Tornado scam uncovered

Graham Eeles alerts TheDailySail to the latest boat buying scam to hit the Tornado fleet

Tornado and newly appointed Velociraptor Moth builder, Graham Eeles has got in touch with TheDailySail, revealing a boat buying scam currently being seen in the Tornado class.

Evidently a number of teams in the Tornado fleet have been targeted so far, including some top teams and other Tornado sailors in Essex.

The scam seems to be a fairly standard banker’s draft/shipment company scheme whereby a potential buyer contacts the person selling a boat, agrees the price and then informs the seller they will arrange for a shipping company to pick up the boat. However, they then send the money for the boat plus the money for the shipping company to the seller asking the seller to pay the shipping company with the excess.

This is a pretty standard and established scam, though the boldness of this particular scammer makes it stand out significantly. “The bankers draft is fake and I guess they’re trying to get you to send money to the 'shipping company' upfront. Both sets of guys had been contacted by the same person (Sandra Smith) with the same story (shipping the boat to Canada),” Eeles explains. “Quite brazen about it, giving a real phone number and both have spoken to the individual in person. We're putting something on the ITA [International Tornado Association] website to alert people, but thought that the targets could be a wider audience.”

As ever scams like this are fairly easy to prevent. Simply make sure money has fully cleared into your bank account before you pay out anything. Or better yet in a situation like this ask the buyer to pay the shipping company and you separately.