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&Boat Angel& is NOT on the boat, Angel!

&Boat Angel& is NOT on the boat, Angel! review: Fraudulent Check Scheme From Boat Angel 17

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10:30 pm EDT
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I received an overnight delivery from a person I didn't know, a "Mary Wells" from Alaska, from UPS. I opened the letter up and there was a check from "Boat Angel" for $3, 200. Nothing else was in the envelope but the check...crazy! I didn't ask for money, I didn't know why I received this check, so I looked up "Boat Angel" and, indeed, they were a legitament charity organization. I called the number to find out why they mailed me a check and spoke to one of their operators. He told me to throw the check away. He told me about the hundreds of calls they received that week and there were actually people going to jail for trying to cash them. "Who would do thingsl like that?" I asked. He replied "I don't know, just people getting their kicks."

Anyhow, there was nothing we could do. All information on these envelopes were fake and the checks were printed from a home computer...very convincing checks, though! Boat Angel is a truly great charity, unfortunately the scammers used their organization to pull of a scam to hurt the people who had hope that a miracle had arrived. It is sad that there are people who take away our faith in things bigger than us, and I hope those out there that were taken advantage of do not lose sight of what life is all about. Thank You .

Check out my Blog: www.hubpages.com/Boat-Angel-A-Wonderful-Charity-Caught-In-the-Middle-of-a-Horrible-Scam

Resolved

The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

17 comments
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Frank55
, US
Oct 24, 2016 6:57 pm EDT
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Boat Angel is a SCAM company. They are being investigated by the BBB and the IRS. They have executives that take a large salary (non profit organization) and donate money to businesses that they are part owners. This is a conflict of interest and illegal. They hide under the religious name which should be insulting to all. DO NOT FALL FOR THEY'RE EVIL WAYS. Google they're company.

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ANGRY123@
key west florida, US
Feb 25, 2021 6:11 pm EST
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Replying to comment of Frank55

How long has this company been working and who owns it? We bought a boat and had to meet the owner on the NAS base Key West Florida. but without the owner we were not allowed on the base. We were given the wrong directions and almost missed the deadline to look at the boat and we were told to come the next day. The Captain that was to drive us to the location the next morning told me that my fiance was to drive her car and I was to get on the boat without her. The boat ride was 4 hours and she was to drive 45 minutes away and wait. The weather was horrible and I said I dont think it is wise to get on a boat in such bad weather. The captain I did not know started screaming at us to get our [censored] out of the car and put it in his truck. My fiance said she was not getting on a boat in a storm. The captain named (ronnie) said we will just tie her to the pole on the dock. We were not amused and felt like something shady was going on. The captain had made arrangements to have our boat come to his boat port and paid $4400 up front but the location was not what was advertised it was a DUMP shipyard that was nasty and stunk. It was not a nice port like it was advertised on the internet. We left without the captain and his 3 men that came with him to bring the boat to his wonderful port! That day we complained to Brian with boat angel and told him to reach the owner of the boat to meet us at the NAS base or we were talking to the police but within a few hours we were notified that our boat had been taken to a shipyard to have the bottom barnacles scrapped and painted. Brian with boat angel had a towing company tow it and the captain actually drove it and charged us for a tow $1200 which if a captain drives it the price is $450 for a day. Now one of the motors was blown . I am curious if anyone knows the history of boat angel and how long this company has been posting boats? Who is the owner or owners and any people that work with them? Curious

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Frank45
, US
Sep 22, 2014 4:51 pm EDT

Think Hattie Dizmond is running a check knitting scam out of Dallas, Texas. See picture below.

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Boatangelministries
Mesa, US
Sep 22, 2014 4:46 pm EDT
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Thank you all of our supporters for your 10 years of help. Please note you cannot make everyone happy no matter how hard you try

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Boatangelministries
Mesa, US
Sep 22, 2014 4:39 pm EDT
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Dear Big City Don

We post the items on our website. We are sorry the buyer was homeless when he purchased your boat. Why are you so hateful it is a fact that many veterans are disabled and homeless many do live on inexpensive boats.

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Boatangelministries
Mesa, US
Aug 20, 2014 11:31 am EDT
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While we respect the rights of others to leave comments. The above comment is not factual. "When it cane time to go pick it up"

This is not true, payment arrived in Pay pal we contacted donor (this was 3rd listing 2 others had not paid) Donor stated.. Oh I gave the boat away it is not here. He had not called us or contacted us we had been in touch with him prior to listing the auction he had not told us of his intentions to cancel.. Because we had a payment for an item that was missing... we issued an immediate refund. This buyer called us complaining about how much time he was out from the bidding process. (We sent him an extra $75 to cover his time.)

