attempted rip off

[videoguy]

About a week ago I put an ad to sell my 20 foot dory on the New Jersey boat website and a few days later I get this email:

Hello Seller,
I got your advert on your for sale 20 ft rowing dory} and i am so deligthed and interesting in buying it from you.Please update me if it still very much available for sale.More importantly i will like to know if there is any body damage on it.I will require for your last price,Your contact phone #and also your full name and address. It's will also be nice of you if you can provide me with the picture.So that i can be fully satisfied with it. If everything is ok with you.Willing to read from you Asap.
Warm Regards.


It seemed a bit odd but I answered the guy and about an hour later I got this email with the subject line (how the payment will go):


)Thanks for your swift response,It looks great and I 'm really interested in purchasing it.Concerning the shipment i have a shipper company that will handle the shipment so you dont need to bother about the shipment.However,this is how the payment will be made,A client of mine in {USA} his owing me some funds of ($8,700) i will instruct him to issue a Cheque drawn from Us Bank in your name and once it clear you will deduct the cost of the: {20 ft rowing dory } {$4,500} and the remaining balance will be end back to my Shipper via western union money transfer for immediate shipping arrangement,Because as at now i am not in state, And i really know what it takes to receive a cheque from someone you do not know,But i will be asuring you that there will be no problem with the cheque.The cheque will be sent to the Information you leave and I have so much interested in buying the { 20 ft rowing dory}, that's why i want my client to issue you the Cheque.If this is okay with you do get back to me immediately with your with your sactisfied words...
I will compensate you with $100 for the running arround and transportation and also to consider the item sold to me.
Kind Regards.



Now I am sure it is a ripoff and all the the guy was trying to get is my account number. This is the first time I have tried to sell anything on line. Is this a common thing to happen or is it just my bad luck? If any of you have boats for sale I would look out for this Ducard Willer guy. .............Phil

[Jonas]

This is a common ploy. Any time that I have advertised a boat on the Internet I have received a similar offer. They are not interested in your boat, but only in getting you to give them good money in exchange for a worthless cheque.

[Matt J.]

I got that regarding the sale of Carrots, our little 8' pram. I sent no response.

[Victor]

If this is your first time, consider yourself lucky. Anyone see that article in the New Yorker about the Christian psychologist who dove headfirst into a Nigerian scam? Apparently these people are doing quite well with this.

[Nicholas Carey]

he doesn't want your account number. He wants your cash. He cuts you a bogus/stolen/forged check for $8700. You send him a good check for $4200 ($8700 less the $4500 sale price). He winds up with $4200 and you wind up holding the bag when the check bounces or is finally identified as stolen/forged.

The boat is immaterial to the scam.

Also the use of Western Union identifies this as a variant of the Nigerian/419 Scam -- Section 419 of the Nigerian Penal Code being the section pertaining to mail fraud, and Nigeria seeming to be where the scame originated and most of this stuff comes from. People have been murdered after getting hooked into the Nigerian scam.

The reason for using Western Union is that the recipient of the cash doesn't have to pony up any pesky personal details such as bank account numbers, etc. All the recipient needs to get the cash is the control number and the answer to the secret question provided by the sender.

You should contact your local postal inspector and the police (if the money moves through the mails, its mail fraud, if it moves by wire its wire fraud. Either way its a felony.)

[Figment]

I'm STILL getting these "offers" on a boat I sold SIX YEARS ago. Unreal.

[Miami Mike]

Figment: I'm STILL getting these "offers" on a boat I sold SIX YEARS ago. Unreal.

Just a tip from my sister. Whenever she buys or sells a vehicle on the web she sets up a new email address in yahoo (or any other free address site).

This way she doesn't have to clog her personal mail box and when the transaction is completed she can close the new email address.

I thought it was a pretty good idea.

[almeyer]

This does seem to be a common scam. I got a number of similar responses when I tried to sell my 6-hour canoe. When someone overseas is offering to buy a plywood pirogue, and send me a lot more money than I'm asking for (with me to send back the balance), I immediately got suspicious.
Al

[Skiff Junkie]

This jogs my memory. As the keeper of www.simmonsseaskiff.com, all e-mails and merchandise requests go through me. A year or so ago I got an e-mail from someone in Nigeria wanting to buy ALL of our merchandise. I couldn't help but wonder why someone from Nigeria would want 100 or so Simmons Sea Skiff t-shirts and a bunch of koozies and other stuff. I figured he probably had us mixed up with someone else, but I also wondered if it might be some kind of scam. Anyway, I trashed the e-mail and forgot about it. Now I'm sure it was one of these scams. More people should be made aware of this activity.

[brad9798]

I've lead them on with three of four emails ... until I need THEIR banking information for the wire ... then they freak out ... it is rather funny.

Lots of 'em based around London town England ... they've even given me their phone numbers ... which I call collect.

:-)

[ssor]

I get three or four of these each week, promising wonderful rewards if only I can help some poor distressed former government work abscond with a few million dollars they just want my bank account number so that they can deposit the money here and retrieve it later and offer me some bounty for my help. How can I refuse? easy! I just delete them!