We have logged 11 distinct charter-fraud patterns reported to us between January 2025 and April 2026. The smallest single loss was $4,800 on a fake day charter in Mykonos. The largest was a $1.4M wire-redirect on a confirmed Mediterranean week. The total dollar volume across the 11 patterns sits at roughly $6.2M in reader-reported losses. None of these are rare. All of them are preventable with three or four checks that take 20 minutes.
This page is the editorial record of what we have seen and how to defend against it. It is not legal advice. If you have already been hit, the section at the bottom on recovery routes is the part to read first.
Pattern 1: Wire-redirect on a real broker
The most expensive and most common pattern in 2025 and 2026. The mechanic is simple. The scammer compromises a broker's email account, or compromises yours, then waits until a wire instruction is in flight. They send a follow-up email with a "corrected" account and routing number. The visible difference between the real broker email and the scammer's spoof is often a single character in the domain name.
Defense. Phone-verify every wire over $25K against a number you sourced from the broker's published website, not from the email signature. Burgess, Edmiston, Camper & Nicholsons, IYC, and Fraser all have switchboards staffed during business hours. A 90-second call closes this entire pattern.
Pattern 2: Fake MYBA contract from a fake broker
The scammer presents a yacht that exists, with specs and photos lifted from YachtCharterFleet or a builder website. The contract is on MYBA letterhead with the right clause numbers. The broker name does not appear on the MYBA member roster.
Defense. Cross-check the broker against the MYBA member directory at myba-association.com before any deposit. Cross-check the central agent for the named yacht through any of the established platforms (YachtCharterFleet, CharterWorld, BoatBookings). If the central agent of record is not the broker pitching you the charter, stop.
Pattern 3: The yacht does not exist
A close cousin to Pattern 2. The yacht in the photos is real but is not for charter. It is privately owned and on display at a 2024 boat show, or it is a former charter yacht that has been sold and is now under the new owner's private use. The scammer has no relationship to the yacht.
Defense. Ask for a recent dated photo on board with a current newspaper or a dated marina slip ticket. Any real broker can produce this within 24 hours from the captain. A fake broker cannot.
Pattern 4: The yacht exists but is double-booked
The scammer is real-but-marginal, often a small operator outside the central-agent system. They list the same week to multiple clients and take deposits from all. One client gets the week. The others get a refund offer that may or may not arrive.
Defense. Ask for the central agent's confirmation in writing, not the broker's. Confirmed weeks have an entry in the central agent's calendar. A broker who says "the central agent is on holiday, here is my own confirmation" is a no.
Pattern 5: Bait-and-switch on yacht size or condition
The contract names a 50m yacht. At the dock you are met by a 38m yacht with the explanation that "your yacht had a mechanical issue, we have arranged an upgrade equivalent." The substituted yacht is older, smaller, or both, and the broker has already been paid in full.
Defense. The MYBA contract has a substitution clause. Read it before signing. Negotiate the wording so that any substitution requires your written acceptance and triggers a refund of the difference in market rate, not just the contracted rate.
Pattern 6: APA padding and ghost expenses
A real broker, a real yacht, a real charter. The advance provisioning allowance arrives back with $42K in itemized fuel and provisioning charges that do not reconcile against the receipts. Ghost charges include "harbor fees" at ports the yacht did not enter, "crew gratuity advance" duplicating the gratuity the client paid in cash, and "fuel at peak rate" against fuel taken on at off-peak.
Defense. Demand the receipts package within 14 days of disembarkation. Reconcile against the AIS log of the yacht's track (publicly available on MarineTraffic for any yacht over 300 GT with AIS on). Ports the yacht did not enter cannot have generated harbor fees.
Pattern 7: Fake day-charter operator on Instagram or WhatsApp
A direct-message booking on Instagram for a Mykonos or Ibiza day charter. Bank transfer requested in advance. The yacht does not exist or belongs to someone else. Loss range $1,500 to $12,000 per incident. We have logged 23 such reports in the 2025 season alone.
Defense. Book day charters through a platform with escrow (GetMyBoat, Click&Boat, Sailo, Boatsetter, Samboat). The platform fee of 8 to 17 percent is the price of escrow and recourse. A direct WhatsApp deposit has neither.
Pattern 8: The "captain's friend" surcharge
A real charter, a real yacht, a real captain. On day three, the captain mentions an "off-menu" experience: a private dinner ashore, a helicopter tour, a club table. Cash up front, no receipt, off-the-books pricing at three to five times the local rate. The captain takes a cut.
Defense. Every off-yacht experience runs through the broker or the central agent. If the captain offers something that does not, decline politely and book it independently.
Pattern 9: The "VAT-free" fiction
A broker offers a Mediterranean charter at "VAT-free" rates by routing the contract through a non-EU jurisdiction. The yacht then operates inside EU waters without the correct paperwork. If the yacht is boarded by the French, Italian, or Spanish authorities mid-charter, the client is the named party on the contract and can be held liable for the unpaid VAT plus penalties.
Defense. Any broker offering a structure that avoids EU VAT on a charter operating in EU waters is offering you their tax risk, packaged as a discount. The savings disappear in any audit. Walk away.
Pattern 10: The deposit-only "hold"
A scammer asks for a "non-binding deposit to hold the week" of $5K to $15K, with the contract to follow. The contract never follows. The deposit is non-refundable per the email small print.
Defense. No real broker takes a hold deposit before a contract. A real hold is 24 to 72 hours, no money down, on the central agent's calendar.
Pattern 11: Forged crew certifications
A small operator outside the central-agent system presents a crew with forged STCW certifications. The yacht is not insured for charter, the crew is not legally entitled to drive it, and any incident voids any cover the client thinks they have.
Defense. For any sub-30m operator outside the established central-agent rosters, ask for the captain's STCW certificate number and verify against the issuing authority's online register. UK MCA, French Affaires Maritimes, and US Coast Guard all publish verifiable registers.
Recovery routes if you have already been hit
Same-day. Phone your bank's wire-fraud line and request a SWIFT recall. Phone the receiving bank if you can identify it, and ask their fraud team to freeze the recipient account pending your bank's recall request.
Within 72 hours. File with the FBI IC3 (US victims) or Action Fraud (UK victims). For EU victims, the national CERT or police cybercrime unit. The IC3 reference number unlocks several bank-side processes.
Within 14 days. File with the broker's professional body. MYBA has a complaints process, as does the British Marine Federation. These do not recover funds. They do create a paper trail and can result in the bad actor being delisted, which protects future clients.
Within 30 days. Engage maritime counsel if the loss exceeds $50K. Recovery is rare but not impossible if the funds landed in a jurisdiction with bilateral cooperation. The cost of counsel typically only makes sense above $250K.
Why we publish this
The yachting press will not publish this list. Their advertising base includes the bad actors, and the central agencies' PR teams will quietly ask any editor who does to take it down. We are independent and on this site that means we name the patterns, document the dollar amounts, and update the list when readers send in new variants. Email [email protected] if you have been hit by a pattern that is not on this list. We add new patterns the same week we receive them, with a note on what was different.
The brand promise on this site is that you will not waste a million dollars at sea. This is one of the pages that pays it off.