Yes we opened an unpaid item case yes he complained and promised by email to do a mutual cancellation we cancelled unpaid item case... the only guaranteed way to get listing fees back from eBay. . We were polite every time we spoke with him... he was angry boat was gone.. we have no ill will against this person we could have welcome a bit of understanding that a boat may not be available due to the actions of a 3rd party.

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Ez69
Yankton, US
Jul 17, 2023 4:11 pm EDT

I call bs, I bought a boat called for 4 days to pay no callbacks no messages had to leave the by sea and not able to communicate…lousy people to deal with…..

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Bfk8
Miami, US
Jul 07, 2014 9:28 pm EDT

I've been surprised by the vindictive attitude of such Brian, manager from hell angels, more appropriate name, or so it seems to me. Just makes me think of the real purposes of this " nonprofit organization ", seems a good reason to become atheist .after dealing with them. I won an ebay bid for a sailing dinghy from them and paid, but when it came time to go pick it up they returned my money without an explanation. I called to complain and find out why they tell me the owner got rid of it before end of bid. That's not the worst part! Brian from boat angel initiates an unpaid item case against me. I dealt with him before when I bought a sailboat I wanted to pay with 2 forms of payment, one of reps makes a mistake sending wrong invoice. I call to correct the problem and Brian ends up insulting me by saying he thinks I am up to some fraudulent activity when I just want to use credit cards with low interest. He was rude to me, vindictive, unprofessional, insulting, and not only that but I left feedback about my unsatisfactory experience just that I won, I paid, no item and then Boat Angel opened a case that I didn't pay-so Boat Angel pays $130 to take out my negative feedback. Does any of this sound very Christian-like. It's more contrary to what they profess and preach. Does it sound more like hypocrisy?

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Big City Don
Agana, US
Nov 24, 2013 11:18 am EST

Hey, Boatangel guy! YOU LIE

I got the "not our problem" line from you lying sacks of excrement as well.

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Big City Don
Agana, US
Nov 24, 2013 11:16 am EST

Boatangel is a DREADFUL organization! The first time they sold my boat it was to a homeless guy who showed up on a weekend without notice, slept in the boat (until Monday when the Harbormaster opened) and then backed out of the deal Monday!

The next guy was a little better-- he was employed, had a few bucks, and was intelligent-- but he had NEVER operated a boat, let alone a big sailboat. He got title, spent a week drifting around until he was picked up by the harbormaster, he pissed off the marina (no insurance, using power tools and chemicals) and then left! The whole town knows whose boat this was and I felt an obligation to clean up this little turd's mess.

I went to Craigslist and sold the boat (for more than BoatAngel got for it) to an employed veteran.

SCREW YOU BAOTANGEL. I HOPE YOU SUFFER FROM THE MANY MALADIES YOU CLAIM TO WORK TO PREVENT!

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Boatangelministries
Mesa, US
Jul 13, 2013 3:13 pm EDT
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Either call us at [protected] or fill out our form online at boat angel. org
We send you out a receipt via email and package in the mail with a form and a disposable camera so we can get pictures of the boat
We get the package back from you and list it at charity boat sales.org. Most boats are picked up in 14 business days. If your boat is on a trailer, and needs to be moved immediately, please contact us for special arrangements.
It is rare that a boat has no value at all. If you feel that your boat falls into this category, please contact us for assistance. We make an effort to process every boat, trailer, and jet ski donated to us with a success rate over 90%. There is never a cost to the donor

this is the true statement the above statement has many wrong facts.
1 We do not promise to take and remove every boat.. We clearly indicate some boats have no value.
2 We indicate our boats are listed and the site they are listed with is linked to EBay
3 We are somehow held liable for a buyer that does not pickup the boat we are sorry that happened but it is not a reason to complain about us.
4 I have never heard anyone in our office say too bad not our problem.
5 We are sorry that this person did not read the information we posted on our site and we sent him by letter.. We clearly indicate our policies.

6 If a boat is unable to be sold... we send a polite letter back to the donor and we always return the boat title even spending money on FEDEX to do so. our own cost.

