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Fake Outboard Motor Websites

Fake Outboard Motor Websites

Last updated January 2021

WA ScamNet warns consumers not to purchase products from the following fraudulent websites:  

17 December 2019

Don't be taken for a ride by outboard motors website

The prices are low but the risk of losing money paid by direct bank transfer is extremely high, if not certain! The outboardprice dot com site is run out of Indonesia and Honda, whose products are listed for sale, confirm "the US models are not able to purchased in that country, it's definitely a scam website." WA ScamNet is having trouble getting the site shut down, so spread the word and help prevent money loss in the boating community. 

19 April 2017

Outboard motor enthusiasts have lost more than $17,500 after paying for goods that never arrived via scam websites.

The websites, which claim to sell Suzuki, Honda or Yamaha equipment, include:  www.suzukioutboarding.com.au, www.honda4stroke.com.au and yamaha-outboards.com.au. 

When consumers follow up after making payments for marine motor products, their emails have either bounced back or gone unanswered.

The legitimate boating companies have issued warnings about unauthorised sale of their products.

The fraudulent websites claim to be based in Australia and do not have legitimate ABNs. Similar fake websites have also been previously reported in Queensland.

Previous reports

We have had two reports of dealings with the website www.suzukioutboarding.com.au with one report being a loss of $2430.

The scammers set up a fake website selling Suzuki outboard motors for extremely discounted prices. The scammers obtained a '.com.au' website by fraudulently using Australian Business Number (ABN) information from a legitimate business. Victims attempt to purchase the motors and are offered incentives to ensure payment is made. Victims have reported they received no receipt or further response from the website, no phone number is provided for contact and the address is only listed as being a suburb in Queensland.

The reported loss of $2430 was from a consumer who has not received the product, and paid via bank transfer. The other report received was from a consumer who was about to purchase but got suspicious when the address was listed as being a suburb and the prices on the products were nearly 80% off the normal selling prices.

Suzuki has advised on their official website that they are aware of websites selling their goods fraudulently.

The fake website is similar to other scam websites that were reported earlier in the year in Queensland.  The list of websites associated with that scam included a suzukioutboardmotors.com.au, so this new website seems to be a variation on this.

Tips to avoid fake websites

  • Be wary of ‘great deals’ served to you via an internet search or pop-ups. Scammers hope to catch you out when you impulse buy, for example because of the promise of a bargain.
  •  Be suspicious of sites you haven’t heard of before or that haven’t been online for long (copyright 2019 at the bottom for example).
  • Consider the risks if there is no physical address, phone contact details or ABN.
  • Watch out for sites asking for insecure payment methods (direct bank transfer or wire transfer).
  • Protect yourself by using known reputable sites and paying by a secure system (padlocked) with credit card or Paypal, which provides you with an opportunity to seek a chargeback if you don’t get what you paid for.
  • Use the internet to search for reviews before buying from a website as this will often reveal consumer blog threads exposing scam sites, or indeed one of Consumer Protection’s warnings.
  • Be aware scammers create copycat sites of real online businesses. Pixelated photos can be a sign of this.
  • Remember it’s hard to enforce the Australian Consumer Law if an online business is overseas.

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