Cashier’s check scam takes on a new form
Scam artists are back. And once again, they appear to be targeting dealers in the Gulf states of Florida and Texas.
“I don’t know; maybe they think they’re just a bunch of country bumpkins down there,” speculates Phil Keeter, president of the Marine Retailers Association of America. “The boat show season is a prime time for them to do this because the salesmen are so busy.”
Having read about cashier’s check scams late last year in Soundings Trade Only, two intended targets of the latest scheme — a Florida dealer and another in Texas — were suspicious from the start. The only thing they lost in the end was the time they spent negotiating and arranging the potential deals.
In the earlier scheme, a fake company scammed Gulf area engine dealers out of thousands of dollars by using counterfeit cashier’s checks to pay for purchased engines. In its newest variation, the scam involves boats posted for sale on the Internet
The dealer is contacted by e-mail by a prospective buyer who claims to be in Africa. After several e-mail exchanges, the scammer phones to close the deal.
Ultimately, a cashier’s check is sent that proves to be counterfeit.
Keeter says these cases show “how far reaching the Internet is, but how careful you have to be when you deal with an unseen customer.”
— Melanie Winters
m.winters@tradeonlytoday.com
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