I was contacted by a 'Kevin Preacher' online in response to an ad that I had placed on a free ad website. I desperately want to sell my boat. Kevin and I haggled briefly over a price and he said that he would send his 'shipper' out to send my boat to him and that he would request to expedite the process that I pay the shipper's costs and he would send me a cashier's check that covers the cost of the boat and the shipping fees. Then I was to pay the shipper when he arrived to collect the boat.
I immediately noticed that he refrained from giving me contact information beyond an email address. He also never provided me with the shipper's address or name. It 'sounded' like he owned a boat buying business although he never directly said that. He said he would have his accountant send me a cashier's check. He never gave me any contact information beyond his email address.
I am assuming that I am dealing with a Kevin Preacher, but honestly it could be a false name too. Within a week or so I had a priority mail envelope containing a cashier's check for the boat and shipping costs. I was totally excited thinking I would be able to pay off my boat.
I noticed a couple things about the transaction though. The cashier's check was written from a Texas bank. Kevin's name was nowhere on it, and there was a RE: Juliet Savage on the bottom. I thought that could have been the accountant; trying to justify what in my mind just wasn't adding up. Then I noticed that the priority mail envelope had VERY poor handwritting and it was from a Roger Johnson in New York. Again, a texas CASHIER's check with a priority mail from NY. Very odd.
I took the check to my bank which put a 5 day hold on it because it was out of state. With Columbus day they called and the bank was verified as exsisting but closed. The next day they contacted the bank and the bank indicated that the check was likely a fraud and to send it to the Federal Reserve for verification - an additional 90 day hold.
I had emailed Kevin to let him know that the check arrived and it would need to be put on hold. It was then that I became really worried when he said that the shipper had juggled many schedules to accomodate this purchase and the shipper would need some money up front to pay for the inconvience before he would come. Then he asked me to send via this huge email which was written even in a different font which was weird and that included the information on how to send the money to the shipper by moneygram.
The funds were to be sent to a "Mr Udo". No information was otherwise supplied at that point. I replied that the shipping was Kevin's responsibility and choice and that I had no funds to remit as the funds were not yet verified but if he wanted to promote good will and send the shipper's funds I would send him the proceeds back minus the shipper's fee after the check cleared. He still continued the ruse! He said to notify him when the check cleared and he would contact his bank to verify everything sooner to get this expedited. Now I tried to be logical about this.
I looked up Juliet Savage, the address on the priority mail, Roger Johnson, Kevin Preacher and keyed in 'Udo'.. Not only on this website but also in people search and couldn't find anything on here or anything in Texas or New York for any of those names. I also tried to look up the uymail. Guess what. It is an 'anime' email website. Not very professional.
I asked again for contact information for the shipper; never recieved it. I finally emailed him after my bank told me that the check was not valid. They may well pursue things from their end which is fine by me and I will help in any way. I kept the emails and the priority mail envelope (obviously I was worried all along and the mail envelope was the closest I had to any non online contact information - but could also be fake).
So in a nut shell, I was contacted by someone online to purchase my boat. They sent me a fraudulent check from out of state and used a ruse of a shipper to attempt to extort 2900$ fee from me to him to take the boat out of state. I really doubt the plan was to take the boat anywhere but under other circumstances many people would consider a cashier's check as 'CASH' and may have turned over the boat as well had the shipper really 'showed up'. I think that the extortion was more towards getting the 'shipper's fees' sent Western Union.
So be careful because Cashier's Checks can be fraudulent too! Get contact information or don't deal online.
0 comments