'Catamaran for Sale' Scam

[catman]

Under the topic "BEWARE IF IT SOUNDS TO GOOD"

I saw an ad on sailboat.com for a 41' Lagoon for $200,000.
I emailed the seller.
He replied and stated that he was in Indonesia.
I asked for specs and pics.
His name was Ferry Ramos and he said that he received the catamaran as a wedding present from his father who died last year and so he was selling the cat.
He told me that a shipping company call Jurung Express shipped the boat to him.
I contacted the shipping company through a web site he gave me and asked for a quote to ship the same catamaran to Vancouver Island.
$5,500US.
Ferry wanted me to give him a 10% deposit once the shipping bill of lading was aquired.
I asked many question of Ferry about the catamaran and whether there were hotels to stay at when I come down to see it.
He would only answer about 10% of the ??.
I have been looking at a lot of catamaran web sites and pics of catamarans for sale.
Then one day I was looking at the pics that he sent me and started to think that the background buildings at the marina where the cat was supposed to be moored in Sabang Aceh was vaguely familiar.
I went back over all the earmarked listings that I had.
The pics were from a reputable US cat broker.
Ferry had stolen the pics from someone elses web sight and was trying to sell a cat that did not really exist.
I called him on it and he never responded.
I truly believe the shipping company website jurungexpress.com is also his creation.
Still searching...Catman

[talus]

Interesting...the scam is on the shipping side. The fraudsters get more inventive every day.

[MarkJ]

well spotted!

[Herbseesmoore]

Yep this ruse has been around awhile, unbeleivable price on a Lagoon 380, listing the location as various places, Ca, DC when contact is made you find out the boat is on a lake in Indonesia.

[slomotion]

jurungexpress.com resolves to an IP address (67.228.217.224) that originally comes from an outfit called Softlayer Technologies, a Texas based service provider. Typical whois information for jurungexpress.com is concealed by an outfit called privacyprotect.org.

However, the domain name was only registered on March 19, 2009. The site design seems to be more or less the same as bataviacargo.com and indojavacargo.com.

[catman]

Thanks, slomotion.
Amazing how you are able to dig that sort of information up on a web site.
That cat sure had my hopes up though.
Cheers

[Aquarius]

This scam (?) looks to have raised its head again. We too responded to an advert, last week, for a Lagoon 410 2003 model, priced unbelievably at US$200,000. Location Kansas but later to be found to be in Indonesia, same story but with a name Daniel Manulang fronting. When we found that the deposit to be sent to a bank account in the name Ferry Ramos, we decide to do some ferreting and came up with this entry. Perhaps we all get scared off and the deal is sound, but when no boat name is given, even though requested, and the HIN does not compute, plus an insistence on a deposit before viewing, it does not seem good. We will look elsewhere!!!

[catman]

Hey Aquarius, looks like we are looking for the same thing.. an affordable well made cruising catamaran.
I just returned from StMartin and Tortola, went there just to be able to actually go on a see what fits me.
We saw the range of Leopards,a 41' Lagoon, a 44' Voyage, 47' Nautitech, and a
36' Jaguar. I can not believe all that the Jaguar had to offer in a 36' length.
I just wonder how well it would preform given its' length and all that standing headroom.
Most of of the catamarans I need are far from my home in Sidney, B.C, Canada.
I guess it is inevitable that we will run into an e-fraud at some point.
I was e-mailing a fellow from France about a 41' Lagoon in Venezuela asking $90,000. It all seemed legit and I think it sold. Apparently the owner suffered a heart attach and wanted to sell the cat off quickly.
Check out the ads for Multihulls World magazine.
Good luck on your search
Catman

[TACK OFF]

If its to good to be TRUE........it usally is

[David M]

Well, you have to give them credit for being a little more clever than the Nigerians. Was the spelling and grammar decent?

[Aquarius]

Thanks Catman. The boat offered in Indonesia turns out to be a boat offered for sale in Kingston ON. (at twice the price of course). The Indonesians had stolen not only the photos but the details as well, so the wording appeared to be in good English, until the exchange of emails where the grammar became poor. Anyway all's well that ends well. Cheers . Just hope the next potential buyer reads this string.

[Blue Stocking]

Catman and Aquarius,

Go ahead and buy the boats. As soon as I confirm the certificate I received today, telling me I won 2,250,000 english pounds on the Euro Soccer lottery, I should be able to lend you the bucks. Yeah!!

[shadow]

Nicely spotted!! Glad that you were very alert and aware!! Those are the few times that I really appreciate having a legitimate brokerage with excellent reputation involved. I really hate hearing anyone trying to rip off anyone else!! I really hope that they will get theirs in the end...

Happy hunting