Spoof?

What say you? Is this a case of phishing? Phishing is defined by the Concise Oxford Dictionary as ‘the fraudulent practice of sending emails purporting to be from reputable companies in order to induce individuals to reveal personal information, such as passwords and credit card numbers, online.’

On Sunday, 28^th September I received an email via the Ebay system which I have copied below, minus the name of the sender and his complete telephone number. The contents are as follows:

Dear --------

Full Name: ------- ------
Country: Deutschland
Primary Telephone: 0049----------

I have allraedy Your Kingfischer 26 Trio, and like to have her.
I`m interested in this kind of underwatership and like to use it as a model
for a bit bigger boot.
Also I like to learn sailing without a motor, and learning what it means, different timecalculation.... .
So my offering is 2500 € if You send it with all belongings on the trailer to
me in germany. It shoud not very expencive because many take cares to England and go empty back to Germany.

If You will agree please send me Your Bankadress and I send You 2500 €,
And You send Your Paradox inbetween the next 2 weeks.

With regard ------

My gut feeling told me that something was not right. I was suspicious that he wanted me to provide him with my bank details, and that he was prepared to wait 2 weeks for me to dispatch the boat and trailer to him!

He had obviously done some research on my background via the blog, because he knew that I had been the owner of ‘Trio’, and claimed that he had her. He had researched small boat sailing, and said he was interesting in learning how to sail a boat without an engine. Now, all of this could be true, He could, in fact own ‘Trio’, and may genuinely want to learn about micro sailboat cruising.

Because of my suspicion I did not reply to the email, and he has not bothered sending me another, which further leads me to believe this could be a case of phishing.

Now, whoever you are, in Deutschland, if you are not phishing, I would like it known that 2,500 euros would in no way be acceptable as a suitable offer for the whole package, including the trailer, because the equivalent of £1,966.45 is not enough. Another point, I am not prepared to sort out the business of arranging and paying for the boat to be exported to Germany. If you are genuine, and you really want ‘Minnow’, you must collect her, and most importantly, pay a fair and acceptable price in cash with UK pounds.