Selling a boat on boattrader.com? Tips for cyber safety ...

LaRea

Here's advice for anybody selling on boattrader.  You can succeed (I did), but it's risky because most of the responses will be scammers.  

First, don't use your normal email account.  That's like telling scammers "here's a valid email for somebody who can afford a boat."  Set up a throwaway email address, and use that email to create a boattrader account. 

When Boattrader sends you a "sales lead" from your ad, LOOK before you reply.

You can weed out many scammers just from the email address.  Every time I saw two or more of these red flags, it turned out to be a scammer: 

* No last name given (first name only)

* Email address doesn't match the name

* Email is from an oddball domain such as "mailas.com", "imapmail.org" or "fastem.com"

Actual example from a sales lead I received:
Name:                  Ronald                                       <---- No last name given
Email:                  oshakira899add@mailas.com     <---- Name mismatch, oddball domain

If it passes that initial sniff test, your first reply should NOT include information about you or the boat.  I ended up using this boilerplate response to all sales leads:

"Thank you for your interest.  I am not accepting broker solicitations, and I will not reply to scammers.  If you are a legitimate buyer, I'll be happy to answer your questions."

If you get a reply, these red flags will help you detect a scam:

* Email address is different from the one in the sales lead.

* Gives a reason why you can't call them, such as a hearing disability.

* Offers full price without inspection.

* Offers a cash bonus for "holding" the boat or taking the boat off the market.

* Includes a heartstring-tugger such as "son's wedding" or "gift for my daughter."

* Offers to pay with a "Bank Certified Check" or the like.

If it smells like a scammer, do not reply.

If you get into an email discussion that seems legitimate, great!  Keep talking until it's clear they they have legitimate interest, then request a phone call.  But don't be surprised if they just disappear.  Be patient.

Dream_Inn

Great advice!  All sounds very typical for selling anything online.  I've sold a lot of stuff on craigslist and I get some emails that will sell it, but I try to just use an actual phone call.  Nice thing with craigslist is they don't post your email, but forwards it from the buyer (I believe most sites do that, so not really a worry about email name being posted).  The typical scam emails are pretty obvious, but I guess someone falls for them or they wouldn't keep doing it.

Glad you got your boat sold!  I'm sure this post will help someone out.

LaRea

Craigslist and eBay do a decent job of shielding identities.  Boattrader offloads that burden to the seller.  

Of course, the most reliable way to avoid scams is pay 10% to hire a reputable boat broker instead of using a FSBO site like Boatrader.  

Lake_Bum

Great info, I have personally followed those rules for years.  

Another little trick I use when posting on Craigslist, is I won't put my email, or my phone number into their system.  What I do, and so far it has worked avoiding all scammers, is I will hand write my phone number on a piece of paper, and upload a picture of that into my gallery on the ad.  
I've always suspected that most of the scammers on Craigslist, IS the owners of the Craigslist domain.  Providing a free website has it's advantages to crooks. 

YYZRC

Up here, using a broker means you can use your old boat as a trade and reduce your sales tax burden. 

johnny44

YYZRC said:

Up here, using a broker means you can use your old boat as a trade and reduce your sales tax burden. 

If you buy your boat and keep your boat in Rhode Island, there is no sales tax, no use tax, and no property tax. RI is one of the boat-tax-friendliest states in the US. Thus the reason my boat is in RI 

Lake_Bum

In Arizona, there is NO sales tax on any private sales.  

Willhound

Don't remind me. We get royally boned in Ontario. Buy a new vehicle (car, truck, boat, ATV, whatever) and if it requires registration you pay 13% tax. Sell it used and the new registrant pays tax again. And every sale after. You can try and cheat a bit and get a receipt for a lower value, but if they question it they just use blue book value if higher. There are vehicles out there that have had more tax paid on them than what they're worth.😡 

aero3113

@Willhound , New York is the same way!🙄