Scam adverts on Boats & Outboards

Swain Marine · 25 July 2013, 19:22

Just did a quick search on www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk. And came up with loads of results for boats that are way too cheap and almost certainly scams. The search I did was: all categories, all locations, keyword rib, max price £5000.
Common feature of all the ads was they were linked to the Friday ad website and the location set as London. See screenshot for one example..

Budgie1 · 26 July 2013, 06:34

+ 1 noticed exactly the same, some are just a copy of existing ad's but different title and price!! .... it's so blatant I don't understand why they are not removed by admin and scammers reported

Max... · 26 July 2013, 07:37

Old chestnut this and it afflicts all the main advertising sites - scammers and gits out there however you buy. However, no one in their right mind would send cash or pay by other methods and let the buyer 'deliver it for you Sir'...

As always buyer beware, view in person and check the item and seller out thoroughly.

Skinnyrib · 26 July 2013, 10:32

Wavecrest Watersports - New & used outboards, boats, jet skis, ribs & more at low prices!

Not to be confused with bona fide companies of the same name !!

Nos4r2 · 26 July 2013, 11:46

Same scam site at Ribba.co.uk too.

lukewhiting · 26 July 2013, 13:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinnyrib

Wavecrest Watersports - New & used outboards, boats, jet skis, ribs & more at low prices!

Not to be confused with bona fide companies of the same name !!

That sites been around for ages! Used to be craft bay boats & seven boats

paddlers · 26 July 2013, 14:19

If I try to click on some of the links my computer has a hissy fit & the screen goes red with 'DANGEROUS PAGE ' written in huge letters !!!

It's a good site to convince the Mrs that boats are a cheap hobby......

Poly · 26 July 2013, 20:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Budgie1

.... it's so blatant I don't understand why they are not removed by admin and scammers reported

B&O is a very budget basement site. I doubt it even has one full time person looking after it (probably one "sales support" person for half a dozen sites and one technical admin for the same number). The admins probably no nothing about boats; the certainly wont know enough to judge a fair price etc.

Why they haven't built better scam spotting technical tools is another question - but a cynic might suggest that they get advertising revenue and google traffic from all ads even the scams! Its interesting to see what raises an alert (human or automatic) on the systems we have here and both have false positives which isn't good for customer experience.

treerat · 27 July 2013, 07:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by Skinnyrib

Wavecrest Watersports - New & used outboards, boats, jet skis, ribs & more at low prices!

Not to be confused with bona fide companies of the same name !!

The local guy that actually owns Wavecrest Watersports is doing his damnest to get this, and other hoax adverts, taken down and is not happy.

bownessie · 28 July 2013, 13:08

I e-mailed a few from there and got almost identical replies - basically goes like this - too busy working, I will put it on eBay on a buy-it-now, you pay by Paypal - I live in Scotland and I will deliver it to you directly, you have 10 days to give it back if you aren't happy, and lots of words in-between telling you how safe eBay and Paypal are for buyers are and that you are 100% safe that you aren't being ripped off.

spartan · 28 July 2013, 15:13

I responded to one of those adverts for a yamaha outboard for sale at a bargain price .the guy mailed me pictures of the outboard nice and clean. It was for sale on the isle of Skye . One problem photos had a sign in the background it was Miami Florida

ShinyShoe · 28 July 2013, 16:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by spartan

It was for sale on the isle of Skye . One problem photos had a sign in the background it was Miami Florida

Really good zoom lens ? [;-)]

I had one of these the other week on an X-pro on a London ad site. I knew it was too good a price and magically she was now in Dundee with it but would put it on ebay. I asked too many questions at once and she stopped answering.

I wanted her to put it on ebay so I could understand that bit of the scam... I suspect its a spoofed ebay site with spoofed paypal. Then they harvest your passwords?