When I sold a boat via on line ads in 2005, I received several inquiry emails from a ‘buyer’ and then a final email offering ‘Full cash plus a $5,000 extra hauling fee ‘ . it was to be paid via a cashiers check drawn on ‘ Maryland state teachers credit union ‘. (Curiously , the several inquiry emails were each sent in the wee morning hours for my time zone. ) The promised check did arrive by snail Mail at my home several days after Christmas, mailed from n y c. The check was watermarked and looked very official. the Sender had given me the phone and address of the ‘hauler’ to whom the extra 5k should be sent by me for ‘ haul away ‘ of the boat . I used my beenverified.com subscription to pull up sender name , address , criminal records and phone numbers. I was quite sure it was a scam , and very amused by this time . the check was dated dec. 24, Christmas eve. (no teacher credit union in the US is open to disburse checks on Christmas eve. ) The boat ‘delivery address ‘ was a slum house in the Bronx, not a working boatyard. (The owner of the phone shall remain Nameless — but beenverified was advising me of criminal convictions on his record.) meanwhile — the boat was on the hard under winter cover, on its cradle at a marina closed til May , with no travel lift even available til then . I took the check to my bank and asked them to call the credit union. The credit union advised the bank they had suffered a burglary and a whole set of blank official watermarked credit union checks had ben stolen . the Bank was able to provide law enforcement in MD With the check And details of its transmission to me. meanwhile , I told the scammer to go to a western union store in ny c on a certain date … ‘To await the money from me. ‘ ( which of course I never sent. ) . . . It is fortunate that these scammers are so outrageously uninformed about boats. PS —since I had lost no money , neither my local city police nor the FBI internet crime dept. was interested In the crook I never found out if police in MD prosecuted the scammer . . The boat was sold to the 1st couple who looked at it .
