Be very very cautious about this. This appears to be a scam.
The signs that this is a scam are simple:
First and most obviously, the prices are too good to be true.
Second, they are dealers in ALL brands of outboards. What legitimate companies carry every brand of outboard? The answer is none, because the manufacturers don't want the competition in the same store.
Third, I checked for universaloutboards.com. That site no longer exists.
Fourth,
www.universaloutboard.com does exist, but when you start looking at it, odd stuff comes up,. For example, when you check the 'contact us' page, a bunch of information comes up to assure people that this is a legitimate website. It claims that the Singapore Chamber of Commerce has checked on them to confirm they exist. Why on earth would a legitimate business need to post something saying 'someone has checked on us to make sure we exist'.
Fifth, stands to reason that if they had been checked out by the chamber of commerce, and they are a business in Singapore, they would be members of the Chamber of Commerce. They are not. I checked the Singapore Chamber of Commerce website.
Sixth, I ran the site on one of the scam checking sites (
www.scamadviser.com). That site reveals it has been in existence for only 215 days. This makes no sense, given that the certificate of assurance on the website's contact page is dated from 2004.
Seventh,
www.scamadviser.com notes the following; the owner of this website is using a service to hide their identity; the host country for this website is unknown. It makes no sense for a legitimate business to hide their actual location.
Eigth,
www.scamadviser.com notes that the information available indicates that the site is US based, but it may be from Indonesia. Indonesia has been a locations associated with organized internet scams for some time.
So nothing on this website adds up. This appears to be a scam. Don't buy from it and definitely don't give them your credit card number. If you have, go to the bank, and have your credit card cancelled and number changed. If you have provided them your identity or other personal information, I suggest you review options for protecting yourself against identity theft.
Just so you are aware, websites like this pop up regularly under different names, offering similar services. The one constant is they are always offering outboards at prices that are just too good to be true. If you are ever unsure about a business, begin by checking it on
www.scamadviser.com.
