The Scam Man

I wrote a column that was rather popular last year in Wings Magazine on the subject of scams in the aviation world.

At that particular time a group purporting to be from South Africa 2010 World Cup were out trying to get us to sell them aircraft in support of the event. The scam part was a registration/bid fee had to be paid in order to move into the final and approved phase of the acquisition programme. Where the scam failed was the number and specific aircraft wanted. There were only so many to be had and when a bunch of us starting tripping over each other and comparing notes - well the gig was up.

Were we stupid? No. In fact I was impressed by the quality and quantity of brokers who were drawn in. These guys were in fact pretty good which made us concerned that some who were not smart enough - or trusting enough - to share information with others would get suckered in - and I am sure some did. I received calls as much as six months later from new folks getting the same email to start the whole thing again with them.

The biggest issue here was the time this cost. Time is what we all sell. In this instance I went to the Canadian Trade officials who in turn flushed out the fallacy of the whole thing. They also notified the correct other agencies domestically and in SA. I also used the power of the spoken and written word to help. In the end, nobody that I know sent one dime. We all lost a large amount of time though.

And why am I bringing this up now? Because it still continues and also has left many of us so overly cautious that it could be costing us in genuine business.

Case in point, I had over the period of three weeks a series of emails from "over there" asking about aircraft we had/have been brokering. Two of the inquires were dismissed after some checking (we still talk to others and ask the right questions before getting involved too much now). In the case of the third, it really just did not feel right to me so I worked it a bit, but not too much. No point in putting in the time for nothing was my feeling. I admit it - I am very cautious now. Maybe too much so. We got to the point where frankly an offer was the only thing that would compel me to move forward. The buyer wanted more info. I wanted an offer first. So the buyer and I had a standoff. In my mind it just proved the lack of validity to the whole thing.

Well yesterday I got an email from the buyer advising he had found exactly what he wanted from someone else and would go forward on that and a second aircraft. So now I am thinking that my cautiousness has caused me to miss out on this one. In talking with Rick though, I think we both agree that something still stinks in this deal and we probably did not miss out on much.

But that said, we are both a bit gun shy and less tolerant of the time wasters and scam artists. And they are still very much there. They sit in Internet cafes in developing nations and research just enough to appear knowledgeable and go after the chance to get us in some way. It can be required registration fee for the tender. It can be a letter of invitation to come and view the aircraft (you are on the hook and responsible in such cases) and it can be information gathering so that they then go on using your identity to scam others. The problem is the bad guys have more time to consider new ways of being bad than we do. So they win. And when we get overly cautious and miss genuine opportunities - they win too. It is extremely frustrating. Especially as we all struggle to earn an honest buck.

Now if someone happens to find the crystal ball that allows us to tell the good from the bad - the genuine from the scam - and real from tire kicker - please tell us where to get one so we call all share and get back to doing business - not looking over our shoulders or second guessing ourselves.