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Boatangelministries
Mesa, US
Jul 13, 2013 3:09 pm EDT
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The above comment is not a true quote of what is promised on the website. you can visit the website and see the actual text of what we do during the donation process.

this is a quote from the website boatangel org about the process.
Either call us at [protected] or fill out our form online
We send you out a receipt via email and package in the mail with a form and a disposable camera so we can get pictures of the boat
We get the package back from you and list it at charityboatsales .org. (This is our auction site that directly connects each and every boat to eBay one visit to the site shows that clearly.) We clearly post this. Most (We say most because there are boat with no value we can never get picked up as they are unable to be sold and oftentimes are large without working engines or proper haul out facilities.) boats are picked up in 14 business days. If your boat is on a trailer, and needs to be moved immediately, please contact us for special arrangements. (If this boat was on a trailer we could have moved it quickly but it was not it was in a slip with no trailer.)
It is rare that a boat has no value at all. If you feel that your boat falls into this category, please contact us for assistance. We make an effort to process every boat, trailer, and jet ski donated to us with a success rate over 90%. We only claim to be able to process 90% of the boats.

All this information is not only posted online but also is in the package we send to each and every donor. We are sorry John's boat was not picked up... If it took John 3 weeks to find someone to take the boat away for free the boat in question probably did not have much value. We return over 100 boats a year that cannot even be sold for $10 .. Brian from Boat Angel Outreach Center.

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JohnJMJ
Huntington Beach, US
Mar 05, 2013 9:44 pm EST

While i sympathize with the situation of fraudulant checks being mailed out in the name of "Boat Angel", they are not a good charitable company. I am a former boat owner and had to get rid of my boat, so I looked into Boat Angel. They are a charity that you can donate your boat to and receive a tax write off. Their website states that "your boat will be picked up within 14 days after they receive your paperwork and boat title. I thought it sounded good. I received all of their information, sent it back along with the boat title, and expected the boat to be picked up within 14 days. I could no longer afford the boat slip that was costing me $400 a month. After 14 days, I received a phone call from the owner of the boat slip asking me why my boat was still there. They had already rented the boat slip to someone else and needed my boat to be out of there. I called "Boat Angel" to ask why the boat had not been picked up. I found out much information that they don't tell you about when you donate your boat. First of all, they put your boat up for sale on E-bay. When it sells, Boat Angel gets the money and they tell the buyer where to pick up the boat. The person they had sold my boat to never showed up to collect it. In fact, the purchaser could not be contacted. I needed this boat to be out of that slip and Boat Angel washed their hands of the whole thing. They were very rude and basically told me "too bad, not our problem". It took me 3 weeks to find someone to take the boat away costing me another $400 for the rental of the slip and all the time and effort that wasspent getting the title back so I could transfer it to someone else. When I spoke with Boat Angel again about how thier website states that the boat will be picked up within 14 days, They gave me the "too bad" attitude again. DO NOT USE THIS CHARITY.

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j e martin
christiansburg, US
Jul 29, 2010 2:59 pm EDT

i bought a boat from boat angel, after i had paid for it, I went to pick it up i found the boat to be inoperable parts missing. when i received the title, the two previous owners did not sign the title. now i am trying to get a title ? from je martin in virginia

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Walter Hendrix III
Atlanta, US
Jul 21, 2010 9:47 pm EDT

I too received a check from Mr. Douglas Peters via a UPS overnight package. The check was for $3, 099.23 and written off of Bank of America. This is the second check I received this week. I also got a check from Adobe Systems for $3, 000.00. I sent that check to Adobe System's security department. I am taking this check to BoA tomorrow to let them handle it from here. Please people, if you receive crap like this in the mail that seems too good to be true; it probably is.

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darlene327
, US
Jul 21, 2010 10:17 am EDT

i recived a check in the mail yesterday and it was made out to me for fifty four hundered ninty dollars and fifty cents and it also came to me by ups and the name on it was a mr. douglas peters and thank goodness i looked up this website to keep me from cashing it and deposting it into an account this stuff makes me sick to my stomach but you know the saying if its too good to be true it always is

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D. A. Ewald
, US
Jul 07, 2010 10:15 am EDT
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Thank you for this posting. I just received a check for 4900.00 working as a personal assistant. I was asked to cash check and wire the money to a foreign country. check is written on the Bank of America. I'm taking it to the bank today, but not depositing it.