What are Ghost Boats?
Whilst images of Pirates of the Caribbean inevitably spring to mind, ghost boats are much more sinister and are a major marine industry problem. Rightboat.com is the first site to take this problem head on. A ghost boat is simply a fake advert often displaying a non-existent boat.
Why would someone create a ghost boat?
There are two types of ghost boat, the first type is based on a real boat that is currently for sale by another dealer. The second is a boat that may not even exist but designed to catch your attention.
The first type tend to be created by "Bedroom Brokers", people who have a large web presence, but may not have much if any boat stock, often working from home. These "dealers" place an advert for a boat that they have seen advertised by another dealer at a slightly lower price. If they get a lead from a customer, they then contact the dealer that owns / brokers the boat and say they have someone who will buy the boat, this can cause several problems. There appears to be more boats for sale than their actually are, this in turn can appear to affect the value of the boat, no laughing matter if you own or plan to own a boat.
The second type is commonly deployed when a dealer wants to get the phones to ring. They will advertise a similar boat to the one they have in stock, maybe by a different manufacturer, then they will set the price in the advert less than it is worth. Anyone looking for the boat will think that they have found a bargain! Inevitably they ring up only to be told the boat has just been sold, but by chance they have something similar in stock. The potential buyer assumes that if the last boat was such a huge bargain, then this one will be as well. Again, this behaviour is not tolerated on Rightboat.com but is prevalent on other websites.
What can I do to help?
If you see a ghost boat, then report it to us by clicking Report a Violation at the bottom of the page.
