow" account.
3) You pay "ebay" and start waiting for the item
4) Scammer vanishes into the night
5) You keep waiting....

Now, if you really want to verify that this is bogus, just go far enough into the scam that the scammer sends you payment info. Then call up ebay using their contact info from www.ebay.com and ask them if the information is valid and is for their "escrow account".

Alternatively, tell the seller you will only do the deal if you can use an escrow service YOU specify, or that you will only do it if you can come and get the boat in person, and pay at that time. See what they say. Or, offer to do the deal if a marine surveyor can inspect the boat first at your expense. See what they say.


Erik

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

... or you could just call Terry (the real owner) at 620-960-4141, and ask him what is up, and why there are multiple listings, at multiple locations, by multiple owners, wanting multiple prices for his boat, and let him deal with it.

But if you are really bored ...

 

[erikgreen]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

You have a way to look up the registration numbers for LA?

 

[SnappingTurtle]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

Mr. Terry B****** is also selling a set of Factory 1997 Camaro wheels & tires, and the real cash price for his boat is $29,900.


His address is *******, and he works at *********, you already have his telephone number, it is in his E-Bay listing for the Malibu and it is in, you guessed it, Hutchinson Kansas.

******* = I am sure Mr. B****** would prefer I not post this information.

 

[fishmen111]

Re: Hoax?? Please help!!

I flag a few of those each day, but not until I email them to get their story and waste their time. Some are quite entertaining. Last week, I inquired about a 2004 24' Sweetwater pontoon for $4800 asking where the boat was located for viewing. They responded some town in South Dakota. I looked up the town on a map and responded that as luck would have it, I was only one town over (20 miles) and that I needed an address to see it. They emailed back that they had to leave ASAP to see a sick uncle in Florida. I wished them well and told them to email me back when they come home......obviously, I am still waiting.....