Another scam victim
 

Not me, but a neighbour. We got chatting last night about the new boat he is buying, and how easy he found it to sell his old one. You've got it - though they did knock him down a bit on price they paid him a cheque for £000s more than the price. The deal is that he pays the excess (£4,700) to the guy picking the boat up (before it's shipped to South America for a potential buyer to see it) and they give him another cheque for £2,000 as the balance of the price for the boat.

Of course, they haven't actually seen the boat in the flesh. I told him to go to the police, but they weren't interested as to date no crime has been committed.

I think I'm due a good commission on saving him from losing his boat and a shed load of cash :D

Doesn't the new banking laws help? So he could cash the cheque and if it clears in 3 days he is away....?

Steve

It could help, but he's going to have to delay the scammers because he is in the middle of moving house and had not picked up his mail for a few days, so their timescale will be moving on....

His only hope would be to slow things down even further and hope the new cheque clearance rules kick in for him. I advised him to go to the bank and see what they can find out about the cheque.

I guess that it could be just a partial scam, if the first cheque is cleared he would then be at risk for the second (for £2,000).

6 clear working days not 3.

What new rules are they? Do they stop a scammer using a fake cheque and then having your money taken out of the account a month later?

It is 6 days for clearance

Cheque and Credit Clearing Company - Start date announced for important changes for customers paying in cheques

The phone calls have started. The person will not give his telephone number ;)