A Scam for Boat Sellers

[GoldenDaze]

We've all heard about scams from fake sellers, as well as from fake buyers wanting to send a fake check and have you return the excess amount. Today I ran into a new one. I have my Whaler for sale right now, and today I've twice gotten emails that start with "Is the boat still available?" The conversation continues for a little bit, with the prospective buyer providing very little information (and maybe not being all that great with English, though that's not unique). Eventually it comes down to "Have you done any inspection? Can you provide me with a fresh inspection from hullrecords.com so I can see it's condition in the meantime. If the report moves out clearly good to go with this deal."

Note that this "good to go" is before we've even set up a time to see the boat. The prospective buyer also insists that I run the report myself, and that they'll pay me for it when they come see the boat (which I guess is technically true, since they'll never come see the boat). Hullrecords.com looks like maybe it's a legitimate site, though it also has some strange use of English. A little investigation on whois shows that the website was registered only 3 weeks ago, and the registration address is in Iceland. A quick check of the wayback machine confirms it's a new site. This really fails my BS test, and it seems that its sole purpose is to separate the seller from $79.

This led me to wonder whether there really are any legitimate "boatfax" data providers. A google search turned up a few possibilities:

https://boathistoryreport.com looks like it's probably legitimate. The website was registered in 2005 (not as old as CW but it's been around for quite a while). It's registered to an actual address in Florida. When I gave it my HIN, it told me it had 8 records that I could buy. I didn't think it was worth paying $59.99 to learn that I bought it, titled it, and have renewed the registration every 3 years. But it's plausible that that's exactly what I would have found, which could *perhaps* be interesting for a prospective buyer.

https://www.boat-alert.com also *looks* legitimate, and it was registered in 2016, but all the registrant info is marked as "redacted for privacy" (a real red flag), except that it's registered in Sichuan, China (maybe an even bigger red flag). Like hullrecords.com, you don't get even a hint of info until after you've paid. This one fails my BS test too.

-Bob

[jimh]

Very good information for sellers to be wary of.

Sending $80 to Iceland because someone you have never met emails you to inform you he might want to buy your boat is not a good investment.

I used to get offers to buy items that asked about payment terms. I would insist on only gold bars.

[Phil T]

"Can you provide me with a fresh inspection from..."

Oh forget it.... right there.

If they can't see it in person, nope.