The Advance Fee Fraud



Also known as the "Overpayment Scam" or "Advance Payment Scam".

Here's how it works... The fraudster will inform you that they are interested in purchasing your boat. He will send a cashier's cheque, banker's draft or business cheque for considerably more than the agreed sale price of the boat, and will ask you to send the difference back. He will give some excuse for sending too much money, such as blaming the error on his accountant.

Before sending back the difference, you would wait for the cheque to clear. However, the cheques are usually forged or stolen so your bank will honour the cheque, and it may be weeks, sometimes months before the forgery or theft is discovered. You will be responsible for re-imbursing the value of the cheque. And, if the boat has already been shipped to the con-artist, you lose out twice.

Unfortunately, if you have been a victim of this type of fraud, there is little you can do to get your money or your boat back. Usually, the con-man will be outside of your country, where your police have no jurisdiction.

The worst offending country for this type of fraud is Nigeria. In fact, fraud is one of Nigeria's biggest industries. You should be especially cautious when a message originates from Nigeria. Countries that generate a large amount of this type of fraud are listed below. However, you should be aware that the scammer may not tell the truth about their location and may even disguise the IP address of their computer so that the originating country cannot be determined.

High risk scam countries: Nigeria, Russia, Israel, C'te D'Ivoire and many other African countries.

To help prevent you from being conned, here are a few pointers:

When the buyer sends too much money, you can be sure they are attempting a fraudulent transaction. Do not proceed with the sale.

2) Do not send any money back to the buyer.

3) Remember the cheque you receive may not be legitimate.

4) Get as much contact information from the buyer as possible, including an address. A PO Box address is not good enough. Be very suspicious of anyone who is unwilling or delays in providing this information. Contact them by telephone, e-mail, post and await a reply to make sure the contact details are real.

5) Be extra cautious if the buyer is outside of your own country.

6) If the person mentions the purchase of the wrong item e.g. a car instead of a boat, it is probably a scam; many of these scammers have many scams on the go in different market areas and often get them mixed up.

7) Think about enlisting the services of an escrow agent.

8) Trust your gut instincts; if something seems too good to be true, or just seems wrong, it probably is.