I thought every boat scam possible had been attempted at me. I've had the Nigerian prince thing, the "my guy owes me $10k, he'll send it to you, and you send me the balance," and of course all the emails asking my final asking price and would I take cashier check from bank of kookamunga, etc, etc. Well, last night, I got a new hit that I had never since, well, never heard before.
Gather my children and ye shall hear of the midnight call of some scamming queer...

It was 10:30 EST, and I get a call from an operator asking if I knew what "Relay" was. I didn't, and I thought it was some sort of sales call. I was very angry that they called me at 10:30 at night as well. I hung up. They called back. They asked if I knew what "Relay" was, and I said "no." Relay is a system where someone without the ability to speak (a mute) can type to an operator, who then reads the words to the person on the phone (me in this case). The light came on for me, and I agreed to talk to whoever was typing.
This guy's name was Jack, and he wanted to know if I still hade my 2000 Nacra 20 for sale. I said "no," and then he hung up. I got another call about 1 hour later (11:30 pm EST), again from a Relay operator. Jack wanted to know if I still had my Nacra 5.5 for sale. I said no. He asked if I had any other items for sale. That's when I started to pick up on the game. I said that I have a Hobie 16 for sale. He wanted pictures, and proceeded to give me his email address - jack04mike@yahoo.ca (I hope the spammers are watching!)
He also told me he lived in Sunnyvale, CA. I told him I am in NC. I ended up getting another call later last night, at about 12:05 am, again it was Jack, wanting to know if I still had my Tanzer 16 for sale. At this point, I told the operator that "Jack" had called me multiple times, and that I wasn't very happy right now, and I didn't want to continue the call. Jack didn't call back again thankfully.

When I checked my email this morning, I had this email from a guy named "Jack Jones" :
Dear Owner, My Name Is Jack Jones, I'm interesting to buy
your ( 1982 Nacra 5.2 catamaran sailboat ) i live in Sunnyvale, CA 94087, I will
like to know your final asking price for your adverts
posted for sale and the present Conditions also to let
you know that payment will be made by Certified Check
OR Certified Usps Money Order do you accept?also i
will like to see some pictures of it and if its
available,you can attached it and send it to me as
soon as possible.Hope to read from you soonest.

Cheers,
Thanks


It looks like Jack was busy last night between calling me at least 4 or 5 times, and then sending me emails.

Moral of the story: Watch out for spammers calling you on "Relay."

The end.

So are you saying you won't sell a boat to someone who can't talk and can't spell? <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

But, seriously, that is an interesting new twist. Scammers are pretty creative. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" />

Trey/Mary:

Yea you have to be careful. But there are legitimate "Relay" people out there. Daughter and grand daughter both have friends that are partially deaf and have to use it. It is nice to have a system like that. BUT there are scams and abuses in everything.

Doug

I think the scam portion of this episode is that the "caller" will get the info on the boat, pictures, etc. so that they will then post that THEY have a boat for sail (with all the details).

When someone sends the down payment, ** poof **, the dude is gone.

The majority of Internet relay use is fradulent. Although it's a great service for deaf people, amoral SOBs in Nigeria and whatnot can use it as a free (to them, costs the US taxpayer big bucks though), anonymous way to scam people in the US.

There's tons of info about this on the internet. Just search on "relay scam".

I get the scam e-mails every day regarding my Arc 21 for sail. The only place that I have posted it for sail is here.... Is there any way to block these butt holes?

only thing I can think of to block the scammers on this site would be for Rick/the webmaster to write a "robots.txt" file and tell the search engines what they can and can't index. That would only keep search engines from seeing the classifieds or other "off limits" sections, but not a person from coming to see the page. On the sites that I run, I specifically exclude pages with classifieds or names/email/phone info.

This entire thread should be moved o Rick's general scam thread. It will make the research easier for people who are trying to find out if there is a scam being attempted or not.

You Should have told him you had one of the new High Tech AquaCat's for sale for the bargin price of 10K and that you would take a partial of 5K.

Trey, Ihad one of these calls last week also abot something I have for sale. I had fortunately seen a 20/20 special on it a few months back and told the operator I was hanging up, and thanked her for her time, but this was a scam call. Apparently they are being abused for porn and profit(scams) and the government is picking up the tab and they are unable(or unwilling) to stop it.

I did win the Nigerian lottery though! My checks in the mail! New boats for everyone on the forum...

You too hu, I thought I was the only one!! SWEET!!! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Dave:

Yea I have wire transfer coming this week too. Nigeria is nice to us right? (LOL) <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif" alt="" /> Sent you a email. Wendy Annon is email aand forum friend. See you at F18's in Galveston. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" /> We www.tcdyc.com are the host fleet. See link at right of site.

Doug

When placing an ad on our site, but best bet is to NOT use the @ sign, rather use at. That is how they pick up your ad with a program that lifts the email address.
so, for example, use rick at catsailor.com and you won't have any more emails.
Rick

Well, obviously, you cannot personally place a classified ad on our site. Rick has to do it manually. So what Rick is saying is that when you send us a classified ad through the online store and pay for it on the internet, you should use "at" instead of "@", because whatever you write is going to be copied and pasted into the classified section exactly the way you write it.

I haven't gotten the relay scam but several times a week I get a wave of scams via email about my "product" and they are all basically the same. Best bet is don't open read look at the text and go from there. Hit Delete.........I never won the Nigerian Lotto, but several times I have won the european Lottery......Is there one and should I claim my prize???? All I have to do is send them my private banking info and they will "SHOW ME THE MONEY"
Capt. Kirk

That's because I won the Nigerian lotto, Kirk. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

They said they'd deposit it in my bank account the same time the Nigerian Prince moves the four billion he has through there....

Such nice and generous people, those Nigerians.....

<img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

I just spoke with one of the Terps that I work with.

By law... the relay service people must transmit the scam offers as they are communicated.

They cannot judge or interfere with this communicaton between two parties.

twerps? You work with twerps?

Don't use that W!.... that letter has been banned from the American language as a dirty word! <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

I have a deaf colleague and the feds pay for the interpeting service..... terp of course is their affectionate nickname! (And Not to be confused with the U of Maryland mascot.. the turtle)

It took me quite some time to understand that ASL is not English converted into signs. The syntax and grammar are completely different. When the deaf learn to read english... its like us learning to read in another language.

Sometimes... you are better off communicating through terps then writing out what you want to say in english. The terps have to communicate all of the energy and feeling and emotion that goes into human communciation that you just can't get when you write... (unless you are Shakespeare)!

Mark, Mark, Mark. Of all people, I can't believe that you think Shakespeare actually wrote that stuff!