It seems that this scammer has been active on B&O for some time. I became suspicious when looking at various RIBs at the back end of last year, and wrote the following email to B&O Customer service. I never received a reply. I'll leave you to come to your own conclusions...
Dear Boats and Outboards
For several weeks now I have been searching for a RiB to purchase and have regularly viewed the listings on your site. During this time I have made email enquiries about several boats, and now on three ocassions have become very suspicious about the advertiser.
On 5th September I enquired about a Zodiac Yachtline W30 (see
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F214645 ) which is (still) listed on your site at a surprisingly low price of £2000 and indicated as being a Private Seller in Bedfordshire. I received the following reply to my email enquiry from
justin.savage2@yahoo.com
Hello,
The rib is still for sale. Very good condition with low hours.
Has 30 days testing period that means you can ask for a full refund if you don't like it and we will give you the money back.The delivery charge is set at £ 170 and you will receive your product in max 3-4 days directly at your address with all papers and documents.
Please place your order for this item on our website :
www.marine-bay.co.cc . After that please wait for your email invoice. You will receive it in max 24 hours.
More photos on our website.
Thank you for your interest.
Regards
MarineBay Team
I replied by saying that I wished to view the RiB prior to making a decision to purchase and asking when and where this would be possible. I received no reply.
On 10th September I enquired about another Rib, a 1997 Novurania 400 DL listed on your site with the reference number F215335 (although this advert has since been removed). I cannot recall exactly where the boat was listed as being located, I think it may have been Lincolnshire, but it was certainly not Bedfordshire. To my surprise, I again received a reply from Justin Savage, as follows...
Hello,
The rib is still for sale. Very good condition with low hours. It has a 50 Hp yamaha outboard.
Has 30 days testing period that means you can ask for a full refund if you don't like it and we will give you the money back.The delivery charge is set at £ 170 and you will receive your product in max 3-4 days directly at your address with all papers and documents.
Please place your order for this item on our website :
www.marine-bay.co.cc . After that please wait for your email invoice. You will receive it in max 24 hours.
More photos on our website.
Thank you for your interest.
Regards
MarineBay Team
Having already had my suspicions aroused by the previous listing, I chose not to respond further.
Earlier today, I spotted what appeared to be another Novurania 400 DL, albeit now listed as being for sale in Dorset (see
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F217220 ), and again said to be a Private Seller. I sent off two email enquiries asking to make arrangements to view the boat, but have, til now, received no replies. Suspicious that this was in fact the same boat that I'd enquired about previously, I visited the Marine-Bay web site and, sure enough, there it was.
I decided to see how many more of the RiBs shown on that site are listed on BoatsandOutboards and found that each of the following are also listed.
1)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F216351 a 12' Caribe RiB listed as being located in Lanarkshire
2)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F216969 a Nautica Jet RiB listed as being a Private Seller, located in Surrey
3)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F217168 an AB Inflatables 14VS listed as being a Private Seller, located in Berkshire
4)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F214873 also an AB Inflatables 14VS listed as being a Private Seller, but this time supposedly located in Surrey, which is rather strange as though the picture is a different one from that shown on the previous item, when you look at the listing on Marine-Bay both photos are shown as being of the same boat!
5)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F213575 a 2009 Seamor Marine RiB listed as being a Private Seller, located in Aberdeenshire
6)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F215122 another (different) Seamor Marine RiB listed as being a Private Seller, located in Dorset.
7)
http://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/view/F213666 using exactly the same photo as the previous item, albeit advertised for £900 more than item 6 and, miraculously, now located in Midlothian!
At this point I stopped looking as it was patently obvious that something smells very badly about these listings, and the fact that they are all listed with seemingly very low prices (to make them seem particularly attractive) only adds to that smell. Furthermore, when you look at many of the photos shown on the Marine-Bay site, it is obvious that they were not photographed anywhere in the UK, never mind Dorset, Surrey, Aberdeenshire, etc. I hate to think how many more of the RiBs, Jet Skis and other boats listed on Marine-Bay are also lurking on BoatsandOutboards.com and can only hope that nobody has been stupid enough to part with their cash as I doubt they'll ever receive the boat they 'ordered'.
Suffice to say I am now very dubious of even enquiring about listings on your site. And that's a real shame because, until discovering this apparent con, I felt you offered the best selection of RiB adverts in the UK.
Of course, I may be completely wrong and Marine-Bay could be a totally legitimate company (sorry, Private Seller) with many happy customers who've purchased on the strength of their adverts on your site. If so, I'm very pleased for them - but I shall not be joining them as I was always taught that if something appears to be too good to be true, then it almost certainly is too good to be true!
Kind regards
NSS
White Noise
